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There are many people who like to carry around a smartphone with a huge screen that doubles up as a tablet. Samsung started the trend with the Galaxy Note and now the ‘phablet’ war has just begun with its South Korean rival LG launching the giant screen Optimus G Pro.
‘Phablet’ is a term coined to refer to any device that has a very large screen and with which you can make phone calls. It is no doubt embarrassing to answer a call with such a giant device, but after using the Optimus G Pro for a while I could quite understand why people like it. The phone is so big that using it with one hand is out of the question. The screen measures a massive 5.5 inches compared to the iPhone 5’s four inches measured diagonally. Samsung’s Galaxy Note 2 has been wildly popular in Asia so LG had to come up with something spectacular to even compete with it.
The 1080p screen is really spectacular. The colours are stunning. This itself just blows away Samsung’s Galaxy Note 2. A fast Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor powers the phone. Its size notwithstanding, the Optimus G Pro feels relatively thin and light because of its plastic back. The phone itself comes with 16 GB internal storage out of which about 10 GB will be available to you. The storage can be expanded to 64 GB with a micro SD card. The G Pro has a slick, shiny case, but it does not have the finish of Google Nexus 4, also made by LG. On the other hand, it does not feel as flimsy and hollow as the Galaxy S4 either.
LG has customised Android and introduced something called QSlide. These are widgets that sit above the currently open app and offer access to a note taking app, calendar, calculator and video player. For example, you can take notes while you chat with someone, or you can check your email while watching a video. A QSlide button on the upper left side of the phone allows you to quickly activate the app of your choice. By default, this is the notes app. I frankly made a mess of using it. So I changed the default. LG has introduced all the gimmicks such as a video which pause if you flip the phone or the screen does not dim if you keep looking at it. It also has the option for pausing the video if you look away from the screen. But after I enabled these features they did not work very well. The flipside of all this is that the notifications panel and the user interface are cluttered compared to phones that use stock Android such as the Nexus 4. The phone comes with Android version 4.1.2, which is a pity since it has come into the market so late. It should have at least provided 4.2.2. Another drawback is that it comes with a lot of unnecessary apps. Why would you want to download apps from LG when they are available from the Google Play store? The G Pro’s 13-megapixel camera takes acceptable photos, though the results are not significantly better than what you would get from the 8-megapixel cameras found in most previous generation phones. In addition, you also get a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera.
LG has placed the Back button on the left side which is where is should be logically. The Home button at the bottom also helps you switch applications when you press it long enough. The contextual Menu button offers various settings when you are on the home screen. The volumes rockers are on the left of the phone along with the QSlide button. You turn on the phone with a flick of the button on the right. All in all the G Pro is a good choice if you are looking for a large phone because the hardware is really good. But it is priced too high at around Rs 40,000.
