LG are one of the biggest up and coming manufacturers on the mobile market. They might not be the first brand that you think of, but whilst Apple and Samsung have been making their big, hyped up releases, LG have quietly been adding some excellent and affordable devices to their range. Their big new phone is obviously the Nexus 5, but LG also make some very nice budget smart phone options.
Getting a budget phone is always a bit like playing roulette. You’re not going to be getting a high spec feature phone for under £200, so you’re going to need to make compromises. The key to a great budget model lies in making the right compromises, and not giving up anything too important. The LG Optimus L5 II might just be that ideal combination of compromises that we’ve been looking for.
In essence, the Optimus seems like it really might be the best budget phone around right now, but we took a closer look, just to check things out. We wanted to know exactly what it’s offering, how it compares to the competition, and how much you’re likely to pay for it. Should you consider buying the Optimus? Read on and find out.
What the Optimus has Got…
Initial specs on the Optimus are looking good. It’s got a 1 GHz processor, which is pretty good for its price range, many budget models are still running 800 MHz models, and it’s sporting 512 MB of RAM, which is what we’d expect for this kind of processing power. The best thing about the Optimus though is that you get a full 4 inch screen. For a budget phone, that’s very impressive indeed and it’s the same screen size as the iPhone 5S.
On the down side, there’s only 4 GB of internal memory and only 1.4 GB of that is user accessible, but there is an SD card slot so that you can add up to 32 GB of external memory if required. The camera is the standard 5 MP budget phone camera, but there’s no front facing camera, a feature that many of us have come to expect as standard.
The Optimus is a square chocolate bar of a phone. Although the plastic casing has been touched up with a fake metal paint job, it doesn’t look too bad considering. There’s little bezel around the screen, which is nice, and the physical home button glows up in different colours depending on whether you’ve received an email, and SMS or any other kind of notification, a very nice touch.
There’s the usual home and volume physical buttons, but there’s also an extra button that launches the note taking app by default, but can be customised to launch whatever you want (like the camera app for quickly taking pictures), another nice touch from LG. The Optimus feels pretty robust, it’s not as thin as a top end model, but it’s no brick either, and it weighs a mere 103 grams, which is pretty light.
In general, the Optimus is offering some pretty good specs in a nicely designed body for a very fair price, and you can’t really do better than that in a budget phone, though the real question is how it stands up to the competition.
How the Optimus Competes…
The Optimus L5 II competes very well indeed. Compared to the older original Optimus L5, the II version has a faster processor and better screen, though screen size is the same. Up against the comparably priced Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 the Optimus blows the competition away, coming out ahead in every way, and against the Samsung Galaxy Fame it does even better.
The closest competing Windows model is going to be the HTC 8S, and they’re relatively equal. They both have the same screen size and processing power and whilst the HTC has better Bluetooth support, the Optimus comes in smaller, thinner and lighter.
What You’ll be Paying…
The Optimus L5 II is retailing for a very reasonable £170, whilst the older original L5 model is around £130. The Samsung Galaxy Fame is £150, and the Galaxy Ace 2 and the HTC 8S are both £180. The Optimus really is a good deal.
As with many budget phones operators are not offering down payment contracts on the Optimus. Making a down payment on a phone rather than getting it free with a contract, generally means that your monthly payments get lower. In this case though, you’re not going to have this option.
Given this, your cheapest contract option on the Optimus is going to be with O2, and you’ll pay £11 a month on a calling plan with a low 100 MB data limit. You can get a 250 MB data allowance from Talk Mobile for £12 a month, a 500 MB limit for £13 a month also from Talk Mobile, and a 750 MB limit from O2 for £22 a month. You can get a 1 GB limit from O2 for £27 a month; however Three will give you unlimited data for a cheaper £23 a month.
What’s Not to Love?
It’s difficult to find fault with the Optimus. We would have liked a front facing camera, but we’re willing to compromise on that to get the larger screen that the Optimus has. More usable memory would be nice, but we can always throw in a cheap memory card, so that’s not a real problem. All in all, the Optimus is an excellent phone for an excellent price.
Should you buy it? Absolutely. If you’re looking for a good budget smart phone, then the Optimus is probably the best you’re going to get for under £200. We’d take it over the competition any day, and frankly the Optimus is maybe the best looking of all the budget phones we’ve seen so far as well, which is a bit of a bonus.
Phil Turner was asked by his daughter for a new phone. He purchased the lg optimus l5 smartphone after reading reviews on websites like uSwitch.
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