The LG Optimus L7 2 is a mid-range Android phone that comes with reasonable hardware, a 4.3 inch display, and an affordable price point. The device is also packed with a huge battery, and there is both a dual SIM and single SIM version.

Design

LG is like Samsung’s jealous next door neighbor. Samsung has managed to top more sales than the iPhone, turnt Android fans into Samsung fans, and stopped Windows Phone from taking a top spot among iOS and Android. What’s not to be jealous of? However, instead of LG trying to compete with that by creating something new and intuitive, they have gone with many designs in their range that look ridiculously similar to the Galaxy range, and the L7 2 is no different.

The plastic design on the L7 2 comes in both dull black and white. The build is quite strong for the price point, and even under considerable pressure, there isn’t any noticeable creaking and it’s hard to see if the L7 2 is dealing with any strain at all.

There are four capacitive buttons on the front, three of which do the standard home, back and recent apps button, whilst the fourth button switches between SIM cards. (if you have the dual SIM version)

The phone only has one camera which is featured on the back. The camera has a single LED flash and can shoot at 8 megapixels.

Display

The Optimus L7 2 comes with a 4.3 inch IPS panel with a slightly yucky 480x800 WVGA display. What we need to remember though is that the L7 2 is a mid-ranger, and for its price range, it is surprisingly decent. The viewing angle is good, and its colors are rich and not unsaturated.

The display also comes out with a 216PPI, and for a mid-range phone, that is incredibly decent, although slight pixilation is noticeable.

You can also change the brightness to decent levels to ensure the screen is viewable even in direct sunlight.

Software

The L7 2 comes with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean out of the box, and comes with a pretty heavy Optimus 3.0 UI skin.

Optimus 3.0 adds a few changes to the overall look and feel of Android, with fonts and colors that make it feel more directed towards the younger generation. The UI does work smoothly though, and text is still easily readable.

You can also switch between four different themes that change around icons backgrounds and other visuals, and you can also get landscape mode from the home screen, something that is usually missing from most other manufacturers’ software overlays.

The handset ships with Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, one version short of the most up-to-date Android version. It’s heavily skinned, though, as companies like LG try to differentiate with their own experience on top of Android.

LG also comes with Google’s Chrome internet browser, which is probably a decent decision as the browser usually works better than many manufacturers’ built-in browsers.

Hardware

Thanks to the slightly heavy software, the hardware sometimes suffers and the 768MB of RAM and the 1GHz dual core A5 processor certainly isn’t enough to make the experience as smooth as it should need to be.

Because of this hardware and bundled up software, there is a lot of lag going through menus and navigating the OS, and it generally makes for quite a frustrating experience.  The A5 processor is also extremely out of date, and many handsets are now going for A9 and A15 processors.

Call Quality

With the functionality of two SIM cards in the Dual-SIM version, it’s to be expected that you’ll be using this handset for a lot of communication. Luckily, the call quality is fairly decent, and it can get very loud when using both the earpiece and headphones. And the microphone is decent enough for both ends of the call to be smooth despite the occasional sharp sounds that can be heard.

Battery Life

The L7 2 has a huge 2450mAh battery, which for a 4.3 inch display is insanely impressive. As the hardware is quite inferior as well, the battery should last a huge time longer than flagship handsets, although the dual SIM variant draws out more power due to the dual SIM functionality, but one or two days on one charge should be easily accomplishable without playing any games or watching movies.

Summary

With a price tag of $280, the somewhat laggy experience on the LG Optimus L7 2 is understandable. However, if LG were to make the OS pure Android, the phone would be a no-brainer at that price. The camera is fairly decent, the battery is large, and the dual SIM functionality makes it perfect for those who are constantly micro-managing between their multiple SIM cards.

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