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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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.