Despite Greatness, the LG G3 Has 5 Annoying Minor Flaws

[dgstorm]

According to a new report from PhoneArena, even though the new LG G3 flagship is a very capable and amazing device, it is not without its flaws. They took it upon themselves to share a brief list of items which could use improvement.

Here is their list of 5 annoying flaws on the G3:

• Unnaturally over-sharpened display - This is described as a halo effect around text causes by an over-sharpening of the screen.
• Non-transparent on-screen buttons - This isn't entirely their fault as these are new features of the newer versions of Android, but apparently the G3 doesn't deal with it very well. This means users end up with annoying overlay buttons in strange places in their apps.
• Hard-to-read display outdoors - This is something the IPS displays have always had trouble with compared to Samsung's AMOLED tech.
• Camera menu devoid of options - Apparently, although LG put a great deal of forethought and work into their camera hardware, they didn't do much in the software department. The phone lacks: white balance tweaks, ISO selection, shooting modes tailored to the time of the day and the occasion, and 1080p at 60 frames per second.
• Display does not get dim enough for perfectly comfortable use at night - Apparently the super-bright display stays that way, even at night. We see how this could be problematic.

What do you guys think? Are any of these issues a big enough problem to steer you away from the phone, or are they minor enough for you to ignore?

 

[cr6]

Those are pretty significant imo, but as with every device, we take the good with the bad.

 

[Jeffrey]

I would think software tweaks could correct these issues. Not a deal breaker for me.

 

[cr6]

I agree.... they should be able to fix most of these issues. :thumbup: (except for the outdoor visibility thing)

 

[jspradling7]

It's too bright but you can't see it outdoors? Wuh?

 

[Bara65]

It's too bright but you can't see it outdoors? Wuh?

It's two difference issues. Low contrast due to not so dark black, and sun light reflection causing outdoor visibility. Low contrast and max brightness are quite concerning to me.

But I saw some recent reviews saying brightness and outdoor visibility are excellent. Honestly it almost seems every reviewer is looking at different display as it's getting mixed results. Maybe QC or pre/early production issue? As always, we will be the final judge once it gets into our hands.

 

[cereal killer]

I would think software tweaks could correct these issues. Not a deal breaker for me.

Yup. With the exception of outdoor readability, one or two good updates could fix all these issues.

 

[boidsonly]

I am still very interested in this phone-I'll have to make a judgment call when I can get my hands on it.

 

[mountainbikermark]

They left metering ability of both the G2 and G3 cameras. I have to use an aftermarket app to force my metering to center instead of matrix

Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk

 

[shrop21]

If the only flaws they can find are 90% software (fixable) issues, LG did one hell of a job.

 

[hotice]

Hard-to-read display outdoors - This is something the IPS displays have always had trouble with compared to Samsung's AMOLED tech.

I guess I'd need to see the display in person but in general what you're saying sounds a little backwards. LCD's have always been brighter than OLED's. IPS is just a better, and brighter, design of LCD - like PLS, NOVA, or SuperLCD 2/3. Typically LCD's are much easier to see outside in the sunlight than OLEDs because most OLEDs are not as bright as most LCDs. IPS LCDs are even brighter than "standard" LCDs so I really don't understand what you're saying here. My last phone, from 2010, had an LCD display. It wasn't even IPS LCD. My current phone has an SuperAMOLED display. I'd take an LCD display any day. OLED use more power to display a given image at a given brightness than LCD the vast majority of the time. Sure OLED doesn't need a back-light but that's because it has nearly 1 million pixels/lights it lights up individually, that's on a 720p display. You have a lot more pixels to light on a 1080p or 2K display. Do you really think a zillion lights to light up is going to be more power efficient than a few power efficient LED back-lights? I feel like Samsung has brainwashed the world. Yes, their displays look great. I think that their phones would have brighter displays and use less power most of the time if they were LCD. (FYI, LED is still LCD. An LED LCD just has an LED back-light as opposed to cold cathode florescent back-lights that were in older LCDs)

I do see in the photo that the LG appears washed out compared to the Samsung. I'm not sure what's going on there. I'm just commenting to you generalization of which I've found the opposite to be true.

I'll probably get flamed for this post but I would like to hear from others who can explain what it is that I'm missing here. Thank you.

 

[Bara65]

I guess I'd need to see the display in person but in general what you're saying sounds a little backwards. LCD's have always been brighter than OLED's. IPS is just a better, and brighter, design of LCD - like PLS, NOVA, or SuperLCD 2/3. Typically LCD's are much easier to see outside in the sunlight than OLEDs because most OLEDs are not as bright as most LCDs. IPS LCDs are even brighter than "standard" LCDs so I really don't understand what you're saying here. My last phone, from 2010, had an LCD display. It wasn't even IPS LCD. My current phone has an SuperAMOLED display. I'd take an LCD display any day. OLED use more power to display a given image at a given brightness than LCD the vast majority of the time. Sure OLED doesn't need a back-light but that's because it has nearly 1 million pixels/lights it lights up individually, that's on a 720p display. You have a lot more pixels to light on a 1080p or 2K display. Do you really think a zillion lights to light up is going to be more power efficient than a few power efficient LED back-lights? I feel like Samsung has brainwashed the world. Yes, their displays look great. I think that their phones would have brighter displays and use less power most of the time if they were LCD. (FYI, LED is still LCD. An LED LCD just has an LED back-light as opposed to cold cathode florescent back-lights that were in older LCDs)

I do see in the photo that the LG appears washed out compared to the Samsung. I'm not sure what's going on there. I'm just commenting to you generalization of which I've found the opposite to be true.

I'll probably get flamed for this post but I would like to hear from others who can explain what it is that I'm missing here. Thank you.

Outdoor visibility depends on several factors like max brightness, contrast, color saturation and very importantly sun light reflection. It appears G3 screen has much higher sun light reflection than S5. Its lower contrast ratio doesn't help it either. Also G3 has lower brightness (< 400 nits) than S5 (> 500 nits) according to other reports. I think LG tuned G3 brightness down to save more battery for 2K screen.

You can't generalize LCD vs AMOLED that simply and say LCD is always superior. Both technology is continuously evolving and today's AMOLED is much brighter, more efficient than two years ago.

 

[HarvesterX™]

ALL AMOLED much like CRT monitors are a relic. I won't ever own an AMOLED device again. Every AMOLED device I've owned had suffered from screen burn. I can hear arguments all day long about the technology evolving and it will go in one ear and out the other. I also don't cater to AMOLED displays when I develop either.

Back on topic I agree if these are the big 5 flaws of the G3 then it sounds like a DAMN good phone. I won't upgrading from my G2 though unless a 805 version is released sometime soon.

 

[cr6]

I've never had a problem with screen burn in on my Galaxy phones and I average 40-50gig of data a month. Guess it depends on how you use your device and how long you keep it.

 

[HarvesterX™]

My last AMOLED was the Galaxy Nexus and I ended up going through two of those and on each I suffered burn in badly. I use my phone as my main computer though so I'm often worming on it doing my programming (in AIDE mostly - nice Eclipse compatible JAVA IDE), doing ROM work, or gaming - hours and hours on end. My main assailant was from games though. Notably ones with static UI elements like RPGs with menus that always show up.

I did work on one game (dev work lol not playing it) and only catered to AMOLED screens once. For that one I programmed the menu elements to sort of fade in and out ever so slightly and rotate colors enough so that they wouldn't burn into any Samsung phones (main culprit) but that was the last time.

That's the only issue I have with the displays though. I just can't use them the way that I use my phone ;(

Unrelated note:: Why the F#$K does systemui keep force closing after reboot after I decided LGKeyguard? It's starting to drive me nuts. Everything else in /system/priv-app/ deodexed and installed fine. I don't get it. I'm using the apktool apk for android - first I decompile the odex, then recompile the odex to make a dex, then use root explored to extract the apk, then I move the dex file to the root extracted folded and rename classes.dex, I use root explorer to zip the folder back up and change the zip extension to apk.

I've been doing this for years and I don't understand what's going on. Granted this is the first time I've used solely my phone to do it as well, but everything decompiles and recompiled without error. Cache and dalvik are wiped after I stick the apk in a flashable zip sand flash.

I'm just venting lol... Feel free to ignore that part