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Just the other day, I was discussing how ridiculously big some of the recent smartphones are. There are some that make us think twice before pulling them out in public. There are also some so large that they can be substituted as ping-pong paddles.
But there are some smartphones and phablets which come under the ‘acceptable’ (a subjective term, mind you) large-screen category. And the last powerful phablet in this category was the Samsung Galaxy Note II. Powerful performance, good stylus integration and a brilliant screen was what it offered. Since then, there have been many large-screen (more than 5-inch) smartphones, but none that could be a true phablet competitor to the Note II.
In fact, LG did launch the Optimus Vu, but the odd form-factor (4:3 screen ratio) and lesser specs made it a damp squib. But now LG has something much more powerful, and packaged in such a way that it led me to think if it might be the best phablet I’ve seen so far. To be sure I spent some quality time with the LG Optimus G Pro.
Big form
With the Nexus 4, LG had proven that it can make beautiful phones. The Optimus G Pro also, can be called a looker. At first the design looks eerily like a mix between HTC Butterfly and Samsung Galaxy Note II, but this illusion is lifted as you spend about 15 minutes with it.
The massive 5.5-inch Full HD IPS Plus LCD display is housed within a bezel that is quite thin on either side, and has just one physical button (and two backlit capacitive buttons) at the bottom of the fascia. And with the inclusion of just the LG badge, front camera and sensors on top, there’s very little space that’s wasted – you get more screen and less of anything that might be useless. End result – the packaging of the phone is narrower than the Galaxy Note II.
At the rear is the same reflective chequered design that we saw on the Optimus G. However, there’s no glass coating like the Nexus 4 and the Optimus G, and the back panel feels plasticky. That said, the sides seem to be quite rugged, complete with brushed metal finishing that can seemingly take a fall or two. The interesting thing about Optimus G Pro is that there’s no notification LED, as we’re used to on many smartphones. Instead, the physical Home button has multi-colour LED backlighting. That, in my opinion is actually something refreshing.
Big performance
The Optimus G Pro doesn’t skimp on specs either. This phablet is powered by a class-leading, super-fast Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core 1.7 GHz chip. It is further augmented by a 2GB RAM, which makes sure that the Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean is absolutely seamless. In fact, I had one of the best Android experiences ever, on the Optimus G Pro. It is second to only HTC One, to give a perspective.
There’s 16GB of internal memory, and another 64GB can be added via a microSD card. So that’s enough space to store and watch full HD videos on that (1080p) brilliant IPS Plus screen, which gives enough brightness to watch a movie without any problems even on a sunny day. The speakers are quite bad, with a lot of distortion. You’d want to hook up a pair of earphones, because then you’d get a rich Dolby experience, making up for the poor phone speakers.
On the Quadrant test, we got a score of 9,021 points – this makes the Optimus G Pro sit at the top of the league with HTC One and although it’s a lower score than the Samsung Galaxy S4, it beats the Galaxy Note II by nearly 2,000 points.
Big features
Apart from the usual things that you can do on a really powerful smartphone, there are a few tricks up the G Pro’s sleeve. First up is the IR blaster on top, which lets the G Pro double up as a Universal Remote. Yes, that! It has a good number of devices preloaded, so it was easy for me to quickly take control over a few friends’ set top boxes, TVs, air-cons and audio systems, giving them the scare of their lives.
Apart from that, there’s a small button near the volume rocker that launches the Memo app. Then you can doodle on the screen or take your notes or mark important stuff with, wait for it, your finger. Because sadly, LG has thrown in the best of stuff but it hasn’t included a stylus. But the Memo app is quite handy nonetheless.
The 12MP rear camera produces very sharp images, and colour reproduction is good too. It’s no Ultra Pixel or PureView camera, but for its sensor size, it produces decent images in low light as well. The front 2.1MP HD camera is also a good performer in video calls, and there’s a nifty feature called dual-recording, wherein you can record from both front and rear cameras simultaneously.
The Optimus G Pro comes with a 3,140 mAh battery, which gave me nearly a full day’s worth of charge, and more, even with frequent switching over to 3G from WiFi, full HD multimedia and the occasional remote functions. For a phablet, that’s brilliant.
Big decision
So if you were to ask me, as to why you would spend your money on such a huge phone, I’d just say, “Why not?” It’s one of the fastest smartphones around, with a brilliant screen that can be used for watching full HD movies and also for doodling on. You get a long battery life, a universal remote, ample storage and absolutely no freezes while usage. Yes, it’s a bit big, in terms of size and price – but it’s also big on performance, speed and features.
Rs 42,000
Love – Brilliant display, blazing performance
Hate – Poor speakers, no stylus
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