LG Optimus G Pro vs Samsung Galaxy Note 2
Samsung is one of the most innovative smartphone companies in the world and also the manufacturer with the highest volume of sale. This is because of their constant innovation and product differentiation together with the brilliant marketing stunts. Their product portfolio to date represents one of the most vivid portfolios in any smartphone manufacturer. They have Android smartphones at the high end, mid-range, low range and entry level. They have Windows Phone smartphones catering the same sectors as mentioned above. They used to have Symbian smartphones when it the operating system was popular back in the days. They also have alternate mobile phones that run their own operating system at their lowest level which make up their total portfolio. It is this portfolio that has landed them at the top of the mobile phone market, and it seems they have every intention of keeping it. Here, we are going to compare two similar smartphones released almost 7 months apart. LG Optimus G Pro is our newest candidate only released this month against Samsung Galaxy Note 2 which was revealed in August 2012. So here’s our take on smartphone tablet hybrids; or Phablets as we’ve come to call them.
LG Optimus G Pro Review
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.
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Review
Samsung’s Galaxy line is the prominent and flagship product line that has earned much respect towards the company. It is also these products that have the highest return for Samsung’s investments. Hence Samsung always maintains the quality of these products at a very high level. At a glance, Samsung Galaxy Note 2 isn’t any different to that image. It has a majestic look that closely resembles the looks of Galaxy S3 with the same Marble White and Titanium Grey color combinations. It has a 5.5 inches Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with vibrant color patterns and the deepest blacks you could ever see. The screen was viewable from very wide angles, as well. It features a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 267ppi with a 16:9 widescreen. Samsung promises that the screen is more optimized to today’s visually oriented apps. It goes without saying that the screen is reinforced with Corning Gorilla Glass 2, to make it extra scratch resistant.
Following the footsteps of Galaxy Note, Note 2 is slightly bigger scoring dimensions of 151.1 x 80.5mm and has a thickness of 9.4mm and a weight of 180g. The layout of the buttons hasn’t changed where it features the big home button at the bottom with two touch buttons on either side of it. Inside this housing has the best processor that is featured in a smartphone. Samsung Galaxy Note 2 comes with 1.6GHz Cortex A9 Quad Core processor on Samsung Exynos 4412 Quad chipset with Mali 400MP GPU. The powerful set of hardware components is governed by the brand new Android OS Jelly Bean. It also features a 2GB RAM with 16, 32 and 64GBs of internal storage and has the option to expand the capacity using a microSD card.
The network connectivity is reinforced with 4G LTE that varies regionally. Galaxy Note II also features Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n with DLNA and the ability to create Wi-Fi hotspots to share your internet connection with friends. It also has NFC along with Google Wallet. The 8MP camera has become a standard in the smartphones these days and Note II features a 2MP camera on the front for the use of video conferencing. The back camera can capture 1080p HD videos at 30 frames per second with image stabilization. One of the specialties in Galaxy Note series is the S Pen stylus provided with them. In Galaxy Note II, this stylus can do a lot more compared to the conventional styluses featured in the market. For instance, you can flip over a photo, to get its virtual backside and scribble down notes just as we do on actual photos sometimes. It can also act as a virtual pointer on the Note 2’s screen which was a cool feature. Galaxy Note II also has the function to record your screen, every key stroke, pen marking and stereo audio and save it to a video file.
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 features a 3100mAh battery that may be able to survive for 8 hours or more with the power hungry processor. The increased mileage of the battery will suffice for the bag of tricks introduced with the Galaxy Note II compared to the original Note.
A Brief Comparison Between LG Optimus G Pro and Samsung Galaxy Note 2
• 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 Samsung Galaxy Note II is powered by 1.6GHz Cortex A9 Quad Core processor on top of Samsung Exynos 4412 Quad chipset with Mali 400MP GPU and 2GB of RAM.
• LG Optimus G Pro runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean while Samsung Galaxy Note II runs on Android 4.1 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 Samsung Galaxy Note II features a bigger screen of 5.5 inches featuring a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 267ppi.
• 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 Samsung Galaxy Note II has 8MP back camera and 1.9MP front camera that can capture 1080p HD videos at 30 fps.
• LG Optimus G Pro is smaller, slightly lighter (150.2 x 76.1 mm / 9.4 mm / 172g) and has the same thickness as Samsung Galaxy Note II (151.2 x 80.5 mm / 9.4 mm / 183g).
• LG Optimus G Pro has 3140mAh battery while Samsung Galaxy Note II has 3100mAh battery.
Conclusion
LG Optimus G Pro and Samsung Galaxy Note II fall into the same category that Samsung Galaxy Note first introduced to the smartphone market. The category was called Phablet when Note surfaced because they were practically gigantic smartphones at the time which may well look like a tablet; hence the name Phablet. However, with the time we got used to it and now it has become a slightly bigger smartphone because the general smartphone screen size is becoming 5 inches nowadays. We need to understand that Samsung Galaxy Note II was released last September while LG Optimus G Pro on this April giving LG Optimus G Pro plenty of time to adapt to new advancements of smartphone market. As such, LG Optimus G Pro features a vibrant 1080p display which has become a standard for the high end smartphones now; made use of newer Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chipset and improved their optics to 13MP. Still the one thing they didn’t replicate is the S-Pen Stylus that comes with Samsung Galaxy Note II which can be a life saver sometimes. It’s not to say that LG Optimus G Pro doesn’t allow you to use an S-Pen Stylus, but Galaxy Note II comes inbuilt with a Stylus which is more convenient. Besides that fact, however, LG Optimus G Pro is better than Samsung Galaxy Note II in almost all other aspects. That is not to run down Samsung Galaxy Note II in any case because unless for the benchmarks; no layman would not likely to spot any performance difference whatsoever between the Note II and G Pro because both use state of the art architectures that are not yet fully explored by the underlying software paradigms. So the choice would go entirely to you although, for me, the beautiful 1080p display panel seems to trip the balance.