LG isn?t a company that?s gotten -or frankly, earned- much attention this year. The attention
it has received -aside from the less than positive buzz surrounding its phablet offering,
the Optimus Vu- has been almost entirely focused on a flagship smartphone device called the
Optimus G. Kind of like this model right here. I?m Michael Fisher, this is Pocketnow, and
this is our full review of the LG Optimus G for AT&T. Let?s get to it. Right out the
gate, let?s note a couple variations between this unit and the global version of the Optimus
G. Aside from the usual radio changes to accommodate AT&T?s American GSM, HSPA, and LTE bands,
there?s been a significant reduction in the camera?s resolution - from 13MP in the global
and Sprint versions to 8MP on our AT&T unit here. More on that later. There?s also the
usual carrier-level customization to the software, and the AT&T branding on the back, which is
-stay with me here- the most beautiful carrier branding I have ever seen. I know that sounds
a little like saying ?the most beautiful dead rodent stuck to my new car?s bumper I?ve ever
seen,? but it?s true. It?s not silk-screened or painted on, but rather an embossed metal
logo - just the Death Star, no carrier name - and it exists entirely beneath the Gorilla
Glass 2 back plate. It?s strikingly pretty for a carrier logo. That?s not gonna garner
the most attention on the device, though, because also beneath that glass is a mesmerizing
carbon-fiber like diamond-weave pattern that changes color depending on what angle it?s
viewed at, which is an awesome touch. The lens for that 8MP camera and its LED flash
also reside beneath the back panel up here in the corner, and the counterpoint is the
speaker down here on the lower right ? which, BTW, puts out sound that is wimpy, wimpy wimpy.
?Course you can?t expect much from any speakerphone shoehorned into an 8.45mm thick device, which
we can see on the side here. Volume keys are on the left, the power/standby is in the thumb
position on the right if you?re right handed, and there?s a bonus - a notification LED rings
the button and illuminates on alerts. It only lights up for a little while, it only lights
up red, and you can?t see it from all angles, so it?s not perfect, but all the same, we?re
very glad it?s here. Up top and at the bottom, the side construction changes from glossy
pewter finish to stippled plastic end caps, furnished with all the usual accountrements
- headphone jack, microphones, and some screws that don?t hurt the look. Finally up front
here is the real important part - this is a 4.7" (768 x 1280) True HD IPS Plus Display
with a pixel density of 320 ppi. It uses LG?s new Zerogap Touch technology, which in the
words of LG ?has its sensor film printed directly on the cover glass.? (pick it up) And indeed,
looking at it from the side, it does feel like you?re touching the graphics directly,
much like the iPhone 4/4S/5 and the HTC One X, among others. Beneath the display are three
capacitive keys - in this instance, Home, Back, and Menu, arranged in the inverse of
Samsung?s latest implementation. Underneath all that is quite a significant power plant:
the LG Optimus G features the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, which offers quad-core processing
power in addition to LTE compatibility, a first for AT&T. That?s running at 1.5GHz and
backed up by 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, expandable to an additional 64GB of storage
via MicroSD. That?s all powered by an embedded 2,100 mAh battery. Before we jump into software,
though, we need to talk about how this device feels in the hand. In short, like an expensive
piece of jewelry. Whether that?s a plus or a minus can go either way, depending on your
lifestyle. If you?re someone who?s tough on your phones, you shouldn?t even consider this
phone without also planning on investing in a protective case. This may be a slab of hardened
Gorilla Glass 2, but it?s still glass, and it can still shatter if you drop it. And if
you?re like me, you?ll find yourself almost dropping it more than once. When it?s cold
and dry outside, the phone is slippery. When it?s hot and your hands are sweaty, the phone
is slippery. When it?s just sitting on a horizontal surface, unless it?s perfectly level, the
phone will slip and slide its way right off that thing. Now, the Optimus G isn?t the first
phone to be made from all glass, and it?s certainly not the first one to have this kind
of handling challenge; it?s just something to be aware of. And if you value aesthetics,
the trade-off is well worth it. LG is recalling its roots in beautiful hardware design with
this smartphone. It?s a little wide for my taste, but its 145 grams feel absolutely premium
in the hand. Of course it?s a fingerprint magnet, but that?s an all right sacrifice
to make when your phone feels like a finely-crafted Swiss watch. Seriously, it feels like a luxury
item. It definitely surpassed my expectations. That?s all well and good, but what about the
softer side of the story? I?m talking, of course, about the software load. What?s LG
bringing to the party here? Like many manufacturers, LG hasn?t had the best record when it comes
to updating its smartphone OSes, so users will want to be sure they?re happy with what
LG is shipping out of the box. Specifically, that?s Android 4.0.4 with the LG UI, or the
Optimus UI if you prefer, running on top. Now, this isn?t one of the more subtle Android
skins on the market; we?re talking something much more in line with a Samsung offering
here, a complete reskinning and rethinking of Android. It takes a lot of cues from Samsung?s
Nature UX offering, actually, with the out-of-the-box settings giving you a lock screen with ripple
effects, floating leaves on water, and drippy water sounds that sound like they?ve been
ripped right from a Galaxy S III. We?re not sure why LG felt the need to do such an obvious
ripoff of Nature UX, when other UI modes offered by the Optimus G are far more appealing. Our
favorite mode, dewdrop, expands a bubble across the lock screen when swiped, exposing more
and more of the underlying home screen until the phone unlocks. Once you get into the UI
itself, the visual enhancements just keep coming. There are seven different home screen
animations to choose from when swiping between panes, and the software supports landscape
homescreen out of the box. There are none of the typos that plagued the Optimus Vu - the
UI is well-translated throughout. You can see that all of the animations run very smoothly,
even with a live wallpaper in the background here. More on this in the Test Notes section.
It?s not all cosmetic enhancements. LG has built in some enhanced functionality here
too: some of it is becoming common on Android smartphones, like the shortcut toggles in
the notification drawer. Some of it is lifted straight from Samsung, like the ?Wise Screen?
SmartStay analog. Some of it is a mixture of seen-it-before and oh-that?s-new. The picture-in-picture
video player was pioneered by Samsung?s Galaxy S III, but here LG uses a different implementation.
Whether it?s better or worse than containing it in a window is up to you, but LG?s version
has a critical distinction: it works with YouTube. That?s a win in anyone?s book. Overall,
the software that LG is shipping with the Optimus G does almost as much as the hardware
to surprise us - in a good way. It?s stable, it?s fast, and it?s useful, and that?s a triumvirate
that?s surprisingly difficult to achieve. So we know what the Optimus G is bringing
to the table; now let?s see how all those specs perform on the test bench, and out in
the fresh air. Getting raw numbers out of the way first, let's go ahead and run down
the benchmark results we got in our usual battery of tests: Quadrant Standard: 7444
SmartBench 2012: 5439 Linpack Single Thread: 228.429 Linpack Multi Thread: 547.619 AnTuTu
Benchmark: 11226 SunSpider: 1380.7ms Now, benchmark scores don't always translate to
real-world responsiveness, but as I hinted at earlier, they certainly do in this case.
From a fluidity and responsiveness standpoint, the Optimus G is a speed demon. The UI almost
never bogs down or trips, and most of the time it's hard to believe this thing isn't
running Jelly Bean, with its Project Butter enhancements. Even after a solid day of use
with a lot of apps running, that fluidity remains intact. In a word, it's awesome. That
speed translates to the network connection, as well - we tested the Optimus G on AT&T's
LTE network here in Boston, and data speeds were consistently excellent, averaging between
15 and 20 Megabits per second down and about half that speed up. Between the quad core
power and the LTE radio, the Optimus G is a pretty power-hungry unit. Thankfully, though,
the 2100mAh battery inside handles the load with aplomb. Even with moderate-to-heavy use,
the device usually lasted me the whole day with more than 20% to spare. It looks like
LG's recent bragging about the Optimus G's endurance compared to some other leading smartphones
is well earned; in yet another area, this device outperforms our expectations. Camera?
Finally, from an audio perspective, voice calls still being in fashion on these devices
we call "smartPHONES," the Optimus G shoots par. Voice calls sound fine from both ends,
and cellular reception keeps up with what we've come to expect from modern communication
devices. The speakerphone is definitely on the weak side, though, delivering audio that's
tinnier and quieter than we've come to expect. And whatever you do, don't leave the phone
on its back if you've set an alarm; the speaker's so muffled in this position that you'll never
hear it. To be frank, we weren't expecting to like the LG Optimus G as much as we do.
Sure, it's packing an impressive "first" in its LTE-meets-quadcore powerhouse, but LG
has been a company all about doing something "first" for a while - and usually not doing
it too well. We're happy to see that the Optimus G doesn't fall into that rut. It's a well-made,
spec-packed, feature-heavy smartphone that looks beautiful, feels great in the hand,
and puts its "firsts" to good use. It feels a little on the fragile side, and its mediocre
audio performance leaves something to be desired, but we'd be proud to carry one, and we give
it an 8 out of 10.