Review: LG Optimus T
Screen
The screen on the LG Optimus T is not bad. The resolution seems a bit low, at 320 by 480 pixels, but the HVGA display still handled icons and pictures nicely. Text looked a bit jagged and wiry if I held the phone up close, but the screen was plenty colorful and bright, at least indoors. Outside, it faded considerably, but it was still usable. I was able to manipulate the homescreen panels and use the camera on a bright, sunny day, though it wasn't very easy.
Sound
Call quality on the LG Optimus T was a bit muffled. Voices through the earpiece sounded clipped at both the high and low end. Also, my callers would cut in and out often. On their end, callers reported better sound quality than I heard, but they still said I sounded compressed and somewhat digital. The ringer on the Optimus T can get nice and loud. Thankfully, by default it is set to start soft and crank up the volume steadily until you answer. Answer quickly, because it can be abusively loud. The speakerphone also reached a high decibel level, and I was easily able to have a conversation in a moving car using the speaker. With the sound turned off, the vibrate function is strong enough that I could feel it in a pants pocket among the other stuff I was carrying.
Signal
I never had trouble with phone calls on the LG Optimus T. All of my outgoing and incoming calls went through just fine, and even though voices could cut in and out during calls, I only had one dropped call in my testing time, which is nothing serious. Data was a different story. Hooked to my home Wi-Fi network, the data connection was smooth and steady. But on T-Mobile's HSDPA network, the phone often stalled loading Web pages or downloading apps from the App Market. It was bad enough that I turned airplane mode on and off again once or twice to reset the data connection. Through all of these problems, the phone reported a steady three bars of service, which shows how much you can trust the reception indicator.
Battery
Battery life on the LG Optimus T was acceptable. The phone chugged through a long day of testing, and though it was almost depleted by the end of my day, it still managed to make a few calls before it conked out. My usage could be fairly heavy at times, too, with some video recording and plenty of GPS navigation. The Optimus T can definitely last through a full day of use, but you'll want to charge the phone every night.
CTIA Fall 2010
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LG Optimus T
