LG Marquee

LG has got a name for itself in the smartphone industry thanks to its impressive Optimus lineup. For instance the LG Optimus 2X and LG Optimus were the world’s first in their own categories as the former was the first ever phone to have a dual-core processor while the latter was the first to give us 3D on a phone. Then there is Sprint’s LG Marquee which is essentially the Optimus Black which we already know to be a stylish and trendy phone. So in this review let’s see what Sprint has done to spice things up.

Design
Measuring 4.8 x 2.52 x 0.36 inches, it has got the waistline that cannot be rivaled by most phones out there as even the later iPhone 4S is slightly thicker than this one. Add the tapered vertical edges it sports to the slim design and it is a phone that you would want to keep in your hand all the time. The LG Marquee also has a fashionable battery cover that makes the phone stand out. On the front sits the 4 inch WVGA NOVA LCD screen which is something we loved on this phone, but more on that later on in the review. The usual set of buttons and ports can be found around the phone like the volume rocker, standard audio jack and power button. Adding to this usual list is a customizable key plus the microUSB port that slides close. We liked how we could distinguish the buttons from the chassis as they were raised enough except for the power button which wasn’t given the same treatment as it is nearly flush with the phone’s body. On the back of the LG Marquee sits a 5MP camera that comes with LED flash. It is situated along the top of the battery door which is a highlight in itself with its design. It has vertical stripes overtop the chromed finish giving it a really stylish look. Also on the back is the single speaker. Another noticeable feature is how the capacitive buttons under the screen changes from white to blue when pressed.

Features
The LG Marquee is powered by a 1GHz TI OMAP 3630 processor which on our Quadrant scores produced scores a little less than 1000. However we won’t get too worked up about the scores as when we tested the phone we didn’t feel like the processor wasn’t good enough, in fact we felt it carried out its tasks smoothly. The 512MB of RAM and 2GB of ROM are there to make things all the more better too.

This phone is running on the Android v2.3 and is compatible with the SprintID. We also loved the fact that with this SprintID we don’t have to install an ID from the get-go unlike how it used to be on the Samsung Transform for instance. The Android as always did not let us down with its fluid performance and we are also glad that there is less pre-installed software on the LG Marquee. With the DLNA capabilities on the phone, the SmartShare app is an app that fits in perfectly. Other apps out of the box are the Sprint Wallet, Polaris Office and the Zone and ID apps. The key below the volume rocker which can be customized to load an app of your choice is also a great addition. When you are using the camera on the LG Marquee, the button doubles the physical camera shutter button. The onscreen keyboard supports Swype functionalities and it was nice to find no lag issues with this feature. In terms of multimedia, although we only got a result of 15fps in our Quadrant test we still enjoyed watching videos as we couldn’t tell of any severe issues. Most video formats like the H.264, MPEG-4 and Xvid all played extremely well at 720p but there was some noticeable artifacting with DivX files. Since we are using the stock Android music and video players, there are no problems there either.

As mentioned earlier, the LG Marquee comes with a 4 inch WVGA NOVA LCD screen which is one of the highlights of this phone as we could make out everything even under direct sunlight which goes to show that it sports amazing brightness. It may not have the PPI to match that of the iPhone but the NOVA screen is awesome in terms of clarity.

This phone has a 5MP camera that has LED flash as well and from our tests, the photos under natural lighting produced decent results with good color reproduction, great details and in all some amazing photos. The same however cannot be said of the LG Marquee’s performance in the dark as the pictures were grainy and the details were poor too. Sadly the LED flash didn’t do too much to help out. Video recording is at a resolution of 720p and at a rate of 23fps. This resulted in good videos but it isn’t the best. Nevertheless, audio was still good in the recordings.

The LG Marquee offers 3G internet connectivity but Sprint has this one with the Rev. A technology instead of Rev. 0 which means this phone can be considered to be one of Sprint’s higher end phones. Other connectivity options like Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPA and Bluetooth 3.0 are all found on this phone. In terms of internet browsing, the stock Android browser is great and things like double-tap or pinch to zoom are super responsive. Lacking 4G means some of the complex pages do not load as fast but it’s still good nevertheless.

Call quality on the LG Marquee was something our friends on the other end were happy with albeit our voice on their end apparently sounded a little hollow. As for the voice we heard on our end, it was good with good volume both on the earpiece and speakerphone. Battery life is pretty bad as it is only rated to last about 6 hours which isn’t that good for a smartphone and that maybe down to the 1500mAh battery we get onboard this phone.

Pros and Cons
The highlight of the LG Marquee is the 4 inch NOVA display which is bright and clear. It is also ultra thin and has got pretty decent call quality.

Battery life on the LG Marquee needs some work and the camera needs to be improved especially for indoor settings.

Conclusion
The LG Marquee is another great phone in LG’s recent lineup of smartphones but when compared to some of the other high end phones in the market this phone may lose out. Nevertheless, it is a super thin and stylish phone that has some decent specs to go with it too.