In fact, if you’ve ever used an Android phone before, you’ll be at home, too, as LG’s incarnation of the Google operating system – or the overlay, anyway – is relatively stock, with multiple homescreens, an apps menu, and then LG’s changes which include a drop down notification bar with editable control shortcuts, brightness control, pinch-to-zoom thumbnail changes in the gallery, notification of messages appearing in a speech bubble at the top of the screen, and several LG QSlide apps which sit over the top of anything you’re doing.
As such, Android is easy to use with LG’s Optimus F5, and while Samsung still hasn’t made it possible for Australian handsets to have their own user modified shortcut dock in flagship smartphones, the $299 F5 has no problems with this, as icons and programs are able to be switched in and out of the bottom bar with ease.
On the performance side of things, the Optimus F5 is surprisingly good. Armed with only a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, the F5 is not only capable of some decent multitasking, but has very little lag as you jump between menus, scroll, and do the regular assortment of gestures.
The synthetic benchmark testing we do here shows that this is faster than last year’s HTC One X, with a score a thousand points below that of the Optimus G.
That’s one of those differences between this dual-core chip and the quad-core in LG’s other handset, but it’s not a detriment to the performance at all, and outside of an insane amount of multitasking and/or game playing, you’re not likely to notice the chip difference.
Download speeds are equally impressive, with the 4G LTE on offer here as strong as its flagship brother, the Optimus G. Our speed tests showed speeds up to around 60Mbps are capable from this phone, and probably more depending on where you’re travelling.
Without a doubt, this is easily one of the fastest sub-$500 phones out there, and at $299 it’s a steal.
Even the battery is decent for a 4G device, and while the Optimus F doesn’t have a battery as strong as either the HTC One or Samsung Galaxy S4, it’s still better than the Optimus G. In that product, our tests indicated that barely a day was possible, and yet on the less pricey Optimus F5, a full day is easily possible from the 2150mAh battery, and that’s while surfing the web, making phone calls, sending texts, listening to music over Pandora, and generally using the phone.
Use the F less and you might manage two, but for the most part, you’ll be wanting to charge this handset daily, which isn’t a bad effort.
The camera isn’t the best it could be, though, and while this isn’t a flagship device, it’s still surprising that LG chose to ignore the need for a flash and went without one. Five megapixels seems like the bare minimum a phone camera should be, and that’s precisely what LG is offering, but the omission of the flash is certainly a strange one, as it means low-light shooting is damn near impossible.
It isn’t helped by the low quality the camera has, which even in daylight only serves up images that would be useful in a social network. Close up, we’re not impressed by the mediocre camera, and we certainly wouldn’t want to print any of these shots out.
We’re also a little confused as to why there’s no auto brightness in the drop down bar or settings screen, even though it says “automatic brightness” is switched on. Perhaps it’s just one of those things that LG needs to fix with a patch.
One other thing that could do with a fix is the on-screen keyboard which could also be better. While it offers word suggestions, this virtual keyboard lacks the gesture-based typing methods seen on other devices, a problem easily fixed with a replacement keyboard from Google’s Play Store, but one which LG could probably fix itself with a better included keyboard.
The one included isn’t terrible, but it’s not the best you’ll see, and since gesture typing on Android is now fairly standard, we’re a little surprised to see it missing in action, even on a budget device.
Conclusion
While 4G phones aren’t new, the prices for these high speed devices are rarely below the $500 mark. We’ve seen one to date – Sony’s Xperia SP – but LG’s first Optimus F handset breaks new ground with a sub-$300 price.
Provided you have no problems switching to Optus (as it’s an exclusive handset), the Optimus F5 is an excellent entry to the world of 4G that won’t break the bank and will offer mobile access faster than whatever’s currently in your pocket.
Thanks for the review! Aside from the camera (which is not a priority for me), this seems to be one of the best phones spec-wise for the price.