Yes, I, John Obeto II, have been using an Android device!
How did it go?
Read on.
The LG Optimus G is a latest-generation Android smartphone utilizing a quad-core Snapdragon CPU paired with a 4.7” screen. It also has dual cameras, video, and built-in apps. Equipped with Sprint 4G LTE, this phone is a screamer.
Unboxing
The Optimus G came in a somewhat nondescript brown box which screamed of being ‘green’.
It contained the phone, user guides in English and Spanish, a nylon recycle envelope – irony, right?, power cables, an NFC pair, and Sprint TOS verbiage paperwork.
Since the Optimus G uses a microUSB charging slot, I took just the phone out of the case, and put the shipping case away.
I proceeded to charge the phone for 4 hours, my customary new device charging interval.
Setup
This is a beautiful device
In fact, I didn’t give it enough props for being so until I held it against the Nokia Lumia 920*. Against that exceptional device, the Optimus G still looks good. That’s impressive!
The screen is large, lovely, and doesn’t have the feel that you’re holding a device Gigantor would feel comfortable with. It seems sized for humans, and the case material is comfortable to the grip.
This system came to me prepaid and all that. However, I must confess to being impressed with the OTA (over-the-air) activation once connected to the sprint network. That is mungo cool!
Snap! And it was activated.
Using the LG Optimus G
The rest of this review will attempt to separate the Optimus G from the mobile network, Sprint, and the OS, Android, if possible.
As stated earlier, the LG Optimus G is a fine smartphone.
Phone quality is quite good, and when connected to Sprint’s LTE network, the device is a keeper.
What I’ve liked a lot about the Optimus G is the camera and video subsystem.
So far, I’ve heard of the impressively-spec’d cameras in the Nokia Lumia devices. However, I haven’t had the opportunity to try them.
What I can tell you, is that the cameras in the Nokia Lumia 920 had better beat the cameras in the Optimus G!
This device has a 13 MP rear-facing camera with the following specs: the ability to record 1080p HD video, advanced optics and near-zero shutter lag, a 1.3 MP front-facing camera, 32GB of internal memory, and get this, a free 50GB Box.com account!
Moreover, the camera features in the Optimus G come w/ even more apps.
Under the moniker “cross-tasking”, Optimus G allows users to
- Send a text – called QSlide – while watching a video,
- Simultaneously see two screens in order to do that,
- Send video output to a second screen, aka TV,
- Adjust the transparency of the Optimus G’s screen to accomplish these tasks.
Other functions I have used include the QuickMemo functions, which allowed me to compose memos, capturing screens, inking on them and then sending those off.
Without a doubt, this is a good phone.
Sprint Service
I have Sprint’s mobile telco service.
I use it personally, and for MedikLabs. For which we have a total of 11 phones, all running Windows Phone 7.5, v7.10.7720.62. In January of 2013! On the incredibly fugly HTC Arrive phones.
Service is crappy in my little piece of rural Northern Colorado, and the Sprint service, while with unlimited data, is ONLY useful when I connect it to WiFi.
No change with the 4G LTE service, which is only available in Denver and environs.
So, basically useless.
Android
The Optimus G came with Android 4.0
In order to buy apps, I reactivated my old Blogspot account, and found I had several thousand emails awaiting my triaging.
Incredibly, the emails included several hundred Google+-related emails.
For which I’ll say “wow”, and apologize to the numerous friends that made them actionable.
I shall get to them someday.
Conclusions 
It is fast, very fluid, and I find quite appealing and impressive the way all menus and icons snap to attention. The use of the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU is genius, and brings to life what the LG Optimus can do. Moreover, the included apps definitely enhance the user experience.
I am impressed with it, and I like it.
I would recommend it without reservation for anyone vested in the Android ecosystem, or conversely, someone not vested in the Microsoft World, and has no intention of doing so.
Next up for this device is the beating of a lifetime, as I will allow my computer science college freshman nephew to do what he wants with it and return feedback.
Stay tuned.
* I’ll have a little blurb about the Nokia Lumia 920 this week.
** I hope to have another, possibly exit review of this device in a couple of months.
*** Once a Nokia Lumia 920-class device makes it to Verizon Wireless, the only national mobile telco with excellent coverage here, I’m changing all personal & MedikLabs phones to VZW in a New York second!
**** At Logikworx, we use AT&T. Thankfully.
© 2003 – 2013, John Obeto II for Blackground Media Unlimited
