LG Optimus 7 €265 sim free [Expansys] - *Now €199 @Amazon.de*

WebGeek

Thanks - looks like a good deal alright

Charlie Haughy

Anyone know How does the screen compare to say the AMOLED screens such as the HTC Legend? I know its a tft lcd, but have been using the HTC for a while now, so it might be poor in comparison...

bazwaldo

Charlie Haughy wrote: »

Anyone know How does the screen compare to say the AMOLED screens such as the HTC Legend? I know its a tft lcd, but have been using the HTC for a while now, so it might be poor in comparison...

The screen is good for a LCD. Having seen an AMOLED screen beside it and comparing them the LCD looks ****e due to the black levels of the AMOLED. So, as long as you don't compare side by side, the LGs screen is fine.

Black levels on an AMOLED are amazing but not having one would not stop me getting a particular phone.

Dyr

So far pretty impressive, interface is pretty good

not happy at all with having to use sharepoint for office doc's. It seems silly that windows 7 and window phone 7 can't communicate directly

Alanstrainor

For 200 quid this is has to be the bargain of the year. It's very impressive! Still can't get over how good it is already. The UI is very slick, everything is so smooth. Playing games and listening to music is flawless.

The screen is very impressive IMO, i have no experience with AMOLED or anything though.

The browser is surprising good. After reading online that it wasn't that great i didn't have high hopes, but it seems great to me. Sometimes it renders things a bit odd, but other than that it's perfect so far.

Cheers to the OP!

And if anyone has any doubts...forget them! It's great!

fjon

I had some Amazon vouchers so went for this after reading some of the glowing reviews on here. I'm coming from a Blackberry so I presume this will be a jump up. Looking forward to trying it out.
Thanks OP for the tip.

Alanstrainor

LIGHTNING wrote: »

You have to remember that the internet is full of keyboards warriors and bar stool experts! If its not the latest screen or CPU it MUST be junk!

Yeah i know, it's madness. This thing is quite literally flying. And by the looks of it, things will only get better with the mango update.

This is the best impulse buy i've ever had! This should keep me happy for another year or so! :pac::pac::pac:

The_Conductor

LIGHTNING wrote: »

You have to remember that the internet is full of keyboards warriors and bar stool experts! If its not the latest screen or CPU it MUST be junk!

Not necessarily- there are also those of us out there- who have used all the major platforms, and have our own particular likes and dislikes.
If it were possible to hack this handset- I'd be getting one like a shot- I just don't see any point from my perspective, in getting it unless this is clarified. I am perfectly happy with Android- while there are comments from others here about their operating system regularly crashing and the hardware being less than capable. Thats their point of view- perfectly valid for them- not for me.....

54kroc

Lads come on enough is enough, I'm sick of hearing how great the phone is so please shut up.
My willpower to resist buying it is pretty much gone by now, god dam ye.

ixtlan

I'm sort of tempted but a sort of deal breaker for me is the lack of a reminder alert for missed SMS and calls.

Meaning, you step out of the room for a minute, you get an SMS, you don't hear that initial alert. Now there is no further audible notification of that SMS, no beep every 5 minutes. You need to look at the screen and turn it on to check for any missed calls or messages.

Really this seems like an extraordinary oversight. To be fair most Android phones are the same, but there are third-party add-ons to resolve it. For WP7 it seems that due to how access to the OS internals are protected an add-on app cannot check for missed calls/messages.

This feature might be added in the big update, but no one knows for sure. I accept for many people this is not a big deal, but for some it really is.

Ix.

CyberWaste

HTC Phones have that feature, a multicoloured LED at the top of the phone that flashes for various things, so its up to the phone manufacturer I think, not WP7/Android.

Alanstrainor

ixtlan wrote: »

I'm sort of tempted but a sort of deal breaker for me is the lack of a reminder alert for missed SMS and calls.

Meaning, you step out of the room for a minute, you get an SMS, you don't hear that initial alert. Now there is no further audible notification of that SMS, no beep every 5 minutes. You need to look at the screen and turn it on to check for any missed calls or messages.

Really this seems like an extraordinary oversight. To be fair most Android phones are the same, but there are third-party add-ons to resolve it. For WP7 it seems that due to how access to the OS internals are protected an add-on app cannot check for missed calls/messages.

This feature might be added in the big update, but no one knows for sure. I accept for many people this is not a big deal, but for some it really is.

Ix.

Ye i noticed this already. Shocking oversight really! Not too bad though, a quick click of a button and you'll see any texts/emails/calls.

ixtlan

CyberWaste wrote: »

HTC Phones have that feature, a multicoloured LED at the top of the phone that flashes for various things, so its up to the phone manufacturer I think, not WP7/Android.

I believe WP7 has such a blinking light too from certain manufacturers, but I see some comments and confusion over whether it works, and whether it stops blinking after a while.

However, a blinking light is not enough. IMHO a phone must have a continuing audible and vibrating alert after a missed unacknowledged event. This must be configurable, and indeed it can be disabled by default. It just seems perplexing that Microsoft would not add the code for this, or indeed that the manufacturers would not insist on it. It's not as if it costs more money, or is complex.

Ix.

antodeco

So far so good. Will give it a proper test later. Typing is excellent on it. Best touch keyboard I've used out of iPhone and android.

Posted from my LG optimus 7

Can't get the marketplace to work

Mr Woods

@ Alanstrainor,

Hi Alan, my n900 is on it's last legs , absolutely love that phone

How does it compare to the n900; do you miss the qwerty keyboard and how does the browsing experience compare ?

Cheers,

Mr Woods

The_Conductor

Mr. Woods- you can pick up a mini bluetooth keyboard compatible with the LG Optimus 7 (and most bluetooth compatible phones, irrespective of their operating systems) for less than EUR30. Just a thought.......

antodeco

Right, got everything working on it. Still figuring it out. Doesnt seem as intuitive as android, and so far seems to make eveything more fancy than it needs to be. Key things it needs:

battery meter (one with a percentage)
wifi hotspot
flash player
better shortcuts on the main screen (quick link to turning on wifi for example)
message notifications for missed texts/calls

if anyone finds anything on the above, let me know!

Alanstrainor

Mr Woods wrote: »

@ Alanstrainor,

Hi Alan, my n900 is on it's last legs , absolutely love that phone

How does it compare to the n900; do you miss the qwerty keyboard and how does the browsing experience compare ?

Cheers,

Mr Woods

Hey man, I loved my N900, but this really is a completely different take on a smart phone.

The UI is super slick and fast, and it's consistent throughout. I haven't really done all that much web browsing on mine yet. So i should probably hold judgement on that aspect until i've had a chance to really play with it. But so far so good. The N900 has one of the best browsers out there, so there's a lot to live up to!

I'm actually getting used to typing on this phone really fast! I'm surprised, that was my biggest concern. But the capacitive touch screen really makes things so much easier than typing "on-screen" on the N900. It's 100 times better. And the auto-correct seems to be spot on, you hardly even notice any mistakes cropping up.

Another big plus, is that extra small bit of screen real estate. It makes a big difference. And the phone is a lot slimmer than the bulky N900.#

Another draw back is there's only 16GB of space...i know i know ONLY 16! But coming from my N900 which had 40GB it's a big drop. Not that big of a deal, i'll just have to get my best music on it i suppose.

In case anyone hadn't noticed already. I'm impressed:pac:...very impressed!

Alanstrainor

antodeco wrote: »

better shortcuts on the main screen (quick link to turning on wifi for example)


if anyone finds anything on the above, let me know!

Definitely this. Although, i just have a link to settings on my home page so it's just a couple of clicks away.

Another thing i noticed...now i may have just missed something here, but i can't seem to find where to set the volume for my ringtones, it seems to just set it at what ever volume i set with the volume control on the side. Which is a tab annoying if you're listening to music.

Mr Woods

@ smccarrick,Thanks I'll check it out..

@ Alanstrainor ,cheers man, SIP integration was a massive plus for the n900, how does the LG fair 'SIP-wise' ?

Thanks again guys

Edit : "SIP / VOIP integration..." not 'Soft Input Panel' !!

Jomcc

Anyone know how to bulk delete contacts. Made a mess of importing contacts from gmail and hotmail to PEOPLE. Want to delete them all and start from scratch.

Dyr

Mr Woods wrote: »

@ Alanstrainor,

Hi Alan, my n900 is on it's last legs , absolutely love that phone

How does it compare to the n900; do you miss the qwerty keyboard and how does the browsing experience compare ?

Cheers,

Mr Woods

I've been using an n900 since feb of last year so I'll throw my initial impressions for what they're worth:

UI: forget about it, N900 has a poxy UI no matter how you skinned it, this blows it away. It's like comparing windows CE to windows 7

Email: Again blows away the N900 for looks, speed and usability

Keyboard: I loved the physical keyboard on the N900 but thus far I dont really miss it, and I'm not a fan of virtual keyboards but this one is really good to use. time will tell

Music: The WP7 Player is neat and far more pretty and usable than the N900 player. The N900 tops it for diversity of file support and player choice. In terms of audio & video quality I'm not sure, the n900 didn't have great sound or playback imo and was prone to stutter and lag, I've only played the Optimus over its own (crappy headphones) and it sounds better. I'm not sure I'll use any phone much for music or video, I have a cowon S7 that I rely on for that.


Skype & IM: dunno if they're even on WP7 so the N900 wins there

Internet: the biggy, I only use mobile devices for a limited number of websites and thus far on WP7 theyre all pretty damn good. The zoom feature trumps the N900s. But I'm sure I won't get iceweasel and opera running on the optimus.:o


Games: dunno, never really got into the N900 for games, doubt I will the Optimus either.


Office: first impression is that the optimus is far better for handling office docs, but the N900 does'nt have the bullsh** of having no USB host, and even if you hack WP7 for usb hosting you cant just copy office files over. Actually I consider using any PC app to manage your phone to be a retrograde step even if zune is pretty okay to use

Phone: it would hard to be any worse than the N900, the optimus is bit too minimal for my liking though. Plus importing my contacts as .vcf files was a nightmare, had to import them into hotmail via windows live mail.


Apps: the n900 app manager was a pile of **** to use and unless you were developing in python then there was a limited amount of interesting apps out there, many of them were just shrunk down version of full linux programs. Actually, maybe there was loads of excellent apps for the n900 and I just couldnt find them because the app manager and the maemo wesbite were so bad to browse :pac:. Windows beats it, except for the whole paying for stuff idea (wtf?)


Overall: The optimus is slick, slim and sophisticated. Sometimes a bit too slick and slim for me, it skips over important details I think. but i like it a lot. I'll go back to the N900 for some of its features (FM transmitter for example) but I think the optimus is my everyday carry device now.

Panda

Just wanted to say cheers to the OP for heads up and then jarecki1976 and zom for the linkage to amazon.de

I don't really care about the vodafone branding and its also unlocked so i bought this one. Price: 174 total with postage was 192.80 from price guard.

http://www.amazon.de/LG-Optimus-Smartphone-Vodafone-Branding/dp/B0049I4EFG/ref=lh_ni_t

Alanstrainor

Bambi wrote: »

Overall: The optimus is slick, slim and sophisticated. Sometimes a bit too slick and slim for me, it skips over important details I think. but i like it a lot. I'll go back to the N900 for some of its features (FM transmitter for example) but I think the optimus is my everyday carry device now.

Yup this sums it up nicely.

It's a very slick device. It's fast. And it does what i need it to do. So long as it's reliable and doesn't drop calls etc, i'll be a happy man. The N900 was terrible for doing random stupid **** like that.

Tinie

Panda wrote: »

Just wanted to say cheers to the OP for heads up and then jarecki1976 and zom for the linkage to amazon.de

I don't really care about the vodafone branding and its also unlocked so i bought this one. Price: 174 total with postage was 192.80 from price guard.

http://www.amazon.de/LG-Optimus-Smartphone-Vodafone-Branding/dp/B0049I4EFG/ref=lh_ni_t

What does vodafone branding mean? Does it literally mean it will have a vodafone logo on the back of the phone or something? Its also definitely unlocked is it?

Alanstrainor

Tinie wrote: »

What does vodafone branding mean? Does it literally mean it will have a vodafone logo on the back of the phone or something? Its also definitely unlocked is it?

The box had a vodafone symbol on it. And there was a vodafone app installed. But i just got rid of it. I can't see any other branding on mine tbh. Nothing externally, and the software doesn't have mad vodafone logos anywhere. Well i certainly can't see any!

It's definitely unlocked too. I'm on meteor and it's working great. You just have to make sure you put the sim in the right way!

evolutionqy7

Tinie wrote: »

What does vodafone branding mean? Does it literally mean it will have a vodafone logo on the back of the phone or something? Its also definitely unlocked is it?

The fact what network its locked to will depend how long will it take to get updates approved and sent out by carriers back to Microsoft.

bazwaldo

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Definitely this. Although, i just have a link to settings on my home page so it's just a couple of clicks away.

Another thing i noticed...now i may have just missed something here, but i can't seem to find where to set the volume for my ringtones, it seems to just set it at what ever volume i set with the volume control on the side. Which is a tab annoying if you're listening to music.

You can switch your phone to vibrate and still have volume for music&video etc. To switch between vibrate and ring, click volume button and press the circle at the top right of the screen. May not be what you want but could be useful.

bazwaldo

Panda wrote: »

Just wanted to say cheers to the OP for heads up and then jarecki1976 and zom for the linkage to amazon.de

I don't really care about the vodafone branding and its also unlocked so i bought this one. Price: 174 total with postage was 192.80 from price guard.

http://www.amazon.de/LG-Optimus-Smartphone-Vodafone-Branding/dp/B0049I4EFG/ref=lh_ni_t

Seems another seller "Elektronik-Versand" ships to Ireland too for €18 and has the phone priced at €169. Total €187. I have no german so I could be wrong.

Mr Woods

Bambi wrote: »

I've been using an n900 since feb of last year so I'll throw my initial impressions for what they're worth:

UI: forget about it, N900 has a poxy UI no matter how you skinned it, this blows it away. It's like comparing windows CE to windows 7

Email: Again blows away the N900 for looks, speed and usability

Keyboard: I loved the physical keyboard on the N900 but thus far I dont really miss it, and I'm not a fan of virtual keyboards but this one is really good to use. time will tell

Music: The WP7 Player is neat and far more pretty and usable than the N900 player. The N900 tops it for diversity of file support and player choice. In terms of audio & video quality I'm not sure, the n900 didn't have great sound or playback imo and was prone to stutter and lag, I've only played the Optimus over its own (crappy headphones) and it sounds better. I'm not sure I'll use any phone much for music or video, I have a cowon S7 that I rely on for that.


Skype & IM: dunno if they're even on WP7 so the N900 wins there

Internet: the biggy, I only use mobile devices for a limited number of websites and thus far on WP7 theyre all pretty damn good. The zoom feature trumps the N900s. But I'm sure I won't get iceweasel and opera running on the optimus.:o


Games: dunno, never really got into the N900 for games, doubt I will the Optimus either.


Office: first impression is that the optimus is far better for handling office docs, but the N900 does'nt have the bullsh** of having no USB host, and even if you hack WP7 for usb hosting you cant just copy office files over. Actually I consider using any PC app to manage your phone to be a retrograde step even if zune is pretty okay to use

Phone: it would hard to be any worse than the N900, the optimus is bit too minimal for my liking though. Plus importing my contacts as .vcf files was a nightmare, had to import them into hotmail via windows live mail.


Apps: the n900 app manager was a pile of **** to use and unless you were developing in python then there was a limited amount of interesting apps out there, many of them were just shrunk down version of full linux programs. Actually, maybe there was loads of excellent apps for the n900 and I just couldnt find them because the app manager and the maemo wesbite were so bad to browse :pac:. Windows beats it, except for the whole paying for stuff idea (wtf?)


Overall: The optimus is slick, slim and sophisticated. Sometimes a bit too slick and slim for me, it skips over important details I think. but i like it a lot. I'll go back to the N900 for some of its features (FM transmitter for example) but I think the optimus is my everyday carry device now.

Thanks Bambi, very informative...I'm sold

For anyone who's interested, I found this app for SIP functionality :

http://wp7.apphab.com/cheap-call-by-progile/