LG Revolution

With all these Android smartphones in the market and with the release of dual core phones, only a Revolution can make it easier for buyers to pick a phone. Aptly named the LG Revolution in times like this, is this phone truly a revolution?

Design
Sporting a 4.3 inch screen can only mean one thing, a big phone. It measures 5.03 x 2.63 x 0.52 inches and weighs around 190g which is going to be some weight in your pocket. However, the 480 x 800 display that takes up the majority of the face doesn’t disappoint as it’s quite crisp and responsive. There’s also a notification light (that illuminates in bright blue when there’s a message) and a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front together with Android’s. The LG Revolution has a big, black, solid feel to it.  Along each side of the phone there’s a silver strip that gives the phone a sleek finish.This is where all the ports are located. On the right, you have the volume rocker and the HDMI-out port and the left spine has the microUSB port for charging and sideloading content. You have to pull open a little door to access the HDMI and microUSB ports and these are connected via a flimsy piece of plastic. While the power/unlock button and the headphone jack are on top, at the bottom you can find the microphone hole and the ridge to open the battery door. The back of the phone, which is of smooth, dark grey plastic feels great in the hand. The dark blak stripe on the middle fits the 5-megapixel camera and flash. A large speaker strip found at the back is pretty loud for music and conference calls.

Features
The LG Revolution is powered by a 1GHz single core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8655 chip. Don’t look away just yet because it’s a single core phone, as when it came to benchmarks, the Revolution did a pretty fantastic job with a score of 1934 surpassing other single core smartphones.  Although this might come as disappointing news to many, this phone runs on Android 2.2 Froyo.

Moving on to the software side of things, the LG Revolution comes with seven different home screens that can be customized with just a long press. It’s really easy.  One long press on the screen brings up a grid menu for adding widgets, shortcuts or changing your wallpaper. Also as we have seen it various other UIs, you can zoom out to view all 7 home screens at once so as to not lose track of what you were/are doing. The Revolution also comes with Bing as the default search engine. Although this is not a problem to those who can see Bing on the same page as Google, but to those who can’t, the fact that you are being forced into a certain option can be a turn off.

The standard TFT WVGA 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 touchscreen display still looks very sharp but really isn’t the top of the line. When compared with the Droid Charge, the difference is just miles apart. The Droid Charge just had much deeper and more vibrant colors.

Although not coming with an 8-megapixel camera like many other smartphones these days do, numbers can sometimes be deceiving as we discover with the LG Revolution.  The images from this 5 MP camera were highly detailed albeit having slightly washed out colors in images taken in direct sunlight. Low-light pictures have to be the stand out feature with this camera, as the pictures turned out magnificent. For those camera freaks out there, you can also play around with the camera as there are many settings to fiddle around with like focus, ISO and white balance. Videos are recorded in 720p HD and when the files are played back on the computer the videos played out smooth and with a beautiful end result. There were no hiccups with the aspect ratio as we had seen with the Black.

The LG Revolution has a relatively standard browser than can be found on most Android handsets.  The fact that the pages load quickly (mainly due to 4G), and the big screen makes it real fun to use when surfing the net. The auto-zoom and intelligent zooming features are pretty cool too. When it comes to surfing, the Revolution boasts superb 4G speeds and that’s something to cheer about. However, when it comes to mobile hotspot, Revolution has a habit of disconnecting from the hotspot out of nowhere.

Call quality was pretty exceptional and they were no issues with signal strength either. The battery life however is what everyone is interested in since no one likes a phone that dies off in the middle of the day when it’s needed most. 4G connectivity and a 1,500 mAh battery never translates into a good battery life experience, we found out that the Revolution lasted  only 9 hours of frequent use before the indicator turned red. It’s a known fact that Mobile Hotspots are going to drain the battery fairly quick, so it’s recommended that you have a spare battery lying around if you are heavily dependent on your phone to breathe.

Pros and Cons
The Revolution boasts a pretty crisp touch screen making the 4.3-inch screen standout.  Besides, it’s HDMI-out functionality is something to note as well. The Revolution is also strengthened with its fast 4G speeds.

The fact that it’s Bing-afied will definitely be a downer for users who like complete freedom with their phones.  The battery life is also an issue as it drains out pretty quickly with heavy use.  

Conclusion
As it must have done to everyone, the word Revolution made me think about a serious change or a big leap in technology that was to be expected on this phone. While the LG Revolution is a good smartphone there was hardly a standout feature that deserves to be called a Revolution.  Nevertheless, the Revolution’s a smartphone that shouldn’t be brushed aside as it’s definitely one of the better 4G smartphones out there.