LG Optimus G Pro vs HTC Droid DNA
The trends in the smartphone market change time to time. Sometimes the tides change rapidly while sometimes it changes moderately. Sometimes, the tides hit a peak and stay there for a while. At this point of the timeline, we see a peak being hit by the smartphone market for high end smartphones. The usual specs revolve around Quad Core processor, 2GB of RAM and 1080p full HD display panel. Any smartphone offering these would certainly be an awesome device without any second thoughts. So it’s the associated peripherals, brand names, marketing and features that do the talking most of the time when you are about to choose which handset to buy. Hence we decided to look at two similar smartphones which fall into the aforementioned category. They have absolutely great specs on the sheet and perform just as better. This is our take on LG Optimus G Pro which was unveiled at the MWC 2013 and HTC Droid DNA which was long known as HTC Butterfly in the Japanese and international markets.
LG Optimus G Pro
LG Optimus G Pro is the successor of LG Optimus G which was released last year. If you are keen about the smartphone market, you might know that Google Nexus 4 had a striking resemblance to LG Optimus G and still have a great demand. With what we have seen so far about the LG Optimus G Pro, we are positive that this is going to create a tight competition in the phablet arena. This handset is based on Qualcomm’s new chipset Snapdragon 600. It was announced recently along with the Snapdragon 800 version which is the best chipset offered by Qualcomm as of yet. The new chipset is said to be considerably faster and enables you to clock the CPU at higher rates. As such, LG Optimus G Pro is powered by 1.7GHz Krait Quad Core processor on top of Qualcomm APQ 8064T Snapdragon 600 chipset along with Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM. Android OS v4.1.2 commands the beast for now, but it will soon get an upgrade for v4.2 Jelly Bean. The internal storage is at 32GB with the ability to expand it using microSD card up to 64GB.
LG has included 5.5 inches True HD IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display panel featuring a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels at a pixel density of 401 ppi. As you can clearly imagine, the display panel is gorgeous and reproduces vibrant and realistic colors. LG has decided to mold the device with plastic unlike the high end devices nowadays which comes with classier materials, but this doesn’t mean the built quality is degraded. It’s just not as classier as having a brushed metal back plate. However, this is compensated by the ruggedness introduced through the plastic material. Like any high-end smartphone nowadays, LG Optimus G Pro offers 4G LTE connectivity as well as 3G HSDPA connectivity. Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n is included for continuous connectivity while it also features the ability to create a Wi-Fi hotspot to share your super-fast internet connection. The inbuilt DLNA capability ensures that you can wirelessly stream rich media content to DLNA enabled big screens for playback. The internal speakers are enhanced for Dolby Mobile Sounds, as well.
LG has decided to give a boost to the optics and included 13MP camera that can capture 1080p HD videos @ 30 frames per second. It also has LED flash and LED video light when capturing movies. The 2.1 front facing camera can be used for video conferencing, and it also enables you to capture 1080p HD videos @ 30 fps. The camera application includes a few tweaks from LG which attracted us. First off, LG has tried to emulate Google’s Photo Sphere feature and also the camera app offers a mode where you can capture from both rear and front cameras. This is a clever use of beasty computational power available in this awesome smartphone. Another tweak added to the OS by LG was the QSlide which enables you to multitask in the same window. The QSlide enables apps can be overlaid on top of one another, and their opacity can be changed using the slider available which gives you access to a couple of apps simultaneously. LG Optimus Pro G is also fortified in terms of battery having 3140mAh battery. This would provide plenty of juice to be drained by the power hungry CPU and display panel throughout the day.
HTC Droid DNA
Usually each flagship device from individual manufacturers has some unique and innovative feature they use to boast in marketing campaigns. Obviously this feature or features may not be that innovative or unique, but if they can conduct a good marketing campaign, people will perceive them as innovative products. In the case of HTC Droid DNA, however, this is not the case. HTC certainly boasts about the 1080p full HD display panel and that is a very good feature to emphasize in this handset. HTC Droid DNA has 5 inches Super LCD3 capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1080 x 1920 with a provoking pixel density of 441ppi. As we mentioned, this strikes as a controversial step to many analysts out there, and it is worth to check their views on the matter. The argument they are making is that you won’t really feel any difference when you have a screen with a pixel density of 441ppi and a screen with a pixel density of 300ppi. This according to them is a phenomenon of the human eye. But recent researches prove this to be wrong and it is implied that this misconception of the human eye cannot distinguish between a 300ppi screen, and a 441ppi screen is encouraged by the announcement made by Steve Jobs when they introduced Retina display. Certain studies carried out implies that the human eye can distinguish a display panel with a pixel density up to 800ppi pessimistically and even more than that if you are optimistic about the calculations. Summing all these technical information in to layman terms, we are trying to imply that 441ppi display panel is not a feature that doesn’t serve any purpose.
Now that we have established that, let us look what more Droid DNA has to offer. HTC Droid DNA is powered by 1.5GHz Krait Quad Core processor on top of Qualcomm APQ8064 chipset with Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM. The operating system in use is Android OS v4.1 Jelly Bean which will obviously be upgraded to v4.2 very soon. We can’t deny the fact that this configuration itself is very lucrative and bears the characteristics of a smartphone that can reach the top of the market. If you take a close look at the specs, you can see that HTC Droid DNA has the exact raw hardware as of Google LG Nexus 4. The internal memory is fixated at 16GB with 11GB of capacity available to the user without the ability to expand using microSD card. Now let us consider two aspects connected to the massive display panel. To enjoy the true HD display panel, you will need to have the capacity to put 1080p Videos at your liberty. 11GB is still a large capacity, but when you consider all of your other requirements like the photos and recorded 1080p videos, power users may find the memory restriction daunting. The second aspect is more favorable which is the performance of the GPU and CPU needed to recreate vivid graphics on a 1080p full HD screen at such a high pixel density. If there’s any configuration capable of doing that, I’m sure that is the Snapdragon S4 hence HTC’s choice is correct. However, they would have to address the problem of battery draining in powering up such a massive display panel. We’ll get in to that subsequently.
At a glance, HTC Droid DNA is really thin and stylishly attractive. It is also very light compared to the usual phablet range scoring a weight of 141.7g. HTC will release a CDMA edition as well as a GSM edition of Droid DNA while enabling users to enjoy Verizon’s super-fast 4g LTE connectivity. Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n adapter ensures continuous connectivity even when you’re out of range from your LTE network. As usual, it comes with DLNA and the capability to host your own Wi-Fi hotspot to share your internet connection with your friends. HTC has decided to include a 8MP camera in Droid DNA as the main snapper. It has autofocus and LED flash along with simultaneous HD video recording and image capturing. The new video stabilization engine promises better video captures than before with 1080p HD video recording at 30 frames per second. The front camera is also a 2.1MP wide angle camera that can capture 1080p HD video @ 30 frames per second, which would enable you to enjoy your video conferences immensely. The battery is relatively small at 2020mAh, and we are waiting for official announcements on how it would perform throughout the day without draining excessively.
A Brief Comparison Between LG Optimus G Pro and HTC Droid DNA
• LG Optimus G Pro is powered by 1.7GHz Krait Quad Core processor on top of Qualcomm APQ 8064T Snapdragon 600 chipset with Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM while HTC Droid DNA is powered by 1.5GHz Krait Quad Core processor on top of Qualcomm APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 chipset with Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM.
• LG Optimus G Pro runs on Android OS v4.1.2 Jelly Bean while HTC Droid DNA runs on Android OS v4.1 Jelly Bean.
• LG Optimus G Pro has 5.5 inches True HD IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display featuring a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels at a pixel density of 401 ppi while HTC Droid DNA has 5 inch Super LCD3 capacitive touchscreen display featuring a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels at a pixel density of 441ppi.
• LG Optimus Pro G has 13MP rear camera and 2.1MP front camera that can capture 1080p HD videos at 30 frames per second while HTC Droid DNA has 8MP back camera and 2.1MP front camera that can capture 1080p HD videos at 30 fps.
• LG Optimus Pro G is bigger, thinner and heavier (150.2 x 76.1 mm / 9.4 mm / 160g) than HTC Droid DNA (141 x 70.5 mm / 9.78 mm / 141.7g).
• LG Optimus Pro G has 3140mAh battery while HTC Droid DNA has 2020mAh battery.
Conclusion
These two smartphones are more or less alike and aimed at the same sector of the smartphone market. Without doubt, both can be identified as high end smartphones and, in fact, they are among the few best smartphones among the market. In short, Quad Core processors, 2GB RAM, Adreno 320 GPU and a gorgeous and colorful 1080p full HD display panel; what else would you possibly want right now? That would be the exclamation from any tech enthusiastic. If you are to look a little bit further, you might see that LG Optimus G Pro might be just a notch faster than HTC Droid DNA, not because of the 200MHz increase in the clock rate, but with the inclusion of the brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset. Apart from that and another couple of cool features added by LG to the OS along with the boost in optics concludes the difference between LG Optimus G Pro and HTC Droid DNA. We at DifferenceBetween believe that the only tangible differentiating factor in buying either one of these smartphones is either the availability of the price they are offered.