Difference Between LG Lucid 4G and LG Spectrum

LG Lucid 4G vs LG Spectrum | Speed, Performance and Features Reviewed | Full Specs Compared
 

The mobile phone market is synonymous to an ongoing war. There are certain ranks of soldiers in every war. There are elite warriors, there are pawns, there are knights, and there are bishops. The elite warriors are few in numbers but rather anticipated and powerful against all odds. They are the trump cards respective authorities have. All the other soldiers fall behind and follow the lead given by these elite warriors. Sometimes, soldiers mimic the actions of the other side in order to create a diversion. In any case, the front line of the war is occupied with the ground soldiers or the pawns. In terms of the mobile phone market, these pawns are synonymous to the low end phones that are manufactured in large amounts. Then there are mid-range phones and elite mobile phones that are anticipated by almost everyone. It is the lead given by these elite mobiles phones that others follow. This can be clearly seen in any mobile phone manufacturer. For instance, the 4G LTE connectivity used to be a luxury for elite smartphones, but now it’s becoming a commodity and propagating to the middle range smartphones, as well. As it can be seen, the example was set by the elite warriors to be followed by the soldiers.

However, the two smartphones we are going to talk about today doesn’t fall in to the same category. One is an elite smartphone while the other is a mid-range smartphone. LG has been one of the first handsets to embrace LTE connectivity. Without disappointment, it has become a pioneer in introducing LTE to the mid-range market, as well. Their rumored LG Lucid 4G which is codenamed as Cayman is to be released soon to Verizon’s 4G LTE network. We have come across some credible evidence on the specifications of Lucid, so based on them; we will make the comparison between these two handsets.

LG Lucid 4G

Looking at Lucid, we can identify the typical characteristics of a mid-range Android handset although we are somewhat worried about the operating system version. Lucid will have 1.2GHz dual core processor and will run on Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread which is not exactly appealing right now. For the sake of LG, we really hope they would announce an upgrade to v4.0 ICS, as well. We don’t have information about the capacity of RAM, but it’s bound to be more than 768MB. It comes with 4.0 inches IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels at a pixel density of 233ppi. It is at the hefty side of the spectrum weighing 142g and has the dimensions of 119.1 x 62.2mm.

LG has included 5MP camera in Lucid 4G with autofocus and LED flash that has geo tagging and smile detection. It can also record videos, but we don’t have information on the quality of the stream. The specs also state that Lucid will have a front camera to be used in video conferences. This comes as a CDMA smartphone, and the specialty is that it brings 4G LTE connectivity into the table. The processor seems to have enough power to seamlessly multitask and switch between processor intensive applications. It also has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n for continuous connectivity and one can easily share their high speed internet connection using the built-in Wi-Fi hotspot functionality. The internal storage starts at 8GB but fortunately it can be expanded using a microSD card up to 32GB. It has 1700mAh battery, and we assume it would be able to work for around 7-8 hours with a single charge although we can’t guarantee.

LG Spectrum

LG is a mature vendor in the mobile phone arena with a lot of experience in identifying the trends of the market and going along with them to maximize their penetration. The buzz words in the industry nowadays are 4G connectivity, true HD screen panels, high end cameras with 1080p HD capturing etc. Although it’s not a surprise, we are glad to say that LG has captured all of these under the hood of LG Spectrum.

We’ll start the comparison by mentioning that LG Spectrum is not a GSM device; thus it would only work in CDMA network, which makes it different from all the GSM devices, and we’d have preferred if LG released a more popular GSM version of this handset too. Nonetheless, it comes with the blazing fast LTE 700 connectivity for internet browsing. The Spectrum features 1.5GHz Scorpion S3 dual core processor on top of Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset and Adreno 220 GPU. This combination is boosted by 1GB RAM and controlled by Android OS v2.3 Gingerbread with the promise to provide an upgrade to v4.0 IceCreamSandwich. It has 4.5 inches of gigantic HD-IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring true HD resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels and a pixel density of 326ppi. In layman’s terms, what this means is that you get crystal clear images in extreme conditions like direct sunlight, wonderful color reproduction, crisp and clear text down to the smallest details, utilizing less amounts of power. The availability of high speed internet connection would mean seamless browsing through your mails, light browsing and social networks. The ultimate power of the processor enables you to multi task in such a way that you can still browse, play games and enjoy media content while you’re on a voice call.

LG has included 8MP camera in Spectrum which has autofocus and LED flash with geo tagging enabled. It can capture 1080p HD videos @ 30 frames per second with LED video light included and the 1.3MP front camera certainly is good for video conferences. It also has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Spectrum can also act as a wi-fi hotspot which would be an ideal way for the user to share his super-fast LTE connectivity with friends easily. The built in DLNA functionality means that Spectrum can wirelessly stream rich media content to smart TVs. A special feature of LG spectrum is that it comes with ESPN’s ScoreCenter app that enables you to enjoy sports in HD on your screen. It also has TV-out via MHL A/V link and usual sensors like accelerometer, gyro sensor and proximity sensor.

LG spectrum is somewhat big, obviously because of the gigantic screen, but it’s somewhat heftier as well scoring a weight of 141.5g and a thickness of 10.4mm. It has an expensive and elegant look with pleasing ergonomics. We gathered the 1830mAh battery would work for 8 hours after full charge, which is admirable for a smartphone with a gigantic screen like this.

Conclusion

In a real war, even a ground soldier can rise to the position of a high ranking officer with experience and training. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with the smartphones. Once they are placed in a rank, they can only go below. As the introduction suggested, we were comparing an elite warrior and a counterpart that followed warrior’s footsteps. Thus, there won’t be much ambiguity in terms of what would be the best handset. LG Spectrum has a better processor, better display panel with a better resolution and better optics. The larger screen may be perceived as a disadvantage, but it may come in handy at times. Other than that, since both features 4G LTE connectivity and LG Lucid can also competitively multitask, they can be good for business professionals who needs to be connected at all times. In any case, the only apparent difference would be in the price they are being offered. So if, you do want a smartphone with 4G connectivity, but in a tight budget, LG Lucid 4G just might be for you.