travel centre: Hands-on with the LG L-Series Android smartphones

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Hands-on with the LG L-Series Android smartphones - L3, L5 and L7

When it comes to style, you've either got it or you don't. And wth its new L-Style series of Android smartphones, Korean manufacturer LG has a trio of phones looking to turn heads.

It's two thirds of the way there.

The LG Optimus L3, L5 and L7 bring three levels of smartphones in terms of hardware and software prowess. Sounds good on paper -- a smartphone for every walk of life, right? Here's how LG puts it:

L-Style’s design philosophy is comprised of five aesthetic elements: Modern Square Style for a comfortable grip, Floating Mass Technology for a slimmer look, Seamless Layout for a more intuitive arrangement of keys, Harmonized Design Contrast utilizing metallic accents and Sensuous Slim Shape that naturally draws one’s attention.

And that's pretty much true with the L-Style, save for the baby of the bunch. The L5 and L7 are obviously cut from the same cloth, with 4- and 4.3-inch dislays, respectivey. Both are have Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with high-resolution displays, and both would be at home in our pockets out of the box. The LG L3, however, is an undersized, low-resolution (QVGA) Android 2.3 device that looks oddly out of place next to such high end fare.

All three phones feature a custom user interface that certaily is more stylish than what we've come to know from LG. Some of that is Ice Cream Sandwich, of course -- the launcher has applications and widgets separated -- and some of that is LG's doing as well. Menus are nicely skinned, and options are easily accessible.

We've got some hands-on pics with the LG L-Series devices after the break.