Review: LG G3 Vigor for AT&T
Screen
The Vigor has a 5-inch LCD panel that includes 1280 x 720 pixels. The panel looks good enough that I at first mistook it for a 1080p HD display. It is bright enough for indoor and outdoor use, though you have to crank the brightness when outside. On-screen elements such as icons, graphics, and text look clean. Individual pixels are more or less invisible. Viewing angles are excellent; there's no color shift or brightness change when the phone is tilted side-to-side. LG makes great screens and that certainly applies to the Vigor.
Signal
I tested the Vigor on AT&T's network in and around New York City. It performed very well with respect to both voice and data. The Vigor connected all calls on the first dial, and it didn't drop any, even in a moving car. The Vigor did miss a call in a weak signal area, though, where other AT&T phones did not. I was pleased with data speeds. They weren't the fastest I've seen on AT&T's network, but they were quick enough for firing off Facebook posts, responding to emails, and sharing photos on Twitter. Importantly, the Vigor was still able to use data when AT&T's network was at its weakest, which not all phones can do.
Sound
The Vigor produces loud, mostly-clear audio in the earpiece. When set all the way up, the earpiece is loud enough to be heard in all but the noisiest spaces. I easily held conversations on busy Manhattan streets, in boisterous coffee shops, and at raucous soccer games. The quality of calls was generally good, though I heard minor interference from time to time. Voices sounded good to me coming through the earpiece, but people I spoke to through the Vigor said I sounded "just OK." The speakerphone is also very loud; it has quality comparable to the earpiece. Ringers and alert tones are loud enough to get your attention. The vibrate alert is mediocre.
Battery
The Vigor sports a 2,540 mAh battery and I found it was good enough to get me through most -— but not all — days. When I used the device sparingly it easily retained a charge between 8AM and midnight. If I used it intensely, it more often conked out by about 9PM, which is not quite good enough. With what I feel is average use, the Vigor made it to bed time, but just barely. You'll need to charge the Vigor every night, and pay attention to your battery usage throughout the day.
Thankfully, the Vigor has a great battery saver tool on board. You can set it to come on automatically or manually, and can customize how the Vigor reduces power drain. For example, you can leave the Bluetooth radio on, but kill background data sync; or you can turn off WiFi, dim the screen, but keep haptic feedback on. Your choice. If you run into trouble early in the day and don't have a charger handy, the battery saver might just be enough to help you get through the rest of the day.
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LG G3 Vigor (GSM)
