Personally, I always treated the budget smartphone from the manufacturers of the first echelon with some caution. Yes, Sony is able to make a good device worth 30 thousand rubles, the Samsung Galaxy S4 has long been in my pocket and does not give serious reasons for complaints, and the LG Optimus 4X HD, I remember, turned out to be quite a pleasant device (if you close your eyes to the voracious nVidia Tegra 3 and, as a result, a small "autonomous"). With inexpensive solutions, everything is more complicated: attempts to save on components sometimes turn out to be too fierce, while at the price of “budget phones” of A-brands cannot compete with models sold in Russia under local brands.

Recently, I was able to take on a test smartphone LG Optimus L5 II Dual (E455), sales of which began several months ago. The model is not that mega-fresh, but quite relevant. Today, it is estimated at about 7,500 rubles, that is, this is the most budget option, and yes even the “two-letter” in addition. It is worth noting that in nature there is also a model LG Optimus L5 II (E450), which works with only one SIM-card and costs 7,000. According to the characteristics, except for the number of sockets for "simok", these devices are completely identical. But in terms of design, these are two completely different models: for some reason, LG produces the usual and “dvuhsimochnye” smartphones of the L series in different cases, so it was in the case of the “couple” Optimus L5 and L5 Dual; .

LG Optimus L5 II (left) and L5 II Dual
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Immediately I want to warn you that the LG Optimus L5 II Dual made a mixed impression on me. The device has enough strengths, but there are a number of weak ones, and there are those that I never expected to see in the A-brand smartphone, and even for 7.5 thousand rubles. Well, it would cost 5 thousand and was released by some Russian under-brand, but it costs 7.5!
So, the design of the LG Optimus L5 II can be estimated by the word "pleasant." The device is not too charismatic (if this word is applicable to smartphones at all), but it is not a faceless one. I had a black version of the model in my hands, but there is also a white one on sale. If after reading this post, you still decide to buy the LG Optimus L5 II Dual, then consider it to be worth it: the white version looks more expensive and more beautiful (although this is, of course, very subjective).
On the front of the smartphone is a screen, above which are the lattice of the speaker and the proximity sensor. But for some reason there is no light sensor, that is, in automatic mode, the display brightness cannot be adjusted. I’ll clarify that this component is provided today in many Android devices, which are cheaper than the LG Optimus L5 II Dual. And in the Korean smart there is no front camera. To be honest, I have met very few people who would regularly use it, and yet in some cases it is necessary. I, say, until recently, never even included it on my SGS4, but last weekend I went to visit my grandmother in a neighboring city. It turned out that the aunt (her daughter) living in the USA had registered with Skype. Then everything is clear: phoned and saw each other for the first time in 5 years. Hooray. This is not to the fact that I can not wait to share the nuances of my personal life, but to the fact that sometimes the front camera may need to be very unexpected. Let it be better. Well, again, I note that the front sensor today is in almost all smarts. In addition to the Optimus L5 II Dual ...


Brightness is regulated only by handles ...
We go further. Below the screen are four touch control keys. All is good, but they ... do not have the backlight. Personally, my vision is not very good, and I need this very highlight: at night I sometimes miss the buttons on the LG Optimus L5 II Dual, although they are marked with silver paint. (Is it worth saying that the touchpad button lights are on most ultrabudgetary devices today?)
With the layout of the keys, everything is also strange. The “Back” button is on the left, and the “Calling the context menu” is on the right. (Usually the opposite is true.) That is, it is, of course, not the rightmost - the extreme key is responsible for selecting the main SIM card before making a call. In my opinion, the solution is quite convenient, not worse than software switches.



By pressing the rightmost button, the main SIM card is replaced.
The back of the smartphone is made of plastic with a surface under the "roughly polished metal." It looks nice, but it collects scratches and scuffs very quickly. Here I will add that the back cover can be removed easily, but it sits tightly. The LG Optimus L5 II Dual case doesn’t “walk” in its hand and doesn’t produce extra sounds.

Here, in fact, the first three serious shoals: no light sensor, no front camera, no buttons at the backlight. Little nothings of life? It depends. Personally, I think that these are elementary (and inexpensive) components that can really make a handset more convenient. What the LG Optimus L5 II Dual developers thought was an open question.
A set of side keys is not quite standard. On the right side there is a button for turning on the smartphone / screen, on the left there is a volume control swing and an additional key, which by default calls the proprietary QuickMemo function (see below). Fortunately, in the settings for this button, you can hang any of the applications that are in the smartphone. Including the camera, so that in Optimus L5 II Dual, in fact, there is a photographing key. It is located, however, not quite familiar, under the thumb of his left hand, but it is rather a nagger.




With iron, the situation is very interesting. The LG Optimus L5 II Dual is based on the MediaTek MT6575 chipset of the 2011 sample, which includes a single-core 40-nanometer processor (ARM Cortex-A9) and the PowerVR SGX531 graphics accelerator. The amount of RAM is 512 MB. Models of local Russian brands managed to “get over” with this mammoth - MT6575 - in the third or fourth quarter of last year, and for some reason, LG consider it appropriate in the first half of 2013. (And it’s relevant for the device for as much as 7.5 thousand rubles!) Not that it provides absolutely no performance, it’s not at all, the Android interface works smartly, you can play in Angry Birds, you can watch the video in VGA resolution too. Many more users don’t need to, but if, again, remember the price and level of LG (it’s still a Serious Korean Company with a World Name, even if some people don’t like its smarts and telephones), then I would like to see in LG Optimus L5 II Dual is something more powerful - the same MT6577, for example.

Screenshots of a pair of benchmarks. As you can see, the performance of the smartphone is not too high.



In general, of course, it is curious that LG suddenly decided to use MediaTek chipsets in some of its models. This Taiwanese company is known primarily for cooperation with small Chinese factories, plus a number of models (both smartphones and tablets) on its platforms are in the lines of Taiwanese and Chinese companies - Acer, ASUS, Lenovo. Korean and American vendors previously did not use MediaTek solutions in their models. (Apart from a couple of Motorola devices that are ODM-based products and are sold only in China and Brazil.) By the way, some LG phones were previously also developed on the side by Chinese contractors. The thought involuntarily creeps in that the Korean giant has commissioned them to develop the Optimus L5 II Dual model. And the contractors were not exactly the best of their kind, because in the “state employees” from the Russian brands the “punctures” described just above are mostly not present ...

Smartphone Motorola MOTOSMART Dual SIM MediaTek Chipset
The built-in memory here is 4 GB, the user can access about 2. The microSD card slot (up to a maximum of 32 GB, the smartphone did not want to work with a 64 GB card) is located in such a way that you do not have to remove the battery to change the flash drive. When connected to a computer, it is not possible to select the USB Mass Storage mode, since it is not by default in Android 4.1. Some companies add it on their own, but in LG, alas, they did not bother.


But in what appears some "thoroughbred» LG Optimus L5 II Dual, so it is in his screen. It is as it happens: manufacturers love to shout that the IPS matrix is ​​installed in a particular smartphone. You look - and there is a faded picture and viewing angles are just none. It turns out that we are either deceived or shoved under the guise of a good IPS by some sort of culling left in the factories of the supplier after the fulfillment of the A-brand orders. So, the LG Optimus L5 II Dual is equipped with a really good 4-inch IPS-screen with wide viewing angles, pleasant color rendering and a very high level of brightness (30-40% is enough for most situations). The resolution is 480 x 800 pixels, that is, it is standard for screens with such a diagonal. Touch layer responsive, multitouch supported. The number of simultaneous touches is not measured, most likely, it is equal to 5 (no longer supports MT6575).

In the photo it seems that the buttons under the screen are highlighted, but this is just such a photo. No lights
The second “thoroughbred” element is software. In general, most smartphones on the MT6575 are running Android 2.3 or 4.0, while with firmware from 4.1 manufacturers, as a rule, do not bother. (I'm not sure that MediaTek has released a basic version of software with 4.1 for this chipset - correct it if I am mistaken.) However, the LG Optimus L5 II Dual is running Android 4.1.2, and even with the company's Optimus UI.


This very “patch” includes a number of proprietary applications, redrawn icons, submenus, and so on. There are even four themes that automatically change the wallpaper, the colors in the interface, and individual icons.

In the main menu, you can change the background, only about 10 options are available, but as far as I understand, you cannot set your images. By the way, the function for some reason is called “Wallpaper Applications”.


There are five desktops. You can specify the main.

I personally liked that Optimus UI allows you to change the location of the main menu call icon. By default, this icon is rightmost, but it can also be moved. Here in the Galaxy S4 with its latest TouchWiz, nothing can be moved, the menu call icon can only be on the right, and sometimes it’s not very convenient for me to reach it.


The lock screen in the LG Optimus L5 II Dual is also yours, proprietary. Among other things, it displays four application icons for quick access, which can be changed in the settings. You can also change the type of clock with date.



There is a power saving mode that can turn on automatically. A battery level, by the way, can be displayed in the status bar as a percentage. Also a nice little thing.


In the notification panel there is a quick access to adjusting the brightness of the screen.

In the task manager there is a button for “sticking” all applications at once.

The QuickMemo option, which I have already mentioned, is essentially an application for creating screenshots with tools for their subsequent editing and the ability to quickly send somewhere. For some reason, LG, in promoting its smartphones, places a noticeable emphasis on this function, although, as for me, it is of no particular interest. Now, if the models of the Optimus L series were completed with a stylus for drawing - then yes ...

The music player is cute, with the design of "under the metal." The sound quality in the headphones does not stand out for anything special, while the speaker in the LG Optimus L5 II Dual is quite vociferous.


In the "Settings" redrawn all icons. They look very fresh compared to the naked Android.
There is a separate video player application, which is convenient, since in many low-cost smartphones you need to search for videos among the photos in the gallery and start playback from there.



In general, LG worked well with software, well. Compared with the stock versions of the Android platform, the Optimus L5 II Dual software features make a pleasant impression. However, I fully admit the fact that to all users all these “ryushechki” will seem superfluous. After all, with the "bare" version of the OS it is quite possible to do almost the same thing, if not better - you just need to go deeper into Google Play and pump out from there all sorts of things.
There are quite a few pre-installed applications in the model; I see no point in listing everything. There are some kind of toys, clients of social networks. There is also a client of the LG AppClub corporate application catalog.

Another interesting thing is the Safety Care program, designed to take care of the user's safety.


The camera interface is also reworked, but for some reason you cannot take screenshots in the Camera application. There are enough options, the most curious was the ability to customize the panel with icons for quick access to functions. That is, by default there are 5 positions, and options are 18. You can choose any 5 - that is, those that you refer to most often. The camera in the LG Optimus L5 II Dual 5-megapixel with autofocus and LED flash, there is a touch-focus function and the ability to record videos with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. The quality of the pictures is not bad and not good:




With Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, 3G and support for two SIM-cards are no surprises - all this is there, it works and does not cause any trouble. With the “autonomy” situation is not bad: the LG Optimus L5 II Dual is equipped with a 1,700 mAh battery, which is slightly more than the average for smartphones of this class. As a result, almost two days of battery life with two installed SIM-cards, regular Internet outings and a dozen or so photos.

Summing up, I repeat that the LG Optimus L5 II Dual made an ambiguous impression on me. It seems that the developers have worked hard on the software (including a relatively fresh version of Android), put a good battery here and a more than decent screen. But in the little things, they, alas, goof. Yes, and the hardware in the device is outdated, which is no secret: the performance provided by MediaTek MT6575 can hardly be called sufficient today.
Take for comparison, for example, Highscreen Spark for 4 thousand rubles. The screen is not IPS, but an ordinary TN, which results in less wide viewing angles with, in principle, all other things being equal. The camera is noticeably better in LG, while the case is in Highscreen: the back cover is upholstered with “soft-touch” and is not prone to scratching and fast wear. On the software ahead of Optimus L5 II Dual, because there is Android 4.1 (against 4.0). On software chips, the Korean also overtakes, although if desired, a candy can be made from Spark. In this case, the brainchild Highscreen has a front-facing camera, button illumination and a light sensor. He also has a much more powerful hardware: the dual-core Qualcomm MSM8225 Snapdragon S4 Play, which gives about 6 thousand points in the same AnTuTu (against 4,800 in the case of LG). However, benchmarks are benchmarks, but in practice - in games, in particular - Highscreen Spark is much faster. Yes, and the video in the HD720p, he, too, can twist without problems.

Highscreen Spark and LG Optimus L5 II Dual
What is it for me: budget smartphones of A-brands are very seriously overestimated, while, unfortunately, there are plenty of obvious jambs. So the LG Optimus L5 II Dual turned out weird and far from ideal. Personally, I expected more from this model, because, contrary to popular belief, LG still can make good smartphones - just recall the Nexus 4, which is wildly popular all over the world. And deservedly so.