Display
As always, every smartphone reviewed has to go through our CalMAN 5 workflow to determine accuracy of calibration. I have to applaud LG for fixing their issues with the G2’s uneven saturation sweep, as it’s gone in the G Pro 2. However, it seems that LG is still missing the targets for the sweep, especially on the secondary colors.
The white point is also quite blue, likely because this phone is intended for the Asian market, although I don’t know if things will change if this phone makes it to Western markets.
Overall, the G Pro 2 doesn’t really rock the boat when it comes to color accuracy, although LG seems to be taking the right steps to rectify some of the issues that they’ve had. The Gretag Macbeth chart performance improves a bit as well.
It’s important to keep in mind for the grayscale data that I use an i1pro, which means that the extremely low brightness values are likely to be inaccurate, so I’m not posting official contrast numbers for the G Pro 2 quite yet.
Brightness seems to be relatively low at maximum relative to the best LCDs at 400 nits or so, but it’s in line with the LG G2. The minimum white level is 7.63 nits for those that use their phones in dark environs, so this certainly makes it easier on the eyes than the HTC One, which goes down to around 12 nits at the lowest brightness.
I’ll be sure to update this review with additional information, as time constraints dictate that I can’t quite get all the data collected to do a proper comparison across multiple phones for minimum 100% APL brightness.
Camera
I must defer to Brian in this case, as the camera is effectively unchanged from the LG G2. There is the OIS+ feature, and LG has added a few extra features such as 4K recording, flash for the front facing camera, and a natural flash feature that tries to emulate a dual temperature LED flash without the dual temperature LED. The OIS+ feature definitely works, and it’s effectively EIS on top of the OIS. Compared to the G2, I can definitely see a difference, although I don’t have a camera rig to show the effect. What doesn’t quite work out is the natural flash feature, which despite its best efforts, doesn’t seem to noticeably reduce the change in color balance that happens when flash is used. As seen below, I took the first photo with the flash off, and the second with the flash on.
One of the simplest features is the front facing camera flash, which is actually a great idea despite its simplicity and makes an enormous difference when it comes to low light photos with the front facing camera.
The Magic Focus feature also works, but like most HDR modes, it needs still subjects to work right. Otherwise it's pretty easy to end up with severe ghosting. The UI also only lets you refocus once, which is a bit disappointing.
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vision33r - Wednesday, March 5, 2014 - link
LG needs to open up to rom development because their locked bootloader is hurting sales. The LG G Pro has been sitting on 4.1.2 since the phone was released. A leaked 4.4 is out but lacks the modem for other locations. They are too slow with the updates and I don't have any faith with them providing timely updates and bad custom rom support.phoenix_rizzen - Friday, March 14, 2014 - link
LG Optimus G was very easy to unlock using the FreeGee app in the Play Store. Had SlimBean 4.3 and SlimKat 4.4 running on up until I returned it in January with a dead touch layer.LG G2 was also very easy to unlock using the FreeGee app in the Play Store. Had SlimKat 4.4 running on it the second day I had it.
Don't know about the LG Optimus G Pro or the LG G Pro 2, but I'd assume they'd be supported by FreeGee.
mihaikiss - Wednesday, March 5, 2014 - link
You've mismatched the specs of the G2 Pro with those of the Note3 in the spec table at the beginning of the article... ;)JoshHo - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
I've checked and to my knowledge the spec table is correct....TracyJHughes - Wednesday, March 5, 2014 - link
The LG Optimus G Pro is truly an amazing smart phone. I believe it is the best phone available on the market. If you are shopping around for a new phone, stop and check out this phone. It has powerful specs, a comfortable feel for the hands, which provides an enjoyable experience. http://num.to/2775-4892-5183victorson - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
Joshua, great mini review (as always, much more informative than other 'full' reviews), but one thing I don't understand. You are saying that "the white point is also quite blue, likely because this phone is intended for the Asian market". So people in Asia prefer blue? :) Or is it that they don't care about calibration? Could you explain what you mean by this?JoshHo - Thursday, March 6, 2014 - link
In general it seems that the Asian market prefers bluer white points for display calibration, although this may be a universal preference.vista1984 - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
good review. i am thinking of this phone or g3 or nexus 5.lg did very good job on the hardware design. now i hope they can catch up the software update speed like samsung, if not better.
jk1 - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
very, very few reviews mention sound quality in the 2 audio uses that i care about the most- as a telephone to make actual phone calls, and as a music player WITH HEADPHONES.how do callers sound to you, and how do you sound to callers? i know it's hard to generate a NUMBER to put on a BAR GRAPH, but that doesn't mean it's unimportant. i really like the information here at anandtech, but would very much appreciate this kind of additional information.
further, no one with a set of functional ears will want to listen to music from a smartphone's speakers- front facing, rear facing, reflected or whatever. if you want to use it as a music player, you will use headphones, and from what i read ELSEWHERE the lg series has a better dac than the samsungs. i can't belive i'm the only reader who cares about this.
i'd appreciate reviews that address the use of phones as music players. you don't carry a separate camera anymore, most of the time. do you carry a separate music player? why?
jk1 - Friday, March 7, 2014 - link
ps- just reread my comment and it sounds like a rant, for which i apologize. i really DO appreciate the site, and i appreciate this review. i'm just asking for the addition of some audio specific information, which i think would make the reviews even more useful.