LG Revolution Hands-On Extensive Review

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Verizon’s 4G network is growing at a breakneck pace, and for those customers who are now living in a 4G LTE coverage area, Verizon has introduced a new 4G-capable phone. The LG Revolution was one of the three high-end Android phones unveiled by Korean electronics manufacturer LG back at CES in January. We covered the phone back then, but now that we’ve handled the phone for over a week, how does it hold up to our scrutiny?

Physically, the LG Revolution is a big phone. It’s got a 4.3-inch LCD screen, but the girth of the device is thick as well. Because of the complexity of the 4G baseband chip (no bimodal 3G/4G chips exist yet), this phone is a fair bit thicker than other popular Android devices (Droid X2, Droid 3, etc.). If you’re looking for a nimble, light phone, this won’t be it. While it isn’t heavy (like the HTC Thunderbolt), it isn’t exactly light either. It has a noticeable weight to it.

As for the screen itself, the quality is nice. The resolution is nice and the colors are crisp and deep. The four Android guide buttons on the bottom of the phone are soft keys – not hard physical mechanical buttons. Some people like that. Others don’t.

Performance wise, the phone is powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 Snapdragon processor. This is the same processor found in the HTC Thunderbolt, another 4G phone on Verizon. It’s also got 512MB of RAM. The phone’s performance is fine. Moving between home screen is quick and responsive. App performance is fine, as well. The Qualcomm MSM8655 processor is a single-core processor, and while we can’t recommend everybody out there get a dual-core processor, you may wish to go with another dual-core phone in order to “future-proof” yourself in case future apps start demanding performance that only dual cores can provide.

Storage wise, the phone comes with 16GB of memory built in. Should you need more, the phone has a microSD card slot that can support cards up to 32GB.

On the software end, it’s running Android 2.2. That’s hardly the newest version of the Android operating system, but it’s what I liked to call tried and true. While it’s not Android 2.3 or 2.4, it is rather stable.  If you’re an Android fanatic, you’ll be annoyed to learn that the LG Revolution is indeed running a custom user interface skin on top of Android. These custom UIs are unpopular with Android power users because they slow updates getting to the phone and can be sometimes cumbersome.

Oddly enough, the skin used in the LG Revolution reminds me of the TouchWiz UI used by Samsung Android devices. It is particular because Samsung and LG are fierce industry rivals in their home country of South Korea, so it’s hard to imagine LG licensing TouchWiz from Samsung. Regardless, it’s got a light, colorful user interface. On the bottom, it’s got permanent shortcuts to “Phone”, “Contacts”, “Messaging” and “Apps”.

Some of the built-in LG widgets are nice and useful, while others can be passed up. Like all recent Verizon phones that don’t carry the “Droid” name, Bing, not Google, is the default search engine on this phone. In addition to the apps that can be loaded from the Android Market, the phone will come preloaded with a number of apps. The inclusion of Facebook and Twitter apps was nice, as it saved me the time from having download them. Oddly enough, the apps here are called “Facebook for LG” and “Twitter for LG”. As far I as can tell, they’re simply the official Facebook and Twitter apps for Android. If you can tell what makes these LG branded versions different, the more power to you.

Once annoyance with the custom user interface that LG has put on the device is that the apps’ screen is divided. Typically on Android, when you go to the page with all your apps, they’re all listed uninterrupted. Here, they’re broken up into different sections, like “Communication” and “News & Search”. While I can appreciate LG trying to help users find apps, maybe ones that aren’t technically savy, these different headings make it difficult to find apps. Is the Browser app under “News & Search” or “Communication”? Where is Calculator? Just displaying all the apps in a single grid, in alphabetical order, without the headings is fine, thanks.

Of course, this is a 4G phone so you’ll be expecting me to talk about the 4G speeds.  If you haven’t used a 4G phone before, I can confirm that yes, 4G LTE is real, and yes, it’s really fast. I’ve seen speeds hit 20Mb/s on a Verizon 4G LTE device, but that was done with a USB 4G modem connected to a laptop, and before any 4G phone had been released (and thus, before the brunt of the traffic).

In a realistic network, Verizon tells us that you can expect speeds between 5-12Mb/s. In testing the LG Revolution in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area (an area that just received 4G LTE from Verizon), I saw regular speeds of 10Mb/s. Your mileage may vary of course. A lot of it depends on your area, and how many people are using 4G devices in your area.

Regarding battery life, the LG Revolution’s isn’t great. While I didn’t do any scientific tests, after my experience with the phone, I would rate the battery life “horrible” to “below average”. LG officially promises 7 hours of battery life, but that’s a little generous. I’d say to expect 4 or 5 at the most, so if you purchase this phone, be prepared to keep your charger handy. You might be able to squeeze more battery life out of the device if you turn off GPS/WiFi functionality when you aren’t using it.

Regarding pricing, the LG Revolution is a bit steep, with the official Verizon two-year contract price being set at $249.99. Without a contract, the phone is $559.99 from the carrier itself. While $199 is usually the regular price of smartphones in the United States, Verizon has been charging a bit more for their 4G devices, most likely in order to cover the cost of constructing and maintaining their new 4G network (you can contrast that to Sprint, which has been charging a $10 per month “premium data fee”.)

You can (and should) shop around. Searching third-party retailers may help you find some better deals on the LG Revolution. For example, we recently covered here at TFTS that Target’s website was selling the LG Revolution for just $49.99 with a new two-year contract. Your mileage may vary, per usual.

There’s a lot to like about the LG Revolution. It has a generous 4.3-inch screen and is pretty fast and responsive. And the 4G connectivity is hard to beat, especially since that’s the future of mobile phones in the United States. Unfortunately, the LG Revolution suffers from dismal battery life. If you’re looking for a 4G phone on Verizon, you may want to consider the HTC Thunderbolt, which I believe has slightly better battery life than the Revolution. If you want a thinner phone and are willing to give up 4G, then consider the Motorola Droid X2 or the HTC Droid Incredible 2. However, with the Samsung Droid Charge & HTC Thunderbolt already out on Verizon’s 4G network, and the Motorola Droid Bionic coming sometime, then I don’t believe you should have to settle for a device with poor battery life.