Review: LG Revolution
I am starting to think that 4G really stands for girth, ginormous, gargantuan, and gawky. None of the first wave of LTE 4G handsets for Verizon Wireless has been dainty, and the Revolution is no exception. It is flat-out huge and feels like a brick in the hand. It's wide, thick, tall, and heavier than I'd like a phone to be. The smooth surfaces and rounded back edges make it sit in the hand without any pain, but it is not easy to wrap your fingers all the way around it. It'll slide into a pocket thanks to the smooth plastics, but no matter what type of pants you're wearing, you're going to know your phone is there.
The quality of the materials is solid, however, and the phone feels very well put together. The plastics fare better than those used by Samsung, which have a decidedly cheap feel to them. The soft-touch paint on the back surface of the Revolution helps in the quality department, but the hard corners at the edge of the display are kind of annoying.
The front is all display. The 4.3-inch screen takes up nearly the whole front surface. LG has provided four capacitive buttons below the screen for accessing the standard Android controls. They offer haptic feedback if you wish, or you can turn that off.
The microUSB port is hidden by a chrome hatch on the left side of the Revolution. Prying it open takes a little bit of work. The volume toggle is on the right side close to the top. The button is a bit hard to find because it has no shape to it at all. The volume up part works great, but the volume down part hardly works at all. It has zero travel and feedback. The hatch covering the microHDMI port is directly below the volume toggle. As with the microUSB hatch, it is difficult to open.
The power/lock key is on the top of the Revolution. It is a little bit hard to find, but the action is good. The 3.5mm headset jack for most stereo headphones is also on top. Alas, there is no dedicated camera button.
In what seems to be a theme for the Revolution, the battery cover is difficult to pry off. I had to resort to breaking out my knife to get sufficient leverage to pop it open. The battery, SIM card and microSD card can all be accessed once the cover is removed. The microSD card is wedged next to the battery in such a way that it is impossible to remove without also removing the battery. Boo.
It's odd that, for such a large phone, LG made some of the controls so small and difficult to use. It's not like the Revolution is lacking for real estate and space for larger buttons. A phone this big to use shouldn't be this hard to use.
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LG Revolution
