LG Optimus One (P500) Review

First, I might have just killed my budget for the whole damn year. I’ll be eating bread all till my child’s 5th birthday. Sarcasm for the masses…

It might look that I’m showing off, but I am… hahahaha

The size is comparable of the generic medium sized smartphones. Not too small where the damn onscreen keyboard is a fail and not too big where it’s just gadget porn for the eyes and not usable for anything else.

Its actually just a little thicker than the Diamond. About 1 mm.

 

The review

I bought this phone at www.1handphone.com for an amazingly cheaper price. They even gave me a car holder, free screen protector, a car charger and a mini headphone. Not to forget they also gave me tons of software and apps for the phone. All for about RM30-40 less than what you get elsewhere. Kudos to them.

Because of this I’m actually eating bread. Not to care, it was a calculated buy. But it goes into the category of ‘what the hell did you do that?’. I’ve just got it for several days and did endure an entire day of fully giving me internet connectivity at the PC Fair. I tried using Celcom’s 1 day internet just to try out its internet performance. I don’t know if it was the line or the phone but it was abysmally slow(the connection). Using WiFi however was a breeze at home.

I haven’t tried it fully yet but the batteries are definitely better than my HTC Diamond that garnered 2 days of of basically doing nothing. I’ll try on using it normally. It said on www.gsmarena.com that it would last up to 700 hours of standby time and 8 hours of talk time. Maybe if you live in a fantasy land that has no 3G connectivity and not use it else than talking. Hmm… I think more to 3-4 days of nothing to 1-2 days of doing stuff and probably 5-6 hours of just moving my lips that make sound.

The android operating system is Android 2.2 Froyo hence all the hype. It’s still android. This is my first android device. I’ve tested some before mostly tablets but this seems a little bit more overly complicated for the average Joe. But smartphones aren’t suppose to be used by toddlers or your grandmother unless she’s a total gadget freak like me. Hence for the average power user, its simple to use till the point where nobody tells you how the hell to change the bloody ringtone. Its not even mentioned in the manual given with the phone.

Pros

1. Price, at RM779(15 April 2011) at www.1handphone.com
2. Android 2.2 Froyo
3. 3.5mm earphone jack
• also used for handsfree
4. Hardware buttons are responsive
5. Sounds quite loud
• louder than my HTC Diamond and iPod Touch
6. 480x320 3.2inch screen is quite good
7. WiFi tethering
• this makes my life a whole lot easier
• easy to set up for the general geek
8. GPS
• fast at finding my location
• good for social apps
9. Fast startup for a smartphone

 

Cons

1. Touch screen
• it takes a lot more effort to use if you have used other capacitive screens like on the iPod Touch
2. CPU
• a tad bit on the slow side
• slowness shows when it starts
3. Screen rotation could have been better
4. Included 2 GB memory isn’t enough
5. Come on… I want to use my friggin own ringtones and it took me hours to do that. Stupid user interface.

Early user’s verdict? I’d give it a

7.5/10

just because of the price and what I got from my money… Maybe I’ll update this after I find its ultimate Achilles heel and rant about it. Now I just don’t have much time.

PC Fair 16th April 2011

First, it rained… So there was no waiting to get in to the main hall.

Upon entering, we will find the Intel^TM’s PC Guru happily making us(me) want to hate Intel as a whole.

Green Laptop, sadly not eco friendly.

Ah the mobo and systems showcase.

They practically made all of their visitors open their FB accounts and made them like Intel…

Then there was this room filled with online games which I probably wont play because I can’t read.

Kasperky, it’s Russian. Most Malaysian still pronounce it wrongly as Kas-Per-Sky(the blue sky), it’s Kas-Pers-Ky(Ki) you morons…

Going into The first Exibition Hall

A moment of despair and silence as I saw what I intended to buy a month ago. The HP Pavilion DM1. Screw you. And it was RM1499. It has Home Premium 64 bit damn it.

Screw you Sony for making me pay more for less.

Next was the Audio Hall. I was sick after going out of it. Too much bass radiation exposure.

Now, if you have problems with your heart, you’d find this a bit overkill with combined power of more than 1500Watts

Who the hell thought of this? You sick bastard. And yes, it was pumping bass. Only bass…

The brand of earphones that I use, Hibikii. Ironically the Malaysian company also makes energy efficient LED bulbs.

 

Going to the next hall

Who was the person who designed this? I want to make you my products designer…

Apparently the year that Sony didn’t want to display their 3D stuff, LG and Panasonic displayed theirs. And made fun of others.

3D stuff, why?

 

You see that thing with the laptop? It’s an In Vehicle Surveillance with GPS and stuff that was cool.

 

I saw nice thing. It was in blue black and green…

Ok, the reaction of the guy in red was hilarious, until I found out that he was mute.

What? I can do that with my DSLR, but it’ll make me cry…

 

Towards the end, the usual irritant, the ISP’s…

Screw you people for sucking my money every month.

 

Oh yeah not to forget, the lovely girls from the Avira Antivirus

Okay, the verdict.

1. It was bland
2. Maybe because it rained(morning)
3. There was actually no new stuff that I was interested
4. Not enough freebies(shut up, I’m poor)
5. Where was the grandeur atmosphere of past Pikom PC Fair’s?

I nearly was bored all the time. There was no atmosphere of an event. It was just a sales of pc related crap. Last year they even had an overclocking event with Liquid Nitrogen and dry ice. This year, they gave us fridge magnets(I think)…