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LG Optimus L7 review: a beautiful, entry-level Android 4.0 smartphone with LG's new UI 3.0
Consider your last trip to the car dealership. Let's say you saved up and hit up BMW. While you might've looked at -- or even test driven -- the M3, there's a good chance that your better judgment (and your budget) led you to drive off of the lot with a 328i. Sure, it's only got a four-cylinder engine inside, but the car offers great handling and good gas mileage. Better yet, you didn't have to spend an atrocious amount of money to get behind the wheel. The same goes with mobile phones. While it's fun to dream of owning a One X, a Galaxy S III or an Optimus 4X HD, they're called superphones for a reason: they cater to power-hungry individuals with a fair amount of disposable income. Like supercars, they're designed to bring people into the store, even if shoppers ultimately leave with something else in hand. More Info LG shows off UI 3.0 for Ice Cream Sandwich devices, says it's 'unobtrusive and simple' LG Optimus L-style series hands-on LG busts out a trio of L-series phones in the run up to MWC Enter the LG Optimus L7. Positioned at the higher end of the company's entry-level lineup, it aims to be the 328i of smartphones. Sure, no one's lining up to drool over it, but LG is aiming for this to be a practical choice with just enough elegance and pizzaz to keep consumers grinning. Of course, that sweet spot is difficult to achieve, and we've seen plenty of smartphone manufacturers miss the mark in attempting to balance performance and amenities with a palatable price. So, does the Optimus L7 rise to the challenge? We've spent the past week with it as our daily driver, and we're ready to make the call. Read on for the answer.%Gallery-159344%
HTC Status review
For many smartphone users, a quality keyboard is the only feature that truly matters. These passionate devotees will proudly live and die with their thumbs blazing, and for of all RIM's recent troubles, it's currently floating on a life preserver: a compelling handset with a portrait QWERTY keyboard doesn't exist for Android. The HTC Status ($50 on contract) attempts to succeed where others have failed, and -- if it's any good -- could entice many BlackBerry-toting teens that want a new handheld fixation. They rarely bother with email, as text messages and Facebook reign supreme for communication. To that end, the Status promotes itself as the perfect phone for Facebook users, but is the integration truly useful, or simply a chintzy add-on? More so, can HTC successfully marry Gingerbread with an upright keyboard? Join us after the break to learn whether we "Like" the HTC Status. %Gallery-128742%
HTC Wildfire S heads to T-Mobile, won't break your budget
Were you disappointed to see the HTC Wildfire S pass through the FCC sporting AT&T-friendly bands, but no apparent magenta love? Well, chin up ol' chum, because a leaked spec sheet over on TmoNews shows T-Mobile's branding all over the budget-friendly phone. The 3.2-inch Android handset will ship with Gingerbread out of the box and, of course, that Sense 2.1 overlay you either love, or love to hate. There's also a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and 512MB of on-board memory. And pay no attention to the apparent PR slip-up above, while there is a UMTS 850 / 1900 variant, we have the FCC filing to prove this little guy's packing AWS 1700 / 2100 bands. Expect to see Tmo's gal pal hocking this tiny wonder sometime soon.
HTC Wildfire S review
Following the commercial success (and technical disappointment) of the original Wildfire -- which featured a miserly 528MHz CPU and QVGA display -- HTC has returned with the Wildfire S ($290). Like the Desire S and Incredible S, the company is sticking to its formula of providing incremental updates to stay competitive for 2011. Not only is this little one sporting improved hardware, but this time it's strutting around with Gingerbread. Will this be HTC's budget-line breakthrough, or will it fall face first into the land of mobile misfits? For the answer, check out the full review after the break.
ZTE Skate coming near you later this year with Android 2.3, 4.3-inch goodness
For most of us, ZTE's only known for its budget Android devices in the cellphone market, but this ever-expanding company's aiming to change its image with a slightly more powerful flagship device come May. Dubbed the Skate, this Android 2.3 smartphone sports a generous 4.3-inch display (although no screen type or resolution is specified here), and is powered by an unnamed 800MHz processor plus a soon-obsolete Adreno 200 GPU. There's also a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash on the back, along with the usual Bluetooth, A-GPS, and WiFi bundle. Sadly, the listed cellular frequencies indicate that the Skate won't be heading to the US any time soon, which is rather ironic given ZTE's desire to make it big in the North American consumer market this year. On the flip side, maybe the Chinese giant's got some surprises for us, and we like surprises. Press release after the break.
LG Optimus S, first hands-on! (update: video)
The low-end Android game just got real, folks, with Sprint's introduction of the LG Optimus S, a $50 (on-contract, post-rebate) Android slatephone running Froyo on a 3.2-inch HVGA screen, with mobile hotspot functionality for up to five devices, 802.11 b/g WiFi and a 600MHz processor to run the whole shebang. As you'd expect in a world of 1GHz smartphones at the $200 price point, it's not quite up to spec, but that doesn't keep it from having a super-solid build, durable and weighty, that belies its low price. It honestly feels much like a Nexus One in the hand, though with nice big physical buttons instead of capacitive function keys, and of course a lower-quality LCD screen. There's an auto-focusing 3.2 megapixel camera on the back and a fairly responsive capacitive touchscreen up front, and though browsing was a little painful on the low-res screen, the Android 2.2 device sped through the UI without skipping a beat. If this device impresses as much after we throw it through a barrage of tests, I'll be hard to imagine ever spending a cent on a regular ol' featurephone again. Update: We've just been informed that the Optimus S has 256MB 512 MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM, an MSM7627 chipset and Bluetooth 2.1, but there's more -- it pulls a respectable 430 in the Quadrant benchmark thanks to Qualcomm Adreno 200 graphics, and we've got visual proof. See some direct-from-device screenshots and a couple sample pics from the Optimus S's camera in our second gallery below! Update 2: Video after the break! %Gallery-104469% %Gallery-104475% Myriam Joire contributed to this report.
