Optimus L9 – Singapore Review & Price
The LG Optimus L9, the latest addition to the L-Series lineup of smartphones has finally arrived in Singapore in time for the holiday season. The dual-core LG Optimus L9 is anticipated to continue in the success of the premium design-oriented heritage developed from LG’s design leadership, and is poised as a mid-ranged tier Android phone yet keeping the large screens that have made the flagship Android phones so popular.
The Optimus L9 has a 9.1mm thin body with a slimming metallic streak and modern square style that offers a comfortable, lightweight grip. The Optimus L9 also has the largest-in-class 4.7-inch IPS display, displaying clear, true-to-life images with incredible detail for a comfortable, vivid viewing experience. This is quite similar to the external looks and screen of the higher range Optimus 4X and is a step up compared to the US model for the LG Optimus L9, which comes with only a 4.5″ screen. However, internally, the 1GHz dual core processor isn’t too impressive. It would be good for basic features but nothing too processor intensive. Perhaps the market for this phone would be for the more unassuming users. I could imagine buying for a mother who might be starting to try out a smart phone for the first time and would likely not be trying out too many fanciful apps. This phone wouldn’t have a problem running your basic browser, messaging apps and the 4.7″ screen would be a bonus for on-the-go video watching.
There’s also the suite of LG’s differentiated Android features, such as the QTranslator, My Style Keypad, the Cheese Shutter and the ever-popular QuickMemo functions. I personally like the QuickMemo implementation. QuickMemo allows you to edit or draw whatever you see on your screen at the moment. It is easily accessed as a shortcut app as you swipe down the notifications bar and right away, it allows you to add scribbles and annotations to any screen you are looking at. The QTranslator function instantly translates not only words, but also entire sentences and phrases with a simple scan. Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, it recognizes letters upon scanning with the camera and utilizes electronic dictionary or online translation engine to translate words, sentences or phrases. This is similar to the Google Goggles feature. The LG Optimus L9 will be available starting from December 8, 2012, at a recommended retail price of $498. From the telco, the price for a basic data plan is about $90 – $128. At SingtelShop, it is going for $128 for the basic iFlexiLite plan. Shopping from 9pm to 9am grants you an additional $30 off which you should definitely fully make use of.