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LG G3 Beat Quick Review

LG decides to use the G3 branding beyond its flagship phone with smartphones like the LG G3 Beat, but does it retain its bigger brother’s charm?

LG G3 Beat (2)

Yugatech 728x90 Reno7 Series

The Beat is very similar to the other G3 smartphones like the Stylus and the flagship itself, because it is basically a G3 after all. The design from top to bottom is exactly identical to the LG G3: bezels, back buttons, arc design and more (even laser autofocus). If you like the G3’s design but can’t afford it, you can get all of its beauty in the smaller and more affordable Beat.

LG G3 Beat (4)

The smaller form factor of the LG G3 Beat is caused by the smaller display at 5-inches. It’s still an IPS panel, but instead of QHD, you get only 720p, but that’s not really a bad thing. If you’re coming from 1080p screens and sharper, you might notice the pixels and the downgrade in quality – but to the untrained eye, the Beat’s display looks more than great with the colors and contrast. The viewing angles were also wide and only allowed little change in colors when viewed from the sides.

LG G3 Beat (5)

We think that LG’s strategy of branding their other phones as G3s can be quite confusing or even misleading for some, but there are a few reasons why we can also happily agree with the branding: most of the experience you’d expect from a G3 is found here. You can double tap to wake the phone, have a Knock Code, use your device as a QuickRemote and it also employs LG’s UI skin for Android KitKat.

LG G3 Beat (1)

LG’s UI has a lot of beautiful design elements, but we still see the need for improvement in some areas like the notification bar.

LG G3 Beat (7)

With a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 quad-core CPU paired with 1GB RAM and an Adreno 305 GPU, the LG G3 Beat didn’t stutter or lag in our use, navigating through the device, opening apps or even watching the videos we took. As expected, it is not as snappy as the higher end phones, but this is more than enough.

  • Antutu – 17,382
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Surprisingly, for a phone of this caliber, the camera is quite impressive. It’s an 8 megapixel sensor paired with laser autofocus and flash, and the photos that it takes are really good. They’re well saturated, vibrant and bright even in situations with lesser light. The only problem that we saw is that it sometimes oversharpens the images. All the same can be said even in video.

As for watching videos and playing music, the LG G3 Beat is nothing special, but it’s no slouch either. The speakers are loud but they’re far from producing whole sound, and the display is really good for watching video. LG’s apps for these also make the experience worthwhile.

LG G3 Beat (6)

Looping video at 50% screen brightness and 100% audio volume, we managed to drain the 2,540mAh battery in a good run of 9 hours. Standby time is also really great since we left it off the charger overnight with WiFi on and 10% left, and we woke up to 5%.

LG G3 Beat (D724) specs:
5-inch HD IPS display, 294ppi
1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core CPU
Adreno 305 GPU
1GB RAM
8GB internal storage
up to 64GB via microSD
8 megapixel Laser AF rear camera w/ LED flash
1.3 megapixel front camera
Dual-SIM, Dual-Standby
3G HSPA+
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0, A2DP, LE
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
USB 2.0
Android 4.4.2 KitKat
2,540mAh battery
137.7 x 69.6 x 10.3 mm
134 g
White, Gold, Titan Black
SRP: Php13,990

The LG G3 Beat is a great phone in our opinion, but the name could be quite misleading. The G3 Beat is not the LG G3 in a smaller form factor, meaning you don’t get the same specs and performance – but what you do get is a similar experience in a more affordable package.

What we liked about it:

  • Vibrant 720p display
  • Loud speakers
  • Long battery life
  • Great camera
  • No stutters

What we didn’t like about it:

  • Oversharpened images and videos
  • Expensive when you consider specs

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Avatar for Bob Freking

Bob Freking occasionally contributes articles to the website. He is a UST Graduate of Commerce & Business Administration, Major in Marketing Management, and a full-time Sith Lord with three dragons.

18 Responses

  1. Avatar for Debzon Debzon says:

    Magkano natoh ngayon?

  2. Avatar for treblaluchrebz treblaluchrebz says:

    Magkano na ito sa mga malls?

  3. Avatar for ncabz ncabz says:

    Any update as to how android 5.0 works for it??

  4. Avatar for Tuting Tuting says:

    any info if it will gonna get android 5.0 upgrade?

  5. Avatar for tisoy tisoy says:

    always the best ang LGphones.

  6. Avatar for Helen Helen says:

    Astroturfing lol

  7. Avatar for G3beat G3beat says:

    good review by yugatech.
    life’s good!

  8. Avatar for Ronaldo Ronaldo says:

    the best phone available on the market.

  9. Avatar for Ronaldo Ronaldo says:

    the best mid-range phone from lg i have no bad issue everything are great on this phone love the camera with laser so so fast in capturing photos even in the darkest area. battery is really amazing too 9hours of straight browsing using wifi at 80% brightness impressive 720p display and great audio quality.

    proud g3 beat usehere

  10. Avatar for chris chris says:

    yan ang cp ko sobrang ganda ^_^

  11. Avatar for Janine Janine says:

    its a good phone i’m truly satisfied with its performance really good camera and good design.
    i came from xperia m2 aqua and this g3 beat is better

  12. Avatar for x-o manowar x-o manowar says:

    Purchased this phone last December 2014 noon nag 3 day sale ang LG got it for 9,990.00 sulit na sulit overall it is a solid phone.

    • Avatar for Alpha Alpha says:

      right ,i love my g3 beat the best talga ang LG napakalinaw at sharp ang kuha ng camera kahit sa dilim ganda talaga ang tibay pa dalwang bisis ko na ito nabagsak sa hagdan namin hahaha pero okay na okay parin walang nalublub na nga din to sa tubig sa habang naglalaba ako kasi lagi ko to katabi soundtrip habang naglalaba kasi ang lakas tlaga ng speaker nito hindi ako nagsisi sa pagpili ko nito kasi dati balak ko sana ang c3 kaso ng makita ko yuck over size pala kala ko kasing laki lang din ng g3 na dahil 5.5″ and display pero nagkamali ako ang laki hahaha tapos kinumpara ko ang speaker mas malinaw at louder ang g3 ko at pati sa camera layo ng difference parang mas magaling ang lg kahit na the same lang na sony ang cam ng dalwa pero honesty maganda sa phone ko kesa c3! so far wala akong issue sa phone nato almost 3 weeks na sa akin at dalwang bagsak na hahaha still tibay
      basta no regret ako dito. feeling happy.

  13. Avatar for SonyswitchedtoLG SonyswitchedtoLG says:

    this is one of the best phone i ever had
    everything on this phone are amazing, I really agree on this review G3 beat’s HD IPS screen is crisp and sharp and does have a great viewing angles. the best part i loved on this phone is the 8mp camera it did really amazing shots that laser is a big help and advantage its focuses very fast and shots ,are most of the time are accurate and sharper warmer with good contrast.

    the audio quality can easily matches most flagship phone on the market i found its a bit better than my xperia z2 and my past phones.

    and yeah LG UX /UI is fantastic to me i can do a lot of customization.
    i’m a very heavy user but i never had an issue with the battery of this phone i managed over 8hours of straight browsing which is very good and way better than most flagship phones including its bigger sibling G3 which i only managed 5hours on the same task.

    the design is really a personal option, but for me its a great and very comfortable to hold and no bad issue in operating this phone even im just using one hand. it feel very ergonomic and looks nice simple I LOVE THE REAR KEYS, but I LOVE MORE THE KNOCK CODE! hehehe

    i personally recommend this phone.

    the price is worth it! since this phone is owned and support by LGE.

    have a great day!

  14. Avatar for devilboy devilboy says:

    way ooooverpriced naman for that old specs. tsktsk!

    • Avatar for G4 G4 says:

      don’t forget it is made by LG Electronics A MAJOR AND MUTLI- AWARDED SMARTPHONE MAKER!
      NOT CHEAP CHINES COMPANY!

    • Avatar for mark mark says:

      nope.
      its not always about specs on the paper this phone really did great and an impressive performance.
      great camera still/recording
      great battery life
      great and elegant compact design
      great UI
      great support and service

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