LG Optimus L5 II vs L7 II
There are different marketing models for individual manufacturing companies. In some industries, it’s sufficient to stick to one product and do it extremely well so that you can address a niche market. In other industries, one needs to diversify and address few segments of the market with different product categories in order to survive. Yet, in some other industries, one needs to adapt to both of those practices to survive. All of these changes if you have a highly differentiated and monopolized product giving you the edge over everyone else. For instance, Apple is this tech giant which has the edge over everyone else in the smartphone market because it offers a uniquely differentiated product that no one else can manufacture. Of course, this comes de facto that Apple was able to come in to this position because there was a certain void in the market and Apple acted correctly on its hunch. If Apple didn’t have a sound customer base to start with, it’s doubtful whether they would have been successful even if they offered a uniquely differentiated product. So now all those other non-Apple vendors have to diversify and differentiate at the same time to survive in the market. One way to do that is to offer a diverse range of products expanding their products portfolio constantly which seems to be the approach LG is trying to adapt. They have released LG Optimus L5 II and LG Optimus L7 II recently, and both devices are entry level products, with marginal differences addressing the lower level of the smartphone market. It is quite doubtful that these mediocre smartphones will make ripples in the smartphone market; nonetheless, they will make LG’s portfolio more colorful enhancing their chances on survival. So let us look at these two entry level smartphones individually.
LG Optimus L5 II Review
LG used to reserve Optimus line for their best smartphones back in the days although now it seems that they have lowered the bar significantly. Don’t get me wrong, LG Optimus L5 II is not badly crafted, but it just isn’t signature material. It has sharply squared edges with a slight bezel that feels comfortable in your hands. The device comes in Indigo Black, White, Pink and Titan colors weighing just over 100g making it extremely light. It has a button at the bottom which presumably is the home button and looks much like its older brothers. LG Optimus L5 II is powered by 1GHz processor on top of MediaTek 6575 chipset with 512MB of RAM. Quite frankly speaking, this is the first time in months I came across 512MB RAM in a new smartphone which might not even be sufficient to run the newest Android operating system. Speaking about operating systems, LG Optimus L5 II runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean although I can’t imagine the responsiveness to be buttery with the underlying hardware.
The display panel of LG Optimus L5 II is 4.0 inches and has IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels at a pixel density of 233 ppi. The resolution isn’t really the greatest, but the IPS display panel actually compensates that by producing vibrant colors on the display panel. LG has included 3G HSDPA connectivity to L5 II which is a no brainer given 4G LTE would be too mainstream for this device. Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n ensures continuous connectivity with the ability to host a Wi-Fi hotspot to share your internet connectivity, as well. The 5MP rear facing camera has autofocus and LED flash but can only capture VGA videos @ 30 frames per second, which is disappointing. There is also no front facing camera eliminating any chance you had of making conference calls. The internal storage is at 4GB with the ability to expand the storage up to 32GB using microSD cards. The 1700mAh battery can last for over 10 hours according to LG which is quite good.
LG Optimus L7 II Review
LG Optimus L7 II is the big brother of LG Optimus L5 II featuring some marginal additions and enhancements over the original configuration. It is slightly bigger featuring a 4.3 inches IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen having a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels at a pixel density of 217 ppi. The resolution is not so great, but the display panel has wide viewing angles and reproduces pictures vividly. Optimus L7 II is evenly weighted at 118g and provide sufficient conform to your palm when you hold it. This handset only comes in Black and White, and we prefer the Black one over White. LG has also added Dolby mobile sound enhancement to LG Optimus L7 II which gives it a slight edge over similar handsets from other vendors.
The Optimus L7 II is powered by 1GHz dual core Cortex A5 processor on top of Qualcomm MSM 8225 Snapdragon chipset along with Adreno 203 GPU and 768MB of RAM. It runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, which should run smoothly on the hardware platform provided. We would have been happier if LG has included at least 1GB of RAM for L7 II, but looks like 768MB is all we are going to get which means Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean will probably be the only OS L7 II is going to witness, as well. LG relies on 3G HSDPA connectivity to define the access to the outside world from L7 II along with the inclusion of Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n for continuous connectivity. You also have the option to create a Wi-Fi hotspot to share your internet connection as well as to stream rich media content wirelessly using DLNA to enable devices. The internal storage is at 4GB with the option to be expanded up to 32GB using microSD cards. LG Optimus L7 II has 8MP camera that has LED flash and autofocus, but it can only capture FWVGA video @ 30 frames per second. Fortunately it also has a front facing camera which you can use for video conferencing. LG Optimus L7 II has a beefy battery for some reason ranked at 2460mAh and can offer more than 12 hours of continuous usage time.
A Brief Comparison Between LG Optimus L5 II and LG Optimus L7 II
• LG Optimus L5 II is powered by 1GHz processor on top of MediaTek 6575 chipset along with 512MB of RAM while LG Optimus L7 II is powered by 1GHz dual core Cortex A5 processor on top of Qualcomm MSM 8225 Snapdragon chipset alone with Adreno 203 GPU and 768MB of RAM.
• LG Optimus L5 II and LG Optimus L7 II run on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.
• LG Optimus L5 II has 4.0 inches IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display panel featuring a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels at a pixel density of 233 ppi while LG Optimus L7 II has 4.3 inches IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display panel featuring a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels at a pixel density of 217 ppi.
• LG Optimus L5 II has 5MP camera that can capture VGA video @ 30 fps while LG Optimus L7 II has 8MP camera that can capture FWVGA video @ 30 fps.
• LG Optimus L5 II is smaller, thinner and lighter (117.5 x 62.2 mm / 9.2 mm / 103.3g) than LG Optimus L7 II (121.5 x 66.6 mm / 9.7 mm / 118g).
• LG Optimus L5 II has 1700mAh battery while LG Optimus L7 II has 2460mAh battery.
Conclusion
Drawing the conclusion in this comparison is fairly easy. This is because we clearly know that LG Optimus L5 II is the smaller brother of LG Optimus L7 II which helps us to come in to the conclusion that obviously L7 II is better than L5 II. If you ask me why, well because L7 II has a better processor having Dual core architecture, as opposed to a single core in L5 II; because L7 II has a better RAM; because L7 II has a better camera and an additional front facing camera as opposed to the only rear facing camera of L5 II; because L7 II has a slightly bigger display panel with a beefy battery that gets you through one of two days without charging. So all of these facts put together will make LG Optimus L7 II our obvious choice when we compare these two handsets. In fact, I actually can’t think of a reason I’d go for L5 II and not L7 II because even the price difference should be small compared to their differences.