Android Magazine UK - Issue No. 49

The smartphone with laser-guided focusing

I

f you are the kind of person w

taking spontaneous snaps,

the LG G3 is for you. Its two

headline features are its Optic

Imaging Stabilisation and its

laser-guided focus beam. Thes

combine to form a camera app

that not only focuses quickly, b

can also take an excellent, ste

photo. Capturing a moment w

phone often means an unfocu

or a blurry streak. Not on the G3, which copes with

a moving camera or target. The front-facing

camera is much less adept, however, and when

held at arm’s length image the quality is noticeably

reduced. It didn’t cope well with harsh lighting even

with HDR mode enabled. It does come to the fore

in low-level lighting, with the front-facing fl ash

useful and effective – clearly this is a phone

camera designed for the club selfi e, rather than

the beach or the park. The G3’s comfortable size

and shape makes single-handed photo taking

easy, and with the OIS in action and even a slightly

and, the pictures taken are of a

quality. A lot of cameras clutter their

een with icons, even when the

hoto is being taken. We like the fact

at LG removes all of these to a

enu in the corner of the screen so

our view isn’t obstructed. It is a bit of

hame that you lose around half an

from the top and bottom of the

but we’d rather have it blacked out

ons getting in the way. In terms of

added features, the G3 is generous without

pushing the boat out. There isn’t anything

particularly innovative in the editing options, with a

crop tool, fi lters and the option to add different

frames. The most interesting function would

probably be the Magic Focus tool but it isn’t

anywhere near localised enough to make good pull

focus shots. Overall this is a very good camera

phone and if you enjoy snapping action shots, this

is a great choice. You should probably look

elsewhere if you want a top quality selfi e camera

or added extras to play around with though.

L

Reviews

»^ Operating system........Android 4.4 KitKat

»^ Processor ...........................2.5GHz Quad-core Qualcomm

Snapdragon 801

»^ Memory ...............................2GB RAM 16GB storage

»^ Dimensions .......................146.3 x 74.6 x 8.9mm

»^ Weight ...................................140g

»^ Display size .......................5.5-in

»^ Display resolution ........2560 x 1440

»^ Connectivity .....................4G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0

»^ Camera ................................13MP rear, 2.1MP front

technical specs

Price £390/$599

»^ More information http://www.lg.com

»^ Supplied by Clove.co.uk

information

There are a lot of very good

points to appreciate in the

G3 and the OIS is fantastic,

but LG should have put a

little more work into its front

camera and editing tools

»Verdict

LG G3

»head-to-head

Pixel count

Overall the LG has the lowest pixel count in

the test – 13MP on the rear and 2.1MP on the

front is pretty standard for mid-range models,

but is definitely lacking when compared to its

three rivals in this test

Ease-of-use

For the point-and-clicker, this is a very simple

camera. Voice control is excellent and the

shutter button is nice and large. Editing

options are well organised too, with clear

sliders and instructions on how they work

Added features

Sadly the added features are fairly limited.

Standard tools such as cropping and a

nice range of fi lters, don’t disguise the fact

that there is little for the camera expert or

the casual photographer

Front-facing camera

2MP is pretty much the same level as the

Samsung but it doesn’t feel as sharp. It also

has the fewest extra functions to play with,

so if you don’t like messing about with your

selfi es then there isn’t a lot to do

L

a

se

r foc

u

s

Gestu

contr

A simple

hand is e

photo in s

is particu

you’re try

one-hand

works exc

Clear

LG has re

icons from

when you

there are

pictures g

of your sh

easily fou

simply by

top-right

g

re

le pixel

he G3 means

can be viewed

clarity,

u to edit your

confi dence,

y’ll still look

bigger screen

Dual LED

The dual LED fl ash system

lights the shot from the

right and the left of the

shutter. This creates a

more even light than the

single LED fl ash systems

found in a lot of phones