Final Words
Simply put, I think the LG G Pro 2 is a solid evolution of the LG G2 design. While I went into the review expecting a phone that wasn’t much more than an attempt to cash in on the phablet trend, LG has definitely put in enough that I found the phone to be surprisingly good. LG has managed to avoid many of the pitfalls that TouchWiz has with its UI by keeping things somewhat more tidy and understandable, but also added features that are good enough to be incredibly obvious in hindsight. While there’s some room for improvement in display calibration, the UI could use a better theme, and I’m not sure who will use features like Content Lock, the phone is surprisingly good. Features like KnockCode are a great addition to KnockOn, Mini View helps to alleviate some of the issues with using a phablet, and the multiwindow function works well, if a bit clunky from a UI perspective. LG is doing many things right with this phone, possibly more than Samsung did with the Note 3. The real question now is whether it’ll come to western regions without major changes.
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JoshHo - Tuesday, March 4, 2014 - link
I apologize in advance for the poor product photos, I don't actually have a dSLR of my own so the Lumia 1020 was the closest thing I could get.Gunbuster - Tuesday, March 4, 2014 - link
"Korean OEMs may be shifting their visual styles soon."I would hope so. Those screens look terribly dated.
ddriver - Tuesday, March 4, 2014 - link
And people complained touchwiz was bad... What's with the "windows 3.1" styling LOLnoel_newell - Friday, October 3, 2014 - link
I agree, it does. I can't see how this phone can match up to some of the top phones on the market (at http://www.consumertop.com/best-phone-guide/ for example).dawheat - Tuesday, March 4, 2014 - link
Nice mini review though I'd ask for a couple additions:- screen reflectance - I've found that not all LCDs are the same and combined with max brightness gives an overall idea of outside legibility
- more direct comparison to its competitors - I think most users in this segment will wonder whether to get the Note 3 or LG Pro 2. So is the better camera worth the digitizer/pen? Being 6 months after the Note 3, is anything else noticeably better hardware wise?
JoshHo - Tuesday, March 4, 2014 - link
Unfortunately I don't have the equipment to test reflectance, I really would like to test that as well when it comes to screen protectors and such.I personally can't say which is better. If the pen is of secondary concern then the G Pro 2 is probably a more well-rounded phone.
TrackSmart - Tuesday, March 4, 2014 - link
Thanks for the "mini review"!As a heads-up:
I've read the entire article, but I still don't know how "KnockCode" works or what it does (a small oversight). I'll be googling it momentarily, but it might be worth adding just a few words on this for future readers.
JoshHo - Wednesday, March 5, 2014 - link
Thanks for the input, I'm going to make sure to cover that in the follow-up.ddriver - Tuesday, March 4, 2014 - link
Looks like LG stopped one feature short of copying the note 3 completely. "Note" hardware without a stylus to compliment it = fail. I love the s-pen, wouldn't go back to a pen-less device ever.kmmatney - Wednesday, March 5, 2014 - link
It's pretty much a poor man's Note 3. I was planning on buying a Note 3, but it was $300 for 16GB, while the LG Optimus Pro G was $99 for 32 GB (and the rest of the specs were on par). Since this was my first foray into using a larger phone, I figured I would get the cheaper model. At least if I break it, I'm not out so much money - at least that was my thinking. If you don't use the pen, this is a cheaper option.