LG G3 Review: QHD High Res Android Power
Software, Apps and Experience
LG has followed the UI trend these days with the G3 and has flattened out the look in many areas. Fortunately, one of the UI design changes are translucent Home, Back and Menu buttons that are present across the bottom of the screen and are much less obtrusive in a lot of applications, when they're not needed.
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In other applications, like the phone dialer, where contrast is needed, they are rendered over a flat color background. This compromise works pretty well and with the G3's larger 5.5-inch display we don't miss our favorite placement of on-bezel buttons so much.
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Again, the flat look and high contrast of the G3's menus really allows you to quickly identify settings and controls easily. LG has done a nice job of lightly skinning Android KitKat with simple controls that afford fewer screen taps for the most commonly used features of the device. Incidentally, LG has maintained their unique suite of QSlide functionality that allows you to overlay apps like the browser, phone dialer, messaging and video apps in small windows on the screen, with the ability to change their transparency level via a slider. Check out our video demo on the first page to see this in action, as we were unable to grab screen shots of this feature directly.
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Swiping from the left of the home screen brings up the G3's Smart Tips app for getting the most out of the phone's key features, as well as the LG Health app. LG Health has basic pedometer functionality, along with tracking and graphing of your activity data, as measured toward your fitness goals. The app also taps into Google Maps to track your workout routes for running, biking, etc. And again, with the weather app you can see LG's "Simple is The New Smart," motto with the G3's UI coming through, with a flat clean look that gets the job done elegantly without a lot of chrome or glitz.
