Gadgetory

in the last six months LG has turned up the heat in a smartphone market releasing several high-end smartphone models I'm Taylor Martin this is pocket now and this is the LG optimus g pro review from the time the optimus g pro leaked it was paralleled with Samsung's Galaxy Note 2 and rightly so it may not be the carbon copy we originally thought it was there are certainly subtle differences all throughout the hardware and specifications but there is no denying where LG got its inspiration for the optimus g pro the design and even the materials it's made of strongly resemble those of Samsung's Galaxy devices for such a large device the optimus g pro is remarkably lightweight weighing in at only 172 grams and despite its 5.5 inch display the optimus g pro actually feels kind of small much smaller than the Galaxy Note 2 thanks to the minimal bezel along the sides of the display even so the optimus g pro feels elongated making it quite difficult to use one-handed there are a few points in the design worth mentioning however it comes with an additional physical button along the upper left edge the cue button which is a user definable shortcut key that mind you can double as a camera shutter button the physical home button although very hollow in cheap filling is lined with LEDs and doubles as a beautiful bright and multicolored notification light and the model we received was the korean model which comes with a long antenna tucked into the upper right corner that works with DMB television in korea the global and US variants will likely not have this antenna but it is said that they might come with a stylus that will talk into the corner instead the innards of this smartphone are what make it so impressive it's a no-compromise device the 5.5 inch display is a true full HD IPS plus display at 1080p resolution for roughly 400 pixels per inch it utilizes Qualcomm's latest 1.7 gigahertz quad-core snapdragon 600 chipset it features two gigabytes of ram 32 gigabytes of built-in storage with a microSD card slot a 13 megapixel camera and ir blaster NFC and a 30 140 million power battery the display is not the best 1080p display we've seen but that doesn't mean it isn't gorgeous the colors are vivid and pop viewing angles are great and it's super sharp the contrast is a tad low however and blacks aren't as inky as we would like but it's definitely among the best displays on the market although we were impressed by the design or build the optimus G Pro offers some of the best specification seen in a smartphone to date and it's the first true phablet with a 1080p display where LG truly tried to differentiate its optimus g pro is in its software but the best singular term to describe the software on the optimus g pro is overwhelming make no mistake the company thought of almost everything when making this customized interface and it took plenty of cues from Samsung with its suite of Q branded apps Q translator Q voice qslide apps etc even the notification shade resembles the TouchWiz notification shade with quick setting toggles a brightness slider and suggested applications virtually every inch of the operating system has been customized by LG from the lock screen to the deepest part of the settings application speaking of the Settings app it has been transformed into a tabbed interface and separated into four sections networks sound display and general this alone takes plenty of getting used to the amount of pre-installed software on the optimus g pro is mind numbing a total of eighty-three applications only 14 of which can be removed come pre-installed on the optimus g pro those range from Google's own applications like Gmail or Google search and essentials like the phone and camera to LG's expansive library of applications such as q shopping smart world Smart Touch smart share and many many more unfortunately we couldn't test many of these applications due to them being fixed in the Korean language during our time with the optimus g pro and its software we couldn't help but feel the software is overbearing redundant and cluttered as if LG was trying a little too hard the optimus g pro is extremely impressive in performance both in synthetic benchmarks and day-to-day use not once did we experience an instance of notable lag and standard usage everything from opening applications to switch and scrolling between home screens is buttery smooth but there are some noticeable animations that slow down some actions such as opening folders on the home screen we found call quality on par with most other flagships the air p speaker is plenty loud and not terribly tinny though we did have trouble hearing people in noisy environments and the speakerphone is not exactly very loud a review unit was the korean model of the optimus g pro it supports LTE connectivity but was limited to AT&T 3g meaning here in the States speeds were pretty dismal compared to either hspa+ or LTE speeds battery life on the optimus g pro was unsurprisingly great the 30 140 million power battery consistently managed to keep the device powered over a full day the screen on time varied quite a bit but not once did we need to charge more than once per day we found the 13 megapixel camera on the optimus g pro to be passable nothing more nothing less the images lacked a ton of detail and most images were washed out although the occasional picture was super saturated and warm in perfect lighting pictures turned out great in anything but perfect lighting contrast was low was quick to overexpose and pictures were full of noise there are definitely better 13 megapixel cameras around but the optimus G Pro's camera is hardly the worst the optimus g pro on the outside is far from spectacular everything from the hardware design and materials to various interface elements and software services are almost direct copies from samsung top to bottom the optimus g pro is uninspired but it's impossible to discredit the device entirely if you're after a no-compromise experience you will likely find yourself satisfied with the optimus g pro so long as you can deal with the overbearing software and credible amount of bloatware and mediocre build quality if you're after substantial hardware and lightweight software however the optimus g pro is not for you we give the LG optimus g pro a 7.5 out of 10 that about does it for the review but if you liked the video be sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel and find us in all the normal places facebook twitter and google+ at simply pocket now I'm Taylor Martin and I will see you next time