Gadgetory

hi guys this is April from Android authority here I have the lg optimus G a very attractive looking and super smooth phone with exceptional display join me as I take a tour around LG's newest phone the Optimus G first let's take a look at the phone's exterior the lg optimus G actually looks very pretty it has a black and white theme the front is glossy jet-black and the back is white it's a very classy color combination the phone housing is made of plastic up front you'll see all black the only interruptions here are the LG logo here speaker grille above the logo and the 1.3 megapixel front camera near the right corner the LED notification light is somewhere here at the right corner but you'll see it only when it lights up the capacitive buttons are not extented they're actually here at the bottom of the screen you'll see them only when the screen is on here's another nice thing about the Optimus G there's the metallic lining running around the edges it adds to the phone's classy appearance even the hardware buttons have such metallic edging for instance the power button here on the right side of the phone has it on the left side here is the volume rocker also with metallic edging the SIM tray is also here notice the very small hole this one's very ejected the SIM tray the phone allows only micro Sims so if you have a regular sim you'll need to trim it to micro size at the top edge here's the headphone jack you can plug in the quad beat headphones in here here's the retractable TV antenna this unit has a TV antenna because this test unit is for the Korean market though I heard that the international variant of the Optimus G won't be having any TV antenna at all I wouldn't want this antenna on the international variant because it makes the Optimus G look like a glamorous walkie-talkie at the bottom is the microUSB slot for charging and data connection these two shiny things here are Torx screw I suspect that if you unscrew these you can actually open the backplate I haven't tried opening it though let's see the back side as you can see the back is mostly white according to sources units with black or blue back covers are also available this one is the 13 megapixel back camera with a LED flash below it it's also surrounded by metallic edging just like the volume and power buttons it's a high resolution camera capable of capturing more details this protrudes from the back actually if you look at it from the side like this there's another variant with an 8 megapixel camera and it's also reportedly slimmer than this one here's a loudspeaker grill at the bottom this one is capable only of mono output the audio quality is acceptable for phone calls but a little disappointing if you want to listen to audio through this loudspeaker if you want better audio listen to it using the quad beat headphones plugged into the audio jack here the back has diamond patterns that look like crystals or prisms card onto the back you won't be able to feel the diamond texture because it is covered with clear glass there's a very slim gap that the edges of the glass cover it's not melded seamlessly to the rest of the backplate so if you're not careful dust and grime could enter through this gap now let's check out the screen and display on the lg optimus G the LCD screen has a 4.7 inch diagonal and uses true HD IPS plus technology with a resolution of 1280 by 768 at 15 to 9 aspect ratio the large screen is great for multimedia viewing web browsing and reading the display is very sharp very crisp very clear and less saturated the colors appear realistic even under direct sunlight the display is still visible especially with brightness levels set to maximum LG says that the screen technology used in this phone reflects less light resulting in display clearer than usual LCD screens several of my colleagues here at Android Authority actually like the display on this phone the touch screen is very snappy and very responsive take a look sample add the bubble PV effect on the lockscreen this is actually one of the things we liked about this phone tap hold and drag the bubble to expand it and see a preview of the homescreen underneath the display is great with HD games there's hardly any lag the display is very smooth and buttery it's still very vibrant and crisp part of the smoothness on this phone comes from its processing hardware 1.5 gigahertz quad-core Snapdragon s4 chipset and 2 gigabytes of RAM this phone also comes with 32 gigabytes of internal storage but no microSD expansion slot according to sources some variant though will have micro SD slots this phone comes with a 2100 mAh lithium polymer battery which LG claims to have up to about 800 charging cycles in our testing the battery lasted 4 hours under heavy HD gaming heavy browsing Mac screen brightness GPS Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on with light to moderate use though this battery can give you about 15 hours of talktime as I've already mentioned the Optimus G comes with a 1.3 megapixel front camera in a 13 megapixel back camera photos taken with a back camera both outdoor and indoor shots capture vibrant colors the camera app has several features to make photo and video capture easily the phone has a built-in image stabilization or anti shape feature known as smart shutter the time-machine camera feature captures images ahead before you even press a shutter button this way you can roll back to an earlier frame if the actual shot is ugly the film has a voice-activated shutter feature known as boy shutter just say words like cheese smile whiskey or even LG to snap your picture without tapping the camera button video recording is average on this phone video captured outdoors get vibrant colors but indoors it produces dark noisy Club Center typical indoor lighting sound recording though was very sharp as you've seen thus far the phone is very smooth and buttery these are two descriptions commonly associated with Android 4.1 jelly bean but when you checked the lg optimus G has Android 4.0 point four Ice Cream Sandwich I'll be expecting more great things from this phone when jelly bean arrives for it word on the street says that LG will be pushing jelly bean for the Optimus tree sometime this December let's now take a quick look at the software highlights on this phone first let's look at the multitasking function known as qslide this feature lets you run one app on top of another let's try launching the stop browser app and let's watch video voila this is not split screen one app is actually overlaid on the other app you can adjust the transparency of the top app so you can see what's underneath it like this the phone also has a note-taking feature called queue memo easily accessible from the notification bar it lets you scribble a note with your fingertip over your current tasks for example you can jot down a note while you're browsing let's try this open the browser app then access kmmo from the notification bar like this write down a note and press the overlay icon to keep the note on top while you continue to use the film there's another feature called application link that can get you started quickly with your day's tasks upon waking up as soon as you turn off the alarm clock application link launches apps like email weather or calendar so you can immediately see the n-f-l that you need upon waking up the film has two wise features two wise ringtone for example a just spring tone volume depending on the background noise y screen on the other hand keeps the phone screen turned on if it detects your face looking at the screen you can also personalize your app icons you can use icons from icon sets or you can use a custom photo from your gallery for example let's change this apps icon with our photo of beg droid long press on this app icon here then replace it with our dear bug droids photo there so guys this is the lg optimus G it's an elegant phone with its sleek jet-black front beautiful reflective bag and Mal edging it feels good in the hand not too heavy but not too light it's a very responsive device with powerful hardware and gorgeous display colors come out less saturated and more realistic on photos and videos it's bad camera though still leaves much to be desired the qslide feature is a convenient addition making multitasking easier the devices speakers are great with Dolby mobile sound future but you have to plug in your headphones to enjoy it the Optimus G is undoubtedly one of the best phones LG has created so far although it might not prove heavy competition to its peers being the first of its kind in terms of hardware raises the bar for future LG phones what do you think of LG's latest Android phone guys like it love it or leave it read more about the lg optimus G in our review on Android Authority don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel this is April from Android authority thanks for watching may the light side of the Android force be with you