The price of technology does come down if you wait long enough as is proven by the LG Optimus One P500. If you want a genuine smartphone, but not the price, this phone can be purchased for the fraction of the cost of most better known brands. Is this phone the bargain we think it is, or would you be better off spending more for a different smartphone is the purpose of this review.
Although they have been around since 1958, LG Electronics is not the best known name in mobile phone technology although they have been gaining ground in the smartphone market recently. With its headquarters in South Korea, this company creates many high tech devices all over the world. Their smartphones which use the Android operating system have recently become an area of focus and effort for them. Gaining in popularity is the LG Optimus One P500 which is a basic smartphone for those who don’t want to spend a lot of money on a phone. This phone is also called the Optimus One in Europe and Asia and in the U.S, depending on the network it is called the Optimus S, Optimus T and the Vortex.
If you are in the U.S. and use the Verizon network, you might look at the LG Vortex which is the same phone as LG Optimus One P500. When used with Verizon’s reliable 3G network, this budget smartphone offers many nice features for the price. One nice feature offered is the Visual Voice Mail which gives you the option of not listening to all of your messages or listening to them in the order you choose. Another feature that’s very useful, but which you’ll have to pay extra for, is the VZ Navigator. With this feature you can get traffic alerts, voice prompted directions and you can search for popular points of interest all over the country.
Unfortunately, although the LG Optimus One P500 is a good reliable phone, the sound quality isn’t always the best. Of course, which network you are using can be a factor in this area. But it is a fact that the sound quality on budget phone is not as good as one that costs more, so this is one of the trade offs you make. Normally the calls are clear enough, but on occasion there may be a distortion in the background which will let people know that you are using a cell phone instead of a land line. There may be some trouble controlling the volume of the speaker phone although the speaker works well.
If you are looking for your first smartphone and are on a limited budget, the LG Optimus One P500 is a good choice. Obviously it won’t give you all the features and high end performance that a more expensive phone gives. For the price of an ordinary cell phone, the LG Optimus One P500 is a decent smartphone.
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