LG G3: Lasers, metallic skin, and the quest for cool

Mobile and pc world. takes a behind-the-scenes look at the last-minute scramble to create LG's latest flagship smartphone.

In the end, it was all about the lasers.
At least, it was to LG, which considered the laser-equipped camera -- supposedly able to focus on images faster than the standard smartphone camera -- to be one of the hallmark features of its G3 smartphone, the latest flagship product of the Korean consumer electronics conglomerate.
Its predecessor, the well-received if relatively modest-selling G2, proved that LG could stand with the big boys in the industry, namely Apple and Samsung and a design-minded HTC, with a different flagship phone. But with the G3, LG set out on a path to create a smartphone it could argue was superior to the competition, which meant injecting a little cool into the phone.
Enter the lasers.
"A laser sounds pretty sexy," Ramchan Woo, head of LG's mobile platform planning division, said in an interview with Mobile And Pc World. "A laser is one of the coolest items around the world."
LG can use all the cool that it can get. Having long played second fiddle to Samsung as the other large Korean conglomerate, LG lacks any real significant brand identity. Like Samsung, LG can tap into its various component units to create solid products, but it doesn't have the cult-like following of Apple or the marketing heft of its Korean rival. With a strong contender in the G3, the experimentally curvy G Flex, and the fan favorite Nexus 5, LG is starting to build a track record of noteworthy smartphones. Even so, many remain skeptical that LG can break out as a coveted household name.
"A lot of the G3's success will depend on how much LG is willing to invest in marketing -- consumers are familiar with the LG brand, but do not seek out its phones," said Avi Greengart, who covers consumer electronic products at Current Analysis.
LG ranked in the top five among global smartphone makers in the first quarter, although it ceded its No. 3 spot from a year ago to Chinese vendors Huawei and Lenovo, according to IDC. With a 4.3 percent share of the market, it lags far behind Samsung, which controls nearly a third of the market, and Apple, with 15.2 percent of the market.

Yet the company feels it has a legitimate shot to go after the competition with the G3. When it launched in Korea in June, the G3 reportedly outsold Samsung's Galaxy S5 by a 3-to-1 margin during their respective launch weeks, according to Korean publication ET News. The G3 debuted in the US on Friday with AT&T, but will be available at all of the national carriers over the coming days.
Critically, the G3 hasalready won praise. Mobile And Pc World senior editor peter coach called it the "perfect flagship phone for early adopters," and suggested that the G3 could cause a major upset over the Galaxy S5.Whether the G3's laser-power camera is a genuinely useful feature or a gimmick remains a little unclear. CNET senior editor Andrew Hoyle conducted a test of the camera vs. the Galaxy S5, and only found it slightly faster and better in low-light conditions.
Still, in an industry where most of the improvements come in the form of better specs and bigger displays, the G3's laser is at least different.
Last-minute laser
It was December, and Woo was starting to feel the pressure.
While most companies typically take a year in between flagship smartphones, LG was on an accelerated schedule. The predecessor G2 had just been released in September, and LG was looking to launch the follow-up a mere eight months later.
The planning had actually come together in 2012, and then LG worked with Qualcomm in May 2013 to optimize the new 801 Snapdragon quad-core processor for the phone. The design of the exterior and internal components of the G3 had been locked in.
Yet executives felt the G3 still lacked that cool factor -- that difference maker that would help the smartphone stand apart from its competitors. The camera, in particular, lacked any real improvement.
Woo found the answer in the unlikeliest of places: LG's Hom-Bot robot vacuum division.
He happened to be at an R&D coffee break with engineers from the division when they started talking about a laser sensor the robot vacuum team had considered using to help gauge distance. The team ultimately decided to use other sensors. But Woo was intrigued, and had the robot vacuum engineers set up a meeting with the outside supplier of the laser.
After one demonstration, Woo was sold.
"There's something about a laser," he recalled. "It can be cool."
But Woo faced a big problem. Adding a major element like a laser required a wholesale design of the G3's mold and internal components -- impossible under the company's normal schedule. Woo had to pitch the laser sensor to Jong-Seok Park, CEO of the mobile division, and convince him to sign off on a last-minute change to the smartphone. Park was instrumental in changing the production process to allow for the laser addition.
Somehow, Woo said, the hardware team managed to redesign the smartphone mold and internal printed circuit board by January.
"I'm still not sure how they did it," he said.
LG's secret weapon

Ramchan Woo, head of LG's mobile platform planning division

Woo felt that the laser-guided camera was the G3's ace in the hole, so he opted not to alert the marketing team.
"The laser was so sensitive -- it was so hot -- that we kept it a secret," he said, a reference to the excitement around it -- and not the temperature.
When showing off prototype units in February and March, LG covered up the hole where the laser sensor would be, with executives saying only that it would be an infrared blaster. ("It is a sort of infrared blaster, so we weren't lying," Woo said.) The actual laser is located in the black pill-shaped spot to the left of the camera, opposite the flash.
On the development side, work was going virtually nonstop. LG had a dedicated facility set up in Qualcomm's offices in San Diego, and the work would be handed off between LG in Korea and Qualcomm, so there was little downtime.