LG Optimus L7 review

The Optimus L7 headlines LG’s new L-Style line of Android phones, designed for users that want the latest software and features but don’t have the budget for the more expensive Optimus smartphones. The L-Style range is LG’s first to come with Android 4.0 out of the box, and arrives before the company’s flagship Optimus 4X HD next month.


While it may not compromise on software, hardware is a different matter altogether. While other Optimus devices are powered by dual- and quad- core devices, the L7 has a 1GHz single-core processor paired with 512MB of RAM. It does have the edge on screen size though, offering a spacious 4.3-inch display, far larger than its contemporaries.

LG has a bad history with skins and bloatware on its devices, and it’s not shipping a stock Android 4.0 experience with the L7. So has LG learned from its mistakes? And how does LG’s interpretation of Android 4.0 stack up when compared with HTC’s Sense 4.0 and Samsung’s Nature UX? Read on to find out.

This is by no means a luxury device, but that doesn't have to be an issue — there's a difference between something feeling cheap and being built to a price.

The L7 bears somewhat of a resemblance to the Prada Phone 3.0, and features the same "floating mass" design language, which separates the phone into three parts. There's a 4.3-inch WVGA (800 x 480) display up front, along with a physical home button, a pair of capacitive keys, and a VGA front-facing camera. 

The L7's 4.3-inch WVGA (800 x 480) display is an IPS NOVA unit as seen in many of LG's devices. Like most IPS displays, it has great viewing angles and accurate color reproduction, and is also protected by Corning's scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass. WVGA over 4.3 inches is a bit of a stretch, and you'll be able to make out pixels from time to time.

This is the first device from LG to come with Android 4.0 pre-installed, and was released before LG announced its Optimus UI 3.0 skin for ICS. Although it’s missing a couple of features announced alongside the new Optimus UI, this is almost exactly the experience LG will be giving all its Android 4.0 devices.

LG has made another big change to Android with the menus. The basic layout and style is the same, but LG has switched to a white, rather than black, background. On my white review unit the color scheme makes sense, but you do get the feeling that this is a case of differentiation for differentiation’s sake.

The L7’s 1GHz single-core Snapdragon SoC is simply incapable of running Android 4.0. The Snapdragon MSM7227A isn’t the S4 that was smashing benchmark records earlier this year; nor is it the capable S3 that featured in some of last year’s flagship devices; it’s not even an S2, as found in the HTC One V; no, this is a Snapdragon S1, a Cortex-A5 chip that can also be found (albeit with a reduced clock rate) in the ultra low-end Lumia 610 — and Android 4.0 is a lot more demanding than Windows Phone 7.5.

The L7 maintains LG's reasonably high standards when it comes to call quality. The speaker is loud and crisp, and no one I spoke with had any issues hearing me. The loudspeaker was loud enough, although I found myself having to shout in order for people to hear me. Signal strength is a major strong point, and the L7 consistently held signal better than the Xperia P, Galaxy S II, iPhone 4S, and Razr that I had on hand. 3G performance was equal to all of the aforementioned devices, maxing out at 7.1Mbps down and 2.4Mbps up.