Review LG P710 Optimus L7 II Smartphone

Name: LG P710 Optimus L7 II
Brand: LG

Big "L". This time around, we are testing the Optimus L7 II, the larger of LG's two new mid-range second-generation Optimus L models. Its smaller sibling was a decent smartphone, albeit a bit unremarkable - does the same hold true for the L7 II as well?

Florian Wimmer, ✓ Tanja Hinum (translated by A Kammel), Published 06/05/2013 🇩🇪 🇪🇸 ...

Smartphone Android

For the original German review, see here.

Currently, LG's new mid-range line-up consists of three models, the largest being the LG Optimus L7 II with its 4.3-inch screen. The predecessor (simply called LG Optimus L7) came with the same screen size, but less RAM, a lower-resolution camera and a smaller battery. In addition, the new variant now sports a dual-core processor. But with an RRP of 299 Euros (~$396), the smartphone has also reached the mid-range price segment.

There are many other great smartphones close to this price point such as the Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus, the Alcatel OneTouch Ultra, the Yarvik Ingenia X1 and the Windows Phone HTC 8S - as well as two Chinese alternatives, the ZTE Grand X IN and the Huawei Ascend G615. For a little more, even the Google Nexus 4 (16 GB model) can be had. So is LG's mid-range device able to hold its ground against these competitors?

Case

We have already mentioned this in the review of the LG Optimus L5 II: The preceding generation of LG's mid-range smartphones was more of an eye-catcher. This time round, a rather boring and inconspicuous design language has been used. Apart from their respective (screen) sizes, the LG Optimus L7 II and its smaller sibling look almost exactly the same.

The only major difference is the color choice of their rear panels: While our Optimus L5 II test device came with a titanium-gray metal look, the Optimus L7 II we were sent sports a glossy black finish. We much prefer the former, as the latter attracts fingerprints and dirt.

The Optimus L7 II is made from nothing but plastic, however, it is well-built and very stable. We also like the light weight, coming in at just 118 grams. Out of all of its competitors, only the HTC 8S (which sports a smaller screen) manages to weigh even less.

Connectivity

The selection of ports is typical for smartphones: A micro USB port below and a 3.5 mm Line In/Out audio jack at the top.

The L7 II is driven by a dual-core processor, 768 MB of RAM and a disappointingly low amount of 4 GB of internal storage space. While this isn't less than what its predecessor came with, the larger operating system used in the newest generation leaves less useable room for data and apps, just 1.6 GB.

On the right: Power button

On the left: Customizable button, volume rocker

The operating system has only been lightly skinned.

The GPS module is quick in finding satellites while used outdoors.

Software

Luckily, LG employs a rather recent version of Google's operating system: Android 4.1.2. Although LG did change some small details of the user interface (such as cosmetic alterations to the menu buttons), using the phone feels close to a stock Android experience. The only noticeable changes are an emergency call function in the lock screen and the Quick Memo app, which can be used as an overlay, e.g. to note down telephone numbers which can then simply be typed out again.

Communication & GPS

The LG Optimus L7 II now comes with HSUPA which is supposed to accelerate uplink connections, thus speeding up the web experience. In addition, it is equipped with Bluetooth and Near Field Communication (NFC). The Wi-Fi module is capable of handling all standards up to 802.11 n, yielding great data transfer speeds in both directions. Even 10 meters and three walls away from the FritzBox router, three out of four bars remain - decreasing to two once another two meters and a fourth wall are added.

It also ships with a GPS module for navigation, which works decently fast and well without a roof over one's head (but never finding more than five satellites, even after some waiting), yielding a typical error of around 20 meters. While not being very precise during outdoor usage, it cannot be used at all within buildings - the Samsung Galaxy S4, for example, is far better in this regard.

Phone functionality and speech quality

The phone call app sticks close to the functional standard version of Android, apart from a few cosmetic changes. Speech quality is great, as it was with its smaller sibling. Only the speaker phone is not satisfying, sounding tinny at times.

Cameras & Multimedia

The rear camera sports 8 megapixels, yielding pictures with 3264x2448 pixels. Apart from some blurring in brighter areas and some color noise (which is clearly visible when zooming in), image quality is decent and more than sufficient for snapshots and small format prints.

The front camera with its VGA resolution of just 640x480 is only suited for video calls. Its images are very blurry (as was the case with the Optimus L5) and lack finer details.

Reference image: Canon EOS 450D, 12 megapixels

Accessories

Again, the Optimus L7 II comes very close to the L5 II, shipping with a power adapter, a USB cable and a headset. It is possible to acquire additional headsets, replacement batteries and external speakerphones on LG's website. Great: It is also possible to buy a mobile photo printer which, thanks to a special kind of pigmented paper, does not require any ink. The device costs 199 Euros (~$264) and will be available soon.

Warranty

LG offers 24 months of warranty for all its smartphones. Care has to be taken as this only holds true within the first 27 months after the device has been manufactured rendering models from older production runs a bit of a risky purchase. All accessories, such as the battery and the power adapter, come with six months of warranty.

Input Devices & Handling

The keyboard has more or less only seen cosmetic changes.

Luckily, LG has removed the sticky layer on top of the touchscreen which we were so annoyed by during our test of the Optimus L5 II. Thus, it is far easier to work smoothly and comfortably with the touchscreen of the L7 II. The freely customizable button on the left hand side of the device has stayed with us, being assigned either to serve as the camera trigger or to start any application.

The virtual keyboard - while called "LG keyboard" in the settings - has remained virtually unchanged in comparison to Android's stock keyboard. This is no disadvantage, as it works intuitively and offers a special mode for the input of internet addresses. Thanks to the large 4.3-inch screen, precise input is no problem. In addition, different keyboards can easily be installed via Google's Play Store.

Display

The LG Optimus L7 II makes use of an IPS display with a now-mediocre resolution of 480x800 pixels, the same as its predecessor, but also not less than what most competitors offer.

As with people, the largest are not always the brightest: An average value of just 244.1 cd/m² is worse than almost all of its competitors, including its smaller sibling. Only the Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus remains even fainter. Still, when compared to the smaller Optimus L5 II, the L7 II's image quality is superior thanks to its better black levels and higher contrast ratio, leading to a more vivid experience. Brightness homogeneity has been somewhat improved as well.


230 cd/m²	258 cd/m²	256 cd/m²
226 cd/m²	258 cd/m²	247 cd/m²
227 cd/m²	251 cd/m²	244 cd/m²

Distribution of brightness

tested with X-Rite i1Pro 2

Maximum: 258 cd/m² (Nits) Average: 244.1 cd/m²
Brightness Distribution: 88 %
Center on Battery: 258 cd/m²
Contrast: 1075:1 (Black: 0.24 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 7.37 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.91
ΔE Greyscale 7.52 | 0.5-98 Ø5.2
Gamma: 2.26

As mentioned above, the Optimus L7 II offers great performance in terms of black levels (0.24 cd/m²) and contrast ratio (1075:1), beating nearly all of its competitors.

Like many other displays, the panel used in the L7 II over-exaggerates blues, as analyzed using a colorimeter and CalMAN software. Also, shades of blue deviate further from the sRGB definitions than all other colors. The grayscale isn't rendered perfectly, either.

Due to its reflective coating, the screen can barely be made out in direct sunlight, leading to worse readability than the LG Optimus L5 II despite the improved contrast ratio of the L7 II. In the shade and in closed rooms, all content is easily readable at maximum brightness.

Visible from every angle - thanks to IPS technology.

Viewing angles are great, thanks to the IPS display which allows for superb visibility of the screen contents down to very narrow angles (in all directions).

Performance

The SoC used in the Optimus L7 II is made by Qualcomm. It comes with a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8225 dual-core CPU and a Qualcomm Adreno 203 GPU with just one core. While the processor is capable of delivering decent performance, we are less sure about the undersized graphics card, especially during demanding tasks.

Our synthetic system and processor benchmarks quickly show that the LG Optimus L7 II is quite a bit faster than its smaller sibling, the LG Optimus L5 II. Still, it falls behind when compared to other mid-range smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus or the Huawei Ascend G615 which are consistently more powerful. The system performance is decent - both the operating system and all of the apps we tested ran smoothly.

AnTuTu v3 - Total Score (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	6342 Points
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	6575 Points +4%
Alcatel OneTouch Ultra 997D	6212 Points -2%
Huawei Ascend G615	14578 Points +130%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	6146 Points -3%
ZTE Grand X IN	11317 Points +78%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	4812 Points -24%
Google Nexus 4	17555 Points +177%

Geekbench 2 - 32 Bit - Total Score (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	549 Points
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	890 Points +62%
Alcatel OneTouch Ultra 997D	862 Points +57%
Huawei Ascend G615	1803 Points +228%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	933 Points +70%
ZTE Grand X IN	853 Points +55%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	582 Points +6%
Google Nexus 4	2054 Points +274%

Smartbench 2012 - Productivity Index (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	2205 points
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	2622 points +19%
Huawei Ascend G615	4826 points +119%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	2355 points +7%
ZTE Grand X IN	1221 points -45%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	1158 points -47%
Google Nexus 4	3178 points +44%

Linpack Android / IOS
Single Thread (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	40.38 MFLOPS
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	46.3 MFLOPS +15%
Huawei Ascend G615	46.7 MFLOPS +16%
ZTE Grand X IN	62.1 MFLOPS +54%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	31.61 MFLOPS -22%
Google Nexus 4	76.8 MFLOPS +90%
Multi Thread (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	66.4 MFLOPS
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	79.7 MFLOPS +20%
Huawei Ascend G615	149 MFLOPS +124%
ZTE Grand X IN	60.9 MFLOPS -8%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	34.76 MFLOPS -48%
Google Nexus 4	221.6 MFLOPS +234%

Legend

LG P710 Optimus L7 II Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Play MSM8225, Qualcomm Adreno 203, 4 GB Flash

Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus Broadcom BCM28155, Broadcom VideoCore-IV, 8 GB SSD

Alcatel OneTouch Ultra 997D MediaTek MT6577, PowerVR SGX531, 4 GB Flash

Huawei Ascend G615 HiSilicon k3v2 Hi3620, Vivante GC800, 8 GB SSD

Yarvik Ingenia X1 MediaTek MT6577, PowerVR SGX531, 4 GB Flash

ZTE Grand X IN Intel Atom Z2460, PowerVR SGX540, 2 GB NAND Flash

LG E460 Optimus L5 II MediaTek MT6575, PowerVR SGX531, 4 GB Flash

HTC Windows Phone 8S Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8227, Qualcomm Adreno 305, 4 GB Flash

Google Nexus 4 Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064A, Qualcomm Adreno 320, 16 GB SSD

The synthetic graphics benchmarks corroborate our fears that the feeble Qualcomm Adreno 203 might have trouble keeping pace with the other mid-range smartphones (although beating the Optimus L5 II by approximately 30%). This is especially obvious when compared to the Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus or the ZTE Grand X IN.

AnTuTu 3DRating
--- (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	2103 Points
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	3151 Points +50%
Huawei Ascend G615	3546 Points +69%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	1704 Points -19%
ZTE Grand X IN	3183 Points +51%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	2074 Points -1%
Google Nexus 4	5731 Points +173%
1024x2048 Off-screen (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	1282 Points
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	1875 Points +46%
Huawei Ascend G615	1899 Points +48%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	748 Points -42%
ZTE Grand X IN	1471 Points +15%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	841 Points -34%
Google Nexus 4	1702 Points +33%

3DMark - 1280x720 Ice Storm Standard Score (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	2427 Points
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	663 Points -73%
Google Nexus 4	11396 Points +370%

NenaMark2 - --- (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	33.6 fps
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	58.9 fps +75%
Alcatel OneTouch Ultra 997D	23.8 fps -29%
Huawei Ascend G615	59.8 fps +78%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	24.1 fps -28%
ZTE Grand X IN	45.1 fps +34%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	23.4 fps -30%
Google Nexus 4	59 fps +76%

GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7
T-Rex Onscreen (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	3.8 fps
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	7.9 fps +108%
Google Nexus 4	20 fps +426%
1920x1080 T-Rex Offscreen (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	1.5 fps
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	2.9 fps +93%
Google Nexus 4	13 fps +767%

GLBenchmark 2.5
Egypt HD Fixed Time (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	7.4 fps
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	19 fps +157%
Huawei Ascend G615	19 fps +157%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	2.8 fps -62%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	2.9 fps -61%
Google Nexus 4	35 fps +373%
1920x1080 Egypt HD Offscreen Fixed Time (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	3.7 fps
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	11 fps +197%
Huawei Ascend G615	13 fps +251%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	1.8 fps -51%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	1.9 fps -49%
Google Nexus 4	27 fps +630%

Epic Citadel
High Quality (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	23.3 fps
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	52.6 fps +126%
Huawei Ascend G615	32.5 fps +39%
ZTE Grand X IN	51.2 fps +120%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	25.7 fps +10%
Google Nexus 4	54.3 fps +133%
High Performance (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	23.7 fps
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	53.4 fps +125%
Alcatel OneTouch Ultra 997D	29 fps +22%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	26.5 fps +12%
ZTE Grand X IN	52.5 fps +122%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	31.5 fps +33%
Google Nexus 4	54.9 fps +132%

Basemark ES 2.0 - Taiji Free (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	18.53 fps
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	54.7 fps +195%
Alcatel OneTouch Ultra 997D	9.19 fps -50%
Huawei Ascend G615	29.05 fps +57%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	7.02 fps -62%
ZTE Grand X IN	17.06 fps -8%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	9.22 fps -50%
Google Nexus 4	53.5 fps +189%

Even browsing the web is more fun with other mid-range devices. Page loading and navigation work reasonably smoothly, but other smartphones are still much faster in this regard. Only the HTC 8S fares worse than the L7 II, but this is mostly due to its software (using the slower Internet Explorer) than due to its hardware.

Google V8 Ver. 7 - Google V8 Ver. 7 Score (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	755 Points
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	1643 Points +118%
Alcatel OneTouch Ultra 997D	1055 Points +40%
Huawei Ascend G615	1317 Points +74%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	1118 Points +48%
ZTE Grand X IN	1742 Points +131%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	1174 Points +55%
HTC Windows Phone 8S	477 Points -37%
Google Nexus 4	1381 Points +83%

Octane V1 - Total Score (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	672 Points
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	1536 Points +129%
Huawei Ascend G615	977 Points +45%
ZTE Grand X IN	1724 Points +157%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	1254 Points +87%
HTC Windows Phone 8S	380 Points -43%
Google Nexus 4	1248 Points +86%

Mozilla Kraken 1.0 - Total (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	37605 ms *
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	22395 ms * +40%
Huawei Ascend G615	41588 ms * -11%
ZTE Grand X IN	31102 ms * +17%
HTC Windows Phone 8S	68616 ms * -82%
Google Nexus 4	21389 ms * +43%

Sunspider - 0.9.1 Total Score (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	2487 ms *
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	1434 ms * +42%
Alcatel OneTouch Ultra 997D	2182 ms * +12%
Huawei Ascend G615	1544 ms * +38%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	2217 ms * +11%
ZTE Grand X IN	1240 ms * +50%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	1727 ms * +31%
HTC Windows Phone 8S	1410 ms * +43%
Google Nexus 4	1895 ms * +24%

Peacekeeper - --- (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	302 Points
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	553 Points +83%
Alcatel OneTouch Ultra 997D	465 Points +54%
Huawei Ascend G615	431 Points +43%
ZTE Grand X IN	575 Points +90%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	443 Points +47%
HTC Windows Phone 8S	197 Points -35%
Google Nexus 4	236 Points -22%

* ... smaller is better

Demanding games such as Iron Man 3 take pretty long to load. Indeed, the 4 GB of flash memory used in the L7 II is not of the fastest kind, having to concede defeat to all of its competitors during the AndroBench benchmark.

Although LG's smartphone offers enough power for basically all applications, other manufacturers construct better products for the same amount of money. Such a future-proof investment is especially important if one plans on keeping the device for a longer stretch of time, requiring it to be able to cope well with future versions of Android too.

AndroBench 3-5
Random Write 4KB (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	0.2 MB/s
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	0.74 MB/s +270%
Alcatel OneTouch Ultra 997D	0.27 MB/s +35%
Huawei Ascend G615	0.52 MB/s +160%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	0.95 MB/s +375%
ZTE Grand X IN	0.23 MB/s +15%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	0.5 MB/s +150%
Google Nexus 4	1.07 MB/s +435%
Random Read 4KB (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	7.63 MB/s
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	12.22 MB/s +60%
Alcatel OneTouch Ultra 997D	9.54 MB/s +25%
Huawei Ascend G615	6.97 MB/s -9%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	10.9 MB/s +43%
ZTE Grand X IN	9.13 MB/s +20%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	10.12 MB/s +33%
Google Nexus 4	12.14 MB/s +59%
Sequential Write 256KB (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	3.98 MB/s
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	15.34 MB/s +285%
Alcatel OneTouch Ultra 997D	5.18 MB/s +30%
Huawei Ascend G615	10.3 MB/s +159%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	15.83 MB/s +298%
ZTE Grand X IN	4.74 MB/s +19%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	7.63 MB/s +92%
Google Nexus 4	13.97 MB/s +251%
Sequential Read 256KB (sort by value)
LG P710 Optimus L7 II	32.51 MB/s
Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus	47.42 MB/s +46%
Alcatel OneTouch Ultra 997D	26.62 MB/s -18%
Huawei Ascend G615	37.8 MB/s +16%
Yarvik Ingenia X1	30.36 MB/s -7%
ZTE Grand X IN	38.93 MB/s +20%
LG E460 Optimus L5 II	35.69 MB/s +10%
Google Nexus 4	49.7 MB/s +53%

Games

It should be taken for granted that every mid-range smartphone must be capable of running 2D games such as Angry Birds: Star Wars or Vector from the Google Play Store smoothly. But what about more demanding 3D games such as Iron Man 3 and Real Racing 3? Both run reasonably well, but not as smoothly as on the Google Nexus 4. The touchscreen and position sensor controls worked reliably at all times, but we were annoyed by the long loading times due to the rather slow flash memory.

Emissions

Temperature

The engineers at LG have done a great job with the LG Optimus L7 II's heat dissipation system: The case never gets uncomfortably hot, just noticeably warm with 36.1 °C under full load. 33.1 °C while being idle may be more than some of its competitors, but far away from becoming unpleasant to hold.

Max. Load

Idle


25.7 °C 78 F	32.5 °C 91 F	29.4 °C 85 F
36.1 °C 97 F	32 °C 90 F	29.8 °C 86 F
34.6 °C 94 F	31.1 °C 88 F	29.4 °C 85 F

Maximum: 36.1 °C = 97 F
Average: 31.2 °C = 88 F


28.7 °C 84 F	31.9 °C 89 F	34 °C 93 F
30.5 °C 87 F	32.2 °C 90 F	34.3 °C 94 F
30.5 °C 87 F	31.8 °C 89 F	31.7 °C 89 F

Maximum: 34.3 °C = 94 F
Average: 31.7 °C = 89 F

Power Supply (max.) 32.4 °C = 90 F | Room Temperature 22 °C = 72 F | Voltcraft IR-350

(+) The average temperature for the upper side under maximal load is 31.2 °C / 88 F, compared to the average of 32.8 °C / 91 F for the devices in the class Smartphone.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 36.1 °C / 97 F, compared to the average of 35.1 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 63.7 °C for the class Smartphone.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 34.3 °C / 94 F, compared to the average of 33.9 °C / 93 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 30.2 °C / 86 F, compared to the device average of 32.8 °C / 91 F.

Speakers

If the speaker on the rear was capable of focusing more on the lows and mids instead of solely on the highs, then it might have provided some really good audio and speech quality as it produces some loud and rich sounds. Unfortunately, it is not well-balanced at all. In addition, its sound gets dampened quickly when the smartphone is placed on soft surfaces.

Energy Management

Power Consumption

Energy consumption levels of the LG Optimus L7 II are mostly great, ranging from exactly 0 watts when deactivated and 0.1 watts while in standby to up to 3.6 watts under full load - which is much less than for some of its competitors. Only the consumption rate while idle is rather unfavorable, yielding up to 2.1 watts, more than all other Android-based devices. This might lead to some unfortunate consequences for its battery runtimes.

Power Consumption

Off / Standby	0.01 / 0.1 Watt
Idle	0.8 / 1.7 / 2.1 Watt
Load	3.2 / 3.6 Watt


Key: min: , med: , max: Voltcraft VC 940

Battery Life

The battery of the LG Optimus L7 II is amply sized: Its 2460 mAh (or 9.4 Wh) is even far more than what Google offers with its Nexus 4. The LG Optimus L7 II's maximum idle consumption rate of 0.7 watts more than the Google Nexus 4 suggests that this will lead to a neck-and-neck race, especially under light load or while idle. Indeed, the Google Nexus 4 manages to beat the L7 II by half an hour during our realistic Wi-Fi test - despite its smaller battery and its more powerful internal components. Under full load, the LG Optimus L7 II is finally capable of displaying its strengths, showing some great endurance: It takes more than four hours until its battery finally runs dry.

Battery Runtime

Idle (without WLAN, min brightness)		9h 34min
WiFi Surfing		6h 56min
Load (maximum brightness)		4h 02min

Verdict

As was the case with the LG Optimus L5 II, the Optimus L7 II remains rather unremarkable, sporting neither obvious highlights nor glaring weaknesses. This may be a problem for the L7 II since there are already a lot of other great devices on the highly competitive smartphone market.

There are some advantages to LG's new mid-range phone. It is a very functional device capable of running almost all apps smoothly. Build quality is decent, as is the image quality of the rear camera (8 megapixels). The touchscreen works well and the lightweight design also speaks in its favor.

Unfortunately, its surfaces are very susceptible to dirt and its display - while offering good black levels and viewing angles - disappoints due to its low maximum brightness. When compared to its equally-prized competitors, the L7 II lacks some performance as well as suitable speakers.

Those who are looking for an unpretentious smartphone with solid mid-range specs in all relevant areas can't go wrong with the LG Optimus L7 II. Still, other manufacturers offer more bang for the buck - no matter whether we are talking about better performance or a brighter screen. For just 50 Euros (~$66) more, a Google Nexus 4 can be had which offers one of the best cost-benefit ratios on the market. LG should have put some more effort into its new device in order to fully convince potential customers of its merits.

In Review: LG Optimus L7 II. Test device provided by LG.

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Editor of the original article: Florian Schmitt - Managing Editor Mobile - 1202 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2009

I initially wrote about gaming laptops when I joined Notebookcheck in 2009. I was then involved with the setup of the comparison portal Notebookinfo and worked with social media concepts for large companies like BMW and Adidas, while also returning to work for Notebookcheck in 2012. Nowadays, I focus on smartphones, tablets, and future technologies. Since 2018 I have been Managing Editor for mobile device reviews, working alongside my colleague Daniel Schmidt.

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Specifications

LG P710 Optimus L7 II (Optimus L Series)

Processor

Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Play MSM8225 2 x 1.5 GHz, Cortex-A5

Graphics adapter

Qualcomm Adreno 203

Memory

768 MB

Display

4.30 inch 16:9, 800 x 480 pixel, capacitive touchscreen, IPS, glossy: yes

Storage

4 GB Flash, 4 GB

, 1.6 GB free

Connections

1 USB 2.0, Audio Connections: 3.5mm Line In/Out, Card Reader: microSD slot up to 32 GB, Sensors: GPS, position sensor

Networking

802.11 b/g/n (b/g/n = Wi-Fi 4/), Bluetooth 3.0, Quadband (850/900/1.800/1.900 MHz) + UMTS (2.100/900MHz) + HSDPA 7.2, HSUPA 5.76

Size

height x width x depth (in mm): 9.8 x 66.6 x 121.5 ( = 0.39 x 2.62 x 4.78 in)

Battery

9 Wh Lithium-Ion, 3.8 Volt, 2.460 mAh, Talk time 2G (according to manufacturer): 24000 h, Talk time 3G (according to manufacturer): 24000 h, Standby 2G (according to manufacturer): 25800 h, Standby 3G (according to manufacturer): 25800 h

Operating System

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

Camera

Webcam: 3264 x 2448 resolution, 8 MP LED flash, 640 x 480 VGA

Additional features

Speakers: Mono speaker, Keyboard: Virtual, 24 Months Warranty

Weight

118 g ( = 4.16 oz / 0.26 pounds), Power Supply: 50 g ( = 1.76 oz / 0.11 pounds)

Price

299 Euro

Links

LG homepage
LG notebook section