considering LG Revolution for first smartphone

[AstroBoy]

I looked at the Inc2 and X next to the Charge when it came out, and I wasn't a fan of the Charge's display and I really dislike the Charge's form factor (Inc2 didn't work for me, speakerphone issue). It's a matter of preference.

Regarding the Revolution, I'm a little concerned about the unresponsiveness indicated, and the camera quality. Can you elaborate?

I didn't like the form factor of the Charge either. I did love teh screen however.

In regards to the lagginess I came across, the screen was generally responsive, but on occasion, pressing an icon to launch a program was sometimes a bit of hit and miss. Sometimes it launched immediately, and some times it took more than one press, or a long press. This is something I have not seen on other phones (TB, and Charge). Could've been the unit in the store so I'm going to check out another store's to see if it is endemic to the phone or not.

As for the pictures, the Charge to me had the best images. Best color, definitely least JPG compression, largest file size, best grain, Less aliasing, etc...

Thunderbolt had most compression and ailiasing, but the colors were nice.

The Revolution has about the same level of detail as the Charge, but colors did not seem as spot on as the other two. Also has way less compression artifacts than the TB. Again kind of a cross of the other two.

The images from all three are attached. the Charge is 100% crop since the whole file is too large for the forum. The other images are full size and no processing has been done to them. They are as they came out of the phone's camera.

[rawr33]

[quote=AstroBoy;1543186]

The images from all three are attached. the Charge is 100% crop since the whole file is too large for the forum. The other images are full size and no processing has been done to them. They are as they came out of the phone's camera.

Thanks. Which pic is from the Revolution and which is from the Thunderbolt?

[AstroBoy]

[quote=rawr33;1543811]

The images from all three are attached. the Charge is 100% crop since the whole file is too large for the forum. The other images are full size and no processing has been done to them. They are as they came out of the phone's camera.

Thanks. Which pic is from the Revolution and which is from the Thunderbolt?

the 1st pic is from the Revolution the 2nd pic the TB and the 3rd (crop sideways) from the Charge.

[GunnerJim]

LG Revolution
Very Snappy phone, transitions are quick
Great Benchmarks (1900-2100 Average on Quadrant), I compared all three 4G LTE phones side by side in VZW, the LG blew away the HTC TB
Touch Display is very responsive, reminds me of Iphone, I think LG makes the TFT display for them as well.
Replaced Optimus UI with Launcher Pro, preference more than anything
768 RAM, no lag
3g so far is really fast
Have not gone over to Seattle to try the 4G yet.
Battery life not as good as Charge, but better than HTC TB. I get 1 to 1-1/2 day on 3G in Western Washington.
Open Bootloader is nice, considering the root to remove Bing and Bloatware.
Camera is good indoors and out, front facing camera, really sharp.
LED notification is present, even though you see nothing online or in manual for it.
VoLTE, this is the only phone with simultaneous Voice and data capability on 4G network. Don't really know if this would be a show stopper, but it is worth mentioning.
Square Form Factor, easy to get back off of phone
Supports Wireless Charging (Buy $30 back, $70 Charger)
Fast reboot time
Netflix works great!!!!
Video Playback works great
Speaker is clearer than Charge, not as loud.

Cons
4G/CDMA toggle requires reboot
Battery life better than TB, not as good as Charge
TONS of BLOATWARE!!! Bing is imbedded in Browser along with VZW crap, but I use SkyFire and Dolphin, so it is a non-issue. Same with Google maps, Google Voice, etc... Just dumpster Bing off your homescreens or root the phone, freeze the VZW Bloatware/Bing Bloatware/etc.
Take Away: I like LG, they have been putting out good products since they left the old GoldStar monicker behind years ago. I had great success with LG dumbphones in past, figured to give this phone a try. The phone does not lag on most applications, the lag worth mentioning is when adding applications to the home screen. I will stutter an extra 5 seconds... It could be the fact I am using Launcher Pro. I am probably going to stick with this phone if 4G works as advertised. Charge runs a close second, I wish they had Gingerbread out of the box... If Charge had Ext4 and more RAM, then it would win hands down. The file system piece is fixable but I do not believe we can re-partition the RAM... Maybe a developer can weigh in here and set me straight.

If I had not given my Droid Incredible to my son, then I may have waited to see if the Samsung Galaxy S II came to VZW with the same specs and 4G LTE radio. Somehow I believe it may not happen because of the size of the 4G radio fitting in the GSII Form Factor.

I ran benchmarks in a 3G Area VZW store, I installed quadrant on LG Revo, Samsung Charge, and HTC TB. I cleared as much running bloat, stopping un-needed processes to make it fair across the spectrum.
Results:
LG Revo- 1950
HTC TB- 1805
Charge- 950 (I think it is not fair, the Charge has slow RFS file System)

I returned my Charge to VZW and walked out with LG Revo, it seemed more snappier, screen transitions were perfect, the up and down on web pages had some jitter but hardly noticeable to most. I do not care for stock UI on LG or the stock keyboard, Swype installed is more responsive. I went with Launcher Pro, I bought it for Charge because the Touch Wiz 3.0 was lag-central. The HTC TB is a good device, seems a little heavy and so far high battery usage is at a point where VZW is offering the extended battery and cover at half price when you purchase device... That is what my salesman said here in Western Washington.

I am longing for the BLADE RUNNER Phone, that hunts down all the other Androids and is the definitive Champion... Dudes would line up for miles to rock the BLADE RUNNER, Some Specs we need VZW if you are listening:
BLADE RUNNER Specs for old Jimbo...
Dual Core Snap Dragons.. (I can wish right???)
1GB RAM
1GB ROM
512MB Video RAM
16 GB Internal Memory
32 GB External Memory
2000 MAH Battery
Wireless Qi Charging built in, only need to buy wireless docking pad
Stereo Bluetooth
Super AMOLED Plus 4.3" screen
Capacitive Buttons that rotate like the Incredible 2
HDMI Out
12MP Camera Back, dual LED Flash/5MP Camera Front w/ Front Flash
Ice Cream Sandwich pure VANILLA
Top/Bottom LED for notification
Gorilla Glass All the way or the new Asahi Glass... Even Better
Accessible SD Card port
3G SVDO/4G VoLTE/ (Throw in UMTS/GSM too, what the heck)
Am I missing something?

[rawr33]

Update: (I did just update a similar post elsewhere, but wanted to update this topic. Your input was appreciated!)

Today was going to be the day. I've been researching for weeks and I was torn between the LG Revolution and the HTC Thunderbolt. I went to Best Buy for their price-matching, 30-day phone exchange period, and great customer service.

I realized I'd counted the Thunderbolt out too early on account of rebooting and battery issues, but further research put it back on the table. (There are actually a lot of thrilled Thunderbolt owners on this site who've never had any significant issues.) I was torn when walking into the store and after some discussion decided to give the Thunderbolt a try. I'm very excited! I hope that it's my perfect phone and I love it, but if not I have 30 days to swap it for another phone or different model.

Bonus: got an amazing deal on it! Waaaaay less than retail!

I hope y'all are loving whatever you ended up getting (or already had). And as I get to know my new Thunderbolt, I'll probably keep monitoring what's going on in Revolution-land.

[GunnerJim]

I did a detailed review of all the things you are asking, here is the link:

LG Revolution vs Charge vs Incredible 2 - Android Forums

I took the LG Revo to Seattle today to test out 4G LTE, compared to the Droid Charge.
Summary:
GPS Very Good (Did knock out 5% battery life/1 hr, 45 m drive W/ charger)
5MP Camera OK
Battery Life went from 95% to 35% in 4 hours, check out my screen shots to correlate what I am saying.

[ElMuneco]

I did a detailed review of all the things you are asking, here is the link:

LG Revolution vs Charge vs Incredible 2 - Android Forums

I took the LG Revo to Seattle today to test out 4G LTE, compared to the Droid Charge.
Summary:
GPS Very Good (Did knock out 5% battery life/1 hr, 45 m drive W/ charger)
5MP Camera OK
Battery Life went from 95% to 35% in 4 hours, check out my screen shots to correlate what I am saying.

Jim,

What all were you using it for, for it to drop like like that and was it on 4G the entire time?? Thanks

[sonex51]

I actually went out yesterday to try out the TB and the Charge and stumbled across the Rev in the process. I posted some of this in another forum, but it applies better here.
I’ll recount some of my experiences with the three over the ~1.5 hours I spent at the store.

First I have to say that all three phones were running some Verizon in store addon software that would popup randomly and start playing an advertisement about the device along with other videos / graphics. So I have no doubt at all that this additional demo model bloatware was really slowing all three down.

That said,
The TB had a VERY laggy keyboard, and seemed to slow down a lot on many websites that a lot going on. I actually used Worldofwarcraft.com to test all three phones, and the TB didn't seem to scroll down the main page at any time w/o a second or more delay. I had also tested a TB without the additional bloatware about a week earlier and also noticed the keyboard input lag, but thought it was a display unit fluke. So I don't know what to think now... The camera also seems to blow RGB out of proportion and give the image an overall neon look. This might be a setting, but it’s something I’ve noticed in pics sent to me from TB owning friends too.

The Charge had an even more laggy keyboard and after loading the same website, could not scroll down the page until at least 10 seconds had passed (I actually timed it with my phones stopwatch), and even then would end up at the bottom of the page instead of where I was trying to scroll to. Extremely frustating! Not to mention the cheep plastic build. The camera locked up every time I tried to use. I never tried the video mode out to see if it had the same issue. All that was a shame since the screen is so nice on the eyes...

I actually didn't want to look at the Rev, but since it was there I tried it out. They keyboard was very responsive (very close to the iPhone4 it seemed). The Rev was also able to easily scroll up and down the same web page with little lag from top to bottom. I was surprised because both dual core X2 and even the xoom had trouble with this page. The phone also seemed to load the flash site Goodbrush.com better than the xoom... Needless to say I was a little dumbfounded that the phone I had zero intention of looking at grossly outperformed the two I wanted to compare. The camera didn’t really leave an impression either way. It wasn’t great, and not really bad, just kinda there. It seemed to work as well as my 3Gs camera did.

I guess my only concern is the fact that the Rev is very new, and there’s not a lot of dev support for it just yet. However I have heard again and again that the device does have an unlocked bootloader, and with any luck that fact will attract some support. I’m really leaning toward getting a Rev tomorrow.

Hopefully some of this helps out.

[markwebb]

I will be due in the next few months for an upgrade. Based on what I am reading here and in the media, the LG is worthy of consideration. I don't need 4G as my area is not scheduled to have it in 2011 OR 2012.

Definitely going to a local VZW to try it out. Unlocked bootloader got my attention!

[ElMuneco]

I actually went out yesterday to try out the TB and the Charge and stumbled across the Rev in the process. I posted some of this in another forum, but it applies better here.
I’ll recount some of my experiences with the three over the ~1.5 hours I spent at the store.

First I have to say that all three phones were running some Verizon in store addon software that would popup randomly and start playing an advertisement about the device along with other videos / graphics. So I have no doubt at all that this additional demo model bloatware was really slowing all three down.

That said,
The TB had a VERY laggy keyboard, and seemed to slow down a lot on many websites that a lot going on. I actually used Worldofwarcraft.com to test all three phones, and the TB didn't seem to scroll down the main page at any time w/o a second or more delay. I had also tested a TB without the additional bloatware about a week earlier and also noticed the keyboard input lag, but thought it was a display unit fluke. So I don't know what to think now... The camera also seems to blow RGB out of proportion and give the image an overall neon look. This might be a setting, but it’s something I’ve noticed in pics sent to me from TB owning friends too.

The Charge had an even more laggy keyboard and after loading the same website, could not scroll down the page until at least 10 seconds had passed (I actually timed it with my phones stopwatch), and even then would end up at the bottom of the page instead of where I was trying to scroll to. Extremely frustating! Not to mention the cheep plastic build. The camera locked up every time I tried to use. I never tried the video mode out to see if it had the same issue. All that was a shame since the screen is so nice on the eyes...

I actually didn't want to look at the Rev, but since it was there I tried it out. They keyboard was very responsive (very close to the iPhone4 it seemed). The Rev was also able to easily scroll up and down the same web page with little lag from top to bottom. I was surprised because both dual core X2 and even the xoom had trouble with this page. The phone also seemed to load the flash site Goodbrush.com better than the xoom... Needless to say I was a little dumbfounded that the phone I had zero intention of looking at grossly outperformed the two I wanted to compare. The camera didn’t really leave an impression either way. It wasn’t great, and not really bad, just kinda there. It seemed to work as well as my 3Gs camera did.

I guess my only concern is the fact that the Rev is very new, and there’s not a lot of dev support for it just yet. However I have heard again and again that the device does have an unlocked bootloader, and with any luck that fact will attract some support. I’m really leaning toward getting a Rev tomorrow.

Hopefully some of this helps out.

Thanks for your analysis Sonex!! I played with the Revo a bit yesterday and didn't forsee too many issues with it. I liked it. My only major concern is the battery life, but what 4G smartphone doesn't have that??