From year to year, virtually every major manufacturer, the second a month later after the release of its flagship mini version. As shown by the market, vendors have a different attitude to this type of devices. For some, it’s a mini same powerful features as its big brother, only diagonal display smaller corny because of the fact that not everyone is convenient to use the big screens, and for others it is trimmed on all fronts specifications and big name flagship, simply the prefix «mini», or as in this case «S». And that is another option, in my opinion, has the right to life, the important thing is not to spoil the experience of use and do not screw up the price for the untwisted name. All this I am getting to what you need to figure out how to categorize the LG G3 S – the hero of our today’s review, let’s learn together.
Thus, we see the following situation, in G3 bigger and better screen, more productive and better filling camera, but the battery capacity of only 460 mAh more. Cutting the characteristics of its mini flagship company has focused on the battery life, which seems to me to be not less than that of the elder brother of the hero of our review. And of course, support for two SIM-cards, one of the fundamental advantages for many who are in our comparison can only boast LG G3 S. Equally fundamental criterion is certainly the price, in the Ukrainian retail for LG G3 will have to pay $620, while While for LG G3 S – $270.
Appearance, materials, layout, ergonomics – LG G3 S
Externally LG G3 S – twin brother G3. One colleague from the friendly resource once told a funny story about how his whole edition has confused these two devices to one another, so they are similar. It is not surprising, since both the devices, differ only in size and built-in sensors. By the way, on the front, I was not able to find a brightness sensor, Koreans apparently abandoned it in favor of reducing the cost. Let’s talk that the smartphone has a front, it is possible to find the front camera, earpiece, LED indicator, and a proximity sensor located on the bottom of LG logo on a very nice silver circular texture, honestly, the first time I do not mind the logo producer was in the front, because if it is decorated with a insert that pleases the eye, then why not?
The main part of the front panel is a 5 “screen, which is coated with a protective glass with a very bad oleophobic coating, if not wipe the smartphone within 2-3 days, then you probably will not be comfortable to show his friends, the glass very quickly covered with fingerprints and greasy spots. Small spoon of honey in a barrel of tar this is that all the above byaka the screen very easily erased. By the way, in terms of design the front of the saw a very large similarity of the top panel with OnePlus One, and the appearance and layout are almost identical. No plagiarism sake, just a fun feature and it looks very pretty. Yes, and the entire front panel to get a beautiful and expensive, it may due to the silver insert below or just a nice shape, but the aesthetic experience very pleasant.
Turning to other parts of the smartphone can immediately skip the side faces, which is the second year in a row are empty, because the control buttons moved to the rear cover of the smartphone, which, incidentally, is removable. Under it is a removable battery, two slots for SIM-card and MicroSD card slot up to 64 GB. At the top of the rear panel of designers put the whole area, which combines the main chamber, the volume control buttons and a lock key. The feel of the buttons are great, they have a very nice and pleasant to the touch texture and the button lock shimmers beautifully. On either side of the above-described area is assistant camera – flash and laser focus, the new-found feature of the Korean company. In the center of the rear panel located logo LG, and bottom right is the only main speaker. The appearance of the rear panel is very similar to brushed metal, but in fact it’s just plastic with a texture, the feelings you get something in between. Picking up the smartphone after some time, you certainly do not feel the pleasant cool metal, but complain about taktilnnye sensations from LG G3 S you just do not have. Phone, by the way, just perfect in the hand thanks to the rounded rear socket. With the ergonomics are in order. On top of the device is an optional microphone and IR sensor to control home appliances. Housed below 3.5 mm headphone jack, MicroUSB input for charging, as well as conversational microphone. To assemble the smartphone no complaints, questions arose only jarring internal parts of the camera, but this is not a drawback, just a feature of the optics. That’s what really upset me to assemble, it’s that the back cover is loose to the smartphone, it occurs in the region, where there is a recess for the removal of the cap itself. Perhaps this negative I sleep on what we have in the wording is a test sample G3 S, in the retail version I guess this problem will not be with the assembly.
Screen LG G3 S
In LG G3 S mounted display diagonal of 5.0″, here are now the size of a mini-tier champions, rising beyond his years, and … but no, all well over the years. The screen resolution is 1280 x 720 pixels per inch – 294 Colour rendering the smartphone is not the best, the picture goes to a bluish tint. Fonts are too harsh, the same problem, by the way, there is also the older brother – G3. Of the pros like to mention decent viewing angles, a significant color distortion occurs only when a strong inclination. Stock brightness device does not hold, in sunny weather picture to see the device without problems, only the brightness should be at a maximum, and it will have to twist the handle, as the light sensor is not here. But the biggest drawback I would say it is oleophobic coating, aversion to which I have already written above, not color rendition, not oversaturated fonts, nothing else does not spoil the quality of the picture in the G3 S, as grease and fingerprints. This is the main disadvantage of the screen, which in itself is not bad.
Sound LG G3 S
The only speaker on the rear panel has a very good sound. Despite its location, the speaker is not suppressed due to the rounded shape of the rear panel. It is very loud, and at high especially noticeable loss in sound does not occur, however one sitting you are unlikely to need to twist the volume to 100%. With the bass here is also all right. In general, the speaker came out surprisingly successful. Why the surprise? It’s just my personal experience, after using LG G2, Nexus 4,5 and G Pad 7.0 I thought that the quality of sound in the Korean companies do not steamed, but LG G3 S made me change my opinion.
Camera LG G3 S
Primary 8 MP sensor produces images of acceptable quality in good light conditions, with regard to detail, the photograph you can see the traffic that the rooms nearest machines can be seen clearly and easily distinguishable, but the distal portion of the stream came not quite expressive, the same situation and the sides of the photo. As for the pictures at night, then they have to consider the overall picture without problems, since the camera successfully captures a lot of light, but the dark areas of the sky type out loud, and moving objects easily lubricated. G3 S is able to do good macro shots, in good light the central object in the image obtained sufficiently detailed and beautiful background.
The front camera has a resolution of 1.3 megapixels, the pictures made it obtained featureless and large noise, but with hints of the person is all right, by the way, here there is HDR mode and it is quite interesting to handle photos, the face is a more detailed and smooth.
Standard camera app has two modes of operation, the first super simple, before you hide everything setup and the picture is done by clicking on any area of the screen. The second mode is different from the first one, you can choose to shoot, they are here, by the way, only two – auto and pan, turn on the grid for the horizon, voice commands, select the resolution of the photo and include HDR, by the way, the application is in the standard Auto mode HDR, in it the camera itself determines whether to process photos in HDR or not. By the way, in about the resolution, rear camera can take pictures in the resolution of 3264 x 2448 capture video in Full HD. Maximum resolution images on the front camera is 1280 x 960, and the video produced in HD.
Performance LG G3 S
Heart LG G3 S is a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor 400 with a frequency of 1 GHz. Graphics accelerator Adreno 305. here RAM in the device 1 GB. The overall performance of the unit at the secondary level, the smartphone does not fly, but in most cases it works smartly and smoothly, though to make him slow down easily not be periodically phone starts a long time to respond to the navigation buttons, drop frames while navigating through the tabs in the application that is open and so the CO hereinafter. In serious games performance is not bad, they run on low or medium graphics settings and there is no problem, with the heat from the device is quite small, even if you play at maximum settings in Dead Trigger 2, by the way, even with these settings big complaints about the speed of not occurs, the action in the game takes a bit slower than on medium and low settings, but in general you can play.
Autonomy LG G3 S
In LG G3 S has a removable battery capacity 2540 mAh, considering not the top iron and good optimization, with this device you can count on a calm day, a resistive load and 4 hours of screen heavy games, phone calls, frequent checking soc. nets and so on. A more gentle smartphone operating without problems will last 2-3 days with 5-5.5 hours of screen. When playing HD video device will live about 9 hours and demanding games around 6. G3 S you will not be gone into a mess at the end of the day, but just in case there are power-saving mode, it is particularly difficult operation, this just disables the communication modules reduces the brightness of the screen and so on.
Soft LG G3 S
LG G3 S runs on the current version of Android 4.4.2, which is installed on top of the updated version of the original shell Optimus UI. Freshened appearance of the system, it has become more restrained, with bright colors, and in some cases toxic colors replaced gentle pastel colors and icons and standard applications threw off their legacy in the modern world and the amount of interfaces have become completely flat. Changes relating to the appearance, in my opinion, can be considered successful, although it is not necessary to deny that lovers of bright, colorful interface and may get bored of quiet shades Optimus UI. The shell itself intuitive and comfortable, slightly increase the speed and everything would be fine, but there is more to claim optimization. In the shell there are quiet hours, which can be set to switch on the schedule, they change the sound profile, turn off the LED and block incoming calls. All of these options can be configured. Sound settings and vibration calls and SMS for each SIM-card is different. Branded chips Knock On and Knock Code work well in about 8 out of 10 times, more drawback is the speed of response to tapping, sometimes you have to wait more seconds until the screen lights up. On-screen buttons can be swapped for developers that thank you very much, honestly, for a long time I do not understand why this feature has not yet become the standard for all other shells. In addition to changing the location of the keys, you can choose the color of the screen, which they occupy, available white and black versions, with or without gradient. Inside the shell there is a feature clever cleaning, which periodically analyzes your files and offers to get rid of the cache and other temporary application content. In Optimus UI for quite some time have a backup phone settings, applications, and other content. We would like to note the multitasking menu, which is in my opinion one of the most comfortable of all the shells, as well as a display system notifications from standard applications in the form of pop-up windows.
Results of LG G3 S
LG G3 S product is controversial, I want to start with the disadvantages. The first is speed, it is usually at an acceptable level, to Nexus far, but overall not bad. Guards that make the phone slow down easy, I see no reason to look for the culprit here, but we can all throw off the bad optimizitsiyu, a small amount of RAM, or in the end that we have on hand a test sample. I personally hope for the latter option. But the fact remains, often podlagivaet smartphone and this affects the experience of using. The second flaw in the oleophobic coating, which creates an unpleasant contrast between the total premium design of the smartphone and its front panel, which is very often get dirty and covered with grease spots. All other disadvantages, in my opinion, is not too significant. Of the benefits, I would note the appearance of the smartphone and its ergonomics. The device looks nice and solid, not exactly on a price, and it is comfortable in the hand. Another advantage of the LG G3 S is the battery life, battery capacity is more than the average of its competitors in the class, but not in symbiosis with the latest hardware platform make excellent indicators of autonomy. Well, for many fundamental advantage is the cost of the LG G3 S, among other flagships mini is the most affordable unit.
Read another very interesting article about alternative energy of the Sun, water and air.
