This entire mini flagship game is turning into a bit of a joke. When Steve Jobs announced his first iPhone back in 2007, he sang praises of the phone’s “giant” 3.5″ display.
Today, even the so-called “Minis” have larger displays than iPhones.
LG’s new mini flagship suffers from this same dilemma. The G3 Beat – smaller sibling of LG G3 as it is called – comes with a 5″ HD display. Not exactly mini, is it? about three-quarters of the front is screen, so at least it looks quite striking.
Under the hood is a 1.2Ghz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, the same class as in the Moto G but with a more complex display to handle. Accompanying it is Adreno 305, 1 GB worth memory and 8 GB internal storage. That last bit is expandable.
Like the Galaxy S5 Mini, exclusive features (and gimmicks) are retained. The 8 megapixel rear-shooter comes with the same, advanced Laser AF system, as well as LED Flash. It also does 1080p video. Connectivity options include Bluetooth 4.0, 4G LTE and NFC.
Here are the specs again:
- Chipset: Qualcomm®Snapdragon™ 400 processor 1.2 GHz Quad-Core
- Display: 5.0-inch HD IPS (1280 x 720, 294ppi)
- Memory: 8GB / 1GB RAM / MicroSD slot
- Camera: Rear 8MP with Laser Auto Focus / Front 1.3MP
- Battery: 2,540mAh (removable)
- Operating System: Android 4.4.2 KitKat
- Size: 137.7 x 69.6 x 10.3mm
- Weight: 134 g
- Network: 4G LTE / HSPA+ 21Mbps (3G)
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS/Glonass, NFC, USB 2.0
- Colors: Metallic Black, Silk White, Shine Gold
- Others: Touch & Shoot, Smart Keyboard, QuickMemo+, Gesture Shot
Again, just like the G3, you can take a selfie by clenching your fist in front of the camera for three seconds while the smart keyboard helps you type more accurately. Finally, like all other mini flagships, the design is the virtually the same, which is a good thing.
Yet, the fact remains that LG has basically destroyed the entire purpose of a mini flagship. These phones are supposedly for people who are lacking in space and don’t want to feel awkward holding a giant-sized phone to their face.
While LG isn’t blatantly marketing the phone as a mini flagship, it is following the trend followed by numerous others: skimp down on features, add only the gimmicks and retain the design.
When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone in 2007, even he couldn’t have imagined that his creation would fail the “mini” criteria just 7 years later. Today, we have the G3 Beat.
LG smartphones are Best in Price and Perfromance
do as romans do…..
because every other tech site and blog calling it mini, pro pakistani doing same. :(
this is not a mini phone, lg didn’t called it mini, its a mid tier phone like samsungs grand/neo, sony xperia C, htc 516 and etc.
I think you wanted to right htc 816
no 816 is 5.5″ but you can compare that too.
516 is 5″ and just announced like g3 beat.
“While LG isn’t blatantly marketing the phone as a mini flagship, it is following the trend followed by numerous others”
Already mentioned that point. We don’t play follow the leader.
LG never said its a mini, nor its following any trend, stop covering it up.
If you follow LG you will know what type of devices they release.
Im a user of LG for 3 years. LG had a mini last year and was not taken well, obviously they are either skiping it or we will see some sort of mini later.
any phone with 1GB or 1.5GB RAM is not a good phone in android.
any android that is not dual core and/or less than 1 gb ram is not good.
dualcore with 1 gb ram is good enough.
Now a days 1GB ram is not enough in Android as most of the applications keep running in background and consumes most of the ram.
so you think S3 with 1 gb ram runs slow?? also please understand android runs differently, even if you dont close apps it will do it auto if it needs more ram. give me an example of a dualcore phone that is slow on 1 gb.
and if you are going to talk about now a days, than you will be wrong again as now a days kitkat needs 512 mb to run and 1 gb will be enough to run hickup free.
there is a difference between optimum running and decent running, also any slowness on 1 gb ram is because of the skins samsung and others put on.
Well I completely agree that KitKat only need 512 mb ram to run properly but who is going to tell this the android OEMs? I bought Xperia SP which has specs more than KitKat requires but still Sony has no intention to upgrade it to KitKat. Believe it or not but Android is a resource hog. Consumes too much resources.
i know, android requires more, thus why i say… dualcore +1gb RAM.
please also realise, when i say dualcore, i dont mean the lower lower end mediATEK chips, or the ones sony used before the novathors.
what about the price?
Round 400 ~ 450 $
Again! WHO BUYS THESE OUTRAGEOUSLY HIDEOUS THINGS?!!
یہ دیکھ کر افسوس ہوتا ہے کہ آپ قیمت کو اکثر نظارانداز کر دیتے ہیں۔ کسی کے پاس بھی اتنے پیسے نہیں ہوتے کہ وہ منھ مانگی قیمت دے سکے۔ اس ماڈل کی قیمت نہ دینے میں کیا مصلحت تھی؟
LG G3 is not much different from its previous LG G2 both are same in features just improvements in screen size and colors. Now mini LG G3 Mini has and advantage that who cannot afford G3 enjoy it through G3 mini.