LG G3 - Is this the smart phone of the year?

Last year LG gained a whole lot of respect from the tech community with their LG G2, which was amazing in almost every way and it got one of the highest scores from me last year (9/10) to be exact. This year LG is hoping to repeat all their success all over again with some killer specs and all around a great experience. So can they do it? Well read along with our first look and find out.

The LG G3 makes a statement in many ways and especially in specs. This beast is running a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset paired with a Quad-core 2.5 GHz Krait 400 CPU and an Adreno 330 GPU, which shouldn’t be taken lightly. Speeds appear to be rock solid and makes the phone very enjoyable to use.

Right off the bat LG gives us their own flavour of Android on top of 4.4.2 KitKat. LG’s skin seems to be quite different from last year, not in a bad way though. The color pallet and fonts are tuned down to make it look more “professional” I guess you could call it. The icons are flattened and it looks very modern in my opinion. Plus you get all of LG’s extra goodies such as a Google Now like feature which can help with recommendations without you even asking. It seems good but we’ll have to see how the consumer likes it.

The screen is beautiful, like honestly it’s amazing. The True HD-IPS+LCD panel looks stunning and produces some amazing quality and at 5.5 inches it’s also great for consuming media. Not to mention how it’s got 1440x2560 pixels (534ppi) which is amazing. The screen is a huge positive for this phone.

The build is fantastic too. Not an HTC One M8 like quality, but close to it. It feels like metal on the back, even though it’s not. Also on the back is the very popular volume up/down button and power button, which has become very well known with LG. They even changed the way they feel to make it easier for the user as it provides better physical feedback. At 149 g (5.260z) it feels great in the pocket, plus the very popular curve is on the phone, which is becoming a benchmark in the Smartphone world.

The camera is a 13MP shooter which has a whole suite of features from LG, which can shoot videos in 1080p. The camera is paired with a 2.1MP front facing camera for all your selfies, which can also shoot 1080p video. For my short testing it provided some great photos and low light seemed good as well.

So there you have it folks, just a quick rundown of the phone and some quick opinions. Be sure to stay tuned in the channel and website to keep up to date on news and reviews, including the G3. Follow Geekanoids on social media as well. Thanks everyone and leave a comment on what you think about this phone, we love to read them. Have a good one!

Author: Ben Smith - Twitter

Motorola Moto E - Smartphonebargainoftheyear

Motorola, a company many have come to love just made news again. If you thought that the Moto G was an amazing device, with an even better price tag and that it couldn't be topped, well think again. Meet the Moto E, let's dig in and see if this is the device that you and your wallet will love forever.

Motorola, a company in transition after being purchased by Lenovo, and with a reputation of making very affordable devices that show specs the back seat in favour of quality, may have just done it again. Yesterday Motorola gave us the Moto E. This device is actually fairly decent for the price. 

But before we begin, this is something worth mentioning. Motorola also came out with a new Moto G that now sports LTE, which was a big complaint with the previous Moto G. It will cost about $225 and will definitely add sales to the best selling phone in Motorola’s history. Over 6.5 million units were shipped worldwide, they won't tell how many were sold, but this update can only help their cause

Right off the bat Motorola gives us some decent internals. We get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor with a 1.2GHz dual core A7 CPU and an Adreno 302 400 MHz single core GPU, which is pretty good for the $130 and below Android category. Not to mention how the latest version of Android 4.4.3 KitKat is included and should get timely updates.

5MP for a camera is a little on the low side for me, not to mention how it doesn’t even have a front facing camera, but who knows, it might surprise us. It only ships with 4GB of storage; luckily it has microSD support for up to an extra 32GB which is plenty of storage. Motorola promises “all day battery life” with its 1980mAh battery, I think that this will be a very hard feat, but again who knows, they might surprise us.

The 4.3 inch screen is not the biggest, but does get the job done. With a 256ppi and not even 720p, there’s nothing special, but again it's not a flagship phone. However there is a very nice bonus feature with the screen, it comes with Gorilla Glass 3, which basically means that the screen will be okay if it runs into a little frazzle dazzle with the keys in your pocket.  

 It would appear as though it will fit great in your hand, at just 142g it will feel like it’s barely there. Not to mention that Motorola doesn't like to make phones with bad build quality, so you get very similar materials used in the Moto X and G.


The Moto E looks like a very worthwhile device for the price. One of the biggest things that cheaper Android phones have lacked is a good all around experience. You always have to sacrifice things. The Moto E is looking to change that. “Built to last, priced for all” the slogan that Motorola is using and we hope that its true. As they try so hard to give people the temptation to leave there old flip phone and get a new Moto E.

So what do you think? Would you consider purchasing this device? As always leave a comment and tell us what you think. Check the YouTube page and the Geekanoids website regularly, so you don’t miss anything, including our review of this phone. Thanks for reading and keep on enjoying tech!  

Just a reminder that this is just an overview, but do stay tuned for our full review.

Author: Ben Smith - Twitter

Android Silver- Perhaps the future of Android

Strange and intriguing news and rumors about Google in the past few weeks. Apparently Google is preparing to come out with it's new Android Silver. This could potentially change the smartphone industry as we know it, not to mention it could just help Androids cause of totally taking over the smartphone market. But just as a disclaimer; there is no guarantee that this is going to be the final product, but I'm pretty confident it will be something like what I'm about to describe, so read along and let’s seen what this lineup would be all about.

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About a week and a bit ago Android Police reported that Google is apparently getting ready to launch Android Silver sometime in 2015. It would apparently revolutionize the way we use Android and the way we buy it, so here is what Android Silver would entail: apparently that Android Silver would be a collection of up to 5 Android devices at one time, kind of a " best of the best secret club". I believe that the 5 devices would change when better devices come out and also I believe that OEM devices could also be considered for this club.

Android Silver would be sold in stores and have a special section in the store just for Silver devices. They would all be put on a special table with special branding. The in store employees would require special training on how to sell Silver devices and it would be a very special experience for Silver customers.

In terms of software and hardware, well like I said OEM'S would probably be considered for the club. It would likely be running the latest versions of Android, but apparently they would have little to know comistation. There are even rumors that say that Google will be ditching the Nexus lineup in 2015 in favour of Silver.

Boy oh boy would there be a special loyalty club for Silver users. Not only would they get the special experience in the store but also out of the store. They would have a 24\7 emergency hotline if the device is having issues. Basically think of it as the Amazon maday button but for Google. The user could use Hangouts where a Google representative would be waiting to help them out and fix their issues.

All in all I find this very intriguing, it would make a lot of sense and would be perfect time for Google. It might even reshape the way we think of Google and Android. Even if it is not exactly like what I just described when it comes out, it will still be a fantastic addition to the Android lineup. I hope Google pursues this idea. So what do you think, would you consider buying Silver? As always leave a comment and tell us what you think. Thanks for reading!

Author: Ben Smith - Twitter

The Samsung Galaxy K zoom

Okay so what’s the difference between a camera-phone and a phone that’s a camera? Well Samsung seems to think they found the answer to that question. Yes the Galaxy K zoom, Samsung seems to think that putting an actual camera on a phone is “proactive” I guess you could say. So is it really? Well read along and we’ll find out together.

Announced April 29th 2014 and expected to be released Q2 of 2014, this phone quite literally brand new. Last year’s Galaxy S4 Zoom wasn’t the most popular due to its awkward build and just not needed at the time. But here we find ourselves in 2014 with the likes of the Lumia 1020 and other phones with amazing cameras it comes as no surprise Samsung decided to keep the Zoom lineup. So how do the specs look?
Samsung made this phone to hold its own and it certainly does. An Exynos 5 Hexa system chip is pretty good. Along with a 6-core, 1700 MHz, ARM Cortex-A15 & ARM Cortex-17 processor ( geek talk for pretty fast). Not the fastest phone on the market but again this isn’t meant to be flagship internals. The 8GB built in storage isn’t much; thankfully it does have support for a microSD card slot. The 2430 mAh battery will get you through the day. Plus we have the newest version of Android KitKat 4.4.2 on top of Samsung’s TouchWhiz OS.
 
The display looks to be great. At 4.8 inches it can compete with the best of them. A resolution of 720p and 306ppi isn’t the greatest, but does get the job done. Plus it’s a Super AMOLED which is always looks great on any phone. It feels great in the hand at 7.05 oz (200 g) and it looks like they finally figured put a camera on the back without making it uncomfortable for the user. This brings me to my next point: The camera
At 20.7 megapixels this thing packs a punch. An LED flash does the trick and has all the features in the world, such as; ISO control, face detection, smiles detection, Optical image Stabilization just to name a few. It has a focal length of 24-240mm, now I’m not a camera expert by any means (we’ll leave that for Dave) but I’m thinking that’s pretty good. It also can capture 1080p video recordings and has front facing camera of 2 megapixels, which isn’t that much.
 
So all in all what do I think of this phone? Intriguing is the word I would use. I like the idea; especially in the age of social media cameras are important. It will be interesting to see how this phone sells. I think that even without the best specs, this phone seems to be a viable companion in your pocket for the next two years. Stay tuned to our full review coming soon and as always, be sure to leave a comment and tell us what you think.
 
By: Ben Smith - Twitter

The OnePlus One

OnePlus, a company we haven't heard much about just made a big splash. This past week they announced the One, not to be confused with HTC, but it was impressing. It is often perceived that in order to make a good phone you must be an established brand. Well they might have proven that wrong too.

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We will have a full review coming later on so stay tuned so you don't miss out, this is to provide a overview of the product. So let's begin, right off the bat OnePlus gives us flagship quality especially for a new company. We get the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor along with 3GB of RAM. The 5.5-inch screen is eye popping with a resolution of 1080p. The phone is running an OS called CyanogenMod, that has been known as a popular option for rooters but now it's a solid part of the phones OS. It provides a modified version of Android and gives the user plenty of helpful and easy tweeks and plenty of features too.

OnePlus also started a campaign that was rather impressive. It is called "The smash the past campaign". It is basically a ticket to get this phone early, but does come at a cost; you must smash your current phone. OnePlus recommends using a hammer,screwdriver,lighter, somthing of that nature. OnePlus will be contacting the 100 winners and give you your phone. That is sure to be an interesting contest.

This is just a short story but like I said stay tuned for our full review. If you have a phone you don't use anymore, I'd recommend participating in the contest, you never know; you might win. This is a very high quality phone by the looks of it and will be interesting to see how this goes for OnePlus. So far OnePlus has broken all the rules on "new phone companies" and hopefully the continue.

Author: Ben Smith - Twitter