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LG G Pro 2 Review!

2014-03-12
last year LG came out of the gate with their own large device offering quite literally blowing up everything that made the original Optimus G great this year their follow up hopes to continue the momentum this time piggybacking on the design and success of the g2 but is it more than just a much larger version of their other flagship phone well this is what we're going to find out because it's Josh magar from Android 30 what's going on everybody and this is the LG G pro 2 when it comes to design whereas Mini is a pretty self-explanatory term LG takes pro to mean a much larger offering of an already established device and that's pretty much what you get here with maybe a few changes the black slave front is not interrupted by any buttons and neither are the sides and this is because of the signature LG g2 button layout that returns here and makes for a very sleek and thin device the power and volume rockers are quite large on the back matching the overall size of the device and have a short but very meaty press to them the headphone jack is up top while the microUSB charging port is found on the bottom what is most striking about the design of the G pro 2 is its back material though and the fact that it is removable this time instead of the fingerprint prone glossy plastic of the g2 we get a mesh like textured plastic that alleviates that very problem it does actually look very nice now removing the back cover of the LG g2 gives you access to the removable battery and the micro SD card slot along with the SIM tray but when it comes to the actual material itself there is just one big gripe that I have with it yes it does keep you from having finger print prom material on here but this Matador mesh a texture plastic on the back is quite slippery you'll find that the phone is easy to slip around in your hand and you have to get quite a good grip on it but getting a grip on the phone this large is probably what is most difficult about its size after all that large 5.9 inch screen on the G pro 2 is perhaps its most polarizing feature while plenty of people out there love the larger screen sizes it is simply just a boon to anyone who requires easy as easy a handling experience as possible something that the G pro 2 simply does not provide but as is the case usually if you do come for the screen size you'll probably stay for its quality LG continues to prove its display prowess with a 1080p resolution 5.9 inch screen with 373 pixels per inch there is no problem reading just about anything on this display and all media looks just plain lovely even the colorful default optimus UI shines through this IPS screen that thus also does quite well in direct sunlight and of course a very respectable bezel around the screen continues the tradition started by the LG g2 screen and thus you'll have a great time here no matter what you throw at it and despite its size making it rather difficult to handle at certain times now while I will save right off the bat that there were no problems with performance on the G pro 2 the one part worth mentioning about this processing package is the fact that it might get outdated rather quickly in the coming months the Snapdragon 800 clocked in at 2.2 gigahertz is backed by the adrenal 330 which is then also bolstered by 3 gigabytes of RAM which does do well to handle the multitask now here the point is that the processing package is the very same as the one found on the original g2 and you're sure to be eclipsed within the next number of months by already updated versions of this already powerful processing package though powerful it is as there really are no hiccups and while getting through the elements of the Optimus UI and most multitasking really don't have any stutters any ones that you might run into are likely due to the feature-packed user interface and it also is plagued by the same problems that perhaps TouchWiz is as it is the main comparison in hardware Pro also seems to mean that everything you might not get in the original comes here as well after all not only do you get that extra gigabyte of RAM the 16 or 32 gigabytes of on-board storage are expanded by a micro SD card slot found underneath that back cover you also get every form of connection here with Bluetooth NFC and in this Korean version of the phone there is an antenna for watching Korean broadcast television now the speaker on the back of the phone which is located right here actually does really well in terms of its loudness in terms of the quality however you have very nice highs and only very decent mids and lows making this speaker actually somewhat above-average over other smart ah freaks the call quality was about as good as it should be with no real problems on either end but what could be mentioned as we just talked about the speaker on the back is that when you use it for calls it actually is quite nice now what the proper frugal usage it is possible to eke out a solid day or a day and a half worth of usage especially what the power saving features turned on standby time is also really great as you can leave the phone unplugged and in standby all night without losing more than maybe 10% but when you get into the territory of let's say power users you really do find that the phone really does drain its battery quite quickly one particular instance saw me waking up at 10 a.m. unplugging the phone and then going out with a bunch of friends who played around with the camera quite a bit I will admit but then after that I use the phone for looking up directions a little bit of music and some Google searches but at 10 a.m. being the start it was really disappointing to see this phone conk out at 5 p.m. that's only about 7 hours worth of usage and even if it was a pretty heavy it still should have lasted longer than that other days were about the same I would get close to single digit percentages by bedtime which is something you don't often expect to happen on a big device so you usually get the promise of long battery life with bigger phones but unfortunately with the G pro 2 it's just a rather inconsistent performer now what might be the best enhancement in the g pro 2 is the updated camera which is a 13 megapixel shooter with software optimized optical image stabilization now called oh is plus the LG g2 camera was higher in the list of last year's Android cameras and much of what you might remember of it returns here the app is quite feature-packed and even includes its own version of the focus selection in your pictures now what did play the g2 was unfortunately slow focusing speed which also does return here when you tap an area to focus it runs for at least a second or two until finally finding its spot after that though you can snap as much as you want as the shudder runs pretty quickly optical stabilization also helps with the video recording which does include UHD 4k recording I already have pretty steady hands but having added stabilization is definitely welcome as you can see here now we were already impressed with the picture quality back in Barcelona or MWC and that continues here details are very well captured through this camera and the level of sharpness was quite impressive and once you are able to get the focus right you are able to get pretty consistently good quality pictures from the G Pro to stay tuned for a full feature focus video regarding the camera and you'll see even more examples then of just how good this camera can be and finally when it comes to software there's a good chance that you know what to expect here if you've been an LG user before the Optimus UI returns here with it's in your face tendencies as many of the different features take up quite a bit of space all around colorful icons and wallpapers are on a pretty monochromatic backdrop but you get a glimpse at everything the Optimus UI is capable of in the notification drop-down everything from the small qslide apps to the q' memo and all the different features in the power widget are right there in your face in this version of LG's flagship however there are some key enhancements and we already covered one at length in the future focus video the NOC code which is an enhanced version of the knock-on feature that allows you to turn on and unlock the phone easily using a set pattern of tabs that are put onto the turned off screen and as far as multitasking goes this large screen allows for nice dual window capabilities on top of the LG created slider side feature ultimately the Optimus UI is definitely one of the most full-featured user interfaces available and a lot of the features may or may not be your back but as long as you are able to find a few that are very useful for you like the NOC code you'll find that the features in the Optimus you I really do set this phone apart now finally when it comes to price we don't really have a clear handle on what the final price point will be and we want to be surprised that the G pro 2 comes in at a very high price tag though somewhere near the $700 range at launch and so there you have it the LG G pro 2 well this is definitely an upgrade from the original Optimus G pro we do kind of question how much of it is that much better than the original g2 it does sport a bigger screen and arguably better material choice on the back and an enhanced camera experience with óas plus however the enhancements point into the software experience like the NOC code are actually set to come to the g2 anyway in the coming months so especially considering that the g2 has the exact same processing package as this newer offering it really is up to whether or not you used the g2 and you pretty much just wished it was bigger so keep it into Android authority for all of the best coverage including our coverage of the LG G pro 2 including the future focus video regarding the camera so until then make sure you give us a some likes on our videos because we'd love to see those thumbs up and also to 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