LG Escape Review

By now, we’re very aware about the competitive atmosphere surrounding high-end smartphones, but interestingly enough, we’re seeing a similar battle over in the entry-level market as well. Already, we’ve been blown away by AT&T’s admirable offering with the Pantech Flex, as it showed us that basic doesn’t mean weak, but rather, it’s able to combine killer pricing with meaningful hardware. Well people, now it’s LG’s turn to show off its offering for the carrier’s entry-level lineup – the LG Escape! Naturally, its $50 on-contract price is lovable right from the onset, but it’s going to require much more than that to impress us nowadays.

Rather than stepping outside the box, the LG Escape traverses the usual beaten path with its design, since it employs the distinct elements of LG’s recent smartphone designs. In actuality, the Escape merely reminds us of a slightly larger version of the LG Lucid for Verizon. With its all-plastic casing, it feels a bit hollow and attracts plenty of unwanted smudges/fingerprints – though, it’s lightweight (4.5 oz) and easily grasped with one hand. 

Interestingly enough, the LG Escape is the first AT&T smartphone to feature LG’s latest Optimus UI running on top of Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich. Visually speaking, the cool 3D transition effects in use when navigating the homescreen splashes a bit of character to the interface, but beyond that, there’s nothing particularly attractive about it – since it’s merely offering the usual functionality of any Android device out there. Indeed, it’s far from being the most comprehensive thing out there with its experience, but considering that it’s positioned as an entry-level device, we’re nevertheless humbled by the foundational Android functions that it has to offer.

Again, we’re not too shocked to find that its core organizer apps are not deviating from the usual presentation and functionality. Worth noting, LG’s QuickMemo feature is on board with this one – allowing us to take a screenshot of what we’re doing, doodle on it, and then share it with the usual services. At the same time, however, we can’t complain about the rich set of features it has to offer in the email department, as the Gmail experience itself follows closely to the desktop experience.

Strangely, we find ourselves being a bit more careful with our rate of input when it comes to typing up messages with its on-screen keyboard – especially in portrait. Even though it’s donning a sizable 4.3-inch display, the layout of its stock and LG keyboards feel a bit cramped – albeit, it’s more than responsive with its performance.

In character to say the least, the LG Escape is packaged along with a trove of third party apps – such as Amazon Kindle, Qik Lite, Polaris Office, Video Wiz, Twitter, Facebook, and YPmobile. Right on cue as well, AT&T’s presence is tastefully established with apps like AT&T Code Scanner, AT&T FamilyMap, AT&T Locker, AT&T Navigator, AT&T Ready2Go, AT&T Smart Wi-Fi, AT&T Messages, and myAT&T.

Pricing can be deceiving no doubt, especially with this offering because the LG Escape is actually carrying along some serious hardware under the hood. Specifically, it’s powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor with 1GB of RAM, which is ample enough to handle most operations effortlessly. It’s fast folks, soundly quick to ensure a consistent performance throughout the experience. And on top of that, the benchmark scores show that it’s really up there and that it can tangle with the big boys. 

As much as we’re impressed by its processing power, we’re brought back to reality as we find that it’s packing along a paltry 1.84GB of internal storage out of the box. Luckily, that can be supplemented by throwing in a microSD card into its available slot.

With 4G LTE connectivity in tow and a hard-working processor ticking away smoothly inside of its body, it simply combines together to present us with a wonderful web browsing experience. In addition to the speedy page loads courtesy of LTE, its processor provides for quick and responsive navigational control to complement the overall experience. For an entry-level smartphone, it’s impressive in this front – even more when its performance matches some high-end devices.

Trips abroad shouldn’t pose an issue with the LG Escape, since it’s a GSM device and all, but if you’re seeking LTE connectivity, you’ll only be able to experience it with AT&T’s network domestically. Meanwhile, it’s outfitted with the usual staple of other connectivity features as well – like aGPS, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, mobile hotspot, and NFC.

We can’t be too picky now, especially when this is an entry-level model we’re talking about, right? For what it’s worth and all, we have to admit that we’re accepting of the results produced by the handset’s 5-megapixel camera. However, the one complaint we have is the noticeable cooler color production it’s showing – where there’s a fair amount of blue/green hues throughout its shots. In general, it works for taking snapshots outside, but indoors or in low lighting situations, it produces way too much noise and soft details to accept. Oh yeah, it lacks a flash by the way!

Sadly, its 1080p video recording quality is too poor in quality to accept as being high definition. Sure, it records smoothly at 30 frames per second and captures clear audio, but its soft details, under-exposed appearance, and artifacting severely diminishes its quality. Needless to say, it might be “good enough” for some people, but for memories you want to remember until the end of time, we’d recommend something better.

In addition to the always-lovable Google Play Music app, the LG Escape is also carrying along LG’s very own music player, which is rather conventional by approach with its presentation and functionality. Setting the volume to its loudest setting, the speaker emits tones that resonate with a lot of vibrancy – albeit, there’s a hint of sharpness with it. Using the Google Play Music app, there are equalizer settings to better adapt to the specific genre of music that’s being played.

Already showing off its processing power, the LG Escape is able to easily play our test video that’s encoded in DivX 1920 x 1080 resolution. However, as much as we dig its smooth playback, the poor quality of its display becomes rather distracting at times – since colors lack the vibrancy to retain our attention.

Chatterboxes will surely enjoy conversations with this smartphone, mainly because it delivers one immaculate call quality. Through the earpiece, it produces extremely loud and audible voices that are distinct in tone and distortion-free. Conversely, our callers were treated to the same results on their end of the line – with no background noise or static being evidenced. However, the speakerphone tends to have a strain output with its quality.

In our time testing out the handset, we didn’t experience any adverse fluctuations with its signal strength or dropped calls in the greater Philadelphia region.

For an entry-level model, it’s particularly uncanny to find it packing along a beefy 2,150 mAh battery. With that in tow, it delivers some better than average battery life under HSPA+ connection. Specifically, we’re able to get close to two days with our normal usage, but as usual, you can expect that figure to drop significantly with LTE connections.

After being impressed by the Pantech Flex recently, our expectations regarding entry-level smartphones has been heightened. Well, we have to admit that LG also has a formidable model that shouldn’t be taken for granted, as it competes nearly on the same level with its performance. Out of everything, it’s still rather difficult to choose this over Pantech’s offering, mainly because its design is so blah compared to the Pantech Flex. Regardless of that, it surely offers a ton of value for being a $50 on-contract smartphone – so you won’t be disappointed for the amount you pay for it!

Software version of the reviewed unit: