LG G3 vs iPhone 6 Plus display comparison: QHD vs Retina

When it comes to flagship smartphones, you can rarely go wrong. To be fair, you can’t really go wrong unless you have no clue of what kind of user experience you want, and in that case you either get something you like, or get something that you get used to pretty quickly. The LG G3 and the iPhone 6 Plus are good examples of why flagship smartphones will still be considered top-notch smartphones even two years from now. The more recent examples, that is, as the LG G3 and the iPhone 6 Plus are actually still considered current flagships. Examples of older smartphones that are still keeping up with the times would be the HTC One M7, Galaxy S4, OnePlus One, LG G2 and more, so there’s definitely a trend among smartphones to last longer and still provide a good user experience.

Certain advancements are always coming forth in the world of technology and especially in the world of smartphones. The most recent novelty addition to this would be the QHD display, which is why we are comparing the LG G3 to the iPhone 6 Plus. We’ve chosen the LG G3 because it was the first mainstream smartphone to have a QHD aka quad HD resolution display. The Oppo Find 7 is the underdog, which hasn’t received as much press coverage as it should have, as it came out with a QHD display a couple of months ahead of the LG G3.The iPhone 6 Plus comes with a Retina resolution and is of the same size as the LG G3, which means that these two phones are the perfect way to compare QHD vs Retina display. Off the bat, let me just say that both these display offer flawsless viewing experiences, so as I’ve said earlier, you can’t really go wrong. Fact of the matter is that on a 5.5 inch display, a ppi pixel density above 400 is indiscernible and won’t make a difference to the naked eye. But there still are differences between the two displays if you put the side to side.

The LG G3 comes with a QHD resolution True HD-IPS + LCD display. Since I’m not an expert in display technology, I can only do this comparison by reviewing the user experience and what it guarantees for the future. The exact resolution for the LG G3 display is 1440*2560 which adds up to a whopping 538 ppi pixel density. That doesn’t seem like much when you compare it to Sharp’s new 4K smartphone display which comes in with an impossible over 850 ppi pixel density on a 5.5 inch display. Rad, huh? But if you put the LG G3 display next to the iPhone 6 Plus display, there are certain differences that jump in front of you almost immediately.

The iPhone 6 Plus display is a Retina reoslution LED-Backlit IPS LCD display on a 5.5 inch panel. The exact numbers for that Retina resolution are actually the numbers you would find for any other FHD panel, namely 1080*1920 and they amount to 401 ppi pixel density. Although the numbers suggest a very big difference in display quality between the LG G3 display and the iPhone 6 Plus display, there’s not that much to write home about, even if you look at them side by side. Of course there is a noticeable difference, but it’s not all for the benefit of the LG G3, as the iPhone 6 Plus has some pluses of its own. For one, the LED-backlit IPS display is more immersive, in the sense that the gap between the screen and the touchscreen is incredibly small, which makes the user experience and implicitly, the viewing experience more immersive. I can only describe that by saying that the icons, pictures and videos pop more compared to the LG G3.

Moreover, I’ve noticed that the iPhone 6 Plus display has just a teeny bit better viewing angles, or wider viewing angles actually. The LG G3 display tends to wash out from certain angles and you can’t really discern what’s on the screen in those moments, but it’s not that big of a difference. Still, it’s there and if you look closely, it’s noticeable, yet negligible. But that’s about where the positives of the iPhone 6 Plus display end. The rest of the praise goes to the LG G3 display and even though there already are smartphones with even better QHD panels, such as the Galaxy Note 4 and the recently launched Galaxy S6, the LG G3 holds its ground.

Even though I am not a fan of QHD personally, I do see the benefits that it offers. On the LG G3, the colors are brighter, crisper and a lot sharper, and the iPhone 6 Plus fades in comparison, even though I wouldn’t say it’s bad compared to the LG G3. One thing that I admire about this flagship is that it manages to keep a decent battery life even with all those pixels that need juice, while I can’t say the same for the iPhone 6 Plus. The iPhone 6 Plus battery life konks out at about a day and a bit, while the LG G3 battery life will most likely take the average user into the second day. That’s a plus in my mind for the LG G3 and it shows that even though it boasts double the resolution, it can manage power even better than an FHD resolution smartphone such as the iPhone 6 Plus or even the Sony Xperia Z3.

Colors are brighter, they don’t get washed out until you try to view from the sides of the screen and the whole display is crisp and clear. But that’s something that you can say about both these flagships, which demonstrates that QHD resolution isn’t exactly all that jazz, as its very relative to its surroundings. You can have just as good a viewing experience on an FHD display as on a QHD one, without even noticing it. Of course there are bad examples of FHD displays which are made with cheap technology that makes the colors seem faded, washed out and blurry, but that’s not the case with the iPhone 6 Plus, nor with the LG G3 if compared to newer QHD smartphone models. All in all, once you look at them side by side, the LG G3 offers a much better viewing experience for the average user. At the same time, if you look at them separately, both the iPhone 6 Plus and the LG G3 offer excellent user experience and viewing experience, without any major drawbacks.

This short and concise comparison backs up the theory that QHD might just be a fad that we’re backing. People have condemned the HTC One M9 because already, tech enthusiasts are thinking that QHD should be standard, even though we don’t have that many uses for it. Sure, if you count virtual reality goggles, it’s definitely a huge plus, but in my mind, virtual reality headsets are not meant to be used with smartphone processors. Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are good examples of virtual reality, while Samsung’s Gear VR is just a poor excuse for monetizing off of the masses who fall for it. No offence, it is just a personal opinion. If you don’t count VR as a use, gaming and media viewing will be just as good on an FHD smartphone as on a QHD smartphone, all the while providing you with extra battery life as it consumes less power. It remains up to you, but the debate on this topic is truly interesting. I’ll see you in the comments below!