LG Optimus G Pro
Street Price: Rs 39,000

To challenge the GALAXY Note II, the Korean brand LG has brought the Optimus G Pro to India. The company’s previous attempt of riding the wave of oversized phones failed miserably with its odd-shaped Optimus Vu. This time around though, things look a lot better with a relatively mainstream design. The new device also packs in impressive specs including a powerful Snapdragon quad-core CPU, full-HD screen, and a feature packed camera.

Design And Build
As mentioned in our hands-on article, the Optimus G Pro looks a lot like the Note II. It's oversized, plasticky, and has very thin bezels. While thin bezels help reduce the phone's footprint, it also causes inattentive interaction with the touch screen. It never felt comfortable in hand or my pocket for that matter. One-handed usage is another concern.  I've been using it since a week, and I still fear that this expensive phone will slip from my hands, especially when using it outdoors. In past, engineers have worked tirelessly to build convenient and pocketable mobile phones. But, after the dawn of phablets, mobile phones are evolving in the wrong direction. As you can see now, the phones are getting bigger, and if it continues at this pace, we might soon see "mobiles" bigger than the landline phones.

 

The Optimus G Pro features a physical home button. There's an LED around it that notifies you of alerts such as missed calls and messages. There's even as option to set different hues of LED for a particular alert. The Power / Lock button is on the right side, making it easily accessible with thumb. The volume rocker is on the left, and besides that there’s a QuickButton that fires up the Quick Memo app by default. There’s an option to assign this key to other apps such as camera, web browser, Music player etc. As opposed to most Android phones, the Optimus G Pro sports a Back button on the left side. So again, if you are right-handed, it’s difficult to hit the back key without using both hands.

Despite being plasticky, the Optimus G Pro's construction feels a lot sturdier when compared to its nemesis, the GALAXY Note II. In an attempt to make this handset stand out, LG has added a Nexus 4-esque sparkling texture pattern on the back-panel. It looks quite decent on the black variant, but on white it looks kind of garish. Overall, considering its steep price tag, the handset lacks the flaunt value.

 

Display
The Optimus G Pro sports a 5.5” screen with 1080x1920 pixels. The screen is fantastic; especially the colour reproduction is superb. It is sharp and offers wide viewing angles. It's also one of the brightest displays found in the current crop of smartphones. A nice touch here is that the screen is slightly curved at the edges. Thanks to a layer of Gorilla Glass 2, you don't have to worry about scratches. As you'd expect from a premium phone, touch sensitivity is spot on. Overall, it's one of the best screens you can find on the smartphones.

Key Specs
Of late, quad-core CPUs have become a norm for the high-end Android phones, and the Optimus G Pro is no exception. It's powered by a 1.7 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core CPU. For photography, there's a 13 megapixel camera, and a 2.1 MP front-facing snapper to make video calls. Other features include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, microSD card slot, and 3140 mAh battery.

UI And Apps
The Optimus G Pro runs Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) with LG's customised UI. I wouldn't call the interface tacky, but those expecting elegance are in for a disappointment. Right from the lock screen, you get bombarded with tacky bubble animations and unnecessarily big typography effects. Oh and did I mention annoying “bloop... bloop” sound it makes when you touch the screen? Yes, you can turn it off, but then why add such UI elements when your product is almost as expensive as the iPhone 5 and HTC One?

   

Taking advantage of the screen area, LG has provided an option to add large toggle buttons for Wi-Fi, NFC, and Bluetooth to the notification bar. But, the big screen has its share of disadvantages. As I've mentioned earlier, it's not ideal for single-handed usage. Not only is it uncomfortable to pull down the notification bar, but also the top row of icons aren’t reachable. Inspired by its South Korean compatriot Samsung, LG offers numerous UX features. Some of the interesting ones are as follows.

Smart Video
Much like the GALAXY S4, this phone tracks your eyes and automatically pauses playback if you look away from the screen. Good concept, but it's a bit of a hit and miss case. It doesn't work properly in low-light situations. Moreover, if you wear spectacles, then this feature is no use for you.

QuickMemo
This app allows users to write or doodle directly on the screen. Unlike the Note 2, this handset doesn't come with stylus, but the finger works just fine.

QSlide: Using this function, you see two or more screen layers simultaneously, and also get to adjust the transparency of each. This feature was meant to offer convenient multitasking, but in reality, it ends up creating confusion and clutter. Seriously, why would anyone want to reply an email while there's a video playing in the background?

   

QRemote
Similar to the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, and GALAXY S4, this latest flagship from LG comes with IR remote functionality. In addition to controlling TVs and music systems, the Optimus G Pro also works well with the Air Conditioners. Undoubtedly, it's a very useful feature.

Thanks to a powerful CPU, the transition effects are virtually lag-free. The default browser is quick to render pages. It offers multiple tabs, and there's also an option to save webpages for offline viewing. Thanks to its powerful quad-core CPU, most complex 3D games such Shadowgun and Dead Trigger work effortlessly with this phone. Coming to the subject of synthetic benchmark, it scores 21,205 in in AnTuTu. To put things in perspective, the GALAXY S4 clocks in with 27,650.

   

Multimedia
The music player's interface is simple and easy to use. Apart from equaliser settings, it also offers a Dolby Mobile enhancement mode. The device's sound quality is very good. The bundled IEMs are also of great  quality. The phone supports most video formats including MP4, DivX, XviD, and MKV out of the box. It also offers a few interesting features, including the ability to control the playback speed from 0.5x to 2x, zooming in and out of a video, and an enhanced seek bar that displays a thumbnail of the frame at the target location. The default player handles subtitles without a problem. The Optimus G Pro's large screen is excellent for watching movies.

Camera
The 13 MP autofocus camera is accompanied by an LED flash. The camera interface is different than what you get on stock Android. Apart from Still \ Video toggle and a virtual shutter button, the phone offers  various options such as brightness, ISO, and colour effect. Much like the overall UI, LG has added plenty of features to its camera. Let's go though some of the more interesting ones.

VR Panorama
This is LG’s version of Photosynth. In case that doesn’t give you a clear idea, this new feature enables the user to create 360 degree views of the surroundings. It's definitely quicker than Microsoft's app, but the stitching isn't up to the mark.

Audio Zoom
Audio zoom lets you focus the microphone on a particular person to make sure his/her speech is louder in the video. It's a superb feature that really works well.

Dual Camera
The Optimus G Pro allows you to snap images simultaneously from both the front and rear cameras. Sounds similar? well, this feature has been lifted from the S4.

 

LG has been advertising the pause and resume feature a lot. While it's a good addition, it's not something ground-breaking. Even a six year old Nokia N82 can do that. Coming to the subject of image quality, the Optimus G Pro does a good job. The resulting photographs contain good amount of detail and natural colours. The noise levels are somewhat disappointing though. So while its better than 8 mp snappers found on most cellphones, it's no match for the GALAXY S4's camera. Click here, to view the untouched camera sample. Like any other flagship phone, the G Pro can record full-HD videos. The clips are saved in MP4 format, and offer smooth playback at 30 fps. The quality of the recorded videos is quite good. As already mentioned, the dual camera feature also works in the video recording mode.

Telephony And Messaging
Like you'd expect from a premium handset, the G Pro's network reception is strong. The voice quality during the calls was loud and clear. Moving on to messaging, the on-screen keyboard looks a lot like the one on the GALAXY Note 2. It doesn't make best use of the available screen space, there's too much of unnecessary space between the characters.

   

Battery
The Optmus G Pro packs in a 3140 mAh Li-ion battery. With normal usage, it easily keeps the phone powered for two days. In our 720p video loop test with brightness set to 60%, it lasted for 9 hours. That's very good for a phone with a large full-HD screen and a powerful quad-core CPU.

Verdict
If you enjoy using uncomfortably large phones, then the LG Optimus G Pro is a very good alternative to Samsung's GALAXY Note II. They both look similar, but have their strengths. The Note II gets an edge with its feature-packed digitiser pen. The Optimus G Pro on the other hand, trumps its competitor in terms of camera and raw power. However, price being a decisive factor, it's easier to recommend the Note 2 (Rs 27,500) over the Optimus G Pro that costs around Rs 39,000. Those who want a good smartphone though, better put your money on the HTC One or iPhone 5.

Features: 4.5/5
Design And Build Quality: 3/5
Performance: 4.5/5
Value For Money: 3/5
Mojo: 3.5/5

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Specifications:

• Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean).
• 5.5" full HD IPS display with 1080x1920 pixels.
• 1.7 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 CPU.
• 13 megapixel rear camera, and a 2.1 megapixel front camera; supports Dual Recording.
• 2 GB RAM, 32 GB internal storage, Up to 64 GB microSD card support.
• 3G, LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS.
• 3140 mAh battery.

TAGS: Mobile Phones, Android, LG, Optimus