Review LG Revolution

Posted by newbie Monday, July 25, 2011 0 comments

What's hot: 4G LTE, large display, nice software customizations.
What's not: Battery life, reception on LTE.

Reviewed June 1, 2011 by Lisa Gade, Editor in Chief
The LG Revolution is Verizon�s third 4G LTE Android phone. If you could mingle the design esthetic of the HTC Thunderbolt with Samsung�s penchant for colorful user interface modifications like TouchWiz on the Droid Charge, you�d have the Revolution. But does the Revolution live up to its name? As LG�s first LTE phone in the US, it does, but otherwise not so much.

This high end smartphone has a bright 4.3� 800 x 480 display that�s a notch above the Thunderbolt�s but not as colorful or vivid as the Droid Charge�s Super AMOLED Plus touch screen. The display is more color saturated than the HTC, but has poor viewing angles. Text is clear and images are pleasing, though theDroid X2 has a sharper and higher resolution display that makes text much sharper.
Like the Thunderbolt and Charge, the phone runs on a single core CPU because LTE and the dual core Tegra 2 don�t seem to play together nicely. That means you get a second generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz CPU with Adreno 205 graphics. Froyo (Android OS 2.2) powers the phone with moderate LG user interface customizations that we confess to enjoy. Though the icons are a bit cartoonish and some UI touches seem very influenced by Samsung�s TouchWiz UI, we like the customization not only of the home screen but the applications screen (see our video review to see the UI in action).

The LG is a decently attractive phone that doesn�t look cheap, though it�s covered with plastics. We really like the soft touch finish and comfortable curves that make this quite large phone pleasing to hold (I do have large hands). That said, this is a large smartphone (the curse of LTE) and it�s just a hair thicker than the Thunderbolt but no thicker than the Charge. In terms of looks and materials, the HTC Thunderbolt is on top, the LG Revolution is in the middle and the somewhat oddly shaped Samsung Droid Charge comes in last. The power button and 3.5mm stereo jack are conveniently located up top, and the micro HDMI and micro USB ports live under fiddly plastic doors under the faux chrome surround on the sides.
The expected high end goodies are here: HDMI out (480/720p) with HDCP copy protection support, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0 and WiFi 802.11b/g/n. We�re slightly disappointed that the phone has LG�s 5 MP rather than 8 MP main camera but we�re happy with the front 1.3MP video chat camera. Image quality from the rear camera is good; LG generally doesn�t disappoint with camera optics.
Despite being a Google phone, Verizon ships the LG with Bing rather than Google search, but you can download Google Search and Google Maps and Navigation from the Market. The Android version of VZ Navigator is pre-installed and it works well with the Revolution's GPS. The LG ships with Netflix-- still not common on Android phones, and it performs well.