LG launched the LG Optimus G Pro in April 2013 and it was an instant hit. While LG is not the most popular smartphone manufacturer, it has proven itself to produce some excellent smartphone models over the years.
One has to say that the Optimus G Pro looks fairly similar to the Galaxy Note II, having similar dimensions. However it is a bit lighter at 172 g (6.07 oz) when compared to 183 g (6.46 oz) for the Note II.
The Optimus G Pro has a 5.5 inch full HD display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels and a pixel density of 401 pixels per inch. The colour display is very good and images, pictures and movies look very crisp and sharp. Having said this, the screen is not as awe inspiring as that on the HTC One and the viewing angles are not that great.
The LG phablet runs on Google’s Android 4.1.2 Jellybean operating system and comes with 32 GB of internal memory, 2 GB of RAM and a card slot that supports microSD cards of up to 64 GB. The performance of LG’s new device is quite impressive thanks to the Quad-core 1.7 GHz Krait 300 processor and the Qualcomm APQ8064T Snapdragon 600 chipset. In fact, it is possible to run multiple widgets at the same time and resize media widgets as required without experiencing a lot of slowdown. LG has branded this multitasking technology as QSlide.
The Optimus G Pro comes with a 13 MP camera and a 2.1 MP front camera. Apart from autofocus and LED flash, the main camera includes other features like panorama photos, image stabilization, timer, face detection and geo-tagging. Videos can be recorded at 1080p@30fps and LG also included an interesting feature known as Dual Cast which permits one to record videos from the front and the back cameras simultaneously.
Handwriting recognition works well, however it is not easy to write with the finger and in my opinion, LG did bad not to include a stylus in the first place. The on-screen keyboard is very responsive and easy to use. However, at 5.8 x 3 x 0.37 inches, the G Pro is not easily to hold in one hand. In view of this, LG have modified the user interface in such a way so that the keyboard, dial pad and lock screen are a bit easier to use with just one hand.
The display on the LG Optimus G Pro can synched to the TV set and the phablet itself can be used as a TV remote control. Stereo FM radio with RDS is included, a feature that is often missing in some flagship phones like the Samsung Galaxy S4. One other feature is Vu Talk which lets Optimus G Pro users to communicate between them by sharing text and images in notepads. However, video is not supported in Vu Talk. Another interesting feature is DriveMode, which enables the G Pro to send customized reply messages to incoming text and phone calls while travelling at speeds of more than 25mps.
On paper, the Optimus G Pro has a fairly large battery at 3,140 mAh, but in truth the battery performance is only average when compared to competing products. Luckily, the back of the phablet can be removed and so the battery can be easily replaced.
The LG Optimus G Pro comes at a cheaper price than the Galaxy Note II and given the excellent performance and wide range of features, it will not be surprising if it were to give its competitors a fairly hard time.
