LG Optimus L9 - Short Review

furious_gamer

Excessive happiness
After the LG Optiumus One phone, i never seen any good reviews about LG Droids.Still, I recently bought this phone for my sister, as she liked the phone very much. After looking at this phone, i thought of using it for few days, and to be frank, i am quite impressed with this phone. I am using Galaxy SL i9003 for over a year, and after using L9, my phone feels heavy in my hand, which i never felt before.

For specs : LG P765 All Phones - See More, Do More, Express More - LG Electronics IN

1. Packaging
Packaging is normal, comes with mobile, Battery, Charger, User Manual, Stereo Ear Microphone, USB Data Cable. There is nothing fancy and box is little big compared to S3 ones. Also as an offer, they are giving Leather Pouch for free, with this mobile. The price of the phone in local store where i bought is 19,200 INR (which is 300INR higher compared to FK, but hey it comes with Leather Pouch. :D)

2. Build Quality

After opening the box and taking it in hand, it feels like air. Yes, it is very thin and overall look is stunning, but not as good looking as other phones out there, but i must say LG does a decent job with the design. The back cover of the phone is made of plastic, so you need to be careful while handling the phone. Apart from that, finishing is good and it looks like a premium phone, and at times, i mistake this for Note, because of the size. :D

3. Features

Even though features can be available by updating it to custom ROM's, i don't want to do anything because for my sister, all she need is to make/receive call, play games, Watch youtube videos, take some snaps/video. The LG UI is improved and less number of bloatwares compared to TW. Split keyboard, taking notes while speaking with someone is a nice things to consider. It comes with ICS, which is again a good thing, otherwise we have to look for updates online every now and then and i don't expect any new phone to come with GB.

4. Performance

Installed many useful apps, and games like Temple Run, Fruit Slice, Ninjump, Air Attack HD Lite, Lets Golf 3 Free, etc and played every game for few hours and didn't have any lag or whatever. It is running smooth and the GPU is doing fine, i guess. Also with all the apps, there is no freezing, no FC etc. Out of 1GB RAM, always 300+ MB is free. I guess 1GB RAM is taking its role in the performance and gives an lag-free UI Experience.

Installed Air Attack HD lite in my i9003 and it is working fine, but lags in middle. Hand writing recognizition is good(don't compare with Note series), i made a call to my friend and need to note down address, so i used it and i must say, it is quite impressive. Also the split keyboard thing is good, because with such big screen i don't need to reach the middle to type characters like G,F :D

5. Display/Video

The major thing that attracts my sister. 4.7" IPS LCD Screen, with qHD res. Images are crisp and visibility at sunlight is good. Watching video is a treat in this phone. Copied a 720p video and it runs smooth, tried 1080p sample video and works like charm, but you need to have MX Player or some player. The default player is not able to run 1080p videos.

The colors are vivid and checked the same image with my i9003. Notable difference is there, not huge. But the images are looking sharper and crisp.

6. Camera

LG did nothing here, seriously, even my more than a year old i9003 is taking good photos ad videos w/o Flash,and this phone is nowhere near mine. I took few snaps with flash and w/o flash both at bright outdoors, and photos taken from LG where decent but with some noise/grain. It has option to record HD video recording, but if the quality is not good, there is no need for giving HD recording. Only upside is, at medium light, ambient outdoors, it is taking reasonable pictures and with flash, even that is looking dull and artificial.

7. Audio

It is upto the expectations and The included headphone is good with bass and treble and med~high volume. At low volume, you cannot feel the bass. Also, the earphone is very nice, cable length is decent. It comes with spare earbuds:)D), which make some difference.(I lost one of foam-tip and now i took foam-tip from my uncles phone who have spare earphone). The audio is clear and no complaints. Listened some Folk songs, Rock, Pop and so far no issue in providing decent music.

8. Battery

It comes with Li-Ion, 2150 mAh, which provides ample battery backup time. Eve after playing games, download apps through Wi-Fi(moderate usage), i am getting good 32hrs. Which is good considering the specs, and big screen. Big advantage is, it is not heating like mu i9003 after playing games for 15mins. For my sister's usage pattern, it can easily last for 2 days or even more.

9. Connectivity/Browsing

Comes with WiFi Direct, 3G and BT. Used 3G network(Vodafone, Bangalore) for a while and getting good speeds. Browsing is good with this phone, because of larger screen.

10. Memory

Comes with 1GB RAM, 4GB Internal Memory and as new year offer, they provided us 16GB MicroSD for free. :D I can see plenty of free RAM even after installing so many apps, which usually eats RAM in my i9003. For me, who always see 329/486MB RAM used, this is quite a good look. Getting around 300+MB free some time.

Conclusion :

If you have strictly 19k budget and want a big screen(above 4", not considering MMX,Karbonn etc), and to play videos, games, and lag-free UE then you might consider this phone. But if you want decent camera, a big no for this phone. Try anything from Xperia line-up.

Pros :

* Big Screen
* No-laggy User Experience
* Smooth video playback
* Nice package
* Features bundled with come in handy.
* Sexy look
* Better battery backup.

Cons :

* Below par camera (After tweaking the settings, images are coming out good, but still not excellent)
* Poor video recording

Few Images :
*i.imgur.com/Nt295l.jpg

*i.imgur.com/VLsyul.jpg

*i.imgur.com/C6fHPl.jpg

*i.imgur.com/PBToXl.jpg

*i.imgur.com/UcC0el.jpg?1

*i.imgur.com/4gRqkl.jpg

*i.imgur.com/u0rxtl.jpg

Happy L9 Users :

tkin
random_dystopia
NexGen
mitraark
Tenida

Please add your name in thread so i update this post
 
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coderunknown

Retired Forum Mod
LG have learned from its own as well as other's mistakes slimming the extra themeing to a minimum and offers 1080p video recording (just for namesake). Nice written :)
 
OP
furious_gamer

furious_gamer

Excessive happiness
LG have learned from its own as well as other's mistakes slimming the extra themeing to a minimum and offers 1080p video recording (just for namesake). Nice written :)

Thanks. I agree with you. The UI is pretty lite, unlike TW from Samsung and this time, there is no bloatware. Instead, all the apps they included is very good. For example, the inbuilt dictionary app, which is paid version, will translate all the characters in the picture you have taken. I took a snap of daily kannada newspaper and it translated it in English. I don't know whether it helps everyone, but it sure did for me.
 

coderunknown

Retired Forum Mod
For example, the inbuilt dictionary app, which is paid version, will translate all the characters in the picture you have taken. I took a snap of daily kannada newspaper and it translated it in English. I don't know whether it helps everyone, but it sure did for me.

this will come handy if it supports most of regional languages.
 
OP
furious_gamer

furious_gamer

Excessive happiness
^^ Thanks man. As of now, for 19k budget, this will sweep of other mobiles and with the specs it's packed, it is worth every penny.Bought an OTG cable and tried watching Avatar LoK HD videos and it plays without any hiccup. :)

Now all i have to do is copy my movies in Pen Drive and while driving i can watch my movies. :D
 
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tkin

Back to school!!
^^ Thanks man. As of now, for 19k budget, this will sweep of other mobiles and with the specs it's packed, it is worth every penny. Bought an OTG cable and tried watching Avatar LoK HD videos and it plays without any hiccup. :)

Now all i have to do is copy my movies in Pen Drive and while driving i can watch my movies. :D
Gonna get killed.
 

pratyush997

Inactive
^^ Thanks man. As of now, for 19k budget, this will sweep of other mobiles and with the specs it's packed, it is worth every penny. Bought an OTG cable and tried watching Avatar LoK HD videos and it plays without any hiccup. :) Now all i have to do is copy my movies in Pen Drive and while driving i can watch my movies. :D
you freaking kidding? Watching movie while driving?
 

NexGen

Broken In
Great Review, man. BTW, Add some photo and videos captured using it.

Buddy i have loaded few pics clicked fron lg l9 here *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/buying-advice/169251-need-buy-best-android-under-20k.html U can check them from post no.27 oneards :)
 

Shah

Cyborg Agent
Buddy i have loaded few pics clicked fron lg l9 here *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/buying-advice/169251-need-buy-best-android-under-20k.html U can check them from post no.27 oneards :)

I checked it, dude. Thanks for the uploads.
 

mitraark

Decrepit
I bought the Optimus L9 about 10 days ago.
* Battery life is excellent compared to other phones in the same price bracket.

* Video playback is great as well , the screen , even though not AMOLED ala Samsung, looks great, colours are bright and natural. Stock player plays 1080p videos smoothly, but no support for DTS and other copyrighted audio format ( hence cannot hear those 1080p Blu Ray music videos i downloaded, even though the video plays smoothly ) VLC beta can play the audio, but it lags if video is > 720p :(

* Games run quite well, although i haven't installed anything larger than Asphalt 7, the problem being, you cannot install apps on SD Card ( the major problem with this phone ) Users who have rooted their phone can easily get rid of this problem by a method which exchanges your memory, your external SD will show as Internal memory and vice versa. I have a 32 GB Class 10 card, looking forward to root and do this change.

* Browsing is superb, 10/10 in my opinion, even better if you have good Wi Fi

299669_4741651817054_1799185096_n.jpg

Some miscellaneous things i did with my phone

* Search "How to use DLNA and use L9 as Media Server and Remote Control of your PC?" in the L9 forum in XDA, in just two minutes set up WMP and use the Smartshare app on the phone to stream media to your PC ( needs to be on the same wi fi network )

It took me 2 minutes to configure and start streaming 1080p videos to my PC WMP, no lags , but it does drain battery

* SECuRET LiveStream lets you stream your camera feed to a PC on the same WiFi network or to another Android device ( worked great for me , shot a cricket match outside and it was showing on the browser of my PC in the room)
 
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