Gadgetory

hi everybody on Chris walk from android authority and today we're taking a look at the LG spectrum to now recently LG has been getting into the higher end range of the smartphone market with its optimus G and the google nexus 4 but for a long time its bread-and-butter was mid-range smartphones just like this one and this is actually pretty solid when I first heard that I was going to be taking a look at the LG spectrum too I wasn't all that excited but it's a surprisingly solid device I'm actually enjoyed my time with it quite a bit I'm sure you guys might want to know why so let's get started with the review the LG spectrum tube runs a 1.5 gigahertz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon s4 Krait processor and has one gig of ram and 16 gigs of internal storage the 4.7 inch 720p HD screen has a resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels and like most other phones on the market it's protected by Corning Gorilla Glass the specs are rounded out by eight and 1.3 megapixel rear and front cameras respectively and a 2150 milliamp hour battery the build quality is very solid while the spectrum to isn't exactly heavy it doesn't feel cheap or overly light like a lot of devices in this price range will the few hardware buttons have nice action to them without feeling spongy or stiff things become much more subjective when it comes to the actual design the spectrum to shares the same rectangular shape is a lot of LG's recent devices and while this may not be true for everyone I like the design quite a bit on top of the phone we have the small rounded power button which seems to be designed that way to somewhat match the 3.5 millimeter headphone jack on the other side the left side features the only other two hardware buttons the volume up and down buttons and further down we have the microUSB slot on the back we have the 8 megapixel rear camera and flash and the LG branding further down we have the speaker and 4G LTE logo if you take off the cover you'll find the battery SIM card and microSD slot finally on the front of the device we have the verizon branding and 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera just under the LG logo we have four capacitive buttons from left to right they are back home recent apps and the Settings button while it's fairly easy to pull up the recent apps list anyway I found myself using this button more often than I thought I would the display on the LG spectrum to is easily one of the most impressive features of the phone while it isn't a fancy new 1080p screen images are sharp colors are vivid and while the 4.7 inch screen may make the phone a bit large for some people 720p video looks great on a screen this size as I mentioned at the top of the review I wasn't really expecting too much out of the LG spectrum to when it comes to raw performance but the phone actually performs surprisingly well a lot of people myself included see a dual-core processor and only one gig of ram and think well yeah those specs would be great two years ago button use the LG spectrum to is quick and responsive scrolling through home screens is smooth apps launched quickly and the included games play very well without any framerate hitches or hiccups the LG spectrum 2 runs android 4.0 ice cream sandwich we'd rather see jellybean of course but with so many phones still launching with ice cream sandwich we're not really too surprised about this one the interface is skinned over with an LG launcher but luckily it doesn't seem to negatively impact performance and it does have one bonus and that it's themed abul this turns out to be very handy because the standard themes background and color choices make it kind of hard to see switching to any of the other included themes improves usability big-time the usual suite of Google Apps is included of course as are a slew of other apps that you may or may not find useful it seems like LG might have a deal going with Amazon because the Amazon Kindle amazonmp3 apps as well as the Amazon audible are all included demo versions of a few games some verizon apps and LG's video is round out the included software the camera is a standard smartphone camera quality is fairly good and for most people it's enough to be able to replace a point and shoot but pictures taken aren't going to blow you away there are a few interesting features namely in addition from LG that allows you to say cheese to take a photo this is handy for getting yourself in a group shot or for self portrait photos especially since the spectrum to doesn't have a hardware camera button the LG spectrum to is capable of capturing 1080p video and it's better in this regard than a lot of its mid-range competitors because the video captured is actually usable the frame rate is decent colors aren't washed out and the image is sharp enough to actually make use of its 1080p resolution battery life is fairly good on the LG spectrum too despite the smallish battery after a day of moderate use on Wi-Fi 4G LTE and 3G networks and leaving the phone off the charger overnight I found that I still had thirty eight percent battery left at the end of the second day the LG spectrum two supports wireless charging and my review unit came with a wireless charging pad this is very cool or at least it would be if it actually worked I don't know if this was a problem with the unit i received but during my testing I never managed to get wireless charging working reliably despite placing the phone on the pad every way I can think of sometimes it would charge for a while so it was clearly working but after various amounts of time a message would appear saying that the phone had been removed from the wireless charging pad I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else so I'm going to give the spectrum to the benefit of the doubt and assume that the charging pad I received was simply faulty in the end the LG spectrum to is a solid mid-range phone with decent performance and a great screen there are a few issues but it's not enough to stop me from giving it a recommendation now thats it for our review now it's your turn if you tried the LG spectrum to if so let us and everybody else know what you think in the comments below I'm Chris look for android authority and as always we'd love to hear what you think of this video and other videos on our channel thanks