LG Optimus G Pro Review

LG Optimus G Pro the flagship phone of the early 2013 when G2 was not announced was launched in India this summer in 2013. India being one of the biggest consumer of smartphones nowadays definitely needs some attention and that’s why LG has been planning a lot for India.

According to the executives at LG, their products in India are doing fairly good. Unveiling new devices every six months and launching them early in the domestic markets has been LG’s strategy. The question is how much can one innovate?

Technology might look like it has reached a stagnation level and there is everything running on quad-core, 1 or 2 GB of RAM, 4GB internal memory but the thing that differentiates is what you can do with the hardware. LG Optimus G Pro kinda falls in the former level which packs brilliant hardware and kinda in the later part because it packs a lot of new features which the hardware enables it to do so.

Build:

Starting with the build of the smartphone, LG’s devices always had average build quality with minimalistic design. They are trying to improve up on that part starting from the Optimus G and now this G Pro which looks pretty decent in hands. It is not soo thin unlike other smartphones in the same category but it is definitely fit for hands. We thought this thickness is optimum for a smartphone to not slip out of hands while using it.
The overall build is plasticky and the 5-inch screen has minimal bezel on the edges. Its quite amazing to see how such big screens fitting the devices wasting less area on the front panel.

Display:

The display on Optimus G Pro is brilliant. I have been a fan of LG’s display since we reviewed the LG Vu and this is the first thing I now look on every smartphone while testing. Display is an important component for a device to fail or success. Optimus G Pro has excelled here because the Full HD 1080×1920 pixels resolution LCD screen can’t be any better here at this price range. LG has been continuously innovating with the displays pixel arrangements and never fail to amuse me every time they come up with a new product for example take LG G2, its display is even better.

Hardware:

The need of the time is a faster processor for performance, more RAM for multitasking and more storage. LG Optimus G Pro packs the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor with 2GB of RAM and 16GB internal memory. It comes with a 3140 mAh battery has is 4G LTE ready and has an infrared sensor on the top. Obviously it comes with the 3G, WiFi, GPS etc functionality which was expected. Talking about the performance which we get from this hardware, we has no doubts about what Snapdragon 600 processor can do with a 2GB of RAM and that’s what we see from the device as output. During our testing period, the device performed pretty well and we have no complaints from it. The battery too lasted for a day easily on moderate usage but could go down with time or extensive use.

Software:

LG Optimus G Pro runs on the Android Jelly Bean mobile operating system which is the Android v4.1.2. We have a complaint for LG that why don’t they come up with the latest release early and a request that please do release the update soon. The LG Optimus G Pro has its own custom UI layering which makes it unique with a fancy lock screen, different launcher etc. There are some of the bundled applications such as Quick Translator, Quick Remote, Quick Slide etc which makes life easier to manage. The Quick Translator is a pretty cool application which makes it real time conversation translation as we speak and Quick Remote makes use of the IR sensor on the device to control Televisions, projectors, Air conditioners etc. in fact every appliance which uses a remote can be controlled from this smartphone itself by synchronizing its frequencies.

Camera:

LG Optimus G Pro features a 13MP rear camera and a 2.1MP front-facing camera. According to us, the 13MP camera sensor is very good in daylight but does produce some noise in low-light. The smartphone low-light seem to have hiccups while capturing low-light shots even in the night mode. The video stabilization feature also works as promised but up to a level of hand-shaking. There are different shooting modes like the dual-shot mode, Panorama, Night mode, etc to click pictures in varied situations.

Verdict:

LG Optimus G Pro is one great smartphone launched with a beast of specifications. It was launched for 40k-ish which then came down to 38k-ish and is now available for 30k-ish. The current pricing of the smartphone as on Flipkart is ₹32,999 which is worth for what it offers. With the Snapdragon 600 goodness and Full HD display, I personally was flattered. LG has been manufacturing great phones recently which deserve some public attention. Considering both pros and cons we saw the device to perform well, have great screen but on the other hand have an average low-light imaging, and okay build. Optimus G Pro is one of the flagship products both of these factors play an equally important role for its success or failure. We think that this is the best one can get for the price and just hope LG releases the software updates in future.

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