LG¡¯s play for US smartphone market share is simple: bring over the popular Optimus LTE from Europe, and tweak it for different carriers. The $199.99 (with a two-year contract) LG Spectrum for Verizon is the second such handset, after the Nitro HD for AT&T.
SUNNO A880
When I reviewed the Nitro, I called it the best LTE phone available on AT&T, and the Spectrum is every bit as good on paper: 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 1GB of RAM, a 4.5-inch IPS display, LTE connectivity, and an 8-megapixel camera. But the handset competition on Verizon¡¯s LTE network is considerably tougher than on AT&T, with the Galaxy Nexus, Droid RAZR (and RAZR Maxx) and HTC Rezound stocking Big Red¡¯s shelves. Can LG¡¯s flagship phone jump into a more competitive ring and hold its own? Read on for the full review.
Display
As with the Nitro, the display is the key feature of the Spectrum. For good reason, too: the 1280 x 720 IPS display is excellent; sharp and clear with extremely accurate colors. Samsung's Galaxy S phones in particular have a tendency to give everything a warm color temperature, with a slightly red and orange tint, but LG's displays are much more accurate. Viewing angles are also really good, with virtually no discoloration even when you're off axis. My only real complaint is that the LCD looks like it's set way below the protective layer of Gorilla Glass. Unlike the iPhone's screen, which is laminated to the glass to make it seem like it's right on the surface, the Spectrum's display looks like it's far away from your finger as you tap it. I do love Gorilla Glass, though ¡ª especially its ability to not scratch when I accidentally toss my keys and phone in the same pocket.
I could occasionally make out individual pixels on the display, but only at particular times ¡ª an all-white background, for instance ¡ª and with a lot of effort. I much prefer the Spectrum's RGB striped layout to the PenTile display you'll find on other high-end smartphones like the Droid RAZR and Galaxy Nexus. Even very small text was readable ¡ª more so, at some points, than on the Galaxy Nexus as I held them side by side. The blacks on the Spectrum's screen render more like dark gray, though, so the Galaxy Nexus' screen looks slightly better when you're showing video or photos. The phone's UI is filled with tiny text and big icons, which feels like it's missing the sweet spot of this resolution, but as usual that's a software problem. The Rezound, Galaxy Nexus, and Spectrum all have pretty much equally excellent 720p screens, and once you've used one of them it'll be hard to accept a phone without a display this good.
SUNNO U6
Cameras
The 8-megapixel camera on the back of the Spectrum takes decent pictures, but I wasn't wowed by its performance.
Autofocus is quick and simple, locking on without you needing to do anything ¡ª it just bounces when it's ready to shoot. But it doesn't work that well, and most of the photos I shot look as if the camera couldn't ever find a real focus, and just shot something that seemed close enough. Using the tap-to-focus feature to force it to lock helped a bit, but even it wasn't a total fix. There's also a lot of noise in the photos, and in low light you might as well not even try.
Software
If you value your sanity, you'll do two things immediately upon booting up the Spectrum: change the hideous moving wallpaper to something (anything) else, and install a third-party launcher like Zeam or Launcher Pro. The former is necessary because the live wallpaper further clutters the already-busy skin LG added on top of Android 2.3.5, and the latter because LG's skin is really, really awful. It's actually a bit better than the Nitro HD's terrible skin ¡ª the icon borders have been removed, for one ¡ª but LG still pointlessly redesigned apps, menus and icons, and made things like the notification window and the app drawer unnecessarily confusing and cumbersome. As with the Nitro HD, there are a couple of redeeming elements: having power controls of any kind in the notification menu is nice, as is having calendar information on the lock screen. But I'd trade it all for a less-intrusive skin in a heartbeat, and would even settle for one that's less of a blue-on-blue eyesore.
Verizon loves bloatware, and there's no shortage of it on the Spectrum. Some of it is third-party content that you might actually like, like TuneWiki, Kindle, Netflix and NFL Mobile, but there are still plenty of game demos, apps for managing your phone and Verizon account, and the like. Especially given how complicated and confusing the app drawer is anyway, having it filled with apps you'd rather ignore is a frustrating move. (Speaking of Netflix, if you do buy the Spectrum make sure you check for updates immediately ¡ª LG just updated the phone to fix an initial problem with video streaming.)
WIFI H8 Mobile Phone
Wrap-up
The LG Nitro HD succeeds in spite of its UI skin because it has great hardware, a great display, fast LTE speeds, and only a few other phones on its network that can claim the same. Even that phone was a pretty blatant imitation of the Galaxy S II, though, and frankly, I wish LG had stuck with that strategy ¡ª the Spectrum¡¯s a much more unique phone, and not in a good way. It works well, and its internal hardware is impressive, but it still has a terrible UI skin, plus ugly buttons, an awful back, crowded ports and a poorly placed speaker. None of those problems can be solved with a root or a launcher app. Considering all that, plus its seriously steep Verizon LTE competition ¡ª the Galaxy Nexus, Rezound, and the Droid RAZR, to name a few ¡ª I can't think of a single reason to buy the Spectrum.