LG Optimus LTE Review: Strengths, Weaknesses and More!

LG Optimus LTE Review: Strengths, Weaknesses and More!

According to yesterday’s news (November, 16 2011), 15,000 LG Optimus LTE were sold within the first forty days since it was launched. Currently (November 17, 2011) it is estimated that 16,000 devices have sold. Ever since Optimus LTE was supplied through SKT and LG U+ on October 5, 15,000 phones were activated on November 13.

Although I am writing a review of LG Optimus LTE, I personally think that its specs are the of highest quality and one of the best products among LG smartphones that were launched recently. But of course, there is always room for improvement.

I’ve been using LG Optimus LTE for about a month, and the time for the last review has come. Today, it will be about general review of LG Optimus LTE, and I will begin with the strengths and weaknesses.

These are some of the strengths of LG Optimus LTE

Resolution of IPS True HD

LG Optimus showed some confidence by gearing IPS True HD. Optimus LTE that has the screen size of 4.5 inches, is geared with HD (1280*720 resolution), suitable for its increased screen size.

In addition, AH-IPS that was known as IPS True HD, it is known that its readability is good (329 ppi), consumes less battery, and that its color representation is good. Also, its brightness is 500nits, so it is brighter than an average smartphone, though it is lower than the Optimus Black that is geared with Nova Display.

Personally, I like LCD better than AMOLED. But I was a bit disappointed because it felt like LG Electronics put too much emphasis on the rather than the smartphone performance or optimization, and since likes and dislikes are distinctive for display, it could be good or bad for, relative to the person.

Anyhow, I think that it is has the best display quality among the smartphones that I’ve used. (I’ve used Galaxy S2, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, Galaxy S2 LTE, and Vega LTE.)

Fast speed of 4G LTE

The strength of a LTE phone is speed. According to 4G communication standards, it should actualize 100Mbps when moving high speed, but currently, it is said that the fastest speed of LTE is 75Mbps in theory. But ITU regulates LTE as 4G.

Current LTE phones are not giving 100Mbps or 75Mbps speed, but it gives five times faster speed than 3G, so users are experiencing the fast speed. There are many who are using 3G well, but if they use 4G, they’d know how slow 3G is.

This kind of fast speed is especially effective when streaming and watching videos on YouTube. Recently, YouTube began to support high quality videos like 1080p, it is good for 4G LTE.

However problems with LTE smarphones continue to come up, but I will address this matter later when I share about the weaknesses.

Smartphone that is good for Multimedia (video, internet, music)

As I’ve mentioned before, I think that the current LG Optimus LTE has the best video playing ability among the existing smartphones when it is operated with the basic player. In particular, the voice codec support like DTS is fairly good.

LG Optimus LTE does not stop at having a good video playing ability. It is known that there is no smartphones like LG Optimus LTE that supports no-loss sound source like Flac among the existing smartphones.

But  LG Optimus LTE supports voice codec like Flac, WAV, and WMA, and it is good for playing music because it is geared with Dolby mobile.

Moreover, using internet is smooth because of its large screen, fast speed, and high resolution. It could be said that its multimedia performance is better than before.

Increase of Application Compatibility?

To be honest, I even considered putting this into the “weaknesses” category or not. But since LTE phones come out as HD-level, this is a problem that also exist in other LTE phones, and since this is more by the developers of application or Google rather than the manufacturer, I put this in strength category.

What do I mean by this? Currently, there are many applications that are optimized for 800*480 in Google market. Of course, these applications mostly work well in 1280*720.

But in some applications, screens break apart. In LG Optimus LTE, there is a way to optimize the application screen according to the HD resolution.

If you go to Setup-Display-Screen Optimization and select the application that you want for optimization, it fits  LG Optimus LTE. If it is optimized automatically, but since users need to do it manually, it could be a weakness.

Lastly, the design of  LG Optimus LTE is not that bad. Also, I like its UI. So, I think  LG Optimus LTE is strong in display quality, speed, and multimedia.

Then, what can be its weaknesses?

Its archenemy is 4G??? (Payment)

Since LG Optimus LTE is geared with 4G, it surely gives fast speed. But the biggest obstacle in selecting 4G LTE phone is LTE payment plan. Currently, SKT and LG U+  apply LTE payment plan, and they abolished the limitless payment plan that was applied to 3G. The problem is that the speed difference can go up to 10 times compared to 3G. So, the actual amount of usage would increase even at the same time.

In other parts, there are rumors that LTE phones consume battery too much. Currently,  LG Optimus LTE has a battery with 1830mAh capacity. There is not much of difference when it is compared with Galaxy S2 LTE/Galaxy S2 HD LTE 1850mAh or Vega LTE 1830mAh.

Other LTE phones have the same battery problems, and I think it is because the LTE service is not conducted nationwide.

LTE phones that are 4G in the areas with LTE service and 3G in other areas. It seems that it consumes battery a lot during the process of sending signals to find 4G at the boulder of 4G and 3G. This is the same phenomenon of the existing 3G spending more battery life in the process of transmitting signals at the shade region.

This is a general problem for all LTE phones, not just LG Optimus LTE, so each LTE phone gives tips for saving the battery life.

It seems that LTE transmission and CPU that increased recently affect the battery life. Anyhow, Optimus LTE consumes more battery and generates more heat than the existing 3G.

The touch feature could use improvement

As I used LG Optimus LTE, I could see that LG earnestly endeavored upon the product. But there are still some existing problems, and representatively, it is the touch feature.

LG Optimus LTE certainly has the feeling of being fast. But overall, its touch feature falls behind. I don’t know if it’s a problem with the touch sensor, but there were some touch error, and it felt like its screen was almost too slipper. I think it could be a bit smoother.

But rather than now, later (the future) is more important!

As I said before, LG Optimus LTE is made with great consideration. Recently, LG introduced Optimus Big and Black that are optimized fairly well, and it is updating Android OS whether there was an error or not.

Although LG Optimus LTE is for sure a premium smartphone, there is not much to boast of being LG smartphone except the display. I don’t mean that it’s bad, but I think it needs more of LG’s own color. I mean that LG’s color like black label like Prada/chocolate in their feature phone era.

Also, if it improves the optimization part, which is slightly insufficient, I think people’s opinions on LG smartphone would chance for sure. And I think that LG Optimus LTE phone is fairly good.

The overall impression was that it felt like LG knows what smartphone is now. I think that LG Optimus LTE is a signal that tells the change of LG smartphone.

Personally, I don’t think badly of LG smartphones.
If they improve more, I think LG would show its pastime power in feature phone era, and I sincerely hope that they will compete and develop without being satisfied at the present.

Thank you

Note: I am currently participating in Optimus LTE experience group, and I was provided with Optimus LTE for free.

*NOTE: This blog post is from the blog of “jegalcsh”, published on November 17, 2011. If you have any further information about this blog post please contact us.(AdvancedTechKR@gmail.com) We will be happy to help you to get the related information. Thank you.