LG One Optimus P500: specifications and reviews

The market of budget smartphones replenished with the model LG One Optimus P500 in September 2010.

Dressed in soft black plastic, this phone was based on a 3.2 inch screen with a 3: 2 aspect ratio, which is slightly less than the average high-end smartphone of that time, and the whole device was a bit smaller than the iPhone 4 To be more precise, its dimensions are 113.5x59x13.3 mm, that is, about 5 mm shorter and narrower.

The phone kit includes accessories - a long micro-USB cable, a charger that uses it for connection, and headphones. But most interestingly - the presence of a micro-SD-card with a capacity of 2 GB, which is enough if you do not get carried away with music, to store photos and videos taken with a smartphone camera. In addition, since Froyo is used, there is enough space for recording applications.

Body Design

LG Optimus One P500, like some of its "brothers", has rounded corners, and its modest style tends to be practical. In addition to the black color, the Optimus One is also available in dark red, gray, blue and silver.

The screen is bright with pretty juicy for LCD paints. The ambient light sensor is not available, so the brightness is not automatically adjusted, and there is also no brightness in the notification area near the hand. Readability in sunlight is normal, but the display strongly reflects light, so depending on the orientation of the device depends on whether it will see a bright sky or sun, which, as a rule, eclipses the image on the display.

It also immediately becomes clear that this is a budget phone, because its screen is made of flexible plastic, rather than glass. In the rest it is elegant enough device, dressed in a black-silver case. The curved edges and the general arrangement of the buttons make it convenient to hold it and work with it.

Ignoring the mode for touch control buttons, the smartphone LG P500 Optimus One has a full set of four physical backlit keys located under the screen - call the menu, go to the home panel, return and search. Users like it, how LG separated the search keys and menus from the others, denoting their status as less frequently used, rather than basic navigation ones. All four buttons produce a noticeable click and seem securely planted. In addition, pressing Home activates the screen, which allows you to unlock the phone without having to go to the power switch.

The volume control of the LG P500 Optimus One Black Gold is located on the right panel, the headphone jack and the power button on the top, the 3.0-megapixel camera is at the rear and the microUSB port is at the bottom edge. The volume control key also flips noticeably, although its small thickness means that it is not so easy to use to touch. If you open the back panel, using a nail slot on the top edge, a glamorous silvery filling opens up to the view. Unfortunately, it's just dyed plastic, not metal. There is a battery with a capacity of 1500 mAh and a slot for a micro-SD card up to 32 GB, which is very handy, since the manufacturer stinted on the built-in - its size is only 170 MB.

Display

After turning on the LG One Optimus P500, the LCD panel lights up with a resolution of 320x480 pixels. Thanks to the small screen, low definition is not so obvious, and the image looks sharp. This is not the iPhone 4, but constantly distracted by the terrible mess of the pixelated font every time you try to write a text message the user does not have to. Viewing angles are sufficient to ensure that the image does not change significantly from the user's point of view. The display has good natural, slightly muted colors.

The touchpad responds well to touch, and also supports all standard multi-touch gestures, including two-finger scaling. It is a pity that LG did not install a glass screen, because, regardless of the merits of this model, this draw draws it to the bottom.

operating system

LG Optimus One P500 firmware - Android 2.2 with some easy settings of the manufacturer. Therefore, instead of the icons of the application launcher, browser and phone at the bottom of the screen are located icons of the phone, contacts, applications, messages and the browser, which many users seem to improve. If you pull the notification line down from the top of the display, the standard buttons for quick launch or disable WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and airplane mode will open, as well as the audio switch. The latest innovation also seems reasonable.

Less pleasant is the keyboard LG One Optimus P500 in the T9 style, which LG replaced the standard screen. The phone is a bit narrower than other smartphones with a touch screen, so it's more inconvenient to print, although the display is still wide enough to accommodate a standard QWERTY keyboard. Fortunately, it can be brought back.

In general, this is a fairly standard version of the OS with five desktops, on which you can place many widgets and applications. Launching App Launcher opens access to programs to choose from. Phone LG P500 Optimus One, the performance characteristics of which are due to its processor frequency of 600 MHz, even at the time of its appearance, did not differ at a high speed, although the device works well, only occasionally hanging.

Software

LG has added a set of its own widgets, including a calendar and message viewers, weather and bookmarks. All of them seem to work quite well, although they do not strike with any additional functions.

After registering with Gmail, Facebook and Twitter, if you wish, the list of contacts will be updated with information from these services, and without any intervention from the user. This is a common feature of all phones based on the "Android" OS, but it's always nice to see in action.

Messaging services include a text messaging manager, an instant messaging client, a Gmail mailbox, and other email services. All work very well and quickly.

GPS is supported, and GoogleMaps and Google Navigation will let you use it to the fullest. If you want, you can download another navigation application. The phone catches satellite signals at an acceptable rate, although many complain about its performance. A slow processor when working with third-party programs (using 3D graphics, etc.) functions sluggishly.

Multimedia

The musical part is represented by a simple MP3-player and FM-radio, although the player does not support such formats as FLAC, VGA and D1. Since the video is not so good - there is no support for many formats, and quality clips are played with great difficulty. Users complain that the maximum resolution of the video that can be played is 630x360, and large files are not reproduced at all. So you have to limit yourself to YouTube. However, the HVGA screen with a 3: 2 aspect ratio does not transmit the 16: 9 format well.

The web browser, as usual in devices with Android OS, works quickly and perfectly opens most web pages. True, there is not enough Flash support, but without it, it does everything necessary. Wi-Fi, as well as 3G will provide a quick download at home and on the go.

When the headphones are connected, the level of interference and intermodulation distortion significantly increases. The volume level is reduced.

Camera

The 3 megapixel camera does not have a flash and is rather limited in its capabilities, but will come off for random shots in well-lit rooms. Fortunately, it has autofocus, so it can take clear pictures close-up. In addition, the phone LG P500 Optimus One can shoot video with a fairly adequate resolution of 640x480. It's not HD, but you can understand what's going on. The video quality is more affected by the low frame rate of 18 fps, and strong compression in the 3GP format: the motion seems convulsive and unnatural.

Connection quality

On the quality of communication, users do not complain, but there is nothing outstanding about the phone. The signal strength is strong even in areas with poor coverage. Active noise cancellation to reduce the level of ambient noise is absent. The speaker of the smartphone is also frankly weak.

Battery

And, finally, the battery life of the smartphone. As you would expect, thanks to the fact that the LG P500 Optimus battery has sufficient capacity in combination with a slow processor and a tiny screen, the phone provides three days of normal operation without recharging.

Conclusion

Optimus One - an entry-level phone based on the Android OS, which conscientiously performs its work. LG's main goal was to attract users to the use of smartphones, offering in this model more functionality than even the most high-performance traditional devices. And the company managed to achieve this by choosing the right balance - the screen was better than the competitors, the battery - more capacity, and Android 2.2 Froyo squeezed all the capabilities of the 600-MHz processor. And the software package was flawless (except for the document editor and the absence of Flash).

Ordinary phones, as a rule, offered a better display and better camera, which were often not used in full. What is the availability of GPS without a navigation application? And Android offered an incomparably richer software package than any traditional smartphone.

LG One Optimus P500 is pretty simple. As a budget phone, it does its job, and even more. If there is an opportunity to buy this device cheaply, then there is no reason to not do it. But the same fact does not allow you to recommend buying it. There are many budget phones on the market, the characteristics of which are much more attractive.