{"id":749944,"date":"2013-05-06T13:56:31","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T17:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=642478"},"modified":"2013-05-06T13:56:31","modified_gmt":"2013-05-06T17:56:31","slug":"first-impressions-of-a-new-flagship-the-lg-optimus-g-pro-for-att","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/749944","title":{"rendered":"First impressions of a new flagship, the LG Optimus G Pro for AT&amp;T"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, AT&#38;T announced it is <a href=\"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/2013\/05\/01\/att-gets-another-exclusive-lg-optimus-g-pro-for-199-with-contract\/\">exclusively selling the LG Optimus G Pro for $199<\/a> with contract. The phone can be pre-ordered now and is expected to be available on May 10. I received an early review unit and have spent just a little time so far using the phone. A few things already stand out to me: LG is mimicking Samsung&#8217;s large phone approach &#8212; both with hardware and software &#8212; and those looking for a flagship phone will have to add the Optimus G Pro to their list of potential candidates.<\/p> <p>I&#8217;ll have a full review forthcoming &#8212; I never review a phone without at least five days use for testing battery life and other reasons &#8212; but for now, here are my first impressions, in no particular order, followed a some images of the phone.<\/p> <ul> <li><span style=\"line-height:13px;\">When I first removed the phone from the box, I thought I was sent the wrong phone. It appears nearly identical to the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, although LG&#8217;s new handset is roughly a quarter-inch narrower in width. And that small width shaving makes a big difference &#8212; for the better &#8212; when holding this phone.<\/span><\/li> <li><span style=\"line-height:13px;\">Like the Note 2, the Optimus G Pro is all plastic and has a\u00a0removable\u00a0back cover. In all seriousness: If I didn&#8217;t see the LG branding on the top of the device, I would have sworn it was Samsung made.<\/span><\/li> <li>The 5.5-inch 1080p display is excellent, easily rivaling those on the Galaxy S 4 and HTC One, both of which also have 1920 x 1080 resolution screens. There&#8217;s nary a pixel to be seen.<\/li> <li>LG&#8217;s software is much improved over earlier efforts. Although this phone doesn&#8217;t run stock Android, LG&#8217;s skin is very minimal compared to similar phones. The home screens have a nice 3D effect: When swiping through them, everything on the display rotates around the left axis of the screen as if the icons and widgets were rotating around a flagpole.<\/li> <li>Short of LG&#8217;s Tag+ NFC software and an IR remote control app, there are no other LG-specific apps. The same can&#8217;t be said of AT&#38;T: I count at least nine bits of software from the carrier.<\/li> <li>Similar to the Galaxy S 4, the Optimus G Pro has settings split up by four tabs. It&#8217;s not a confusing layout, but clearly the high-end Android phones are gaining more features that could add complexity. There are no hover gestures, but you can pause video by turning the phone over.<\/li> <li>A quad-core 1.7 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 with 2 GB of memory powers the phone and for some reason it appears to perform a <em>smidge<\/em> better than the HTC One and Galaxy S 4 in my limited usage so far. I suspect the lack of a complex skin atop Android may be the reason, however, it&#8217;s too early to determine a performance winner.<\/li> <li>I don&#8217;t mind a physical home button on Android phones although some do. The one on the Optimus G Pro isn&#8217;t my favorite though. I find it too small; it&#8217;s wide enough, but very thin. It does, however, have a nice LED ring around it with different colors for notifications and such. I also personally don&#8217;t like the placement of the two capacitive buttons: Back is on the left side of the Home button, while Menu is to the right. This may not bother others.<\/li> <li>The phone comes with 32 GB of internal memory at this price; cheaper than the 32 GB Galaxy S 4. And you can expand it, unlike the HTC One, although some won&#8217;t have to. However, the total space available is 23.3 GB, which surprises me; I would have expected around 26 GB or so. Carrier bloatware, perhaps?<\/li> <li>Like many new phones, the Optimus G Pro ships with Android 4.1.2. There is a bit of multitasking capability as some apps and widgets have a transparency slider. Use this and the app is see through so you can interact with other apps. Slide it back for the original app to regain focus.<\/li> <li>Although there isn&#8217;t a stylus, the phone has a dedicated note-taking app called QuickMemo, which is available from the drop-down notifications shade. I almost wish there was a stylus because I don&#8217;t see many folks taking notes here with their fingers.<\/li> <li>I haven&#8217;t taken many photos with the 13 megapixel rear camera yet. I did notice that there are only a few camera modes: Normal, HDR, Panorama, VR Panorama, Burst Shot and Beauty Shot. Perhaps that&#8217;s a good thing so consumers won&#8217;t get overwhelmed by a wider range of image modes.<\/li> <li>It&#8217;s too early to determine battery life on a single charge. However, with a\u00a03140 mAh battery, I&#8217;d be disappointed (and somewhat surprised) if this phone doesn&#8217;t easily last a full day for all but a very select number of power users.<\/li> <\/ul> <br \/> <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stats.wordpress.com\/b.gif?resize=1%2C1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><p><a href=\"http:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/jump?iu=\/1008864\/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&%23038;c=637561\"><img src=\"http:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ad?iu=\/1008864\/GigaOM_RSS_300x250&#038;sz=300x250&%23038;c=637561\" \/><\/a><\/p><p><strong>Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:<\/strong><br \/>Subscriber content. <a href=\"http:\/\/pro.gigaom.com\/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=642478+first-impressions-of-a-new-flagship-the-lg-optimus-g-pro-for-att&utm_content=kevintofel\">Sign up for a free trial<\/a>.<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"http:\/\/pro.gigaom.com\/2011\/09\/the-future-of-mobile-a-segment-analysis-by-gigaom-pro\/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=642478+first-impressions-of-a-new-flagship-the-lg-optimus-g-pro-for-att&utm_content=kevintofel\">The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/pro.gigaom.com\/2012\/09\/mobile-industry-2012-segment-analysis\/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=642478+first-impressions-of-a-new-flagship-the-lg-optimus-g-pro-for-att&utm_content=kevintofel\">Mobile 2012 and beyond<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/pro.gigaom.com\/2012\/02\/ces-2012-a-recap-and-analysis\/?utm_source=mobile&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=auto3&utm_term=642478+first-impressions-of-a-new-flagship-the-lg-optimus-g-pro-for-att&utm_content=kevintofel\">CES 2012: a recap and analysis<\/a><\/li><\/ul><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gigaom.feedsportal.com\/c\/34996\/f\/646446\/s\/2b9531a3\/mf.gif?resize=1%2C1\" border='0'\/><div class='mf-viral'><table border='0'><tr><td valign='middle'><a href=\"http:\/\/share.feedsportal.com\/share\/twitter\/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgigaom.com%2F2013%2F05%2F06%2Ffirst-impressions-of-a-new-flagship-the-lg-optimus-g-pro-for-att%2F&t=First+impressions+of+a+new+flagship%2C+the+LG+Optimus+G+Pro+for+AT%26T\" ><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/res3.feedsportal.com\/social\/twitter.png?w=780\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/share.feedsportal.com\/share\/facebook\/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgigaom.com%2F2013%2F05%2F06%2Ffirst-impressions-of-a-new-flagship-the-lg-optimus-g-pro-for-att%2F&t=First+impressions+of+a+new+flagship%2C+the+LG+Optimus+G+Pro+for+AT%26T\" ><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/res3.feedsportal.com\/social\/facebook.png?w=780\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/share.feedsportal.com\/share\/linkedin\/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgigaom.com%2F2013%2F05%2F06%2Ffirst-impressions-of-a-new-flagship-the-lg-optimus-g-pro-for-att%2F&t=First+impressions+of+a+new+flagship%2C+the+LG+Optimus+G+Pro+for+AT%26T\" ><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/res3.feedsportal.com\/social\/linkedin.png?w=780\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/share.feedsportal.com\/share\/gplus\/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgigaom.com%2F2013%2F05%2F06%2Ffirst-impressions-of-a-new-flagship-the-lg-optimus-g-pro-for-att%2F&t=First+impressions+of+a+new+flagship%2C+the+LG+Optimus+G+Pro+for+AT%26T\" ><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/res3.feedsportal.com\/social\/googleplus.png?w=780\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/share.feedsportal.com\/share\/email\/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgigaom.com%2F2013%2F05%2F06%2Ffirst-impressions-of-a-new-flagship-the-lg-optimus-g-pro-for-att%2F&t=First+impressions+of+a+new+flagship%2C+the+LG+Optimus+G+Pro+for+AT%26T\" ><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/res3.feedsportal.com\/social\/email.png?w=780\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/td><td valign='middle'><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/div><br\/><br\/><a href=\"http:\/\/da.feedsportal.com\/r\/164876713438\/u\/49\/f\/646446\/c\/34996\/s\/2b9531a3\/a2.htm\"><img src=\"http:\/\/da.feedsportal.com\/r\/164876713438\/u\/49\/f\/646446\/c\/34996\/s\/2b9531a3\/a2.img\" border=\"0\"\/><\/a><img width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"http:\/\/pi.feedsportal.com\/r\/164876713438\/u\/49\/f\/646446\/c\/34996\/s\/2b9531a3\/a2t.img\" border=\"0\"\/><div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/OmMalik?a=v41YqKfXMVg:Kx2WrY9BG2I:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/OmMalik?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div><img src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/OmMalik\/~4\/v41YqKfXMVg\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, AT&#38;T announced it is exclusively selling the LG Optimus G Pro for $199 with contract. The phone can be pre-ordered now and is expected to be available on May 10. I received an early review unit and have spent just a little time so far using the phone. A few things already stand [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":288,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4821],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-749944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-395S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/288"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}