After months of speculation and countless leaks, LG finally unveiled the G3. And as expected, this beast of a phone is armed to the teeth with the latest and greatest mobile tech. It's clearly been designed with spec-hungry Android fans in mind, and LG is hoping it can one-up the competition in every way. But to get to the top of the Android world, it has to go through the Galaxy S5 first. How do these two superphones compare? Read on for a side-by-side comparison.
The G3 follows closely in the footsteps of last year's G2, continuing LG's tradition of razor-thin bezels and back-mounted buttons. This phone is all screen—5.5 inches worth of IPS LCD, to be exact. That's nearly a half-inch bigger than the Galaxy S5's 5.1-inch display, but it's not just size that sets these two displays apart. LG made a big deal about the advantages of LCD over AMOLED, Samsung's display tech of choice, but the real headline grabber is the resolution. LG is the first to squeeze a Quad HD, 2,560-by-1,440-pixel display into a smartphone.
That makes for an impressive pixel density of 538ppi compared with the already-sharp
432ppi of the S5's 1080p display. The G3 has the sharpest display around, and you can rest assured that nothing will look fuzzy on the 5.5-inch LCD.
Even with its giant display, the G3 is relatively compact at 5.76 by 2.94 by 0.35 inches (HWD). Compare that with the S5, which measures 5.85 by 2.85 by 0.31 inches, and you have to give LG some props. It's still a palm-buster, but not out of line with current flagship phones. In a departure from last year's design, and a clear nod to competing with Samsung, LG included a removable battery and microSD card expansion. That's a big deal for a lot of Android fans out there.
Unfortunately, the back cover is made out of plastic made to look like metal, so it's not quite as premium as HTC's One (M8), but still on par with the GS5. Samsung has the advantage of full waterproofing, while LG chose to forgo that trending feature.
Despite rumors suggesting a newer Snapdragon 805 SoC, the G3 debuted with the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 powering the Galaxy S5. There's nothing wrong with that, though, as the 801 has proven to be a more than capable chip. Feeding all that juice is a 3,000mAh battery, which is bigger than the 2,800mAh battery in the GS5, but curiously the same size as last year's G2. We'll have to see how power hungry the Quad HD display will be, but LG promises it's made some tweaks to keep battery life strong.
The G3's 13-megapixel sensor doesn't quite match the GS5's 16-megapixel sensor on pure pixel count, but LG is banking on a few innovative features to set its camera apart. The biggest feature here is the new laser-assisted autofocus system. LG claims it's the fastest around, but we'll have to wait until we can put it through lab tests to see how it accurate those claims are. Optical image stabilization makes a return here, allowing for smooth video and longer shutter speeds in low-light scenes.
Finally, there are the UI tweaks to LG's Android skin. Like Samsung did with TouchWiz, LG made some aesthetic refinements to its Optimus UI, matching the current trend of flat icons and lightweight fonts. Android purists will still probably hate both, but features like QSlide multitasking have proven to be useful, while new features like Smart Notice look promising.
The G3 won't hit U.S. shores until this summer, so we'll reserve judgment until we have a chance to put the phone through its paces here in our labs. Think the G3 is your next smartphone? Think there's no competition between the G3 and GS5? Let us know in the comments below.
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