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"LG\u00A0unveiled its G3 smartphone today, a\u00A0successor to the G2, with a larger display, new camera options and some interesting UI tweaks.\r\n\r\nIt certainly looks like a worthy Samsung Note series rival on paper, so we went hands-on\u00A0with the device to find out if it measured up in real life.\r\nScratching the surface\r\nOn the face\u00A0of it, not too much has changed between the LG G2 and today's\u00A0G3 reveal, but look a little closer and there are some notable differences\u00A0to be found in the G3.\r\n\r\nSome of those come in the aesthetics of the device;\u00A0although\u00A0it keeps the same 'floating arc' tapered-edge design seen in the rest of the series, it's\u00A0obviously a little larger overall\u00A0to accommodate the bigger display. Despite the bigger chassis and generous display, it's not overbearingly heavy. Officially, it meaures 146.3mm x 74.6mm x 8.9mm and\u00A0weighs 149 grams. Unofficially, we'd expect it fit\u00A0just fine in your pocket or bag without weighing you down.\r\n\r\nIt also keeps the same rear-mounted volume and power buttons too, which although\u00A0smaller this time around, are no less of a divisive feature. You'll either grow to love the convenience of rear buttons on such a large device, or you won't and it'll remain\u00A0a little counter-intuitive. We'd expect more of the former than the latter though, from our own experience.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nLG also made the switch to using a &amp;quot;metallic skin&amp;quot; for the new generation device, so it\u00A0now looks a lot less plasticky\u00A0-\u00A0a vital change if the G3 is\u00A0to compete against the latest models from rivals, most notably Samsung's Note series.\u00A0LG said the casing\u00A0is scratch resistant too, so it shouldn't end up looking tatty in a hurry.\r\n\r\nOne of the biggest - in every sense - changes for the G3 is the inclusion of a 5.5-inch display, which has\u00A0an iPhone 5s-beating 538 pixels-per-inch (PPI) and a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. This\u00A0makes it one of the only handsets on the market to offer such a high (Quad HD) resolution; notably, only\u00A0the Oppo Find 7 has beaten it to the punch\u00A0so far.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nFirst to market or not, the display is stunning and provides easily some of the best quality videos and images we've seen on a smartphone from our initial impressions. Bright, crisp and decent viewing angles; everything you'd want in a display.\r\n\r\nNonetheless, there's no point putting a huge display on a phone if no one can actually hold it. To that end, LG has gone to some lengths to ensure that the G3's mammoth screen doesn't make the device too unwieldy to hold. Thankfully, it seems to have worked and the 8.9mm-thick chassis sits easily in your hand - providing you don't have particularly small hands; the tapered edges give the impression\u00A0that the device is actually even thinner than it is too.\r\nThe unknowns\r\nOne of the small changes under-the-bonnet is the switch to a quad-core 2.5GHz Snapdragon processor. Again, in initial tests it fared very well indeed, making scrolling\u00A0from the top of a list to the bottom\u00A0fluid and smooth. We'll have to wait for the full review to find out what effect that upgraded screen and processor have on the 3,000mAh battery. The battery is changeable too, which is always appreciated and a benefit of using a non-unibody design found on something like the HTC One. It also allows the G3 to support wireless charging, which all-metal chassis do not currently.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWhile the camera has been upgraded, it's too early to say whether the changes have had a dramatic effect on the quality of the shots. What is for sure is that the newly-added\u00A0infrared\u00A0laser-assisted auto-focus system (the sensor is just next to the 13-megapixel camera sensor on the rear) allows you to snap a shot with virtually no delay from opening the camera - a point of contention on the previous generation device.\r\n\r\nSimilarly, LG has tweaked the camera UI to give a simpler, cleaner interface when taking a picture. All the options are still there though and can be displayed on-screen, should you wish.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nTo make things a little more interesting than stock Android, LG has modified the KitKat version of Android (4.4.2) to provide a flatter looking\u00A0interface\u00A0and some custom software tweaks and services, like the Smart Notice system, which makes suggestions based on your phone activity, location and other factors. For example, it might suggest that you add a person's name to your contacts if you speak regularly but the number isn't stored, or it might ask if you want to return a call you missed while you were in a meeting as you don't appear to have done that yet.\r\n\r\nWe've barely scratched the surface here of the new LG G3, but from our brief time with the device, the speedy performance and impressive display already make a great first impression.\u00A0We'll be interested to see what kind of battery life we get out of it during a normal working week, although anything beyond the regular once-a-day charge requirement would be impressive.\r\n\r\nWe'll be back with our\u00A0full review in the near future for a more detailed look at what the G3 has to offer."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2014/05/27/lg-g3-hands-worthy-contender-samsungs-note-series-can-live-early-promise/>