LG Optimus G Pro review
Top-end LG smartphone a stunner, but may not be UK-bound
LG was showing off its new Optimus G Pro at MWC – another huge handset that bridges the gap between phone and tablet.
The G Pro has a 5.5in 1,920×1,080 display, and it’s a classy item. It’s an IPS model, and is hugely bright with vibrant colours. The screen’s resolution gives it a pixel density of 400ppi, so no pixels are visible. LG has equipped the G Pro with a large 3,140mAh battery to power the huge screen, and 4G LTE support for super-fast wireless data.
LG was keen to stress the advantages of using IPS screens instead of AMOLED; the company’s arguments seemed to revolve mainly around the fact that IPS screens are available with higher resolutions than AMOLED. We’ve yet to see an IPS screen that can manage blacks as deep as those on an AMOLED model, though; while the the G Pro’s display had an even backlight with little visible light leakage, blacks were very slightly on the grey side.
The phone has a 1.7GHz quad-core processor, and Android Jelly Bean runs beautifully. We weren’t blown away by its performance in the Sunspider JavaScript benchmark, though; the phone completed the test in a good if not spectacular 1,238ms. Sunspider performance is highly dependent on the web browser, however, so this doesn’t reflect how the phone will perform in other applications such as games.
LG has made some tasteful customisations to Android, with some smart custom icons and backgrounds for the app tray. It’s all very low key and looks great. One thing we particularly liked was QSlide.
QSlide is a brilliant way to run two apps side-by-side
QSlide lets you run two apps on the same screen, in a similar way to the Samsung Galaxy Note 8‘s Multiscreen functions. To activate it, you select a supported app from the notification bar, and the app will appear in a window. You can then drag this to where you want on the phone’s display, and select a second app to appear alongside it. This is particularly useful for having a note-taking app open alongside a web browser, for example.
The LG Optimus G Pro is undoubtedly an impressive handset, which should provide some serious competition for high-end phones such as the Sony Xperia Z, HTC One and upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4. Unfortunately, there’s no UK release date set, and rumours are that the Optimus G Pro won’t be coming to this country at all – as our 4G network infrastructure isn’t mature enough to do it justice.
