The name of the Revolution 2, the spectrum is the latest LG LTE Verizon device on the market. After spending a couple of minutes with him at CES, a lot of expectations were set on the table with the new list of Verizon LTE devices, and the spectrum topped the list due to the amount of quality specifications in question . Expectations rose even more after we realized that Verizon has partnered with Lucasfilm in the marketing of the spectrum, Verizon's website has a very important comparison between this phone and R2-D2. Is the fate of the spectrum of LG to take the market by storm? Or, like Episode I, to be a Menance to inheritance of an operating system so great? Read our full review to find out.
BOX CONTENTS
Included in the box (which I really like) is the microUSB and typical wall wart, along with 16 GB microSD card recently atypical. Not much to find, unless you enjoy small user guides for paper and cardboard. No sentient robots included either unfortunately.
HARDWARE
With a dual core processor at 1.5 GHz Snapdragon, 1GB of RAM and 16 GB of external storage included (not to mention the 4 GB internal flash memory), the spectral lines of LG is associated with most high-end phones on the market at the time of this review. Let's delve deeper into the capabilities of the device later in the review, but at first glance, it certainly seems to be a power.
The standard complement of accelerometers, gyroscopes, GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is here too.
Measuring 2.71 x 5.33 x 0.42 inches and weighing 4.99 ounces, the LG spectrum is thin and light, even with its 1830mAh battery.
The 4.5 "LCD 720x1280 IPS is the big show piece, covered in more detail below.
This is where the device shines. A bright, bright 4.5 "LCD 720x1280 IPS has exceptional viewing angles, and beautiful color rendition. That is, until it begins to look the reference photos and discover that, although the screen is large not do a good job in dealing with the gradients. can see an example of this in the hardware tour before, and while its not obvious, however, the slow slide to the dark side starts here.
In front of the device are three capacitive buttons: menu, home, and back. Holding down the menu button, then displays the search option by filling in the gap for the search button normally available in competitive devices.
The bezel in the full range of LG is a bit higher than expected, but it has 1.3MP front camera as well. Missing here is any LED notification, which is quite unfortunate, since we know that many of you trust them.
The top of the phone includes the full combination of a headphone jack, microUSB port, microphone port and power button. This is quite inconvenient when you open the door microUSB. I support the protection of ports, as needed, but if you open the hinged door to load the device, whether you are left without easy access to the power button. At first glance, is a minor annoyance, but as you work through the rest of this review, designed to keep this option in mind, for the rest of the crew follows along the same light.
On the left side of the phone, all you find is the volume control, which is also the only set of buttons you'll find anywhere. Since the screen is long and these buttons are located just above the average for the device, requiring it to disclose their control over it and get to them sometimes. These can be small things to some of you, but people with small hands will risk dropping every time juggling to reach them.
Moving to the back of the LG Spectrum, we find the curved and checkered battery cover, some logos, and an 8MP camera with a flash. The back cover doesn't have any sort of texture, which makes it the perfect fingerprint magnet we know you all hate. Ironically though, it does seem to be remarkably scratch resistant, but I can't say I dropped it during my review to prove that. One annoying problem is that the bubble where the camera resides is not wide enough to keep the device balanced. It has a tendency to rock back and forth if you try to use the Spectrum while it rests on a flat surface.
Beneath the back cover hides the 1830mAh battery, a 16GB microSD card, and the Verizon LTE SIM. The Spectrum has one of the strangest storage configurations I have seen in some time. The included 16GB microsSD card is nice, but the internal memory configuration is a mystery. According to the documentation, there is 4GB of flash storage on the device, but the OS reports that just under 2GB are user accessible. Personally, I would have preferred it if the device had 16GB of internal storage along with the option to expand the memory at this price point. The microSD card can be removed without taking out the battery, but that's not the same story with the LTE SIM.
An unsolved mystery is that we still can't figure out what the black sheet on the inside of the battery cover is for. You may notice it with a small Caution written over it. I couldn't find any reference to this in the documents included, but NFC is most likely out of the question.
SOFTWARE
LG has chosen to release the spectrum for Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) and Touchwiz custom skin-but-not-TouchWiz. The result is a pain to use the application tray, with a lot of delay when you start to actually use the device. Even after the first start, the shift in the main screen was choppy.
And if bloatware is not your thing, you'll be sad to know that you can not remove the Verizon bloatware included. Not to mention that I could not get VZ Navigator to launch completely without rebooting. Oh, and just when you thought it was over, Verizon slipped into Bing as the search engine default web browser and there is no way to change the option. To use Google, the only option we have is if you use the widget or press and hold the menu button. In general, the software configuration in the spectrum of LG was boring and hard, with the accidents and the dungeons of a lot. An ICS update must come to this phone in early 2012, and we hope that LG and Verizon will come to their senses and resolve these issues with an update.
CAMERA8MP LG rear camera takes pictures only fair, with colors that are muted, but thankfully not terribly distorted. There seems no way to enable auto flash assisted approach (useful for low light conditions), and the lack of any image stabilization, images are blurry unless you have lots of light. Even the automatic flash seemed to shoot only when there was little or no light at all. This is a camera suitable for mobile shots, but not much more than that.
The 1.3MP front camera is as worthy as you would expect it to be. Good for a quick shot profile or Skype, but not much else.
1080p video can be had on the LG Spectrum, but the high resolution does
not translate into high quality. Transitions from dark and light areas
take too long to change, and there is noticeable tearing and wobble when
you start to move the device around. Colors in the recorded video are
muted, and the minimal auto focus distance seems to be further than I
would expect. The audio is good as long as there isn't any wind.
PERFORMANCE
On the surface, the LG Spectrum does seem to be speedy. But once you start using the device as more than just a simple phone, lag starts to rear its ugly head, quickly diminishing the experience. I had multiple crashes and lookups as well. While benchmarks aren't necessarily a true sign of speed or efficiency, each test was run 3 times with the average posted below.
AnTuTu: 6440
Smartbench 2012: Productivity 1976, 1771 Games
Linpack MFLOPS: 81.6 Time: 2.14 seconds (multi)
Quadrant: 2466
As you can see this is one of the cases where the scores look good in one test, but in another, the true colors show.
CALL QUALITY/NETWORK SPEED
4G speeds averaged from the low 13995kpbs to as high as 24333kbps with under 100ms of latency times. Upload speeds averaged 5600kbps when on Verizon's LTE network. 3G speeds were on par with expectations (average 681 down and 897 up). Not quite as speedy as AT&T, but its network is just starting.
Call quality is good, with no complaints about clarity from folks on the other end of the line. The audio quality does a good job in being loud, but was tinny and harsh on both the front and rear speakers. If not for my Bluetooth headset, I would have been hard pressed to use the device on a regular basis.
BATTERY LIFE
Battery life for the LG Spectrum is only fair, lasting just barely to the marketed talk time (without talking, numbers may reach 8 hours). And this is in a primariy 3G only area with WiFi enabled whenever possible. For having such a large capacity battery - 1830mAh - this was very disappointing. The AnTuTu battery test gives the Spectrum a score of 374.
PURCHASING AND AVAILABILITY
The LG Spectrum can be purchased at Verizon, with a two-year contract, for $199.
PROS
+ Bright and easy to read IPS display
+ 4G speeds (where available)
+ Lightweight
CONS
- Poor battery life
- Lag
- Tinny and harsh speaker tone
- Lockups and crashes
CONCLUSION
It is unfortunate that the LG Spectrum couldn't live up to its own marketed expectations, even with the partnership with LucasFilm. All the flagship hardware involved, specifically the dual-core Snapdragon processor, were enough to make this phone a powerhouse of choice. Instead, it feels like if LG released the Spectrum either too early (without enough testing) or too late (for the processor and version of Android). It is truly an average device, overpriced in its current configuration. Perhaps a price drop and ICS will serve to uplift the device to a more usable state. But for now, there are plenty of other, more stable devices in the same price range on Verizon. The Force is simply not with this one.
BOX CONTENTS
Included in the box (which I really like) is the microUSB and typical wall wart, along with 16 GB microSD card recently atypical. Not much to find, unless you enjoy small user guides for paper and cardboard. No sentient robots included either unfortunately.
HARDWARE
With a dual core processor at 1.5 GHz Snapdragon, 1GB of RAM and 16 GB of external storage included (not to mention the 4 GB internal flash memory), the spectral lines of LG is associated with most high-end phones on the market at the time of this review. Let's delve deeper into the capabilities of the device later in the review, but at first glance, it certainly seems to be a power.
The standard complement of accelerometers, gyroscopes, GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is here too.
Measuring 2.71 x 5.33 x 0.42 inches and weighing 4.99 ounces, the LG spectrum is thin and light, even with its 1830mAh battery.
The 4.5 "LCD 720x1280 IPS is the big show piece, covered in more detail below.
This is where the device shines. A bright, bright 4.5 "LCD 720x1280 IPS has exceptional viewing angles, and beautiful color rendition. That is, until it begins to look the reference photos and discover that, although the screen is large not do a good job in dealing with the gradients. can see an example of this in the hardware tour before, and while its not obvious, however, the slow slide to the dark side starts here.
In front of the device are three capacitive buttons: menu, home, and back. Holding down the menu button, then displays the search option by filling in the gap for the search button normally available in competitive devices.
The bezel in the full range of LG is a bit higher than expected, but it has 1.3MP front camera as well. Missing here is any LED notification, which is quite unfortunate, since we know that many of you trust them.
The top of the phone includes the full combination of a headphone jack, microUSB port, microphone port and power button. This is quite inconvenient when you open the door microUSB. I support the protection of ports, as needed, but if you open the hinged door to load the device, whether you are left without easy access to the power button. At first glance, is a minor annoyance, but as you work through the rest of this review, designed to keep this option in mind, for the rest of the crew follows along the same light.
On the left side of the phone, all you find is the volume control, which is also the only set of buttons you'll find anywhere. Since the screen is long and these buttons are located just above the average for the device, requiring it to disclose their control over it and get to them sometimes. These can be small things to some of you, but people with small hands will risk dropping every time juggling to reach them.
Moving to the back of the LG Spectrum, we find the curved and checkered battery cover, some logos, and an 8MP camera with a flash. The back cover doesn't have any sort of texture, which makes it the perfect fingerprint magnet we know you all hate. Ironically though, it does seem to be remarkably scratch resistant, but I can't say I dropped it during my review to prove that. One annoying problem is that the bubble where the camera resides is not wide enough to keep the device balanced. It has a tendency to rock back and forth if you try to use the Spectrum while it rests on a flat surface.
Beneath the back cover hides the 1830mAh battery, a 16GB microSD card, and the Verizon LTE SIM. The Spectrum has one of the strangest storage configurations I have seen in some time. The included 16GB microsSD card is nice, but the internal memory configuration is a mystery. According to the documentation, there is 4GB of flash storage on the device, but the OS reports that just under 2GB are user accessible. Personally, I would have preferred it if the device had 16GB of internal storage along with the option to expand the memory at this price point. The microSD card can be removed without taking out the battery, but that's not the same story with the LTE SIM.
An unsolved mystery is that we still can't figure out what the black sheet on the inside of the battery cover is for. You may notice it with a small Caution written over it. I couldn't find any reference to this in the documents included, but NFC is most likely out of the question.
SOFTWARE
LG has chosen to release the spectrum for Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) and Touchwiz custom skin-but-not-TouchWiz. The result is a pain to use the application tray, with a lot of delay when you start to actually use the device. Even after the first start, the shift in the main screen was choppy.
And if bloatware is not your thing, you'll be sad to know that you can not remove the Verizon bloatware included. Not to mention that I could not get VZ Navigator to launch completely without rebooting. Oh, and just when you thought it was over, Verizon slipped into Bing as the search engine default web browser and there is no way to change the option. To use Google, the only option we have is if you use the widget or press and hold the menu button. In general, the software configuration in the spectrum of LG was boring and hard, with the accidents and the dungeons of a lot. An ICS update must come to this phone in early 2012, and we hope that LG and Verizon will come to their senses and resolve these issues with an update.
CAMERA8MP LG rear camera takes pictures only fair, with colors that are muted, but thankfully not terribly distorted. There seems no way to enable auto flash assisted approach (useful for low light conditions), and the lack of any image stabilization, images are blurry unless you have lots of light. Even the automatic flash seemed to shoot only when there was little or no light at all. This is a camera suitable for mobile shots, but not much more than that.
The 1.3MP front camera is as worthy as you would expect it to be. Good for a quick shot profile or Skype, but not much else.
PERFORMANCE
On the surface, the LG Spectrum does seem to be speedy. But once you start using the device as more than just a simple phone, lag starts to rear its ugly head, quickly diminishing the experience. I had multiple crashes and lookups as well. While benchmarks aren't necessarily a true sign of speed or efficiency, each test was run 3 times with the average posted below.
AnTuTu: 6440
Smartbench 2012: Productivity 1976, 1771 Games
Linpack MFLOPS: 81.6 Time: 2.14 seconds (multi)
Quadrant: 2466
As you can see this is one of the cases where the scores look good in one test, but in another, the true colors show.
CALL QUALITY/NETWORK SPEED
4G speeds averaged from the low 13995kpbs to as high as 24333kbps with under 100ms of latency times. Upload speeds averaged 5600kbps when on Verizon's LTE network. 3G speeds were on par with expectations (average 681 down and 897 up). Not quite as speedy as AT&T, but its network is just starting.
Call quality is good, with no complaints about clarity from folks on the other end of the line. The audio quality does a good job in being loud, but was tinny and harsh on both the front and rear speakers. If not for my Bluetooth headset, I would have been hard pressed to use the device on a regular basis.
BATTERY LIFE
Battery life for the LG Spectrum is only fair, lasting just barely to the marketed talk time (without talking, numbers may reach 8 hours). And this is in a primariy 3G only area with WiFi enabled whenever possible. For having such a large capacity battery - 1830mAh - this was very disappointing. The AnTuTu battery test gives the Spectrum a score of 374.
PURCHASING AND AVAILABILITY
The LG Spectrum can be purchased at Verizon, with a two-year contract, for $199.
PROS
+ Bright and easy to read IPS display
+ 4G speeds (where available)
+ Lightweight
CONS
- Poor battery life
- Lag
- Tinny and harsh speaker tone
- Lockups and crashes
CONCLUSION
It is unfortunate that the LG Spectrum couldn't live up to its own marketed expectations, even with the partnership with LucasFilm. All the flagship hardware involved, specifically the dual-core Snapdragon processor, were enough to make this phone a powerhouse of choice. Instead, it feels like if LG released the Spectrum either too early (without enough testing) or too late (for the processor and version of Android). It is truly an average device, overpriced in its current configuration. Perhaps a price drop and ICS will serve to uplift the device to a more usable state. But for now, there are plenty of other, more stable devices in the same price range on Verizon. The Force is simply not with this one.
0 comments:
Post a Comment