LG G3 review: Dream catcher

Synthetic Benchmarks

The LG G3 runs on a Qualcomm MSM8975AC Snapdragon 801 chipset with four Krait 400 cores clocked at 2.5GHz each. Graphics are powered by an Adreno 330 GPU, and there is a hefty dose of RAM at 3GB (2GB on the 16GB internal storage variant of the G3).

The QHD display should play a factor here for two reasons. First, the LG G3 is the first of the major brands to sport a 1440p display, which means the processor and GPU will have to push harder than their 1080p counterparts. All things being equal, we're expecting the G3 to be slightly behind other flagships in terms of speed, since it simply has to render more pixels. The second thing to consider is that since QHD screens are yet to gain a significant share, most apps (including benchmarks) haven' been optimized for them, which leads us to expect slightly lower scores.

Update: we re-ran some benchmarks after the LG G3 was updated to Android 5.0 Lollipop. You can find more info in our Lollipop performance blogpost.

GeekBench 3 and AnTuTu 4 are benchmarks which put to the test the hardware combo inside the smartphone. GeekBench 3 is more CPU-intensive, whereas AnTuTu 4 is a compound benchmark - testing CPU, GPU, memory performance, etc. The LG G3 was able to post respectable scores next to other top flagships, but either the higher resolution or possibly non-finalized software put it behind the Sony Z2 and Samsung Galaxy S5.

We also traditionally put the reviewed phones through the Basemark OS II. Rightware distributes anti-cheat versions of their popular Basemark OS II (for general performance) and Basemark X (for 3D performance) tests. We've run both version and we found LG G3 scores equally, which means the company isn't using any tricks to boost the benchmarks' overall performance.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7a
  3093
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  3011
• Sony Xperia Z2
  2856
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  2687
• LG G Pro 2
  2585
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  2563
• LG Nexus 5
  2453
• LG G3 (2GB RAM, Lollipop)
  2370
• HTC One (M8)
  2367
• LG G2
  2243
• Motorola Moto X
  2123
• HTC One mini 2
  1526
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  1359

AnTuTu 4

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  37009
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  36018
• LG G2
  35444
• Oppo Find 7a
  33344
• Sony Xperia Z2
  33182
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  32780
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  30482
• LG G Pro 2
  29603
• LG Nexus 5
  25097
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  19896
• Motorola Moto X
  19031
• HTC One mini 2
  17883

Basemark OS II is another all-round benchmark. It gives an overall score along with single-core, multi-core, and math performance, among others. We focus on the overall and CPU scores. LG G3 did great - topping every other phone we've ested so far. Its single CPU score a bit below the flagship average, but the multi-core is among the best.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• LG G3 (2GB RAM, Lollipop)
  1327
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  1151
• LG G Pro 2
  1140
• HTC One (M8)
  1126
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1082
• Sony Xperia Z2
  1080
• Oppo Find 7a
  1057
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  945
• HTC One mini 2
  517
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  434

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7a
  2580
• HTC One (M8)
  2428
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  2415
• LG G Pro 2
  2401
• LG G3 (2GB RAM, Lollipop)
  2267
• Sony Xperia Z2
  2253
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  2137
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  1787
• HTC One mini 2
  1304

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7a
  10256
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  10063
• Sony Xperia Z2
  10044
• LG G3 (2GB RAM, Lollipop)
  9975
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  9937
• HTC One (M8)
  9860
• LG G Pro 2
  9802
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  8337
• HTC One mini 2
  5182

Next up we have GFXBench's 2.7 T-Rex and 3.0 Manhattan. In 1080p offscreen mode the GPU is tasked with performing graphical computations in 1920 x 1080px resolution, while the onscreen mode uses the screen's native 2560 x 1440px resolution. T-Rex is the less demanding of the two tests and here the G3 is able to post good results, coming in just over 20fps in the onscreen test, which is great considering the high resolution.

The more demanding Manhattan benchmark has the G3 at the top in offscreen performance, but at a measly 7.4fps in the onscreen test - again partially excused by the higher resolution compared to its competitors. Still anything under 30fps raises a flag so you might run into some issues with game titles made to take full advantage of the higher resolution.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  28.4
• Oppo Find 7a
  28.4
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  27.8
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  27.6
• Sony Xperia Z2
  27.2
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  27.2
• LG G3 (2GB RAM, Lollipop)
  26
• LG Nexus 5
  23
• LG G Pro 2
  22.9
• LG G2
  22
• Motorola Moto X
  16
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  5.8
• HTC One mini 2
  5.8

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  30.1
• Oppo Find 7a
  28.8
• Sony Xperia Z2
  28.7
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  28.1
• LG G Pro 2
  24.1
• LG Nexus 5
  24
• LG G2
  23.1
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  20.6
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  20.5
• LG G3 (2GB RAM, Lollipop)
  20
• HTC One mini 2
  11
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  10.9

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  11.9
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  11.8
• Sony Xperia Z2
  11.7
• Oppo Find 7a
  11.4
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  11.4
• HTC One (M8)
  11.1
• LG G3 (2GB RAM, Lollipop)
  11
• LG G Pro 2
  8.7
• HTC One mini 2
  1.7

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z2
  12.2
• HTC One (M8)
  11.9
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  11.7
• Oppo Find 7a
  11.4
• LG G Pro 2
  9.2
• LG G3 (2GB RAM, Lollipop)
  7.7
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  7.4
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  7.2
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  4.1
• HTC One mini 2
  3.8

BrowserMark 2.1 looks at HTML 5 performance, while Mozilla's Kraken 1.1 is JavaScript-centric. The LG G3 scores well in both tests, which should result in a great browsing experience considering the 5.5-inch screen with 534ppi.

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  1474
• LG G3 (2GB RAM, Lollipop)
  1453
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1398
• LG G Pro 2
  1346
• Oppo Find 7a
  1327
• LG Nexus 5
  1286
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  1254
• Sony Xperia Z2
  1224
• HTC One (M8)
  1069
• HTC One mini 2
  945

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  6043
• LG G Pro 2
  6578
• Oppo Find 7a
  6660
• LG G3 16GB (2GB RAM, int'l)
  6987
• Sony Xperia Z2
  7041
• LG Nexus 5
  7148
• LG G3 32GB (3GB RAM, Korean)
  7610
• LG G3 (2GB RAM, Lollipop)
  7632
• HTC One (M8)
  10296
• HTC One mini 2
  15684

The LG G3 isn't quite able to stand up to the performance provided by devices like the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z2. Part of this can be attributed to having to push out more pixels on the 1440p display and another is down to benchmarks which are yet to be updated to work as expected on QHD screens. Perhaps by release LG will have ironed some of the kinks out - and perhaps even more by the time Android 4.4.3 rolls in - but for now the G3 has some catching up to do. Also, it's worth noting that the LG G3 heats up really quickly and that the quoted benchmark numbers represent a best case scenario. In reality, they dropped significantly from the quoted numbers after just a few minutes of active benchmarking.