LG G3 Stylus Dual First Impressions

There’s no denying that the LG G3 is making huge waves as one of the best flagship smartphones to pick up this year, and the Korean electronics giant seems to bank on its popularity by releasing two mid-range phones that resemble it — one of them is the LG G3 Stylus Dual.

The stylus has been a part of power phones of the yesteryear. It was included in the personal digital assistant devices, or PDAs — the preferred device of professionals back then. With every major company fully utilizing touch-initiated smartphones come the rise of Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android mobile operating systems, rarely do we see smartphones that actually use the stylus as an effective accessory. This is where the Samsung Galaxy Note series comes in, and they have been very successful in creating a product that utilizes the power of the interactive pen.

LG, on the other hand, created its own version dubbed the G3 Stylus Dual, named after its current flagship. The company is not new to the stylus-equipped smartphone devices. It released a couple of smartphones before with their own pens such as the Optimus Vu back in 2012. Let’s see what this mid-range LG beast has to offer.

This smartphone, of course, is a toned down flagship; hence, the LG G3 Stylus is purely made out of polycarbonate plastic with brush metallic finish in a Black Titan color and chrome accents, reminiscent to the industrial looks of its more powerful sibling.

It also shares a few design features with the G3 — The bright 5.5-inch display toned down to qHD, Android 4.4.2 skinned with their own LG interface, and the headset and microUSB ports at the bottom.

The back seems to be the same as the G3 too, minus a few features: it still bears the floating arc design, the subtly dued rear key and the 13-megapixel camera sans the Laser Auto-focus. What sets this device apart from the other G3s, however, is the stylus that’s neatly tucked at the upper-right corner of the smartphone.

LG G3 Stylus Dual specs:
5.5-inch qHD IPS display, 960 x 540 resolution, 200 ppi
1.3GHz Mediatek MT6582 quad-core processor
1GB of RAM
8GB of storage
expandable up to 32GB via microSD
13-megapixel rear camera
1.3-megapixel front camera
3G
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, hotspot
Bluetooth 4.0, A2DP
GPS, A-GPS
NFC
Dual-SIM (micro), Dual-Standby
3,000mAh battery
Android 4.4 KitKat
149.3 x 75.9 x 10.2mm

LG’s newest stylus-laden smartphone is now officially available in the country along with the G Watch R and the G3 Beat, and will retail for Php16,999USD 290INR 24,557EUR 276CNY 2,110. With toned down flagship specs and the addition of an interactive pen, would the G3 Stylus Dual prove to be a worthy sibling and win our hearts? Check back in a week or two for the full review as we take this smartphone for a spin.