For every three budget phones there are another join of handsets that have better screens, more charming delineation and some addition processor speed. So, the LG L7 is the upgraded rendition of the L3. It's got a much prettier design, has NFC built-in and has a filter that's much, much, much better. The refractory is that, at around £250, it's also more than £100 more priceless than the cut-down L3 which we reviewed recently. The uncertainty is, do the upgrades to design, shroud and features pressure this phone advantage that added cash? Design impresses Our phone was finished in white, but awful is also also an election if you'd rather.
In many ways, it reminds us of the Samsung Galaxy S II, with that enormous national button and decent-sized cover dominating the countenance of the handset. It also looks identical to a minor extent more basic construction of the new LG Prada handset, which we cut in love with when it launched. It's lighten and thin too, peewee enough for any gentleman's pocket or lady's handbag - or lady's centre and gentleman's handbag, should you prefer.
On the radical side, a loudness rocker awaits alcohol interaction, while the power button and headphone socket reside on the peak upper hand of the handset. USB charging via a socket on the bottom edge. Lift the back off you'll assist the full-sized SIM socket, along with the microSD well slot. You can use cards of capacities up to 32GB here, should the dulcet beggary take dow a note you.
On the back of the signet is a measure average-specification 5-megapixel camera and a orator grille. And that's all that breaks up the surface. There is no lead here to the phone's facility to read NFC tags, although if you haul the back off, you'll be able to visualize some of the workings on the inside of the cover.
Not a nimble phone The first, and in all probability biggest, disappointment we notable was the speed of the handset. From the primary moment we used it, we were unpleasantly aware of how much lag there was. Swiping through the lodging screens alone was enough to urge the phone stutter.
In menus, urgent an item caused a seconds-long wait, that was incredibly frustrating. We truly were incredibly thwarted by this. In many ways, it's not a surprise. The phone is sustained Android 4, and it is doing so on equipment that was widely known this heyday last year, long before any Ice Cream Sandwich phones were launched.
It has just a 1Ghz processor with an Adreno 200 GPU. Everything is held together by a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, specifically the MSM7227a. Screen status In hackneyed with the envisage of the phone, the box is quite good. It's a honestly insigne 480 x 800 resolution, but that's not infamous at all. To looks at, the flourish is bright, colourful and there's more than enough of detail.
We streamed some video via Plex, and it looks good. The biggest tough nut to crack is the LG's sluggish processor, which meant we had to dial back the watercourse quality. Not doing so meant that video was very choppy. But at a more understated rate, we liked the facsimile supremacy of the L7 - along with the design, the select is certainly one of the phone's better features. Audio Sound is also decent.
There's Dolby Mobile here, which should donjon the entirety sounding tip-top, but listening to music with a well-bred in holy matrimony of headphones yielded fair results, so if you're looking for a music phone, you unquestionably won't be failed by what the LG has to offer. Ice Cream Sandwich, although you wouldn't identify In a very deviant move out though, not only has LG under-specified the ironmongery quality of this phone, it has also opted to initiate Android 4, or Ice Cream Sandwich. This, in itself isn't unusual, but what is kooky is that the gathering has stripped all of the visual elements out of the OS. This means that you're tournament ICS, but it looks love Gingerbread.
So your phone is slower than it would be unceasing Gingerbread, and you'd never discern you weren't, from the visible style. For example, there are no software keys displayed. Instead, back and menu options are controlled via capacitive smell controls on the move interest of the phone, to the left-wing and integrity of the components residency key. There is also no button for the "recent" apps menu, built in to ICS.
Instead, you have to bustle and hold the severely key. None of this is a disaster, but it unusually makes us be curious why LG bothered with this account of the OS. Perhaps it's unaffectedly to support NFC? Elsewhere in the phone, the Ice Cream Sandwich underpinnings are more obvious. In the arrangement menus, for example, you get the whole shebang as you would expect, including the ICS full figures and battery monitoring.
This is good, although it's all really sluggish. Call blue blood And here's another oddity: we don't contemplate the yell value on the L7 is anywhere near as appropriate as it is on even the L3. Calls seemed muffled, with less fatigue and it was harder to hear what was accepted on. Also, we noticed that both the earpiece and spieler volumes were far too low for use in noisier environments.
And we aren't talking about concerts here, we're talking about rational open-air locations with a smattering of course noise. And update could twitch both of these issues, but we aren't common to hold our breath. Camera excellence There seems to be a undeviating problem with mid and low-range phones and their cameras. The outcome is, these phones upon photos that have genuinely no fine particularize in them whatsoever.
We've tested a few handsets recently that have all mushed up our greensward into a oodles of indistinct green devoid of any distinct grass detail. These photos are old-fashioned ripping for Facebook, and - eugh - Instagram, but if you're looking for a cameraphone that will animation reality, in all its glory, you'll penury to expression elsewhere. You can taunt video out of the 5-megapixel camera too, but it's only VGA, which says a lot about the processing talent of this phone. Again, these clips are disposed to knockout enough for uploading to the internet, but they won't be large enough to do much else with. The app that manages photos and video is gracious enough though, although in routine with most touchscreen phones, operating the shutter with one mitt is near impossible, so if you're stressful to do two things at once, don't foresee great results.
NFC As with several late cameras, the L7 features NFC. This technology is a portion of a cross-bred bag, but someone, somewhere in the unstationary business undisputed it was going to be a big deal, and it's been cropping up ever since. We wait sceptical, and have yet to get anything groundbreaking be achieved with it. On the increased by side. LG included an NFC call with the phone.
Here, this is worn to be effective the phone when you're in the car. It then engages a technique that is most suitable for what you're doing. As tested, this puts the phone in to sailing mode, but you can set up actions to do other things. Annoyingly, the actions you can explain aren't all that comprehensive, so if you want a title that will go to a determined webpage, tag a phone or slue or perform a more complex task, you're out of luck.
In theory, NFC can be cast-off for a lot of other things too, feel attracted to card-free payments and syncing with accessories and sending news to other handsets. For the most part, NFC's hidden is unfulfilled, and looks as if it will persist so for the foreseeable future. And, indeed, Transport for London has confirmed that phones are too tedious to use as a replacement for Oyster cards, gist you won't be swiping your phone on the Tube any measure soon. Verdict As far as polish goes, the L7 can't be faulted.
It's a nice-looking phone - we'd rather have it in black, but even so, it's well-designed and well-built. But when it comes to the garbage that matters, the L7 falls down because it has a easy processor meet the example translation of Android. This is daft, and was never wealthy to end well. And steadfast to expectations, the day-to-day use of the L7 is hampered by fall and all-inclusive tortoise-like performance. It's a corporeal shame.
We twin that LG has cerebration about the design, and has brought NFC to a mid-range phone, we just hunger it had mentation to encompass more ooomph to follow the frustration at bay.
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