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| Edited By: |Source: |Updated: Mar 18, 2018, 06:55 AM IST
LG Optimus Vu:
Value for money: 3.5/5
Performance: 3.5/5
Featues: 4/5
Ergonomics: 2/5
Overall rating: 3/5
Samsung took a big gamble with the Galaxy Note which paid off big-time, making it one of their most successful handsets. It was only natural for other original equipment manufacturers to take this route in order to grab a little sliver of the limelight. LG’s recently launched Optimus Vu in India is one such competitor. However, in order to avoid looking like a direct rip-off, they’ve decided to take a less conventional route.
The Optimus Vu will strike you as odd upon first glance as it sports a very odd 5-inch screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio instead of the typical 16:10 or 16:9. This makes the screen almost square like, which is terribly uncomfortable to hold while using the phone, texting or simply placing it in your pocket. The IPS display does manage to produce some very nice colours with good viewing angles, so I guess that’s its only saving grace.
The chassis looks quite cheap, not fitting for a phone costing upwards of `30K. The chrome edges and textured back panel do not inspire durability or class, we’ve seen Micromax handsets that look better. Besides the usual assortment of ports and buttons, we also have a QuickMemo hotkey on the top that takes a screenshot of the display, allowing you to scribble on it with the bundled stylus. Sadly, the stylus does not fit into the phone nor can it be tethered to it so you’ll have to carry it around separately.
The Optimus Vu comes bundled with Android 4.0.4 amd, LG’s very own skin. The UI is quick and fluid and you’ll notice many elements that are borrowed from other skins like TouchWiz. The phone is powered by a rather powerful Nvidia Tegra 3 SoC, so you get four CPU cores and plenty more for the graphics. The user interface is extremely functional while being colourful, and LG gives you plenty of toggle switches for the notification bar, backup app, DLNA, task manager, LG Tag+ and lots more. You get three NFC tags with the phone which can be reprogrammed with your settings. Media playback is also solid with Dolby Mobile doing a very good job of boosting the audio quality. The video player easily plays back 1080p video, including support for DivX HD. The player also has a neat little trick which lets you skip anywhere in the video while showing you a preview at the same time, so you can skip to that scene directly. You can’t expand the storage, but the 32GB onboard memory should be plenty.
The Vu is fitted with an 8MP snapper that manages some pretty good pictures with good colour retention and good macros in the ideal lighting conditions. Video recording is also a solid 30fps at Full HD with very little jitter. The 2100mAh battery also manages to put on a good show, giving you a full day worth of usage, thanks to the Power Saver mode that kicks in at 30% battery levels and below.
At the end of the day, the Optimus Vu is well spec’d out phone, but the weird shape will be a put-off for many, mostly because it looks more like a cigarette case than a phone. Also, `30, 000 is a lot of money for something that’s going to attract all the wrong attention.
