The LG Optimus G has arrived, and comes complete with a whole new level of smartphone technology.
It's
another evolution for the Korean brand, with the new handset the second
quad core option the firm has released. However, it's the first to use
Qualcomm's S4 Pro chip, which will bring an LTE-ready quad core handset
to the masses for the first time.
When you pick up the Optimus G,
you can tell it's a handset that's worthy of being dubbed a flagship by
LG. There's a real weight to it (well, only 145g, but it's much heavier
than the Samsung Galaxy S3) but that adds to the premium feel rather than feeling overly heavy. The
design language is impressive, if a little bland. The plastic casing
feels a little slippery in the hand, and while the white casing with
silver inlets looks impressive, the front of the phone is still the
faceless black slab we've come to expect from most handsets these days.
It's
not LG's fault, as there's only so much you can do to innovate on the
design front, but with the Optimus G its definitely decided that
minimalism is best, with a silhouette that mimics the iPhone 4S. The
layout of the buttons is familiar too, as it mirrors the Galaxy S3
almost perfectly in terms of button placement. LG has moved the power
button to the top right-hand side, to make it easier to hit with the
thumb, and the volume keys, headphone jack and microUSB port are all in
the same place.
In fairness, there are only so many places you can
put these elements, and placing the phones side by side you'd
definitely not think much in the way of copying had gone on. There
is one big difference though: the 13MP camera sensor (which may only
arrive on Korean models, according to hints dropped by LG) juts out
slightly at the rear, which led us to worry it may get slightly
scratched. There's an extra lip to help protect the lens though, so it
may survive a fight with the desk every day. There's
no removable battery, no expandable memory through a MicroSD slot –
although at least there's 32GB of internal storage to help out on the
media front, which should be more than enough for most people.
To
summarise: it's a well-designed phone with plenty to be proud of from an
aesthetic standpoint. However, while it doesn't come under the same
'cheap-feeling' category as the Galaxy S3, it doesn't have the premium
feel of the HTC One S or the iPhone 5 in our opinion. Add
to that it's pretty anonymous when viewed straight on, and you have to
wonder how LG plans to make this leap of the shelves when placed next to
the competition.
However, if you do pick up the phone from the
melee, you'll be in for a nice surprise, as it's one of the fastest
we've encountered so far. That's not surprising when you consider it's
got one of Qualcomm's most advanced CPUs inside, which has been teamed
with 2GB of RAM.
This meant that no matter what we threw at it,
the LG Optimus G was able to open and flick between apps with aplomb.
This is down to Cross Tasking, as LG calls it, which means each core is
able to operate at different speeds to enable more efficient
multi-tasking.
We
know it's been said before with phones like this that speeds are
mind-blowing, but it seems the LG Optimus G was able to beat all the
benchmarks out there too, so there's more than a little hope that this
is one of the world's quickest handsets.
LG has been hard at work
refining its UX overlay as it, like so many, works to create
differentiation in a saturated market. We'll state our case now: we're
definitely not fans of LG's Android overlay, as it's still similar
(especially in layout and font) to the less-than-successful earlier
smartphones and the irritating S-Class handsets.
But beyond the
iconography and general feel of the system, with its overly colourful
widgets and geometric design, there are so many little tweaks that make
it a joy to use.
These same tweaks will probably annoy those that
love simplicity, but then again, they're generally happy with a six
year-old iOS platform.
Opening the lock screen is the early
winner, with a little dew bubble revealing what lies below as you
unlock. There are four icons along the bottom of the phone which allow
you to activate quick apps too, which makes it handy when loading the
camera.
From
there, it's pretty standard Android 4.0, which is a good thing for
those that are upgrading from another Google-powered phone.
There's no word on when we'll be seeing Android Jelly Bean for the Optimus G, although LG has hinted it may drop by the end of the year (read: some point in 2013).
But
there are several other neat touches on top that we really like, and
will help differentiate the LG Optimus G if people actually give it a
decent play in the shop.
For instance, being able to pinch
outwards on the home screen to just look at your wallpaper will please
those looking to show off their cat, and a new feature called Q-Slide
really takes Samsung's Pop Up Play to the next level.
Q-Slide
allows you to be watching a video or using the internet (as LG puts it:
any app it can control) and place any other on top. This may sound
slightly pointless as it's nigh-on impossible to concentrate on more
than one task on a smartphone, but it stops the video getting in the way
as it does on Samsung's option.
The other, more useful, trick is
the ability to resize or personalise icons. This means that if you drag
an icon around the home screen, if it has a widget attached it will grow
larger to offer things like bookmarks or media. And if it doesn't have a
larger option, you can place any picture you like as the app instead,
making it a really personal experience.
The
rest of the phone is mostly impressive, so we can almost whip through
it. The browser is pretty much stock Android Ice Cream Sandwich, but is
pretty fast over 4G – although not as quick as some out there, it's
important to note this isn't final software and such things often get
optimised for launch.
The keyboard is still pretty poor though –
while the lag we saw on the Optimus 4X HD has disappeared, it's still
pretty inaccurate at predicting what words were trying to tap out.
We
often try to see how long we can last before installing something like
Swiftkey in these scenarios, but it was only a couple of hours with the
Optimus G.
The final thing we'll look at is the screen (well, it's
the first thing you'll probably look at) as LG is touting both its
clarity and power efficiency.
We saw tests that compared it to
Samsung's Super AMOLED HD screen, which showed that it was able to use
less power at higher brightness, as well as offering more natural
colours thanks to a full matrix of RGB colouring.
In truth, it's a
screen that looks great and is as sharp as a pin, but doesn't have the
same 'wow' factor as the AMOLED, which offers better contrast ratio and
brightness. There are many display snobs out there that don't believe
Samsung's favourite screen type offers 'true' images, but in our eyes
its still the more impressive.
That's not to say LG's is poor by
any means – but we do prefer watching movies on the S3, and not just
because we can pop them over on a microSD card.
Early verdict
Is
the LG Optimus G the phone of the year? It's too early to say, for a
number of reasons: the first being that we won't see it in the US until
later in 2012 and may never see it on European shores at all.
Then
there's the issue of price, or lack of one. While LG usually undercuts
its competitors, it will need to do so pretty strongly here to make sure
it stands out of the throng of top-end smartphones available today.
It's a well-designed handset with plenty of interesting features we
can't wait to get our teeth into, as well as more grunt than most other
phones out there. We're not sure it will be the phone to propel LG back
to the front (there needs to be a phone that takes the user by surprise
with a new UI or fantastic design to achieve that) but it's one of the
best the Lucky Group have come up with in a long while.
0 comments:
Post a Comment