LG Optimus G Review - Part 1

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(Daddy swipes)

I have been using the LG Optimus G for slightly over a month now and finally, I have the time to sit down and do a proper review of the smartphone. Having shared my first impressions of the phone last month, I was waiting to see if I had the urge to switch back to my previous iPhone 4S or Samsung Galaxy SIII.

Well, I didn't and here's why.

Design and Handling

I simply love the feel of this phone. As I have mentioned in my previous post, I felt extremely comfortable holding it in my palm, thanks to its subtly curved edges where the sides meet the back. 

Because of its edge-to-edge sheet of Gorilla Glass in the front, the screen is scratch-resistant which is a boon for me. I am quite the chor-lor (or rough) user so I am happy to see that my Optimus G is still devoid of scratches after one month... and this, despite being dropped onto the cold hard floor once by Ale too!

Actually, I adore the clean-cut front look that the Opitmus G sports. It is all glass with no hardware buttons, with three capacitive buttons for navigating through the interface below the screen.

One other thing that I love about the phone is the cool unlock animation. You can swipe anywhere on the screen to unlock the phone and when contact is made on the screen, a bubble appears. It is sort of like a magnifying bubble that grows in size as you swipe your finger across the screen.

Cheap thrill, I know. But it is one of those small things that barely impacts on your use of the phone, but has the ability to make your day all the same. Ayd, for one, loves swiping back and forth on the screen just so that he can watch the bubble grow or shrink in size.

Hardware and Specifications

The Optimus G has a brilliant 4.7-inch display (1,280 x 768) which offers great colour reproduction and looks very sharp regardless of viewing angles. The screen also sports LG’s 'Zerogap Touch' technology, which means the air gap between the screen and the glass surface is minimized to improve the durability and clarity of the display. This results in having less diffused reflection on the glass and makes the screen readable even under direct sunlight.

I found the display to be absolutely excellent. It is arguably one of the best smartphone screens I’ve ever seen so far. The screen panel gets extremely bright and has excellent colour & light contrast.

Internally, it is powered by the impressive 1.5GHz quad-core CPU, Snapdragon™ S4 Pro processor and equipped with 2GB of RAM. The Optimus G also comes with a 13-megapixel rear camera, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 32GB storage (25GB useable and no microSD slot), 4G, WIFI, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and a 2100mAh integrated battery. 

For more details on its specifications, visit http://www.lg.com/sg/mobile-phones/lg-Optimus-G-LG-E975.

Performance and Battery Life

Thanks to its powerful quad-core processor, the Optimus G's performance felt geuninely zippy and responsive. Swiping left and right on the phone was incredibly fast and smooth, without any lag at all. 

In fact, it can even display three apps at one time. That's right; three apps. All at once. It's a LG feature called QSlide that allows you to overlay up to 3 different screens simultaneously on one display, allowing users to multi-task. I will expand on this in Part 2 of my review.

As for battery life, it's pretty decent with me seeing a solid day's worth of usage on a single charge. You can opt to turn on the 'Eco Mode', which helps to optimize the use of the quad-core processor. According to LG, the Snapdragon S4 Pro allows each of the quad-core to power up and down independently, hence consuming 40% less power. 

In addition, the high-density 2,100mAh battery has a lifespan of 800 charging cycles compared to the 500 charging cycles offered by the average smartphone batteries.

So far, the LG Optimus G has been meeting my expectations and even surpassing them on some fronts. And some of those happen to be the unique software features and camera functions, all of which I will cover in Part 2 of my review. Stay tuned!

LG has embarked on a “Change for Good” campaign, which aims to encourage and empower Singaporeans to embrace positive changes in their lives through a series of inspirational activities and workshops. A microsite, www.changeforgood.sg, is available for Singaporeans to make their pledges and connect with one another through the various social media platforms such as Twitter Instagram and Google+.A common hashtag (#ChangeGorGood) allows users to view and add to the campaign’s movement.