The market for budget smartphones replenished with the LG One Optimus P500 model in September 2010.
Dressed in soft black plastic, this phone was built on the basis of a 3.2-inch screen and an aspect ratio of 3: 2, which is slightly smaller than the average high-end smartphone of that time, and the whole device was a little more compact than the iPhone 4 To be more precise, its dimensions are 113.5x59x13.3 mm, that is, approximately 5 mm shorter and narrower.
The phone comes with accessories - a long micro-USB cable, a charger that uses it to connect, and headphones. But the most interesting thing is the presence of a micro-SD card with a capacity of 2 GB, which is enough if you do not get carried away with music to store photos and videos shot by the smartphone’s camera. In addition, since Froyo is used, there is enough space for recording applications.
Case design
The LG Optimus One P500, like some of its “brothers,” is distinguished by rounded corners, and its modest style strives for practicality. In addition to black, Optimus One is also available in dark red, gray, blue and silver.
The screen is bright with pretty juicy LCD colors. There is no ambient light sensor, so the brightness is not automatically adjusted, and there is also no dimmer at hand in the notification area. The readability in sunlight is normal, but the display strongly reflects the light, so it depends on the orientation of the device whether it can see a bright sky or the sun, which, as a rule, overshadows the image on the display.
It also immediately becomes clear that this is a budget phone, because its screen is made of flexible plastic, not glass. The rest is a fairly elegant device, dressed in a black and silver case. Curved edges and a general arrangement of buttons allow you to comfortably hold it and work with it.
Ignoring the fashion for touch control buttons, the LG P500 Optimus One smartphone has a full set of four backlit physical keys located below the screen - calling up the menu, switching to the home panel, returning and searching. Users like the way LG separated the search and menu keys from the rest, indicating their status as less frequently used, rather than the main navigation. All four buttons produce a tangible click and seem to fit securely. In addition, pressing Home activates the screen, which allows you to unlock the phone without resorting to having to reach for the power switch.
The volume control of the LG P500 Optimus One Black Gold is located on the right panel, the headphone jack and the power button are on the top, a 3.0 megapixel camera is on the back and a microUSB port is on the bottom edge. The twin volume control key also clicks noticeably, although its small thickness means that it is not so easy to use by touch. If you open the back panel, using a slot for a nail on the upper edge, a rather glamorous silver filling opens to the eye. Unfortunately, this is just colored plastic, not metal. Here is a 1,500 mAh battery and a micro-SD card slot with a capacity of up to 32 GB, which is very useful, as the manufacturer stinted on the built-in - its size is only 170 MB.
Display
After turning on the LG One Optimus P500, the LCD panel with a resolution of 320x480 pixels lights up. Thanks to the small screen, low definition is not so obvious, and the image looks sharp. This is not an iPhone 4, but the user does not have to constantly be distracted by a terrible mess of pixelated font each time he tries to write a text message. Viewing angles are sufficient so that the image does not change significantly from the point of view of the user. The display has good natural, slightly muted colors.
The touchpad responds well to touch, and also supports all standard multi-touch gestures, including zoom with two fingers. It is a pity that LG did not install a glass screen, because, regardless of the advantages of this model, this drawback draws it to the bottom.
operating system
LG Optimus One P500 has firmware - Android 2.2 OS with some easy manufacturer settings. Therefore, instead of the icons of the application launcher, browser and phone, at the bottom of the screen are the icons of the phone, contacts, application launcher, messages and browser, which seems to many users an improvement. If you pull the notification line down from the top of the display, the standard buttons for quickly starting or disabling WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and airplane mode, as well as a mute button will open. The latest innovation also seems reasonable.
Less pleasant is the LG One Optimus P500 keyboard in the T9 style, which LG has replaced the standard screen. The phone is slightly narrower than other smartphones with a touch screen, so it’s more inconvenient to type on it, although the display is still wide enough to accommodate a standard QWERTY-style keyboard. Fortunately, it can be returned back.
In general, this is a fairly standard version of the OS with five desktops, on which you can place many widgets and applications. Launching the App Launcher gives you access to the programs of your choice. The LG P500 Optimus One phone, whose performance characteristics are due to its 600 MHz processor, did not differ at the particular speed even at the time of its appearance, although the device works well, only occasionally freezing.
Software
LG has added a set of its own widgets, including a calendar and viewers for messages, weather and bookmarks. All of them seem to work quite well, although they do not strike with any additional features.
After registering in Gmail, Facebook and Twitter, if desired, the contact list will be replenished with information from these services, and without user intervention. This is a common feature of all phones based on the Android OS, but it is always nice to see it in action.
Messaging services include a text message manager, an instant messaging client, a Gmail inbox, and other email services. All work very well and quickly.
GPS is supported, and GoogleMaps and Google Navigation will allow you to use it to the full. If desired, you can download another navigation application. The phone picks up satellite signals at an acceptable speed, although many complain about its speed. The slow processor when working with third-party programs (using 3D-graphics, etc.) functions sluggishly.
Multimedia
The music part is represented by a simple MP3 player and FM radio, although the player does not support formats such as FLAC, VGA and D1. Not everything is so good with video - there is no support for many formats, and high-quality clips are played with great difficulty. Users complain that the maximum resolution of the video that can be played is 630x360, and large files are not played at all. So you have to limit yourself to YouTube. True, an HVGA screen with a 3: 2 aspect ratio does not transmit 16: 9 well.
The web browser, as usual on Android devices, works quickly and opens most web pages perfectly. True, there is not enough support for Flash, but without it, he does everything he needs. Wi-Fi as well as 3G will provide fast downloads at home and on the go.
When headphones are connected, the level of interference and intermodulation distortion is significantly increased . The volume level is reduced.
Camera
The 3-megapixel camera does not have a flash and is quite limited in its capabilities, but is suitable for random shots in well-lit rooms. Fortunately, she has autofocus, so she can take clear, close-up photos. In addition, the LG P500 Optimus One can shoot video with a fairly adequate resolution of 640x480. This is not HD, but it will be possible to make out what is happening. The quality of the video is more affected by the low frame rate of 18 fps and strong compression in the 3GP format: the movements seem jerky and unnatural.
Connection quality
Users do not complain about the quality of communication, but the phone does not offer anything outstanding. Signal strength is strong even in areas with poor coverage. There is no active noise reduction to reduce ambient noise. The speaker of the smartphone is also frankly weak.
Battery
And finally, the battery life of the smartphone. As one would expect, due to the fact that the LG P500 Optimus battery has sufficient capacity in combination with a slow processor and a tiny screen, the phone provides three days of normal operation without recharging.
Conclusion
Optimus One is an entry-level Android phone that faithfully does its job. The main goal of LG was to attract users to the use of smartphones, offering in this model more functionality than even the most high-performance traditional devices. And the company managed to achieve this by choosing the right balance - the screen was better than that of competitors, the battery was of higher capacity, and Android 2.2 Froyo squeezed all the capabilities of a 600-MHz processor. And the software package was impeccable (with the exception of the document editor and the lack of Flash).
Ordinary phones, as a rule, offered the best display and the best camera, which were often not fully used. What is the availability of GPS without a navigation application? And Android offered an incomparably richer software package than any traditional smartphone.
The LG One Optimus P500 is pretty simple. Like a budget phone, he does his job, and more. If it will be possible to cheaply purchase this device, then there is no reason not to do so. But this fact does not allow to recommend buying it. There are many budget phones on the market, the characteristics of which are much more attractive.