International reverse phone lookup

The Sony Xperia Z1 Compact is a phone that many people have asked for – a mobile with top-end specs but a screen small enough to let the phone comfortably fit in your pocket. Not everyone wants a 5-inch screen. And god knows why anyone would want a 6-inch one.

First official promo video only focuses on the new 8MP Camera with OIS.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 gets an Edge variant with a screen that runs on both sides, in the same way as the Galaxy Note Edge

. It is expected that Samsung will announce its new flagship early March during the Mobile World Congress in. Samsung may also reveals the Edge version of the Galaxy S6, which according to SamMobile is in the works.

The Edge version of the Galaxy S6 would resemble the Galaxy Note Edge, the Edge variant of the Galaxy Note 4. This smartphone has run the screen on one side, allowing users to quickly see notifications or applications can start.

The curved screen of the Galaxy S6 Edge can to both sides are used for different purposes. According to sources, getting the Galaxy S6 Edge same features as the Galaxy Note Edge, which among other Yahoo news, S Health and your favorite apps and contacts are displayed. Through Samsung’s app store users can download more applications, such as various clocks.

Furthermore, Samsung adds some options on the Edge panels increasing. Thus it would be possible to activate your favorite Edge panel, depending on the hand you are most used to control you smartphone. Also can light the Edge panel when a call if you have put the smartphone on its screen. Per contact, you can set a color, so you know exactly who is calling

The smartphone further based on the Galaxy S6, but is expected to be be given a higher price. Reportedly the Galaxy S6 gets a 5.5-inch qHD display, octacore processor, 4GB of RAM and a 18 megapixel camera.

Latest news about the Galaxy S6

With the LG G3, we saw a brand release a phone ahead of time in order to grab a foothold in an industry that could be spiralling away from its grasp.

Its an odd thing to say considering were talking about a manufacturer that launched one of the critically acclaimed phones of 2013, with the LG G2 impressing far more than most expected.


But that was last year, and LG realised that with Samsung, Sony and HTC all bringing out far superior models it couldnt wait until later in the year to catch up, so its tried to race to the front of the pack with a previously-unseen step forward in screen technology.

If you need more evidence that this is a phone that LG has accelerated to launch, check out the changes its made: removable battery, microSD slot, metallic frame and new, mature interface; in short, everything that was wrong with last years model in the eyes of many.

So with that in mind, is the LG G3 the perfect smartphone?

Read LG G3 tips, tricks and hidden features

LG G3 - Key features

There are a number of key features that LG is touting as new and improved this year with the LG G3, but none sticks out as prominently as the QHD screen. Some might think that this is four times the pixel count of an HD screen, and youd be right to a degree.

But only if youre talking about 720p screens – if youre comparing the LG G3 to something like the Galaxy S5, that packs in two million pixels to the G3s 3.6 million. Its a lot sharper, sure, but anyone thinking its going to be mindblowing will be disappointed.

The big question here with the screen is: why do it? The official reason LG told me was it had done some research and had realised that Steve Jobs was wrong.

While it agreed he was right there was a limit to what the human eye can see in terms of sharpness, LG reckons that the way sight works means the Retina display isnt the top end. Thats obvious anyway; the display on the Samsung Galaxy S5 or HTC One M8 is significantly sharper than that on the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6, so there is more headroom.

But apparently theres another level still to attack, and thats just what its done with the QHD screen. Where Samsungs offering 440ppi sharpness, the LG G3 has 538ppi, which is equivalent to high end glossy art books, which LG used as the benchmark of sharpness to aim at.

Dr RamChan Woo, head of smartphone planning for LG, told me that the idea was you need pixels to fill in the space between lines, to make something that sorts out the dead space, which is why it went for the upper limit to make everything look premium.

Now, heres the quandary: the screen is brilliant, no question. Internet browsing, looking at pictures, watching high-end video, is all awesome. But thats the exact same feeling I had with the LG G2, which also had a simply stunning screen.

It feels like the QHD screen is great to look at because LG knows how to make an amazing display, rather than offering a next level of sharpness that blows me away. I didnt feel that I was looking at something superior to the G2 in terms of screen quality, and with the larger heft and hit on battery life, I believe LG has gone too early with the technology just to make an impact.

Or possibly its not even early. Perhaps we just dont need QHD screens in our phones. The display isnt without problems either: tilt it left or right and the brightness drops off sharply, which makes sense when you consider how many pixels are packed in there.

Its unfair to criticise the QHD screen on the G3 – theres no doubt all high end smartphones will be using this technology in a year or so and in the months since the G3 launched Samsungs joined the club with the Galaxy Note 4. But as a headline spec, it doesnt seem to add a huge amount to the LG G3, which is a shame as I was hoping to be looking at the next generation of picture quality on a phone.

LG G3 - New interface

When it came to listing the criticisms of the LG G2, the biggest problem was the interface. It was so cluttered that if you had the remote activated and received a message you had to scroll down to see it.

Compare that to the HTC One M8, and youve got nothing but the missive to check. On top of that, the G2 went for a really garish and cartoony look too, meaning it was hard to evangelise on a phone that was otherwise brilliant.

The new interface on the LG G3 is a big improvement. Gone is the skeumorphism in favour of a new flat tile look. The icons are redesigned. The different applications have their own colour scheme for easy recognition and the colour palette is more muted than before.

Its a much more fluid system that shows LG has grown up, taking the problems of before and making it into a more intuitive way of navigating through the handset.

LG has definitely taken touches from HTC, Samsung and Apple with the new interface. The home screen features a separate section for the pedometer and tips videos (where Samsungs pointless magazine option is on the Galaxy S5), the colours are very similar to HTCs on the M8 and the flatter design owes more than a tip of the hat to Apple.

The interface is still a little cluttered, but overall its a tick for LG updating something that sorely needed a new look.

LG G3 - Metallic shell

As mentioned the other big problem with the G2 was the fact it had a really glossy plastic shell. The phone was well packaged, but still didnt offer the same premium quality as the HTC One, iPhone or Sony Xperia Z1.

So with the LG G3, the South Korean brand has gone for the best of both worlds. Its created a metallic skin that supposedly looks and feels premium, but offers the lower weight and added connectivity benefits of polycarbonate.

The problem is, LG hasnt really managed this lofty goal. The G3 certainly looks the business, bringing a more iconic look of brushed metal and some cool colours (black, silver and gold) to make it stand out on the shelves, which makes sense given its mostly screen otherwise.

But the second you pick it up, the plastic nature jars with the look of the phone, which is a disappointment. It actually feels cheaper than the G2 thanks to using a removable back, which lowers the tightness of the packaging and makes it feel more hollow.

The upside of this is youve got a removable battery and microSD slot, both of which are a big win for a certain section of the customer base. That said, there are better ways of doing this, as you can easily have a slot for a microSD card without needing to remove the back.

And I know a few people disagree, but a unibody phone feels better in the hand and a portable battery pack is much more useful than being able to swap in a new battery - its easier to charge, for one, and 98% of users will never swap the battery in and out anyway, so why bother when an integrated unit can offer more capacity and better design?

So again, LG has stepped forward with the G3 – but its still not quite got all the pieces together when it comes to design.

LG G3 - Simple camera with laser autofocus

The 13MP camera on the LG G3 is also another big talking point, both in terms of the new look to the interface and the additional technology on board.

Ill start with the latter point: the laser auto focus, which is designed to make it the fastest-focusing smartphone on the market. It seems to be true at times, but Im not sure shaving another 100 milliseconds off makes that much of a difference when boot-up speed is more important..

Its possibly a bit unfair to say that the extra speed isnt warranted – if the system worked perfectly, chances are youd take 10-20 more high quality pictures that capture the moment compared to the competition, but without being able to fully test the system its hard to comment.

The laser works by sending out a conical infra-red signal (using technology nabbed from a robo-vacuum cleaner from LGs home appliances division) and absorbs information from the surroundings to create an instant and clear picture for the camera to use.

This means it doesnt have to look for contrast shifts like before, and offers a sharper image.

The interface is really scaled back too: its nothing more than a back button, a menu icon and the viewfinder. Tap the screen and it focuses and takes the picture, designed to be simple and effective.

It also doesnt let you focus to check the shot composition before taking the photo, which would be nice – but then again, tap that menu icon and you get all you need in terms of shutter, options and video recording.

The G3 is all about simplification, and this kind of technology really works. Its a little too scaled back for the camera, but its the right idea.

The front 2.1MP camera is now cringingly called the selfie camera – it seems that dreaded word is here to stay, at least for a few years. The lens is a wider angle, so you can get more friends into the photo (or more actors at the Oscars) and features clever gesture recognition to take the photo.

Hold your hand out, make a fist and itll start the G3 self-portrait timer. Its a clever system and it works, which is great for those moments when you cant use both hands and dont want to tap the screen.

Another cool feature is the ability to have a front-facing flash, although its not an LED light. Instead, part of the screen goes white, which illuminates faces and takes better pictures. LG has even white balanced this screen to correct skin tone imperfections – and it really gives some nice front facing snaps.

LG G3 - Design

LG, as Ive mentioned, was keen to tout a number of features of the new design that make the LG G3 a real upgrade over the G2. One of the big elements, and something that was seen a number of times in the leaks leading up to the launch was the metallic skin that now adorns the new phone.

Considering the all-plastic unibody of the G2 was one of the main issues I had with a phone that was pretty close to 5 stars, the leaks showing a shiny metal body to the G3 got me pretty excited. Were all friends here - Im OK admitting that to you.

But then when the phone was displayed for the first time, it was a plastic shell painted to look like a brushed metal case. LG was almost apologetic about this, saying it wanted to deliver a metal phone that felt as premium as possible, but the mechanics simply didnt allow for it.

The result is somewhere between the two, as LG has created a special film that takes away the plastic feel somewhat while still looking the part in a world where consumers are crying out for a high-end design.

And to look at it on a table or on the shop shelf, its a great-looking phone. And LG has done something else that I was crying out for: made the backplate removable, allowing you to swap the battery and add in a microSD card.

Im not convinced that the world needs to be able to remove a battery in a phone, but I always think a microSD card is a good option to have. Despite internal storage being a better thing in terms of phone function, the LG G3 comes in only 16GB and 32GB options and most will buy the former, which doesnt give a huge amount of room for all the larger apps on offer these days.

Anyway, the fact that the battery is removable might be a big win for some, but it comes at the cost of feel in the hand, as the LG G3 doesnt feel as nicely packaged as the G2, which is the design sacrifice necessary when you add in a backplate like the one here.

The result is that despite being made of a more refined material, the LG G3 actually feels cheaper in the hand than the G2. Not by much, but enough for me to long for this metallic plastic to be used on the older version.

And then theres the issue of the screen. Not the actual display itself, which Ive already said is excellent – but the size of it.

The term smartphone is constantly evolving; where once we thought anything over 4 inches in terms of display size was enormous, its now tiny. So were now seeing phones with a 5-inch screen as a normal option at the high end, and I get the feeling thats the limit of whats acceptable.

Actually, perhaps thats a little harsh, as the LG G3s screen size isnt overly cumbersome, thanks in part to packing really thin bezels around the side, which means a large amount of the front of the phone is dominated by the display.

But 5.5-inches is just too large to be considered a smartphone – were definitely at the bottom end of phablet territory here. This means its not as fluid to navigate around the screen with one hand, and combined with the more angular corners its not a great experience when using the G3 day after day.

I do like the rear buttons though. The principle gets burned into your muscle memory much faster than youd expect, to the point where I keep tapping the camera on other handsets I review to turn off the screen.

And LGs upgrades here, making the power button more rounded and the volume keys ridged, means its even easier to operate without looking. If youre thinking this is something thats a reason not to buy the phone, then disregard it – its actually a really neat feature and one that Im surprised hasnt been copied yet.

In summary, LG has both improved the design of its flagship phone and taken a couple of steps backwards. The G3 certainly looks more premium, and offers the removable battery and microSD slot some people believe they simply cannot live without.

But in making the backplate a separate piece, the tight packaging has been negated, and as such I found holding it less pleasant than I did with the G2.

If youre going to make a phone look metallic, then it has to have the same pleasant weight seen on the excellent HTC One M8 or iPhone 6 Plus, where this is more like the Samsung Galaxy S5 in feel, albeit with a coat of paint and no weirdly dimpled back.

True, the new design is much less drawn to fingerprints than the predecessor, but that doesnt change the fact that those who dont want a phablet will see the G3 as a touch too large.

LG G3 interface and performance

LGs theme for the G3 is Smart is the new Simple and one of the key factors in this is the all-new interface its put together for the new handset.

One of my big criticisms of the LG G2 was that the interface was simply awful: cartoon-like, hard to understand, cluttered and simply not up to the standard the HTC One M8 and friends offer.

So its great to see that the brand has gone back to the drawing board and made something thats more fitting with a top-end handset. The garish colours are replaced with more muted mature hues, meaning out goes the bright yellow and purple to be replaced with softer greens and autumnal burnt reds.

Each core app, such as contacts and messaging, has its own colour to help you discern where you are in the phone – if that was a confusing problem for you – and the notifications bar has been stripped right back to simply pack a row of quick settings and the stuff you want to know about.

By default you do have a brightness bar and the option to control volumes (which is useful when youre using the phone in landscape) but these can be toggled on or off, depending on your preference, which allows for a very clean notifications zone.

If you think of it as somewhere between Samsungs new TouchWiz and native Android 4.4, youll be pretty close. Its not as close to standard Android as some would have you believe, as the notifications area and menu systems are different, but the ethos is there and its very similar.

The interface is visually a triumph for LG, a new look that brings a freshness that sends a statement that the South Korean brand is finally looking to make the step up to top-tier manufacturer.

To that end, there have been a couple of extra features added in to help with day to day living – these include helpful video tips that alter throughout the lifetime of the phone (so start-up tips in the first few weeks, app tutorials for the programs youre not using a bit later on and then telling you about new LG products as the G3 nears the end of life).

The idea is clever, but one youll not really use that often. The same can be said of Smart Notice, a constant label that hangs beneath the weather widget on the home screen.

This is meant to be the companion in your phone, allowing you to see the truth behind the weather by prompting you when youll need an umbrella or offering to save a contact that you call multiple times but isnt in your phone book.

The thing is more often it tells you when theres a new video to watch, or adding helpfully that when its foggy outside its very foggy. The idea is cool, but its more annoying than helpful, at least in the first month of ownership.

I also got a number of shipping forecast-style updates when in New York. Helpful.

So, onto the performance of the LG G3; as you can guess with the Snapdragon 801 CPU on board and up to 3GB of RAM (if you buy the 32GB iteration of the phone) this handset performs well on standard benchmarks.

However, in day to day use its not great. Theres a definite lag under the finger thats simply not present when using the HTC One M8 or iPhone 6 Plus, and its quickly noticeable.

In side by side tests opening and closing apps was markedly slower on the LG G3, and while were talking nanosecond differences it does all add up. I definitely felt the G3 wasnt as slick as other handsets on trial, and the problem didnt resolve itself between getting the European version of the software and the pre-production Korean handset.

Its not deal-breaking, but Im confused as to why a firm that prides itself so much on engineering would let something like this slip through. There were also a few freezes here and there, but nothing that you wont see on most other smartphones.

The benchmark GeekBench 3 results could give a clue as to why - the LG G3 doesnt perform as well as the rest of the competition, which could be partly down to the extra pixels needing to be driven. Its surprising, given LG usually bosses these tests, but Geekbench is designed to replicate real life use as much as possible, and the results tally with the way I found using the phone.

App compatibility is still an issue as well: some of the top apps simply arent there, such as Real Racing 3, making it hard to properly test some elements of the phone. These will probably come in time, but be warned that if youre using the LG G3 from launch you wont be overly happy with some of the limitations.

LG G3 - Knock On / Knock Code

LGs proprietary way of unlocking the phone is back for a second round – and its as good as it was before.

The notion is simple: you tap the screen twice when turned off to unlock the phone (if youve not got lockscreen security set up) and can then tap the notification bar twice in quick succession, or any empty area on the home screen, to shut it down again.

It worked really well on the LG G2 to the point where, like the rear buttons, I often tried the same trick on other handsets. Others are coming on board now, like the Sony Xperia Z2 or the HTC One M8, and of course it was Nokias idea in the first place to invent the technique.

But none do it as well as LG, and its a real boon.

And thats where the brand reached a little too far in my opinion by adding in Knock Code. Its a clever system where you can simply tap the right quadrants of the screen with the screen turned off and it works the same as an unlock code or pattern.

The issue I had was that it didnt register 80% of the time. This was often down to the fact you pick the phone up holding a portion of the screen, which seems to register as an early tap to add into the code.

This means the screen still lights up, but prompts you once again to enter the code. If you must have security then its OK, but tapping the display twice to wake it and entering the pattern is a little simpler.

That said, if you opt for the simplest pattern first and really try at it, youll get some joy more often than not, and when it works Knock Code is second only to the iPhones TouchID in terms of a simple way to open the phone.

LG G3 Battery

Battery life on the LG G3 was an area I was really interested in checking out, as youll have noted in the hands on review of the handset.

With its 3000mAh battery, the power pack on the G3 is certainly big enough, but it has to fire all those extra pixels, which could limit things. But then again, its also got the ultra-efficient Snapdragon 801 CPU that even made an HTC phone last through the day without giving up the ghost.

Well, let me let you wait no longer: the battery life is great. Its not quite as impressive as other LG phones, but given the extra power thats needed as well as other brightness controls, its a stellar effort and one that will easily see you through a day or so of medium to hard use.

LG has worked all its magic to get the power efficiency of the G3 to the maximum possible, and you wont see a lot of the stuff thats going on under the hood in day to day use.

It all depends on what youre doing. The frame rate of the display will slow down if not needed, as will the clock speed of the 2.5GHz quad-core CPU, and the LCD controls themselves also adapt to your usage, and it all works well together.

The result is that I never really noticed the phone getting overly warm either, which usually hints at strong power efficiency. However, whats interesting here is that the LG G3 performed very badly in our video rundown test, coming in lower than even the HTC One (2013) which was one of the worst at running video at a higher brightness.

So while the day to day use isnt terrible, clearly firing all those pixels is causing the G3 to melt a little even with full HD video. This only matters if youre constantly using the screen to look at myriad things on the phone, and even then the G3 is intelligent enough to slow power use down when jumping between apps.

The graph below shows the G3 to have poor battery when it comes to using the screen in our looped 90 mins HD video, with a lot more battery life lost than the competition, proving that firing the pixels isnt a treat for the phone - although when youre not watching video or internet browsing its a lot more robust.

Its interesting to note that LG doesnt seem to have the same Ultra/Extreme power saving mode as seen on the HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5 – Ive not been convinced of their need to be a headline feature, but if youre in a pinch these modes can turn the phone down to the minimum power drain possible.

Its not needed, but such is the synergy between what Samsung and LG do with their flagship phones Id have expected to see it there.

Its also great to see the LG G3 coming with wireless charging out of the box, although not all models will have this feature. Its frustrating that its not a standard feature on more handsets, as it would help with the proliferation of the method of charging a phone.

LG says this wireless charging is based on the Qi standard, and while it seems to be a little confused over which charging pads it uses, its ace to see it there from the start.

Overall, battery life is good enough on the LG G3, and as something that most people look for in a new smartphone, this is a real recommendation.

Theres a small, wistful, part of me that almost wishes that the QHD screen wasnt added into the G3 – which I appreciate borders on the hypocritical given its something weve been looking forward to for a long while in a phone.

But given LGs ability to eke the most out of the battery, this could have been a record breaking phone, especially if the battery had been sealed in. The LG G2 had a battery that was morphed around the internal components, so if we could have feasibly had an even larger capacity on a phone that didnt draw as much power, meaning you genuinely wouldnt have to charge more than once every two days.

Its not fair to criticise a brand for pushing the boundaries of technology in everyday devices, but it perhaps hints that longer battery life would have been a better selling point than the first QHD display, especially now that its not even the only phone with a QHD screen any more.

LG G3 - The essentials

One of the big selling points of the LG G3 is the fact the company thinks its sorted the onboard keyboard, making it into something more useable and better than the wealth of third party options out there.

Its certainly taken some dramatic leaps forward, as the keyboard is both resizable and able to learn from your typing action, meaning it becomes more accurate the more you use it.

The resizing option is pretty good, although increasing the height of the keys does limit the space you can see what youre actually typing, which isnt great when youre trying to enter text into fields on the web browser.

Similarly shrinking it doesnt do a lot for trying to improve the accuracy, no matter how much I used it. One of the other elements that LG has brought in is the next word prediction, but its not really got the idea well.

For instance, if youre trying to type cant but accidentally enter vant then it will still go with that option, rather than working out succinctly what youre after.

I always use the test of whether the keyboard makes me want to install Swiftkey Keyboard, and sadly with the LG that was the case after a couple of weeks use.

The ability to change the layout to your own choices slightly is a big boon though – having the comma key instead of settings is a real win.

But given so many good aftermarket options are so good, I cant say the new keyboard is really a selling point; HTCs One M8 is still the only phone Ive not bothered to upgrade the typing experience on.

The call quality on the LG G3 is pretty good though, as it seemed to offer really good connection throughout. It also comes with all the bells and whistles youd hope, such as being able to message straight from the call if you so need.

The one issue I did note is that the LG G3 sometimes struggled to get a signal where other phones managed it just fine – it wasnt that the signal was weak, or the reception from the phone poor, it just was stuck searching to find any reception, meaning a restart or putting it in and out of airplane mode to sort.

However, it was decent at flipping in and out of Wi-Fi and 4G – while it doesnt have the download booster of the Samsung Galaxy S5, when it gets a fast connection it didnt let it go.

The internet browsing, as a result, was super slick and speedy whether using the onboard browser or Chrome – the latter isnt obvious, but now that Googles managed to get its mobile internet app up to speed I cant see why youd use LGs option.

Its not that its bad, but it harks back to an older era where the clever notions were from the manufacturers and Googles Chrome offered nothing more than a desktop sync – but that advantage has been eroded now.

LG G3 Camera

The camera on the LG G3 is a pretty good affair, despite being largely similar in spec to the LG G2. This means the same 13MP sensor, enhanced optical image stabilisation (OIS+) and the same efforts to overly-disguise noisy photos by smoothing them with software algorithms.

But on the software side, LG has stripped things right back to make one of the most streamlined UIs for a phone yet.

Turn on the camera and youll be greeted with just a back button and small set of dots to signify more features, should you want them. Simply tap the screen to focus where you want, and the phone takes the shot quickly.

If you want to just take speedy snaps, this is a great method (and the camera is activated by holding the down volume button in standby mode, and can be used as a shutter button too.

If you want a few more options (and I do when taking a photo) then intriguingly the G3 doesnt have much more to play with. You can toggle the HDR mode on or off (its on by default), enter dual capture, panorama or Magic Focus which is the same re-focus feature thats become popular with all high-end phones.

Theres no way to change the ISO settings, exposure or contrast… its a camera with minimal interaction. Its not a bad thing, but I would like to see a touch more control, even if its buried down through the menus.

Nokia, Samsung and even HTC have done a great job in starting the education process of how to get great snaps by playing with settings, but it seems LG is more interested in doing the same as Apple and not getting in the way of your pictures.

The actual picture quality is pretty good, with well-lit scenes giving really clear, sharp and well-defined snaps. In lower light the G3 is good, if not as fast at taking snaps, although that image smoothing easily goes over the top – like the One M8, if youre thinking of zooming in or cropping your photos, some will look a bit muddy on the G3.

But the general pictures gained from day to day photography are up there with the best on the LG G3, and its a real recommendation from me.

The autofocus needs a mention here again – the laser shooting out a conical beam to check out the room leads to blistering autofocus, and does notably out-do the Samsung Galaxy S5 in terms of going from a standing start and snapping the picture.

The S5 struggles to wake from sleep mode as fast as the G3, and the speed of the shutter is so impressive with the latter – check out the snaps below to see.

The other big change is the front facing camera (and I refuse to use the S-word that LG has named it with) by increasing the angle of the snap, so you can fit more in. You can also open and close your hand to start the countdown, which means if youve framed the photo well you wont knock it out of shot by tapping the screen.

The beauty slider is present too, meaning the photo is smoothed out to make a weird soft-focus on your face (especially weird for men with beards, as they end up looking like a sooty smudge).

I do like the addition of the flash on the front. As I mentioned, this sees the front camera image shrink down and the surrounding area go a skin-friendly white tone, meaning in darker scenes I got much better pics.

LG G3 - Media

Media on the LG G3 is predictably excellent for a number of reasons: the screen and audio experience being two of them.

The QHD screen is something that has to be seen to be believed – the criticisms of it earlier arent that its a bad screen (quite the opposite, its stunning) but more that the effect isnt that much better than a Full HD screen.

It is better though, and even average movies look a touch sharper than they would do otherwise – plus youve got a much bigger display to look at.

For instance, I was browsing through some video files I had on a spare SD card, and came across one that was shot in QHD resolution. Well, that was what I thought when watching it back… it was actually a 720p file when I checked it out, which was amazing given the flawless detail on offer.

The preloaded stuff from LG is obviously the most amazing thing, and nobody that I showed off the starry night scenes to wasnt gobsmacked by the detail on show. However, it was the same reaction that I saw with the G2, and with the G3 youll need to be ready to put up with that larger screen.

I do wish the Video player was still a separate app, as its still in there (as the option to use it comes up when you start a video for the first time) as rooting the Gallery isnt that much fun.

LG G3 - Music

The music player on the LG G3 is both simple and sophisticated at the same time. It can handle really high quality audio (LG had to rewrite some of the core code of Android to facilitate this last year) and the new phone has a built in amplifier to make music sound louder and clearer with less distortion.

This means if youre properly into your tunes, then 50MB FLAC files will be noted with a small Hi-Fi icon next to them, and sound really rather nice. But even the tunes youve ripped in low quality from a CD sound OK – nothing amazing, but team the LG G3 with a decent pair of headphones and youve got a brilliant sound system.

Theres not a lot more to say about the music player though, as like with many high end smartphones its more out of the way than in your face.

You can control the tunes from the notifications bar, or the dedicated widget on the home screen. The Android 4.4 trick of having full screen album art on the lockscreen is there too – it looks awesome and it annoys me its on every top Android phone bar the HTC One M8.

The speaker on the rear of the phone isnt as good as the competition though. Ive come to adore front facing speakers on both the One M8 and Sony Xperia Z2, not to mention the Sony Xperia Z3 and to not have it here is a failure. Its loud, thats for sure, and the internal amplification means it doesnt distort too much, but its only OK.

LG G3 - Verdict

The LG G3 is a phone that shows the South Korean brand knew it needed something better than the G2 to compete with the best Samsung, Sony and HTC have to offer, which is why it arrived less than a year after the G2.

Its supremely powerful and addresses nearly all the issues I had with its predecessor – so has LG suddenly created the ultimate smartphone?

We liked

The screen on the LG G3, when used properly to display high-resolution content, is immense… LG knew that, and has been rightly making a big deal about it.

The overall design of the phone is vastly improved too, with the faux-metal cover not necessarily feeling great but certainly looks the part when laid on a table.

The camera is powerful too, leading to some great snaps and not letting me down when I wanted to just capture the moment here and there. The size of the phone makes some shots slightly harder, but overall its a good sensor to pack on there.

I really like the new interface LG has created – its clean, flat and really shows a maturity from a brand that erred far too much on the side of fun rather than making me feel like I had a phone that was worthy of a significant chunk of change each month.

The battery life is also really impressive – sure, it only matches the competition, but given it has so much more to do with the QHD screen its a revelation really.

We disliked

So how can a phone thats improved in nearly every area have any flaws? Well, there are a few areas where LG has made compromises that havent quite worked – and dropped the ball in others.

For instance, the lag in the interface is really irritating – that beat between launching apps and jumping back to the home screen is annoying.

The fact that its not optimised for some apps isnt cool either – Im not sure whether its the screen (although they should scale) or some internal jiggery-pokery… but its a flaw, no doubt.

The QHD screen is also a drawback – I know what youre going to say, so let me explain. Yes, it looks great in perfect conditions, but a good smartphone is about balance. Theres no point having technology for the sake of it, and thats what the QHD screen feels like right now.

Internet browsing, watching videos and generally using apps looks a bit better, but nothing massive. If you werent looking for it, youd just think it was a decent screen, and Ive had the same feeling from the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S5, the LG G2 and the HTC One M8.

Without the screen, which does lose brightness when viewed from anything other than straight on, the battery would last longer, the lag might have been removed and the LG G3 could be made to sit in the palm better.

Im all for advancement, but the screen on the G3 feels like a headline spec rather than something that enriches a great phone.

The camera needs to perform much better in low light too - its too heavy on the smudges as the software tries to cover up a slight inability to perform in the dark. Weve all been there.

Verdict

The LG G3 is a great smartphone – like its predecessor, if youre after power and precision, perhaps over design and form, then this is a winner.

The camera and battery combo is sure to win some hearts, and the improved user interface both will attract new users and give relief to those that were put off by the clutter on the G2.

However, I think something was lost in design in making the backplate removable – I feel that unibody designs just feel better in the hand thanks to being more solid, and I miss that from the G2.

The plastic / metal doesnt feel great in the hand either, and the dimensions are very much small phablet rather than big smartphone, which youll need to take into consideration if youre thinking of buying the LG G3.

If that doesnt bother you then the G3 is a really impressive, very accomplished smartphone that drops the gimmicks to create one of the most powerful and impressive handsets you can buy right now.

Read LG G3 tips, tricks and hidden features