LG Optimus 7 - Review

“The LG Optimus 7 looks good, is easy to use and has decent features. Its non user-expandable memory and average camera are disappointing, but otherwise this is a top Windows Phone 7 smartphone”

Windows Phone 7 smartphone

LG's Optimus 7 looks good and performs well

As one of the world’s first smartphones to run the new Windows Phone 7 (WP7) operating system (OS), LG has much riding on the success of its LG Optimus 7 (LG E900).

In the looks department, LG has done a stellar job, mixing a large touchscreen (3.8in) with metal bodywork and some physical buttons to create a stylish and sleek smartphone.

I soon got over the annoying feature of only being able to wake Optimus 7 from standby by pressing its physical power button.

But slightly more annoying was the phone’s volume shortcut keys, which were difficult to operate during calls.

Speaking of telephone calls, sound quality was generally good. However, callers occasionally sounded muffled when my ear didn’t line-up exactly with the phone’s speaker.

This isn’t a problem I’ve ever experienced with a smartphone before, but one that a Bluetooth headset would easily overcome.

Integrating three physical buttons (Back, Home and Search) below Optimus 7’s touchscreen was a smart move on LG’s part, because the trio help make navigating through WP7 and the smartphone’s own features - such as its camera - quick and easy.

For example, because the phone’s Search key opens Microsoft’s Bing search engine, quickly surfing the internet whenever the mood took me was extremely easy.

5Mp camera

The phone has a metal battery cover

One annoying caveat to this is that I couldn’t choose Google as the default engine instead, but I suppose that’s what you get when you buy a Microsoft OS-based smartphone.

While some manufacturers, such as HTC, pre-install plenty of their own apps on their WP7 smartphones, such as the HTC HD 7, LG hasn’t done much of this on the Optimus 7.

Nonetheless, WP7 works well on LG Optimus 7. For example, typing short documents in Microsoft Word - a WP7 feature - was easy because the smartphone’s virtual keypad is responsive and accurate. The same goes for text messages and web surfing through Internet Explorer.

One of the few homemade apps LG has installed on Optimus 7 lets its 5Mp camera stitch multiple photographs together to form a single panorama shot.

This feature was handy for capturing, say, beaches and landscapes. The Nokia C5 and Sony Ericsson - a 12Mp cameraphone - offer similar panorama modes, it’s worth noting.

Camera modes including “Intelligent Shot,” “Anti-shake” and “Beauty shot” really helped bump-up the quality of what would otherwise be fairly average images.

16GB of internal storage

Shooting modes boosted image quality

For example, one picture I took of some leaves changed dramatically for the better after I switched certain camera settings on.

The 800 x 480 pixel resolution of Optimus 7’s touchscreen meant the device displayed videos in reasonable quality.

Heavy video users - and music users, for that matter - should be warned that because the smartphone doesn’t accept memory cards, your data storage capabilities will be limited to Optimus 7’s 16GB of internal storage.

Elsewhere LG Optimus 7 is a standard WP7 smartphone, offering little in the way of features over and above the basic features of WP7. These include:

• Xbox Live wireless gaming
• Zune music and video downloads
• Marketplace apps
• Interactive maps

Read my “What is Windows Phone 7?” guide to learn more about the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 operating system.

Watch my Windows Phone 7 video guide, located on the “Video” tab of this review.

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