The LG G3 took to the stage last week in a global unveiling. We were there, and we were impressed. The long and short of it is that the G3 is a great handset. Really, it is, and in our short amount of time with it we were left aching for more. If that’s the impression a handset leaves with you, then the minutiae fall to the wayside.
If we did have to pick out one slight disappointment though, it would be that the handset was plastic. From all of the leaks building up to the reveal, and all of the press shots accompanying it, we were led to believe that it would have an aluminium chassis similar to that of the HTC One M8. Sure enough, it has a brushed metal finish, but the device itself is decidedly plastic.
Perhaps sensing our disappointment, LG’s VP of Design has spoken out on the matter. In an interview with Trusted Reviews Chul Bae Lee said, “If you could charge $300 more for the phone, maybe we could make it metal”.
Naturally that would make selling it a bit tricky, seeing as it’s already set to cost somewhere around the £500 mark.
Lee also said that the G3’s plastic body was a design choice: “To maintain the compactness of this phone, there is no other choice than this material,
“If I had applied metal to the G3 is would be much bulkier in the bezels and in all four directions. It would be very big and very heavy. It would be really slippery as well.”
Lee does concede, however, that metal does tend to lend a more premium feel to devices: “In order to show off the luxurious nature of the phone maybe we could have applied some high-end metal on the side or on the back, but I don’t really agree that the entire body has to be metal.”
All in all it’s a surprisingly satisfactory explanation from the LG top brass. The fact that LG managed to cram the G3’s 5.5-inch display into such a small frame is by far the most appealing feature of the handset, and it’s one that was worth retaining, metal be damned. That said, just exactly how a simple metal frame would cost the consumer an extra $300 is a little puzzling, but we take Lee’s point.
The plastic body also means the phone is exceptionally light for its size, without feeling too flimsy or weak. We only hope that, in a market flooded with bigger and more established brands, that the LG G3 gets the attention it deserves upon its UK release this July.
