Let’s talk about LG Optimus Me P350 today, an Android v2.2 (Froyo) running entry level phone that was lend to me for two weeks. The phone had a promising specs and features for a mass market price, currently being sold at PhP7,000 ($160), it has a 2.8 inch LCD capacitive touchscreen display, WIFI, Bluetooth, 3.2MP camera, 24fps video camcorder, stereo FM, DIVX/Xvid player among others. It was quite a phone on spec sheet but did it live up to expectation? Read on to find out!
Normally, when I have a phone to trial, I would take my SIM off my lust green Nokia N8 and transfer it to the new device so I can get use to the phones interface, figure the phone to work my way and show it to the others so I can gather outside impressions and feedbacks, but for the very first time, I held back from doing so because I was very surprise how clunky and slow the phone was like it’s been hit by some symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
Figure this out, swipe the Homescreen to the left/right, wait for 5 seconds, it won’t respond so you have to swipe the screen again then wait for another 5 seconds. Still on the Homescreen, tap an applications, wait for 5 seconds, the app doesn’t respond so you have to tap the icon again then wait for another 5 seconds, then the app would now open but you have to wait for another 30 seconds for it load fully. How about typing an SMS using its virtual QWERTY, press one letter, wait for 3 seconds, tap another letter, wait for another 3 seconds, you’ll then notice a mistake on typing because of its cramp keypad structure, press back button and wait for another 3 more seconds, type a letter again and so on. I was like wanting to shout and burn the phone every time I use it so it’s better for me to leave the phone before I’ll get tempted to crash it.
I mean, how in their rightful state of mind can a manufacturer allow such device to be created, a device that makes people’s lives miserable? Yes its being sold affordably but they have no right to abuse people’s frailty; they must at least have the heart to give buyers the right value for their hard earn money.
Hardware
The phone is compact and sturdy even with its plastic construction. Compact because the dimension is smallish yet a little heavy when being held and sturdy because it’s quite enclose with no cover wobbles whatsoever giving solid impression to the device. Nothing much can be found on the around the phone, LG made it sure that the diminutive size was maintained by providing limited ports on top of the phone and a miniature volume rocker on the side to further compensate. Hardware design and construction was good enough overall.
Screen display and size, not in my wildest dream that a touch device with 2.8 inches screen can fit to my standard especially if the User Interface was not fitted to handle a heavy operating system such as Android. Everything was just pintsized on the phone from the cramp virtual QWERTY keypad, reduced icon sizes, to oversized Homescreen widgets, etc., in short, everything was just wrong with the phone. In terms of screen display, the TFT screen with 250Thousand color resolution comes out dull and boring, it’s like seeing a besotted window of lifelessness. Well, you can always increase the phones screen brightness to make it more lively and striking but expect a 4 hours or less battery life.
And speaking of battery, all Android phones suck in power management. As far as I’ve used the P350 (without SIM) the phones 1280mAh Li-ion battery would hardly even last a day. Oftentimes, after charging it full in the morning at around 8AM, the phone will only last until 1-2PM with the use of optimal WIFI, Games, Music player via headphone and a bit of Camera. This is not just any problem that can be ignored; it’s a serious condition on a definitive standpoint that you can’t enjoy the phone to the fullest no matter how powerful or smart it is if it’s powerless. I think it’s a mortal sin for manufacturers who does this to users.
Operating System
Android Froyo operating system (OS), fancy with all those optimizing options, but it’s a system that was created to run primarily on high end phones with 1Ghz or more processors, the P350, an entry level phone has only 580Mhz that could not handle the system well making it terrible to use. It’s like LG just throw the OS on the phone without caring much on how it works, a very tragic move.
The rest of the Android systemic features and perks were there, from Goggle Play’s huge array of applications, HTML Browser but without Adobe Flash, Push eMail, Social Network connectivity with every Social network app found on Android failing to level up with Gravity for Symbian, to a wide range of Entertainment features, more or less, not so much was missing compared to the current Android versions except that users can’t fully enjoy them because of the phone sluggish performance.
Memory and Storage
Another problem of the Android System is its multitasking management being a heavy tasker, with the phone’s internal memory storage limited to only 140MB, it can only run a few applications at a time and can install more than a handful of applications. Beyond this capability, the phone often hangs that it needs to be rebooted, while in case of installed application, it needs to be transferred to an SD card that often results also to apps crashing when being open affecting users overall experience. It’s a whole lot different with apps installed on the internal memory.
Camera and Camcorder
The phone has a casual and adequate camera for typical used, nothing special or fancy about it. Camera could work for you if you’re just fun of taking ordinary snaps and upload it directly on Facebook or Instagram and forget about it afterwards. Camcorder, don’t try wasting your precious moments using the phone, you might end up getting dark and blurry videos from it for only 30minutes before battery dries up.
Wrap-up
I guess nothing can be further said about the phone, it’s more than a waste of money if you are to ask me. There were definitely a lot of other phones on the market at the moment running low end optimized operating system that has the same price tag but can give you a whole lot better user experience and hardware, the Nokia Asha 303 for instance!
Jun 3, 2012
LG Optimus Me P350 Pep Talk! Android? Seriously? Review? Forget about it!
1 comments:
Can't imagine that this was brought up... I'm planning to buy LG Optimus Me or Optimus Black. I'm so lucky that I've bump into your blog.
It's like movements are so slow or has been on a slow motion waiting for 3-5 secs to responds what if you're using some applications like games, keyboard apps and even some apps that you want in the phone.
I think this is a spoiler on LG mobile phones.
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