Introduction
The LG Optimus One P500 is definitely not the best phone on the market when it comes to performance or features, but it has a certain appeal that will attract many LG fans. The price is certainly lower than what most people expect for so many features and the overall build quality is higher than that of other phones from its class. However, before you decide if you want to purchase this phone or not, you need to take a closer look at its design and at what it can actually do.
Design
In a world of large touch screen phones, the LG Optimus One P500 is quite small: 113.5 mm x 59 mm x 13.3 mm. It comes with a 3.2 inch HVGA screen and the only other details that you will notice on the front part of the device are four small buttons on the very bottom: home, menu, search and back. The screen is big enough for more people and thanks to its 129 g weight, holding the phone is not at all difficult and you can fit it in most pockets. Size is a problem with some touch screen phones, but this is not the case here. Dropping the phone is highly unlikely because the surface is coated in rubber and you instantly get a tight grip. A very thin metallic strip runs around the edges of the phone, which gives it a pretty interesting look. This is where you will find the volume and power buttons, the micro USB connector and the 3.5mm headphone jack.
Features
Before we get into the features of the LG Optimus One P500, you should know that the phone runs on the Android Froyo OS with the help of a 600 MHz processor and 419MB of RAM. This combination works fairly well, but if you push the phone hard enough, you will notice that the processor could have been a little stronger. When it comes to storage space, you will only receive 170MB of built in memory and a 2GB memory card in the package. Luckily, you can purchase a secondary microSD of up to 32GB.
The LG Optimus One P500 offers the multitouch feature, but navigating websites is not exactly smooth. The multitouch screen will work admirably in most situations, but the small resolution of 320 x 480 pixels in not ideal, especially for those who want to use the phone for web browsing. Like with most touch screen phones around, you can use the QWERTY keyboard in both landscape and normal viewing mode, which is quite helpful in most situations. The touch detection is not perfect, but it gets better once you get used to it.
One of the biggest problems with internet browsing through the P500 is the lack of Flash Player 10.1 support. This application is not included and it can’t be downloaded either.
The LG Optimus One P500 comes with a decent three megapixel camera. This is not the best camera in the world by any standards, but those who are not particularly interested in snapping high quality pictures won’t have any problems with it. The pictures will come out clear most of the time and if you happen to notice a memorable moment, the camera will help you get through it. Even with just three megapixels, the camera still performs fairly well when it comes to macro images. Another impressive fact about this camera is that it can track faces with impressive accuracy for such a reasonably priced phone. You can also zoom in digitally if you want to through the help of a couple of side buttons. The best part about the camera is that you can choose the ISO level yourself: 100, 200 or 400. This will help you improve the quality of your pictures, so the phone gets a plus in this category. Overall, the 3MP camera is somewhat efficient and the worst part about it is the resolution, the lack of a flashlight and the poor image quality during night shots.
On the video recording front, the P500 offers an above average performance, at least for the phones in its price range: 640×480 resolution at 18 frames per second. Video playback is also quite effective and the sound quality is particularly high. You can use this phone to play DviX and WMV files, which is definitely a plus.
One of the more impressive features offered by this phone is the proximity sensor. This economical addition will turn off the screen when you start talking on the phone. If you move it away from your head, the light will turn on again. This is a pretty interesting addition and it can prove to be quite helpful for those who don’t like talking with a light in their face.
Quite a few applications are available for the LG Optimus One P500. You can use it to play various games, you can download the YouTube app and you can even use the phone as a navigation system. With the Office app you can open or create .doc and .docx files, so, as long as you are used to the touch screen, you can use the phone as a notebook.
Pros and Cons
The LG Optimus One P500 is quite efficient when it comes to battery life and it performs well in most departments. The operating system knows how to take advantage of the processing unit and RAM and you will enjoy some of the features that LG decided to offer.
On the other hand, the multitouch screen is not the best we’ve seen and you might have some problems with the browsing the internet. The lack of a more efficient camera is also a disadvantage.
Conclusion
In the end, the LG Optimus One P500 is one of the best phones from its price range. It offers a little bit of everything and most people will be able to overlook most of the minor flaws that come with this device.