LG Nitro HD Review

Introduction:

Following suit after its rivals, LG has now joined the 4G LTE party on AT&T by unleashing the mighty LG Nitro HD. Knowing that it'll be tough to go head to head with competitors such as the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket and the HTC Vivid,  however, the Nitro HD, as its name implies, has brought forward one very impressive asset – a 720x1280 HD display, to deliver a screen clarity that would be unmatched by its opponents.

But having in mind its above-average price tag of $249.99 with a two-year contract, we think it'd still be worth it if we take a closer look at the LG Nitro HD, in order to determine if it's really capable of leap-frogging the competition.

The package contains:

• microUSB cable
• Wall Charger
• Quick Start Guide

Design:

Above all, we’re soundly convinced that 4G LTE smartphones don’t need to be clunky anymore like Verizon’s batch of first generation devices – and it’s perfectly evident with the LG Nitro HD! Amazingly, it’s lighter (4.5 oz) than the HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket, thanks obviously to its all-plastic construction. Comparing it to the Skyrocket, the LG Nitro HD is also easier to handle with one hand because it’s not as wide, while maintaining a consistent slim figure of 0.41” thickness all around. Meanwhile, we do like the patterned design in the rear of the device since it keeps the entire thing clean looking, but doesn’t necessarily provide as good as a grip over a soft touch finish. As a whole, we’re most impressed about its feather-like weight, but in terms of design, it goes with a conventional approach that’s cookie cutter in nature.



You can compare the LG Nitro HD with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Already, we’ve seen 720p displays on the HTC Rezound and Samsung Galaxy Nexus, but what’s different with this one is that it employs an IPS panel – thus, delivering a good balance between brightness output and color accuracy. Likewise, it’s one of the most detailed displays out there because when you do the math for its 4.5” 720p (720 x 1280) True HD IPS display, it cranks out a respectable pixel density of 329 ppi with RGB arrangement. Its detail is most prominent when you look at fine text within the web browser, where it’s able to produce sharp visuals, whereas non-HD displays tend to look garbled. On top of that, it boasts some really good viewing angle to maintain its clarity even in outdoor settings.


Below the display, its capacitive Android buttons are spaced far from one another, which reduces accidental presses. On the opposite side, there’s a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera that can shoot videos in full 1080p resolution.

Looking around the sides of the smartphone, there’s nothing really out of character with it seeing we find things like its volume rocker, power button, noise cancellation microphone, 3.5mm headset jack, standard microphone, and microUSB port. Turned off because it doesn’t offer a microHDMI port? Well, fear not because you can connect an MHL adapter to its microUSB port to gain video out functionality.

Flipping it around to its rear, we find its 8-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash squarely in the top middle area – with two notches in the bottom right corner for its internal speaker. Prying off the rear plastic cover doesn’t take much force, which then grants us access to its microSD card slot (16GB card preloaded), beefy 1,830 mAh battery, and SIM card slot.

Interface:

LG's Optimus UI is installed on top of Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, and is what runs on the Nitro HD. Adding a slight tweak, it also boasts a total of 4 layouts/themes that provide prearranged layouts – these include Play, Work, Travel, and Custom. Other than that, the Optimus UI has remained pretty much intact – simple, yet functional. You get seven home screens that you can customize to your taste with shortcuts or widgets. Should you like to do so, you can change which one of them gets brought up when the “home” key is pressed. Even though it offers all of the lovable aspects of Gingerbread, it’s going to be hard to entice enthusiasts knowing that Ice Cream Sandwich is out there, but beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess on when this will receive its update to the most up-to-date Android experience. If you want to learn more about the handset’s functionality and interface, please check out our in-depth review of the LG Optimus 2x.


As much as we’re thrilled to know that a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 processor with 1GB of RAM is inside of this beast, we’re saddened to see the handset unable to deliver a silky smooth response with various actions. For example, we notice some choppiness with its performance while navigating across the homescreen with a static wallpaper – and it’s even evident as we kinetic scroll through the app panel! Despite that, it’s able to launch applications in a relatively quick manner with minimal wait. Naturally, its 720p display might be the culprit that’s impacting its overall performance, which isn’t terrible to tell you the truth, but it’s nonetheless visibly lessened and stands out.

Functionality:

Another feature that Optimus UI 2.0 delivers is the implementation of motion gestures. Just like on the LG Optimus 2X, tapping on the sides of the device can move the cursor when typing or browsing through the image gallery. Moreover, you can use motion gestures to turn off your alarm clock or to mute an incoming call by flipping the phone over. We can argue how useful these motion gestures can be in real life because the idea of physically hitting a pricy device, no matter how lightly you do it, can always cause an accidental drop if you are not being careful enough. Luckily, some or all of the motion gestures can be turned off through the Settings menu.

Blessed with such generous space, there’s no arguing that the LG Nitro HD will perfectly accommodate a wide array of people when it comes to typing up messages. Not only do we find both the stock Gingerbread and LG on-screen keyboards sufficient with their layouts, but their instantaneous responses allow our fingers to consistently type at a fanatical rate without the worry of any lag. Of course, if physically typing isn’t your kind of thing, you can always use the voice recognition service as an alternative.


Being the Android powered device it is, the LG Nitro HD delivers the good old fashion Gmail experience we’re so used to seeing at this point, but equally as usable, the LG Email app is also quite useful on its own. too As for setting up accounts, it’s your typical process of providing an email address and password for automatic set up. However, you might be asked to input additional pieces of information before it’s able to correctly complete.


Internet and Connectivity:

Although it’s not the first, but actually the third, AT&T customers will be able to take advantage of the smartphone’s galloping 4G LTE connectivity – well, that’s as long as you’re located in any of the few markets that have the network up and running. In our usage, we strictly used it with HSPA+ connectivity, and even with that, we’re content with the speeds that we’re exposed to. Specifically, we find its download speed to be satisfying as we’re able to get up to 11.27 Mbit/s. However, its upload speeds with HSPA+ are rather lackluster seeing we’re getting 1.5 Mbit/s on the average. Strangely, we notice some choppiness with its web browsing performance, which is more evident when Flash content is present. Despite that issue, it’s still tolerable enough to accept.


Traveling abroad isn’t a problem with this GSM smartphone, even more when it’s able to get HSPA+ speeds in most countries. Of course, it features all the typical connectivity items we’d normally expect to find – like aGPS, Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and mobile hotspot functionality.