LG Optimus L5 Review

It so happened that I have two “new” optimus of the L-7th and 5th line in my house at once. It all started with the fact that in one of the contests I won the L7, since I already had an android device, the LG left as a gift to my mother. And now I had to choose something for my brother for 15 years. His MTS android phone is just indecent [inaudible] (but he himself saved up for him, yeah), so the choice was not really: I remembered the successful One and Net models, and my mother had a very nice L7 from the new line. So without hesitation, I took his younger version - L5, a review of which I want to share with the community.

The acquaintance begins with the box, which is practically no different from the modern LG-boxes, except that the dimensions are made suitable for this model. Inside everything is modest - a phone, a charger, a USB cable, a little waste paper and everything. No, even the poorest headphones - no. I can not understand, they are stuck on the PR or just do not put in the kit? :)

Well, the equipment is not so important, we do not have Vertu. Let's go back to the phone. The appearance of the device, oddly enough, turned out in some places even better than that of his older brother. The materials are exactly the same, good plastic, no strange odors and pleasant tactile, glass (not heavy-duty, like the flagships of the telephone industry, just a thin glass coating), a rim of plastic with a metallic coating, “chrome-like”.
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I am glad that the phone of this price category has a design: from an almost impersonal phone, like Optimus One / Net, simple and discreet they did something really nice. There are details that you can look at, there is something to catch your eye on, much better than last year’s LG decisions. Let's start with the back cover.



In stock: a neat “grille” imitating the speaker is on top, a pleasant texture of the battery compartment door itself, containing a slot for the camera in the upper part and a speaker in the lower one.



The side border is “chrome-plated”, slightly visible from the side of the screen, it occupies the entire side part and the upper / lower end of the device. The phone does not look cheap (I would say that it looks more expensive than its “classmates” in the same price segment), it is great in the hand, it doesn’t weigh much and doesn’t get very hot. On the left side there is a volume swing, on the right side - it is empty, the lock button is in the upper right corner, on the end.

With appearance, sort of, sorted out. From a technical point of view, he got the stuffing from the “older” L7 - the same processor, the amount of RAM, except that the frequencies are slightly reduced. Twice less than the built-in, but it is enough, 2 Gigabytes, enough for any software and toys. The main difference is the screen, which shrunk to 4 inches, lost the ambient light sensor, and the picture quality did not improve: the resolution was 480x320, which is not enough for this diagonal, and the IPS matrix was replaced with TFT- TN, which could not affect the viewing angles. If horizontally everything is quite good: the corners can be called quite comfortable, the image almost does not change, then the vertical ones - so-so, the screen starts to distort colors from a 10-degree deviation from the perpendicular, especially when deviating “away from you”. Here is an example of color distortion depending on the angle:



I don’t think that L5 is the model with which most of the time will communicate in landscape mode, which made it difficult to put a polarizer rotated 90 degrees and get good vertical angles (which change more often than horizontal ones: each press of the virtual keyboard button causes a slight deflection of the phone) - remains a mystery to me.
The rest - Antutu Benchmark scored 2638 points, which is slightly lower than the L7, but enough for a phone with a price of 8,500 rubles. If someone does not believe - here is the result:



For everyday use - ready. In fact, the interface of the new device is a bit more responsive than that of its older brother - a much lower load on the GPU due to the reduced screen resolution affects. Scrolling desktops, lists, working with the notification panel - all the basic functionality is smoother and softer animated, there is not even a hint of jerks. In this regard, the device can be given a good rating, the usual performance does not suffer, the phone is convenient to use as ... a phone, annoying zalipons on an unlock or after exiting Birds - no.

LG Optimus L5 is equipped with a camera that has the same characteristics as the L7 (5MP, LED flash), but the sensor seems to be different. Real shots are worse: the colors look less natural, the contrast is too high. Something can be corrected by the settings inside the “camera” application, something, perhaps, will be corrected in the new software version. The quality of photos is enough to take a picture of a person on a call, a car number plate, an advertisement on the street or some document with normal lighting in good weather. You can not count on more, and the phone is not positioned as a photolagman. The camera interface is nothing supernatural, you can find similar settings in almost any android device released in the last two years. Sample photos?



I am glad that there is an LED flash, hardly anyone will use it, but it is quite possible as a flashlight. Fortunately, such a functionality is incorporated into the phone initially.



The software on the phone is almost the same as in L7, if you read a review of this phone somewhere (for example, here, on Habré), you will not see anything new: unless the resolution has decreased and on some buttons the whole thing does not always fit text.
Pleases standard LG shell, it is simple, convenient and fast enough. Hi Samsung, who brought his TouchWiz to at least some kind of digestible state only for the release of the third galaxy. True, a long tap on the settings in the notification panel does not lead to advanced parameters. August of 2012 year was near, damn it.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. Appeared application “Quick Memo”. It is located in the notification panel, and allows you to make a note directly on the current screen of the phone (that is, it takes a screenshot and you draw on top of it), or put a “yellow sticker” if you don’t need / obstruct the screen content. The possibilities of this thing are not very wide, but as a pleasant “chip” it earns a few points for the LG shell.



And further. These are not the notes that are in the main menu. That application works separately and works very well: you can easily create a shopping list or write down some very important garbage. You can attach a photo or video to the current recording (both already taken and received from the camera directly when making a note), recording from a voice recorder, current coordinates or a place indicated on the map. A very convenient set of "attachments".



This is where the original software ends; everything else is all sorts of variations on the theme of standard delivery.

In L5, a slightly smaller battery is installed than in L7, 1540 mA / h versus 1750, but the filling of the L5 is less demanding. On the charred information: the battery is exactly the same as that of the L3, that is, it is easy to move from one device to another, you can take note. ;)
The autonomy of the phone is at the standard for Android level “1 working day + 20-30%”, if you do not force the device. With constant wake-ups, multiple-minute emission of photons through the screen, data transfer over 3g and disabled Wi-Fi, the device lasts for 6-8 hours, depending on the network. In general, the autonomy of this device is somehow too much affected by the quality of communication, L7 did not notice this. Perhaps, the dampness of the software is having an effect, and in the nearest update, the wild batteri-draine in the zone with an uncertain 3G reception will be fixed.
It so happened that right on the day of the purchase of the L5 I stupidly forgot my own phone at work, and with this device I went for two days (good brother in the country and did not burn the gift;)).

What are my personal impressions, assuming that in the review I tried to maintain neutrality and objectivity? The phone is not bad. He calls, the interlocutor is well audible in him, the interlocutor hears me well. He sends SMS, mail and messages in the social. networks. You can watch it on YouTube and / or a series of the series, but preferably - without subtitles, otherwise they do not look very good. In other cases, the text is quite normally displayed. Here, for example, Habr - looks good :)



In general - this device is suitable for those who will use it as a smartphone - calls, sms, contact, while the teacher / shef does not see, check-ins in the forverver and instagrammer, and he will endure other elements of normal smartphone life. If you want to climb the console to the server, play three-dimensional toys for half a day, or just want a multimedia-oriented phone, you should pay attention to something else. Thank you all for your attention, if you have questions, I am ready to answer them.