Was worth skipping the GS3 bandwagon November 29, 2012

Reviewer:  MacArther Nelson  (Lexington, KY, US) -

I am reviewing the [[ASIN:B00A0CJI9C LG Optimus G 4G Android Phone (Sprint)]].

First off, I upgraded from the HTC EVO 4G which I had from its release. Great phone, and in my opinion, this made for a great upgrade. So why only 4-stars and not 5? If everything got 5-stars then nothing would be exceptional would it? It is just that, a great smartphone, not an exceptional smartphone. That said, after owning it for a couple of weeks I thought I'd share my preliminary observations.

IN THE HAND:
Initially I was apprehensive about any phone with such a large display but I am WAY over that now. For reference, I am a male and I wear Adult-Large sized gloves. Though I think my fingers are a little on the stubby side the phone fits well in my palm. As a righty I can reach the power button with my thumb and volume controls pretty easily with my index finger. I really like the flat sides as opposed to the smooth rounded/curved sides of my wife's GS3. In contrast, my wife does not like the flat, sharp edges of the OG and much prefers the feel of the GS3. To each his/her own. Her seat-of-the-pants observation is that the OG is bigger to her. I think because it has flat sides you have to curl your finger further around the phone to grasp it and maybe that is why she thinks it is bigger than her GS3. From a technical standpoint it has slightly smaller dimensions.

WEIGHT:
If anyone has been using the EVO 4G then you know it is a hefty phone. I liked that about it. It felt heavy in my hand and that gave it a quality feel you don't get from the featherweights they market these days. Don't get me wrong, I like that the OG is lighter than the EVO, but not nearly as light as the GS3 so it still feels substantial in my hands. Amazing what a difference a few tenths of an ounce can make. And the quality of the phone is not only noticeable in its feel but its visual appeal as well (you can Google OG reviews for more on that subject matter). I'll just say that this does not look like a cheap, `plasticky' phone. Not that it should matter, but I like that it has a very high quality, high end look to it.

SCREEN:
Earlier I mentioned it has flat sides and sharp edges. The four corners are well rounded but the front surface is at a right angle to the edge of the glass/case, and to a lesser degree the same on the back. It is finished with a nice chrome trimmed edge when viewed face on. This is not sharp in the sense that it can cut you, but it is definitely not a gently rounded and smooth surface transition like the GS3. This will be great for edge-to-edge screen protectors. The screen is very bright, and easy for me to read. So bright in fact I actually find it more comfortable when dialed down to the preset 63% brightness with auto-dim enabled. Outside in bright sunlight it is very viewable even at this setting. That is a pleasant upgrade from the EVO which always washed out in bright sunlight.

TOUCH:
The touch screen is something I am still getting used to. I don't know if it is because I had an anti-glare/anti-fingerprint screen protector on my EVO, but the OG glass surface is soooooo slick. I sometimes have to make multiple attempts to `press' or `tap' a button because I end up moving the screen ever so slightly, enough to make the phone think I am swiping and not tapping; kind of annoying that I have to `think' about the tapping gesture rather than just doing it, all to be sure as not to move the screen when what I want is a press or tap instead. Guess it is something you get used to doing over time, like swipe (and no, I am not feeble handed or whatnot... I have plenty of dexterity in my fingers). Like I mentioned earlier, I kinda have stubby fingers so for me it requires more effort to reach across the phone with my thumb (4.7" inches of display is a lot of real estate). Single handed texting is somewhat a challenge. It is also just as difficult trying to reach a button or key on the near side of the thumb. If the phone were narrower I could just shift it around in my hand to make it easier to get to the near side buttons, but with its size it becomes less stable in hand as I can't grip it as securely doing so. I'm sure I'll get better at it over time.

PERFORMANCE:
Ok, so this phone smokes! Especially in comparison to my EVO. I had to go back to my EVO looking for a file since I didn't just do a full copy over to the new phone. While scrolling the screen on the EVO I kept thinking that it had some busy process running in the background. I had all radios turned off and as well no sync'ing. No other tools running, just Astro file viewer. I realized that the OG was just that much smoother when scrolling. Looked like a stuttering effect on the EVO while it was as smooth as glass on the OG. Same for any animation and transition. Soooooo fast on the OG. Apps literally just POP open without ANY delay. For benchmarks you can Google it. I am just stating my observations here. Browsing the internet was also soooooo much faster on the same home wi-fi network. Incredible what a quad-core processor and graphics accelerator can do. I don't play many games but the ones I had ran very smoothly and loaded nearly instantaneously. Again, no scientific measurements were taken just side-by-side comparison and a "seat-of-the-pants" experience. I'd say this phone is plenty fast for anything most of us plan to do with our phones. Besides, what's faster? Nothing as of this writing. Oh, and all the extra RAM and ROM make for a happy Me. I had lots of moments when I had delete stuff off my EVO to free up space. Did you know your email stops sync'ing when you get the low storage space warning?! I found out the hard way.

BATTERY:
I'll wrap it up with this. I have had a pretty good experience so far with the battery. On a normal day's use it gets unplugged around 6:30am and plugged in around 11:30pm. I still have above 40% capacity remaining. That's with nominal usage - over 30min of voice calls, over 1hr of having the screen on at 63%, Wi-Fi & GPS, and background sync on all day. Under heavy usage over the same period I was just under 30% remaining. For me heavy was a little over 1hr of voice calls, 3hrs of screen time, and lots of web browsing over Wi-Fi, and the GPS and sync was also on. Those are just my numbers so your mileage may vary.

SUMMARY:
Long write up short...I am very pleased with this phone. I like it better than my wife's SG3 on its physical merits alone. The SG3 UI is nicer I will admit, as the OG UI leaves something to be desired, but there's an app for that. ;-) I really like HTC's Sense UI so in comparison the OG UI is very bland. ICS makes up for it though by providing plenty of eye candy in the form of transitional effects. Over all, if you can agree with anything I said above then you may like this phone as well...or not.

My 2¢

******* UPDATE - Jan 04, 2013 ******

It has been a little over a month or so since I got this phone and I can say I believe I made the right choice for me. A couple of additional items I would share are...

VIBRATE:
If anything could be done better it should be the vibrate feature of the phone. It is sooooo subtle. The vibration is more like a high frequency buzzing, and not very "strong(?)". I've tried the "long continuous" vibrate, the "short multiple" vibrates (more than one pattern and duration), and everything in between and it really makes no difference. More often than not if I am walking and the phone is in my pant pocket I will not even notice the vibration. If it weren't for the fact that the ringer is so loud I would miss most calls entirely. Even in my jean pockets which hold the phone closer to my leg I don't notice the vibrate when engaged in activity. When I am sitting sure I notice it, but if you like to leave your phone on vibrate you will have to make a concerted effort to feel for a vibration while walking around. You ladies that would carry it in your purse/wallet...forget about it. You would not know it is vibrating unless it is against something that causes it to make some chatter. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying it is useless, I am just saying it is not very pronounced. Some may like it this way. I just wish it were more like the rumple of a Harley, than the whine of a crotch-rocket.

BATTERY UPDATE:
I've had no problems with battery life. I am still getting a full day's charge (unplug around 6:30a and plug in around 10:30p or so). Some may do more with their phones and others less, so your mileage may vary.

Don't know how to categorize this last comment but an irksome thing that happens to me is that as I put the phone into my pocket I sometimes either hit the standby button with with my thumb or the cusp of my pocket thus turning the phone on as I put it into my pocket. I've "butt dialed" a person or two because of this and on a couple occasions found that my phone was browsing the web for shoes! Anyways, I'm getting better at not doing that but it still happens from time to time, and I either notice it because the phone is warm in my pocket or after I pull it out.

Either way, none of these have detracted from the phone for me. I am still very pleased with my decision and eagerly look forward to a Jelly-bean update!

Another 2¢

Dynamic, elegant, cutting-edge smartphone December 17, 2012

Reviewer:  mike f 

LG knocks the other smartphones into the dust with the Optims G quad core phone. Atter about a month, I can tell you:

The quad processor, 2 gigs of RAM and Ice Cream Sandwich software make the Optimus G amazingly fast, and I'm only running it on the 3G network. The conventional Android Facebook app that took my Evo 4G about five seconds and more to load, is now up and running on the Optimus G in two seconds. Click, look, and its on.

I can only imagine how monster fast this is going to become when the 4G LTE network kicks in.

The Optimus G also has an absolutely gorgeous screen. It's clarity, color accuracy, depth and brightness are teriffic and it shines through even the light of day. Most times I am running the screen at only half brightness.

The camera's image and color quality are EXCELLENT, really something to write home about. It's unlike any camera phone I've used in the Android world. At 13 megapixels it is beyond par with iPhone pix. I find that it handles low light better than most point and shoots did a year ago.

The battery lasts for two days at a time. That includes running a live wallpaper, picture taking, an hour of mp3s a day through Bluetooth headphones, texting, web surfing, social networking, calls, and running the alarm clock overnight.

Initiially, I had some dodgy audio on phone calls, but after a month, the calls are routine with no problem on either end of the line and no dropped calls.

The aesthetics of the phone are a very elegant, slim and tall, high gloss black case made of glass, front and back. It would be at home coming out of the breast pocket of a tux. And It resists smudges, front and back, EXTREMELY well. The build qualty is top notch, too.

I've found I can edit all seven screens with ease, rearrange their order easily, and share photos to texts and social networks simply and quickly. It also woks well with my Dropbox

The voice to text and voice search mechanisms are teriffic. There have only been a couple of translations that required a tweak in a month.

I also like the placement of the power, screen on/off button on the side (as opposed to the top). At 4.7 inches and tall, it lets me fire up the phone with one hand as I take it out of my pocket.

Very impressive November 15, 2012

Reviewer:  David B. Vanhorn 

The optimus G is almost everything it claims to be.
Speed is probably my biggest interest in the phone, and it clocks in excess of 5000 on SmartBench 2012.
A friend of mine has an EVO, and I ran smartbench three times while her EVO was running it once. I also started after she was well into the first try.

Build quality and battery life are above average, even at my work where the signal coverage leaves much to be desired.
(poor coverage causes lower battery life)

It is a little large, and people with small hands may have trouble with one-hand use.
Although it looks like plastic, most of the phone is Corning Gorilla Glass. Very nice.

The speed helps a bunch when streaming video from Netflix, or from the DLNA servers on my lan.

Not having an SD slot is a small minus, but 32G internal storage makes up for that.
Google wallet is supposed to be preinstalled, but it isn't actually on the phone or available for it at this moment (15/11/12) but I expect that will be fixed shortly. I will be disappointed if this never becomes real.

Oh yeah. It also makes and receives phone calls.

Optimus G= Win December 11, 2012

Reviewer:  J. Ghannam "JRGHAN"  (Elk Grove, CA) -

Just got this phone as my 2 year upgrade. Read a lot on this one and others on sites like Engadget, Cnet, etc. And wow, this phone is everything as advertised. The feel of the phone is great, and the screen is fantastic looking at only half brightness. The speed at which you can switch between apps and screens is very impressive, and web pages load incredibly quickly, even on just 3G. On WiFi its even better. The battery life thus far has impressed me, it is much better than my old HTC Evo Shift. Plus the nice thing about the Sprint version, is there is virtually no carrier bloatware, except for Sprint ID which is actually useful for managing your account. The memory is about 25gb due to whatever space the OS takes up, so its not a full 32gb, but should be plenty.

Definitely a great phone, and for just $100-$150 you cannot go wrong at all with this one.

A monster with some flaws March 28, 2013

Reviewer:  Justin T. Melanson "Sun Quan"  (Tyngsboro, MA USA) -

Due to my uncle getting nailed for over 250 a month in bills and the third person not helping with payments at all, we had to make the switch from Verizon to Sprint, this is my second time coming to Sprint so I was very familiar with their contracts and plans. When doing so, I wanted to do my research and see which phone would do it for me before we went out to do the switching of our accounts. After comparing specs, I decided to look at the LG Optimus G. Now LG has a reputation for making shoddy cell phones, so it was to my surprise that this phone had specs better than the Samsung Galaxy S3 in terms of sheer processing power, and doubly surprising that I was even considering an LG product in the first place as I know that in the past their phones really did suck.

That being said, we had trouble getting the ball rolling at Best Buy, so we ended up going directly to the Sprint store down the road to see if we could get different results. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that I could get the cost of the phone I wanted covered by trade-in credit from the RAZR M. I fiddled around with the display models of the Optimus G, and ended up liking how it felt. My uncle got the original iPhone 4 for himself, so he was good to go. I purchased black Otterbox armour and screen protectors for both our phones that same day, therefore one of the caveats about the phone was immediately solved. It had the Jellybean update ready to install almost out of the box too. Once everything was set, I was ready to fiddle around with the interface of the Optimus G and tweak it as I saw fit. Right off the bat I noticed aside from it's size (and let's face it this badboy is pretty massive, the bezel is also pretty thick too) is how fast this phone goes, good God, this thing CRANKS! Simply put, the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 clocked at 1.5 Ghz per core makes this badboy an absolute behemoth!

Want to present an argument that a quad-core processor is better than a dual-core processor? This phone makes that case quite easily. It goes from screen to screen, and multitasks easily without breaking a sweat. Literally everything was as smooth as honey butter. Only a few times did I encounter some strange problems but I think that was due to the programs I had downloaded being optimized for older hardware and not even being bothered to be updated, and Facebook did freeze this phone on me once, but after I restarted the phone (which literally took seconds), things were back to being butter smooth and working as perfectly as the Boston Pops Orchestra playing the 1812 overture on the 4th of July!

Over time, I noticed once I figured out how to stop tasks from running in the background, how much smoother things go when compared to even the great RAZR M, a phone I reviewed previously and absolutely adored when I was with Verizon. The extra gig of RAM compared to the RAZR M really helps bolster this phone's case to be the primary phone of choice for those wishing for a powerhouse. It helps that the screen is nice and big at 4.7" and the resolution of 1280 x 720 is crystal clear to boot. Games like The Simpsons Tapped Out, Angry Birds, and 3D Golf all operate honey butter smooth with little to no frame-rate drops whatsoever, and the bigger screen affords me a clearer view with The Simpsons Tapped Out allowing me to more easily manipulate things around the virtual Springfield I am building in the game.

The 13 megapixel camera is snappy, and does it's job very well. Pictures are taken very quickly and I have yet to take a dud with this one yet. Simply a very nice camera built into this thing. Can't believe I am able to effortlessly take pictures in the blink of an eye now. Video comes out clear as well, with little to no stutter whatsoever. This obviously was not a throw-together at the last minute plan either, this was all planned out from the get go. LG went all out here and it shows.

There are three cons, with one of them being sorted out immediately after purchasing the Otterbox Armour case which the representative handling me and my uncle's contract was nice enough to install for us. The Otterbox Armour case actually smooths out one of the caveats with the phone, the way the camera piece sticks out from the backside of it creating a nasty bump. My advice? If you're getting this phone, do not hesitate to get the Otterbox Armour case as it is feather light and actually makes you feel like your phone will be safe regardless of what hell it goes through. It helps that it has rubber padding that allows easy access to the USB Port, Headphone Jack, and protects the power and volume control.

The second con that is a minor one for me, and a major one for others is that you can't remove and replace the battery of this phone yourself. That in itself isn't as big a deal as the battery is pretty solid. I have gotten 8 - 11 hours out of it with heavy use and it could go for another hour before the phone shuts off completely I am sure, the lowest I ever let the battery go was about 11%. Still, a drastic improvement over other phones I had before so all in all I'm satisfied with this aspect.

The other major flaw, however, is what you see is what you get with the onboard memory. It has 32 Gigs built in to the phone itself with 25 gigs of it being usable, much like the Wii U. **LOL** But unfortunately that's it, the Sprint version of the Optimus G has no expandable memory whatsoever (only AT&T has the version with the microSD slot) which is truly a shame. Why they didn't make it that you can use microSD cards with this version is beyond me. Still, 25 Gigs for now is plenty of space to expand for the time being and I don't see myself using up all the space anytime soon. It would've just been nice to be able to put my 8 Gig microSD card in just to access all the songs from it off the bat. It also sucks that you can't remove the battery and replace it yourself either.

Those things aside though, this is such an awesome phone. It is of current one of the best on the market in the US, with the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 being the only other phone with a quad-core processor. Even then, if you can't afford the SGN2 you're not missing much. This is a wonderful phone with all the bells and whistles one can ask for. One of the two caveats is easily solved with the right case (camera), and the other one (storage) still gives you a fair bit of space to use if so needed. I recommend this phone in a heartbeat to anyone wanting a rock solid phone with a ton of processing power that will likely last a long time until the next upgrades come around.

Owned them all and prefer this one March 15, 2013

Reviewer:  Kyle "cylem"  (Brighton, MI) -

So I've owned a Galaxy S3, Evo 4g LTE, iphone 4s, galaxy nexus, Galaxy Victory, to name a few. I buy and sell phones a lot, but I usually try the phone out and see if I like it.
The big 3 right now on sprint (not counting the iphone 5) would be the Evo LTE, Galaxy S3, and Optimus G. They are all similiar specs, size and OS. For the record I think Iphones are great devices I heard great things about the 5, however I'm going to just comment on the android phones.

Hardware: The Optimus G is a 4.7 inch device with a decently small bezel to keep its size down. It is plastic but extremely well feeling plastic, with glass on the back with a nice etched design. It has a great kind of solid feel to it that doesn't stop it from feeling premium. There is a power and volume buttons, sadly no camera button. I like the more square design of it, I'm not as much of a fan of the extremely rounded designs. It compared the to S3 and Evo is the most comfortable to hold. It has a better build quality feel than the S3 by far I think, and I would give edge to the Evo on the build quality though, they used some great materials.

Performance: Similar in performance, the Optimus obviously has the edge on specs, it has the faster quad core and it does rank higher in benchmarks. However games and applications don't really show much difference, nothing really uses any of them to their full potential. All of them are butter smooth with everything. The S3 and Optimus have the extra gb of ram, which isn't to much difference but you notice it at times.

Battery: This is a topic I really care about, it's hard for me to get behind a phone with a non-removable battery. I kept my galaxy victory for so long because the battery life was so great with the stock battery. The optimus G seems to be pretty close to matching that. The standby life is great, I had it sitting at work for like 5 hours with terrible service 0-1 bars and it used like 2%. Normally I am above 50% after a full day, not that I'm a power user but I use it a decent bit. Compared to the Evo and the S3, the Evo comes close that had pretty good battery but the S3 seemed to drain decently quicker compared to them. I use the Eco mode on my optimus though which manages the processor differently i guess, I see absolutely no difference in speed but battery is better though.

Screens: All are the same resolution, the Optimus uses a Super IPS i believe and it seems good enough. Colors look great and everything, the only problem is the automatic brightness is extremely passive and seems to not want to brighten up enough. Compared to the SLCD and the AMOLED it seems pretty par with them.

Software: Really this isn't a huge part as you can change alot of the software. However I like LG's default software, there is actually alot you can change with the homescreen layout that I'm used to seeing in homescreen replacements on the play store. It looks clean and doesn't really get in the way. EVO's software is alright, don't hate it or love it and the S3 seems to have the most bells and whistles when it comes to software, I have to hand it to them for that.

Summary: Compared to the S3 and EVO the Optimus G I think has the best feel in the hand, best performance, best battery life. It lacks a little bit on software but nothing big, wish it was made of aluminum or something but I understand not using that for signal issues.

Love the phone but one complaint, that drives me crazy November 29, 2012

Reviewer:  Doug 

Pros:Fast, very pretty screen, quad core, NFC is neat, 13MP camera. All things that are great and why I would recommend the phone.

Cons:No removable battery, no expandable memory, LTE isn't in my area and it doesn't support wimax(although not a huge complaint), I love the search button on the older phones and I miss it but also not a big deal.

Right now, I have had it for 2 days, I love the phone but I am hung up on the audio jack. I dont know if it might be defective or if it puts out enough power in general. I switched from the Evo 3d and I connect my music to my car. With my 3d i was very satisfied, it was loud, now with the optimus it sound significantly quieter. I have gone through all the settings and can't get it any better. I am considering buying a headphone booster.

If I can get this resolved this will definitly move up to five stars!

Keeping it simple for this lovely phone with the Pro's and Con's April 28, 2013

Reviewer:  Nicolas Zemel "Zemel"  (Georgia) -

I have had this phone for only a few days (i had switched from the HTC One V)and i must say, i am impressed! I mean it could be better, but my dream phone isn't really feasible(a phone that would be able to appear out of nowhere and it could fly in the air and turn into a laptop and answer my thoughts). But never the less, this is a really enjoyable phone to have!

Pro's:
Large Screen (but it can be bothersome to some people that switched from a smaller phone and have trouble with the grasping of it)
Easy to reach power button and sound controls while holding the device (unlike my nook tablet or my HTC One V, this was one of my least favorite parts of my old phone).
Quality of the phone isn't like the kyocera xtc or the HTC 4G. it's more high quality of the product (don't get me wrong, i liked the htc 4g when it came out, but you haven't seen high quality till you've seen this.) what i mean by high quality is that it's made of durable material (unlike the iphone) and the screen doesn't break when you drop it, unlike the newer iphones (i've dropped it twice, one for a test for the review and another on accident).
The speed is amazing! when i upgraded i was shocked and i realized that apps loaded in half the time and that the graphics seemed a lot better (a little bit dark but the brightness of the screen changes that when it's all the way up, also for brightness of the screen see customer warning/concerns/Misc below)

Con's:
Battery life wasn't the greatest in my opinion and that's the main reason i'm giving it 4 stars. This is also the one thing that annoys me about this phone. The battery just seems to drain all day and i think it's because of the screen brightness but i'm not certain (i will tell you all when i find out).
The vibrate is like a mouse. it is honestly unhearable for me and i don't like it this quiet. i have to check my phone for calls when i'm expecting a call and i can't leave it on vibrate because i can't miss a call that important.
NO MICRO-SD card expansion is a killer on this phone because i love my music and love to listen to it but i don't like limits and this kills a lot of my love for the phone! i just hate it.
Camera underperforms compared to normal 13-MP cameras and viewing pictures just look a tad bit worse than my old phone which is a bummer.

Customer warnings/concerns/Misc:
The feel in your hands isn't too heavy or light, but i really wish it would weigh a little bit more because i feel like it would break if it drops.
Very Bright, so you may want to dim the lights because it lights up the room when you turn it on at 100% brightness in the middle of the night.
The screen is really slick but you get used to it after a few days, but my daughter doesn't like it at all...(for people who don't like slick screens you may have to get a screen protector).
No micro-SD expansion slot which sucks huge.

Specs: Product Features:
Display: 4.7-inches
Camera: 13-MP (but it underperforms)
Processor Speed: 1.5 GHz
OS: Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
Dimensions
Size (LWH): 2.71 inches, 0.33 inches, 5.19 inches
Weight: 5.12 ounces
Product Features
Network Compatibility: LTE
Minimum Rated Talk Time: 900 minutes
Minimum Rated Standby Time: 240 hours
No Micro SD card expansion

Endnotes:

If you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding my review or the phone itself, please comment below and i will get back to to you within approximately 6-8 hours.

It nice but could use some improvement February 20, 2013

Reviewer:  jason 

Overall I'm very satisfied although I have only had the phone for about a week. It is extremely quick and runs smooth. I checked out and compared other phones before I purchased this one and it seemed to be the best out of all for the price. The screen is super clear and the color contrast is excellent. Its quad core so programs seem to flow. The speaker quality is nice for the speaker phone and ear phone. The speaker phone is really loud you can understand the words through it. The UI is pretty easy to get use to. It also has 32 gigs of memory.

The are some cons: The phone is made out of glass back and front. Thats not the strongest stuff for a phone body to be made out of. So don't drop it!!! and get a case! Another thing is that there is no removable battery. Not to mention there is no sd card slot which can really come in handy. I guess trying to follow apple. I have not gotten the camera to take clear pictures when there seems just a very slight movement though pictures are nice as long as there is no movement. Videos seem to come out pretty decent.

Overall Its worked pretty good for the last few months. It is very fast and fluid. Although it doesn't have an sd card slot you can run a usb to computer and transfer your data and it worked very well on my macbook once I downloaded the software. It has nfc abilities but I haven't used them yet. I would say its worth checking out.

tl;dr review January 9, 2013

Reviewer:  A.Wiggin "DarthKinder"  (CA) -

Case: Sturdy and substantial. I think I can drop it and not have the screen crack, haven't tried it. 9/10

Screen: Clean and sharp. Very good screen. 10/10

Camera: Decent, 13MP doesn't matter. Panorama sucks, bad editing software. 6/10

Hardware: Fast, quad-core, 2gb ram. Can do anything fast. 10/10

Sound (volume): Loud enough. I have no hearing problems. 9/10

Sound (Voice): Clear and no distortion. 9/10

UI: Confusing at first, easy after 3 days of use. 7/10

Network Speeds: WiFi connections are fast. 3G stays connected. 4G, what 4G? 8/10

If you're into phones with accessories, then this is not the phone for you, get an iPhone. This phone is made for performance. It is future proof for the foreseeable future because of the quad-core and 2gb of ram. I haven't had any issues with my phone for the week I had it. As phones go, it's average, but that's good enough for me :)

My other options...I would have gone with the Nexus 4, but those are always sold out. The S3 is dual-core and old, but they do have a lot of users, meaning more accessories for it. Note 2, too big.

Final Score: 68/80 (85%)

A Nice Upgrade January 3, 2013

Reviewer:  D. Gregory 

I have had 2 entry level Android phones and knew I would one day take the plunge and get a nice phone. This one was a great choice.

The camera (with flash) takes nice enough pictures that I have no need to carry a dedicated point & shoot camera any more, and the call quality is decent.

However, as a smart device, this is where this thing rocks. A nice HD screen, that has responded well to my touch. A blazing fast quad core processor that I haven't been able to choke yet, even though I run it in Eco mode. Plenty of memory to download everything I want to use (unlike my previous entry level Androids, HTC Hero and Samsung Replenish). The interface is sweet and smooth.

A few minor deficiencies. Based on the release date, it would have been nice to have the latest version of Android, but maybe we'll get Jelly Bean at some point. The lack of a replaceable battery and memory card slot is notable, but may be part of what keeps this unit so slim. The battery concerns me most, since every phone I have had, needed to occasionally have the battery pulled to reset it... I hope this phone continues to be stable enough to avoid this need.

As far as battery life... Well, battery technology hasn't caught up with the needs of handheld computers yet (especially power houses like this), so you need to use some power management skills to maximize battery life to get through the day. I have an app to close data connections other than when I am using them, and periodically for updates (Juice Defender) and I have lowered the screen brightness a bit, and as mentioned use Eco mode. Even with these, I just make it through the day. If I get caught up in playing games, I need to plug it in once during the day to top it off.

If you are in the market for a powerful phone, and you can live with the inherent limitations mentioned above, this would be a great choice.

"Rocket Power" December 26, 2012

Reviewer:  JEV1A 

"Lets first talk about the use of "Corning Glass" that makes up both the front and back of this phone." Corning is a American Company and has been outfitting NASA for years. They also make that material that photosensors the sun within your Transition Lenses. So therefore, you can see this Screen in most any condition which is a huge plus! This screen is huge, a little bulky but more than easy to read, clear and crisp and you get to pick the automative transitions. On all the complaints that you cannot access battery and no micro sd card, what were they thinking? LG is cutting edge and thinks about Engineering first. This is a solid phone, nothing to get into it such as a unfriendly user. With 32 gigs of RAM, you don't need any SD Card. But they do sell those weird mini USB port plugins with internal SD if you must. The speed of this phone is all you have ever needed. I live in a rural area and have never gotton 4G signals. I rely upon normal 3G Speed but its that quad core processing power that is more than impressive, its top in its class.

This is not a cheap phone, a fly by nighter to get to the next class of phones. Its a standard that LG would like to stand by and its sure to be a top seller for them. I love the fact you can be screening a video and then at the same time pull up another screen to text and then send the text and then back to the video within the same screen. Only that processing speed and 2 gigs of memory can you do that!

This is a mini-pad that can do everything you want it to do or dream up.

The notepad is very cool as you just pull down the pen, pick your color and start scrbbling on any application.. you don't need a dedicated note pad. Fun for doodlers like me while on the phone.

The Music Player is decent, everyone says the Volume is low but I'm getting a good signal from my Bluetooth devices and can pump up the Volume from there. It needs a Audio processor but you can find a good app for that.

If you are a LG person upgrading from a older Optimus to this one, DO IT! Its speaks the same language and you will be running in minutes.

*Now the trick is in transferring all your old media files to LG Optimus G; Plug your old phone and new phone into seperate USB Ports on your Desktop, Laptop or Pad. You may have to download a dedicated program for the Optimus G. Now you see both Both Phones that have been given dedicated drives. You see Media, Audio, Music etc. on your old phone.. just copy over the files from your old phone to the new one. The LG Optimus G instantly reads those files and embeds then into the Media Players. I did find a problem with Videos that were coded standard MPEG 1 and 2 would not play in the Phone's Video Player. MP-4 was good to go. Seems to have a problem with older codecs.

The true HD Widescreen or Full Screen is pretty damn amazing! This has to be the best Screen on the market for a Consumer Handheld Device... so therefore, LG.. you get 5 Stars!

Great phone but few hickups December 10, 2012

Reviewer:  Hello 

I bought this at local Bestbuy, not on Amazon.
I had the original HTC EVO 4G, and loved that phone. switched to Samsung Galaxy II Epic Touch 4G and was not happy with the GPS on that phone. now I got this and i like it.
Pro
- quad core, the other quad core is Samsung Note II, but it's too pricey.
- 2 GB RAM. this helps a lot.
- GPS is working much better vs the Samsung Galaxy II.
- you can say words to take picture; i.e. cheese or lg and so on. camera quality is pretty good too.
- overall, happy with everything else.

Cons -
- since many people really care for this here are few.
- Volume is low - both ways via headphone jack and Bluetooth. I use the phone to listen to music while i drive, and both HTC Evo 4G and Samsung Galaxy II had great volume output. However, this phone I have to go few extra click on dashboard to get the higher volume. This is a big minus but don't want to take a star away for this one.
- WiFi is weak, the same place I used to get 1 or more bars, now it looses signal saying no wifi in range (this is at home). Due to this I may have to move my router around which is very painful since I have a good setup in place.
- not sure why but WiFi keeps turning on, I've played with the settings but can't keep it off. this is an issue when I am not at home/work and it keeps on searching for the wifi.
- NO SD Card. why would u do that. I know apple doesn't have one, but there are too many people buying iPhone anyways, who doesn't care for money or technology. My dad had LG Optimus 3G the old one, and that phone sucks. you are competing against mainly Samsung and HTC; you should have put a memory card. I have 32GB SDHC card which is now useless, but it was great to have for music. I have 2 young kids, and take many videos and pictures, which fills up space very fast. Should have put the SDHC card slot.
- 4G LTE is going to take a long time to come to my area.

Great phone and value June 19, 2013

Reviewer:  LDGibson 

I got this phone on June 9th 2013 so I have only had it about a week and half and I do really like it. I originally went into Best Buy to purchase the HTC One. I milled around at all the devices Sprint offers and played with each one for a few minutes. Being the geek that I am inside, I really do like having the latest and greatest technology. Knowing I really didn't want to spend alot of money that day, I decided on the LG Optimus G,which I got for free. Who doesn't like "free". Now after playing around with the phone for a few days and reading reviews,I am still pleased with my choice. The phone updated to JellyBean right out of the box which was great. It's thin and sleek and quite stylish. I don't mind the glass back either, I was concerned about when I couldn't find a decent case anywhere though. I did order an Otterbox online and was very happy when it finally came in the mail. Now, I did notice the wifi kept turning itself on after I'd turned it off. However I fixed that issue quite easily. Also the phone is set to search and connect to 4G LTE which I do not have in my area. These two issues were draining the battery quickly. Since I have switched the settings for them both I get a full days use which is what we all want at least. The screen itself is beautiful from all angles. And this thing is quick! Great camera and HD videos as well. One hundred times better than my last android phone which was the HTC EVO. Can phone be called sexy? Cause I think this phone is. The overall look is just sexy. Lastly, I am glad I choose this phone and not follow the masses and went with another company. No names needed. ;-) If you want to increase your battery without having to install an app leave me a comment and I will explain how.

I love my phone June 18, 2013

Reviewer:  Caridad 

I bought this phone in january and I love it. I love all the features on it; this is my first android phone. I am so happy I got it. I did have to install the juice defender app to help with the battery draining so quickly. But so far so good.

It's time for a review after 1 week. June 7, 2013

Reviewer:  Joshua Watanabe 

**BIGGEST DOWNFALL**- The phone is absolutely the flimsiest phone I have ever had, it is highly recommended that you should get a case and screen protector. Today I have not dropped the phone nor sat on it, however it had received a tiny crack on the top right of the front glass (not even on the screen), yet the entire top half of the phone is untouchable. Also, replacing this phone screen is a little bit harder considering you need to strip this phone down in order to replace the LCD/Screen Digitizer, I would have thought it'd be a simple as replacing the HTC EVO screen digitizer. Also it is awfully more expensive considering you need to replace the LCD along with the screen digitizer.

HOWEVER. I really enjoy using this phone, it's lightning fast with its Quad-core processor and the only downfall is because locally Sprints 3G is not that efficient. DO NOT PASS THIS UP. I paid $0.01 for this and I feel as if I had robbed them. If you're thinking about buying the GS3 reconsider, this phone I'd have to say is better than the GS3 but not as good as the GS4. This phone has some special specifications that come in handy, such as its QSlide and its ability to stream videos wirelessly with my Xbox instantly.
**BTW IF YOU ARE A PIRATE BAY USER** CONSIDER GETTING THE APP AND UTORRENT COMES IN HANDY FOR SURE

OVERALL. I absolutely love this phone. Excellent upgrade. Overall the best phone I have ever had.

Good phone, but bugs keep it from being great January 28, 2013

Reviewer:  K. Kelley "A Work in Progress"  (San Ramon, CA.) -

I love the camera, battery life and overall look and feel of this phone. What I don't like is that the Facebook application takes forever to load on this phone. I don't like that when texting, the cursor often jumped back to the beginning of my text message thus splitting my word up between the front of the message and somewhere near the bottom when I started typing that word. Yes, an update was released to fix that issue, but now the text auto-spell feature of the phone is messed up. Apparently the programmers can't get their fixes right. I've never had these issues with my previous two smart phones. I'd recommend this phone after all of the fixes have been released. I think it'll be very much worth the purchase.

Love this phone! January 22, 2013

Reviewer:  Just Me 

I'm going to make this review short and sweet. First off, I simply love this phone and is the best smart phone I've ever owned. It's smokin' fast and multitasks like no ones business. The interface is very user friendly and navigating around is a cinch. The only reason I gave this four stars rather than five was for the camera. Don't get me wrong, it takes good pictures but for a 13 megapixel camera it should take incredible pictures that blow even the Iphone cameras out of the water and that it does not. Other than the that this phone simply rocks. Quit thinking about it and get it!

Fast!!Sleek!! November 25, 2012

Reviewer:  olrocka 

Had this phone for three weeks now. No issues with phone at all. Build quality is very good. Features rock, everything I need. Battery life is above average (guessing) lasts through the day, not killed it, yet. Upgraded from Optimus S, WOW! Call quality is good, too.

great phone November 25, 2012

Reviewer:  kenss4 

Just got the G last week. Love the look of the phone and it feels real solid. So far everything works as it should with lightning speed. Can't wait for Sprint ton get lte in my area.