A little over a week ago, LG made the G3 Stylus -- a mid-ranger
with a... stylus -- official, but it wasn't until today that we managed
to get our hands on the actual device at the company's IFA 2014 booth.
This being a phablet styled after the mighty G3 and touting the one
thing the company's flagship was missing (a pen), obviously made us
curious.
Did we end up liking it? Read on to find out.
Design
As
you may have noticed, large Android manufacturers generally tend to
stick to a specific design language that dictates the overall shape of
the device and specifies ornamentation and what goes where. LG is no
exception to this rule, and, by extensions -- nor is the G3 Stylus.
Indeed,
the average user will have a rather hard time telling it apart from the
G3, but two are not completely identical. Sure, the front looks
essentially the same, with the bottom bezel housing the LG logo, but if
you turn around device you'll start noticing some differences. For
example, while the power key and volume rocker are located on the rear,
they look different and the volume rocker doesn't sport the same
tactile-friendly mesh texture. What's more, there's no opening for the
laser focus beam and the G3 Stylus has just one LED flash.
The
phone is also a bit on the chubby side, with thickness of 10.2 mm (0.4
in), but that's understandable given the generous, 3000 mAh cell.
Unfortunately, while the finish of the rear reminds of that of the LG
G3, the G3 Stylus feels decidedly less high-end, and you're very aware
that you're handling plastic.
Overall, however,
the near-identical looks of the G3 Stylus with the company's flagship
is a good thing, as we quite like the G3. It's also nice to see that the
mid-ranger is pleasantly curved at the sides on the back, so ergonomics
are as decent as on could expect with a phablet.
Display
So
far, we've mostly talked about how the G3 Stylus is alike to the G3,
but when talking about the display, things are much different. Sure,
it's also got an identical-sized, 5.5-inch IPS LCD display, but that one
has a lowly qHD resolution, or 540 x 960 pixels. That works out to just
barely 200 pixels per inch, and while that sounds underwhelming, the
screen was looking alright. Obviously, while we don't expect miracles
from mid-range devices like the G3 Stylus, LG could have nevertheless
bumped up the resolution a little bit.
As for
the stylus, it is pretty ordinary-looking -- a typical capacitive type.
The writing experience on the display is mostly pretty decent, though
there is some lag. That said, we can't say it performed worse than, say,
the Note 3's own S-Pen.
Interface
The
LG G3 Stylus has Android 4.4 KitKat on board -- the latest major update
currently available. We're unaware of LG's plans concerning future
software updates (Android L, anyone?), but we're pretty happy with what
we've got here.
You heard that right -- while
LG's UI used to be only 'okay' in terms of looks, we find ourselves
liking the latest visual update of the custom overlay. It's flatter than
before, and more light-weight looking, all the while retaining the same
wide portfolio of extra features. If anyone could light a candle to
Samsung's TouchWiz software in terms of feature set, it's LG.
So,
if you're familiar with LG's current overlay, you'll expect goodies
like Dual Window (run two apps side by side), KnockCode (set a lock
pattern with knocks) and KnockOn (double tap the screen to wake) to be
on board, and they are.
Processor and memory
Nothing
fancy lies underneath the exterior of the G3 Stylus -- at least in
terms of processing power. It's got a 1.3GHz, quad-core processor that
LG hasn't specified, though we suspect we're talking about Qualcomm's
Snapdragon 400 with an Adreno 305 GPU. Considering the phone also has
1GB of RAM on board and a lowly qHD resolution, we don't imagine you'll
run into trouble running even more demanding apps. And indeed, in our
time with the G3 Stylus, we had a frills-free experience.
As for internal storage, there are 8GB on board. Thankfully, there's a slot for a microSD card, so you can expand.
Camera
Embedded
at the back of the G3 Stylus is a promising, 13-megapixel camera with
autofocus and a single LED flash. Obviously, don't expect this to churn
out photos on par with the 13-megapixel snapper on the G3, but it's
certainly adequate considering the class of the phone.
At
the front, LG has fitted a 1.3-megapixel snapper that should get you by
whenever you need it for a video call or, of course, a selfie.
Expectations
From
what we know so far, LG is aiming to release the G3 Stylus in 3G
markets like Bazril and Russia, but also other regions, including the
Middle East and Africa, and parts of Asia. Unfortunately, we're still
unaware of the way LG wants to price these, and that obviously precludes
us from having an educated opinion about the handset. And price, more
than anything else, is what will decide the fate of the LG G3 Stylus.
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