Review: LG Prime Plus 4G

To sell a lot of smartphones in Brazil it is necessary to have an intermediate model with a good cost benefit. O M is a great example, arrived showing great service from the first generation. It took even the competitors like Zenfone 5 e redmi 2 emerged as interesting alternatives. LG wants to get a piece of that pie, and has launched a series of mid-end models; one of them is the Premium Plus, which I tested for a few weeks. These are my impressions:

Layout and Finishing

The device brings the design line of the LG G3 with some changes. The screen is slightly curved, with a removable plastic back and the on/off buttons and volume control are close to the camera. At the top is the headphone jack and at the bottom is the microUSB cable input. Despite being compact, the square format doesn't help with the grip; the cell phone is firm in the hands, but the fit it `s not perfect.

Just like the company's old top of the line, it's a device elegance. The plastic back has an interesting texture and shine. In addition, its screen occupies almost the entire front, contributing to the attractive look.

Fabric

LG often hits the screen of its smartphones. The display of Premium Plus pleased In a first moment, displaying faithful whites and sharpness. With 5 inches and HD resolution it does a good job, presenting a competent brightness range, capable of leaving the screen dark when necessary and quite bright when we are in the sun.

O problem is that the color fidelity restricted to white; when displaying stronger tones the colors are practically unrecognizable. Red takes on a pink hue and orange gets closer to red. Apparently LG also skimped on the oleophobic layer of the display, as the finger marks are easily left by the panel.

speed and performance

O lg prime plus 4g has the processor MediaTek quad-core 1.5 GHz and 1GB of RAM that manage to bring the expected performance of an intermediate cell phone. As with other Android devices that have 1GB of RAM, multitasking isn't a strong point; switching between apps almost always requires reloading content.

The animations run fine most of the time, but sometimes even the launcher (home screen) needs recharge. The cell phone is able to run games with simple graphics with ease, but it becomes slow for a few minutes after this type of use. Those are the impressions for the 4G model without TV. There is a simpler version of the phone, which has the same quad-core MediaTek, but running at 1.3 GHz.

System

The device rotates Android Lollipop 5.0.2 with UX 4.0, LG's customization layer that is also present in other devices, such as the G4. Here, I make practically the same considerations that I made in the review of the brand's top of the line: the interface has improved a lot in recent years, but it still contains small flaws.

A notifications bar brings a menu with quick settings, to enable or disable Wi-Fi, 3G, screen rotation, among others; it slides, showing various options. There are also two sliders to set the screen brightness level and the device volume, leaving little space for notifications.

O settings menu it's all divided into sections, which helps with organization; the company also lets you choose to see all options in list. It was missing a native feature of Android that helps a lot: the search tool.

The number of pre-installed apps has been reduced, there are almost no unnecessary additions, with the exception of the browser itself that ends up keeping Google Chrome company. There is a file manager, voice recorder and the Polaris Office productivity suite. They saved money on games, not least because the device has only 8 GB storage.

The device also has the feature knock Code, which dispenses with the on and off button of the device. With a sequence of taps on the screen it is possible to unlock it. To make the phone go off, just double tap any empty spot on the home screen.

Camera

LG bet as a differential the quality of the front camera and the “Quick selfie”. In practice, they don't impress. Despite 5 megapixel secondary camera, the images come out with poor definition. When lighting conditions are unnatural, photos are very grainy.

A 8 megapixel rear camera is capable of taking good pictures in natural lighting conditions and delivers poorer images in other situations. Nothing out of the ordinary for a mid-range device. I expected the camera application give some manual control options, just like on the LG G4, but the software is very basic in that sense. The device is capable of recording in 1080p.

Battery Life

The LG Prime Plus has a battery of 2.460 mAh, able to keep the cell phone on for a full day quietly, even with heavy use with 4G on most of the time, lots of browsing and music playback. On a more moderate day of use, it reaches the end of the day with about 35% of battery remaining.

Price and availability

O LG Prime Plus went on sale in April. It has many variants and the manufacturer has not bothered to make clear what the differences are between them. All versions are dual SIM, but there is one 4G and another that also supports digital TV.

The most basic version, with 3G and TV, costs R$606.00 in Magazine Luiza (One detail here, this variant has a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, instead of 1.5 GHz). The 4G model without TV can be found by R$ 839,00 also at Magazine Luiza, while the more complete version (4G + TV) is available for BRL 719,00 on the Submarine.

Conclusion

O LG Prime Plus competes with other intermediate models already established on the market, such as the Moto G and Zenfone 5. It is not surprising in any way, much less the price. The competent battery and camera don't leave the smartphone completely behind, but it doesn't become a very good choice when we look at other options available on the market.

The most complete model 3rd generation Moto G, for example, costs BRL 40 more than the best Prime Plus variant and delivers a better user experience. You can check the Motorola device review here.

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Technical Specifications

• Processor: MediaTek quad-core 1.5 GHz;
• RAM memory: 1 GB;
• Fabric: 5-inch IPS LCD with a resolution of 720 x 1280 (294 ppi) pixels;
• Camera: 8 megapixels, autofocus, LED flash;
• Frontal camera: 5 megapixels with “Quick Selfie” feature;
• Battery: 2470 mAh;
• Connectivity : 3G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, A-GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, Micro USB 2.0;
• GPU: Mali 400;
• External memory: support for microSD card up to 32 GB;
• Internal memory: 8 GB;
• Dimensions: 139.7 x 69.9 x 10.1 mm;
• Weight: 144 g;
• Consumer Relations Platform: Android 5.0.2 Lollipop with LG's personalization layer.