The recently announced LG G3 is one of the most impressive Android smartphones we’ve ever seen, even though a majority of the specifications had already leaked prior to the official reveal. Most of those leaks turned out to be spot on, but one detail in particular was sadly inaccurate — the LG G3 features a plastic body instead of a metal one.
Metal bodies haven’t yet become a premium smartphone standard, but HTC managed to turn some heads earlier in the year with the sleek design of its metal-encased HTC One (M8). Samsung couldn’t quite reach those heights with the Galaxy S5, but the S5 Prime is expected to be the company’s opportunity to catch up. So why couldn’t LG wrap the G3 in metal? According to Chul Bae Lee, LG’s VP of Mobile Design, it would have been too expensive.
“If you could charge $300 more for the phone, maybe we could make it metal,” Lee said in an interview with TrustedReviews.
Not only would the addition of metal have been cost prohibitive, Lee believes it would have compromised the slim design of the G3.
“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,” said Lee. “What would be the best material for this phone? I don’t think metal would be the answer for that.”
For more on the LG G3, be sure to check out our hands-on preview.
