Pros: Good
performance and graphics; Fast 4G LTE speeds; Excellent battery life;
Bright Gorilla Glass display; Inexpensive over two years
Cons: Lackluster camera; Weak audio performance
The Verdict: The LG Spirit offers strong performance, long battery life and fast 4G LTE with no contract.
Design
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| Source: Laptop |
The
Spirit 4G uses a mix of textures that make this handset appealing
despite its plastic body. The dark gray rear panel has a slightly raised
dot pattern that make the device easy to grip. We also like how the
left and right edges of the back curve upward. Two lighter silver
textured strips straddle the 4.5-inch display, similar to an electric
razor. Finally, the top and bottom of the LG Spirit have a nice mirrored
finish.
Beneath the 4.5-inch screen are three capacitive buttons
(Back, Home and Menu). The right side of the Spirit houses a small power
button, and a medium-size volume rocker lines the left side. The
headphone jack is up top, while a microUSB is on the bottom of the
phone.
The Spirit 4G (4.4 ounces, 5.08 x 2.6 x 0.37 inches) is on
the smaller and lighter end of the spectrum compared with the Samsung
Galaxy S III (4.7 ounces, 5.38 x 2.78 x 0.34 inches), but it also has a
smaller display.
Display
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| Source: Laptop |
The
Spirit 4G features a 4.5-inch 960 x 540 Gorilla Glass IPS screen that's
scratch-resistant. Although we'd prefer 720p resolution, this phone
delivered bright -- if slightly washed-out -- images.
The Spirit
4G's display is brighter than average, registering 340 lux against the
category average of 298 lux. The HTC One X+, however, outshone the
Spirit 4G, notching 462 lux. The Samsung Galaxy S III couldn't hold a
candle to this device, maxing out at 213 lux.
When watching the
high-quality trailer for "Iron Man 3," the Spirit 4G's screen gave us
more details in shadows, but offered narrower viewing angles than the
Galaxy S III, which also had . had better color saturation.
Benchmark
Audio
The
Spirit 4G's speakers got plenty loud when watching the "Iron Man 3"
trailer, filling a small office with sound. Just don't expect rich
audio; the organ on Stevie Wonder's "Living For The City," sounded
hollow while Wonder's vocal was tinny. In addition, due to the speaker
placement, the sound is muffled when the phone is placed on a surface
display-up.
Keyboard
There
are four different keyboards to choose from on the Spirit 4G. There's
the Shape Writer keyboard that features trace technology and a QWERTY
keyboard for hunt-and-peck typists. There's also a Phone keyboard, a
throwback to feature phones, and Handwriting input.
Both the phone keyboard and the QWERTY keyboard provided strong haptic feedback as we typed texts and emails.
Software and Interface
The
Spirit 4G runs Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich with an Optimus 3.0
overlay, giving this Android device a distinctive LG feel. Swiping in
any direction will unlock the device, and there are four customizable
quick-launch icons at the bottom of the screen. The lock screen also
shows a large digital clock along with the date. Unlocking the phone
produced a nice iris wipe effect.
There are seven home screens,
providing plenty of room for apps and widgets. The home row supports up
to six icons or folders that remain at the bottom of the display. Using a
pinch gesture on any home screen opens the home screen editor, where
pages can be added (by pressing the plus button) or deleted by dragging
them to the top of the screen.
You can view recent apps and switch
between them by long-pressing the home button. Long-pressing on the
Menu button launches a Google search.
The
pull-down notification area provides shortcuts to various settings and
options, such as toggling Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC and Airplane mode.
QuickMemo is also here, allowing users to draw and write notes on any
screen, then immediately share the image or save it to the image gallery
(much like the Galaxy S III's S-Memo). This feature came in handy for
annotating news articles and immediately emailing the images to our
laptop. You can customize the order of these icons.
The
Spirit 4G also includes Wise screen, which uses the front-facing camera
to scan for facial features, ensuring the display doesn't power down
even if you haven't touched the phone for a period of time. Similar to
other recent LG phones, users can create custom icons for apps on the
Optimus G using LG's images or pictures from the gallery. The Spirit 4G
also supports app folders, which can be created by dragging icons on top
of each other. When expanded, these folders resemble widgets.
Courtesy
mode allows users to silence alarms or pause video by flipping the
phone facedown. We could also use side-to-side tilt gestures to switch
between screens when moving app icons on the home screen.
Unlike
higher-end LG phones such as the Optimus G, the Spirit 4G does not
feature multitasking features Q Slide or Dual Screen/Dual Play.
Apps
LG
and MetroPCS have preloaded a fair amount of apps onto the LG Spirit
4G. On the LG side of things, there's QuickMemo, a handy screen-capture
and note-taking application, accessible through the notification bar.
QuickMemo let us use our finger to write notes from any screen or app,
highlighting important areas or information, and then immediately share
or save it as an image.
SmartShare comes in handy for sharing
multimedia content with DLNA-compatible devices. LG also included the
Wi-Fi Direct-powered FileShare to transfer large documents and other
files.
Backup
enables users to back up and restore important files. We like that the
app lets users schedule backups. MetroPCS takes things a step further
with its Total Protection app, which allows users to locate, lock and
restore contacts to the phone if it's lost or stolen. The Application
Manager enables users to uninstall unwanted apps.
Both LG and
MetroPCS have their own app stores. MetroPCS' AppStore deals primarily
with its own branded apps while LG SmartWorld curates apps that you
might not see in the vast Google Play store along with its own branded
apps. MetroPCS also has M Studio, where users can purchase music
included ringtones and ringback tones.
LG bundles the
driver-friendly GPS navigation app Car Home, which makes it easy to find
and navigate to local destinations and supports voice control.
Third-party apps include Facebook, Yahoo Movies, Polaris Office 4, Rhapsody, Yahoo Sportacular, YouTube and Pocket Express.
Performance
The
LG Spirit 4G is a peppy performer, thanks to its 1.2-GHz dual-core
Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU with 1GB of RAM. There was no sign of latency as
we navigated through home pages and menus. "The Simpsons: Tapped Out"
game also ran smoothly during our testing.
The Spirit 4G delivered
a score of 5,328 on the CPU Benchmark, well above the 3,142 Android
phone average. It also outpaced HTC One X+ (1.7-GHz Nvidia AP37 Tegra 3)
and the Samsung Galaxy SIII (1.5-GHz Snapdragon S4 CPU) which notched
4,301 and 4,214, respectively.
As far as graphics, the Spirit 4G
returned an impressive 7,572 on An3DBench. That's enough to beat the
7,205 category average as well as the One X+ (7,488) and the Galaxy SIII
(6,994). On Quadrant, which measures CPU, graphics and I/O performance,
the Spirit 4G notched 5,604. It topped the 3,398 category average and
the Galaxy SIII's 4,731. However, the LG was no match for the One X+'s
score of 7,568.
The LG Spirit 4G's storage can be expanded to 32GB via the microSD slot.
4G LTE and Web Browsing
MetroPCS
4G LTE coverage is available in 19 markets, including, New York City,
Los Angeles, Detroit and Sacramento. Mobile sites such as CNN.com,
NYTimes.com and ESPN.com took an average of 3.2, 3.4 and 4.4 seconds to
load on the Spirit 4G. When we tested network speed on Speedtest.net,
the Spirit delivered an average download speed of 11.6 Mbps and an
average upload rate of 4.8 Mbps.
Camera
The
Spirit's 5-megapixel rear camera provided lackluster photos. Many of
our images had washed-out colors and lacked detail. For instance, a shot
of a bouquet of red roses and white lilies looked ashy and blown out.
The image was full of blurry flower petals and jagged leaves. Video
delivered more of the same, with black livery cabs taking on a gray hue
and fuzzy text on taxis and street signs.
Images captured
by the 1.3-MP front camera were plagued with graininess. However, our
skin tone appeared nice and warm, despite the fluorescent lighting.
Overall,
both cameras delivered swift camera speeds, taking less than a second
to snap off photos. LG has also included the "Say Cheese" feature, which
automatically snaps a picture when the phrase is uttered.
Battery Life
During
the Laptop Battery Test (continuous Web surfing over 4G LTE), the LG
Spirit 4G lasted 7 hours and 13 minutes. That's more than an hour longer
than the 6:06 Android phone average. It was more than enough to top the
Samsung Galaxy SIII's time of 6:55, but the HTC One X+ edged out a win
with 7:19.
Value
The
LG Spirit is available for MetroPCS for $199, but how does the
carrier's data plan stack up to the competition? For $60 a month,
MetroPCS customers get unlimited talk, text and data, which adds up to
$1,639 over two years along with the cost of the phone.
On Verizon
Wireless, a $100 Share Everything plan snags shoppers unlimited text
and talk with 2GB of sharable data. Adding in the cost of a premium
smartphone totals $2,599.
For a Mobile Share plan on AT&T, you
would pay $110 for 4GB of data plus unlimited talk and text, totaling
$2,839 when you add in a $199 smartphone.
So, over the course of two years, you could save anywhere from $960 to $1,200 by opting for MetroPCS.
Call Quality
The
LG Spirit 4G consistently delivered clear calls when we dialed both
mobile phones and landlines. However, there was some fading in and out
in our home in the Bronx. The speakerphone was nice and loud, but there
were a few instances of echoing on our end.
Verdict
For
$199, the LG Spirit 4G delivers strong performance, a bright 4.5-inch
screen and long battery life. You also get some of LG's nifty software
innovations, such as QuickMemo. Metro PCS customers willing to spend
more up front will prefer the $499 Galaxy S III, which offers a bigger
and sharper screen along with a better camera. Overall, though, the LG
Spirit 4G is one of the better phones in MetroPCS' growing stable of
affordable powerhouses.
| Carrier | Metro PCS |
| Form Factor | Candybar Touchscreen |
| Operating System | Android 4.0 |
| Networks | CMDA PCS, CMDA, AWS |
| Data | 1xRTT; EV-DO; LTE |
| CPU | 1.2-GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon |
| RAM | 1GB |
| ROM |
|
| Internal Memory | 4.3GB |
| Memory Expansion Type | microSD Card |
| Display (main) | 4.5 inches |
| Display (secondary) |
|
| Bluetooth Type | Bluetooth 3.0 |
| Wi-Fi |
|
| Front Camera Resolution | 1.3MP |
| Camera Resolution | 5 MP |
| Talk / Standby Time | Up to 7 hours/Up to 200 hours |
| Ports | 3.5mm headphone; microUSB |
| Size | 5.08 x 2.6 x 0.37 inches |
| Weight | 4.4 ounces |
| SAR Rating (Head) |
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| SAR Rating (Body) |
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