LG G3 hands-on: First look

Synthetic benchmarks and performance

LG G3 is running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 MSM8974AC chipset, which brings the Krait 400 CPU clock to 2.5GHz and boosts the GPU speed to 578MHz. That’s the same chipset that powers the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Oppo Find 7 (the other upcoming QHD smartphone).

We managed to put the configuration to a test, running several of our favorite benchmarks. Once again we have to remind you though, that the hardware and software of our unit are far from finalized, so the scores we are getting are likely far lower than what the finalized units will achieve.

The LG G3 screen is super sharp and the new UI is eye-pleasing

GeekBench 3 is a multi-thread CPU benchmark, where the G3 did quite well, achieving one of the best scores we’ve seen so far. It didn’t quite manage to match the Galaxy S5 score, but that’s likely due to the non-finalized score.

Geekbench 3

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7a
  3093
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  3011
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  2968
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  2937
• Sony Xperia Z2
  2856
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  2670
• LG G3
  2649
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2638
• LG G Pro 2
  2585
• Apple iPhone 5s
  2561
• LG Nexus 5
  2453
• HTC One (M8)
  2367
• LG G Flex
  2254
• LG G2
  2243
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  2172
• HTC One
  1972
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  1869
• Oppo N1
  1207

The first compound benchmark we ran was AnTuTu 4 and the LG G3 posted a score very similar to that of the S800 smartphones such as the Galaxy Note 3 and LG G2. Obviously, the GPU is made to work far harder on the QHD screen, which has 78% more pixels than a 1080p unit but the faster GPU of the Snapdragon 801 chipset has managed to make up for that.

AnTuTu 4

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  37009
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  36018
• LG G Flex
  35831
• LG G2
  35444
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  34527
• LG G3
  34105
• Oppo Find 7a
  33344
• Sony Xperia Z2
  33182
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  32162
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  31109
• Sony Xperia Z1
  30850
• LG G Pro 2
  29603
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  29185
• Samsung Galaxy S4
  27613
• Oppo N1
  26598
• HTC One
  26389
• LG Nexus 5
  25097

Basemark OS II is another benchmark to tests just about every facet of a phone's performance. Impressively enough, the LG G3 manage to outperform the Galaxy Note 3 even in this early stage of its development.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• LG G Pro 2
  1140
• Nokia Lumia 1520 (WP8.1 Preview)
  1116
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  1082
• Sony Xperia Z2
  1080
• Apple iPhone 5s
  1059
• Oppo Find 7a
  1057
• LG G3
  1031
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (KitKat)
  1021
• LG G2 (KitKat)
  862

Web browsing is an integral part to any smartphone experience, so we also subjected the LG G3 to the Kraken JavaScript test. The LG G3 managed to place third here, only trailing the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Apple iPhone 5s.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy S5
  6043
• Apple iPhone 5s
  6135
• LG G3
  6419
• LG G Pro 2
  6578
• Oppo Find 7a
  6660
• Sony Xperia Z2
  7041
• LG Nexus 5
  7148
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (KitKat)
  7148

Conclusion

Good or bad, the LG G3 is going to be one of the flagships to reckon with in the next half an year or so ahead. We have already started working on our review, so next week, you should be able to read all about it on our homepage.