back to article LG Vu 5in Android phone-tablet review

Mercedes vs BMW, Boeing vs Airbus, Asda vs Tesco: the world is full of directly competing commercial entities locked in a bitter struggle for market share. In Korea, Samsung and LG go head-to-head in much the same way, so it's no surprise that LG has cooked up a rival to Samsung’s Galaxy Note. LG Vu The LG Vu doesn't seem so …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    5 inches...

    ...makes that girl look tiny! ;-)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 5 inches...

      Still below the average size

    2. Esskay
      Happy

      Re: 5 inches...

      I'm dating a Korean gril at the moment - her phone of choice is a Galaxy Note. I've come to realise that *any* photo of her where she's holding the phone in shot has the effect of making her look like a midget holding a normal sized phone - amusing, but kind of wierd. Particularly when the parents ask "have you got a photo of her?"

      1. Esskay
        FAIL

        Re: 5 inches...

        *girl - although a Korean grill would be lovely to have around for those Sunday arvo bbq's.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Designed by a deranged nutty development engineer trying to follow the patent rule book to prevent his device looking like anything on the market today so as to prevent litigation.

    I hear HTC will bring out the three sided tablet and ZTE the Octophone, with its eight straight sides.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Or, expanding consumer choice by bringing out a device with an unusual aspect ratio.

      1. Mike Brown

        id buy an octophone. it would be like somthing from battlestar. cubits FTW

  3. NumptyScrub
    Coat

    1024x768?

    In b4 "oh 4:3 screen must be copying Apple" :D

    Strange that they've decided to go for XGA though, since that's a fairly low pixel density on a 5" (comparitively, anyway). I'd have though that XGA+ (or even 1280x960) was as easily achievable for that size of panel.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 1024x768?

      Probably more along the lines of; we've got 2M industrial 5" 4:3 IPS screens from a cancelled order, no one wants them, what shall we do with them?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Crappy low-res screen, wait for the 1080p version.

    http://www.phonearena.com/news/LG-flaunts-5-inch-1080p-display-prototype_id30937

    1. Robert E A Harvey

      Don't hurry. 700 quid laptops will still be x768 for another decade.

      <gets off hobby horse>

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Nice idea

      but it's not available to buy now for £350 is it?

      1. Robert E A Harvey

        Re: Nice idea

        Then there is the HTC J Butterfly - 440PPI 1,920 x 1,080 5in - 16GB internal + up to 32GB microSDHC

  5. Leona A
    Paris Hilton

    Battery

    In the specs it says Rated Battery life of 2 months, then the reviewer goes on to say you will only get a day out of it? Something not right there?

    1. uhuznaa

      Re: Battery

      Ever had a smartphone? These things last quite a while in standby (which means you don't use all the screen and power) and not so long at all if you do something on them.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Interesting that they showcase "Dead Trigger" so prominently on their apps screen, the very game whose developer complained loudly of piracy in Android (for a 69p app, no less) and in the end decided to make it free and rely exclusively on in-app purchases. - Source

    Should prove a good sign for this one...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      errr...

      I think you'll find those are the Reg's screen grabs, with one dropped onto an image of the handset. The reviewer said he tested the aspect ratio fit with that very game.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mercedes vs BMW 1 - 2

    Boeing vs Airbus 1 - 1

    Asda vs Tesco 0 - 4

    Only one score draw this week, which means the article will roll over.

  8. frank ly

    "The Vu doesn’t have a MicroSD card slot ..."

    I used to feel that this was a deal-breaker for me. However, for the past year I haven't removed the microSD card from my phone because WiFi transfer is fast enough for pictures and music files. With my Asus Transformer, I only remove the SD card if I want to quickly load up an 800MB video file.

    1. Dr. Mouse

      Re: "The Vu doesn’t have a MicroSD card slot ..."

      "However, for the past year I haven't removed the microSD card from my phone because WiFi transfer is fast enough for pictures and music files."

      I don't think I have ever removed the SD card from any of my phones to transfer data to it.

      However, I still don't want a phone without a card slow, because:

      a) With a card I can upgrade when I want. Without, handset upgrade time.

      b) With a card, I can upgrade handset and not have to copy all my data over. Without, there's a lot of work to move the data over

      c) With a card, if the card fails I just buy a new one (£15?). With internal memory only, I have to buy a new phone (£350).

      d) With a card, I can pop the card out to back up the data quickly. Without, backing up several GB over Wifi/USB is slooow, and over Wifi normally fails before it's complete.

      A separate memory card is just more flexible.

  9. Andrew James

    Note2 meets its match?

    That things out of proportion, ugly and too small to compare with a galaxy note2 :-)

    1. N13L5
      FAIL

      Re: Note2 meets its match?

      Calling it out of proportion and ugly is a matter of personal taste, don't bother other people with your foibles?

      And "too small" is kinda subjective, a lot of people might call it too big.

      Either way, the real reason why the headline "Note2 meets its match" is poorly chosen is the fact that the VU seems to have no pen.

      There's been plenty of failed bigger phones, like Dell streak and various others. What makes Samsung's Note unique is not the specific size, but the innovative pen capabilities...

  10. Alan Denman

    Lower PPI = usability

    There was never too much wrong with the cheaper iPads using 1024X768 too.

    It means that things are naturally more finger friendly so in fact cheap and cheerful can in fact be better.

    There was always some truth in the cheap and cheerful features of the iPad been praised alongside the high tech bits of it. That old iPad screen was one, 1024 X 768 is finger friendly cool.

    So at 5" 1024x768 is a good and very web friendly compromise

    1. Silverburn
      Alien

      Re: Lower PPI = usability

      That's not how it works.

      An button that's 0.5 cm across on iPad 1 is still 0.5 cm across on iPad 3.

  11. fiatlux

    Having an iPad (4:3 screen) as well as an iPhone 4s and a BB PlayBook (3:2 and 16:9 screens), I find the former aspect ratio better suited to browsing, photos and apps in general.

    Now that, does not mean that I think this Vu is a very practical phone. But coming from an Xperia X10 mini, I guess it's normal to find most current smartphones too big.

  12. Dapprman

    Where's the pen ?

    I thought half the point of theSamsung Tabs was the Wacom developed pen and touch screen. I see none of that here.

  13. Martin 47

    Deal breaker for me is the fixed battery, from the look of the charging cycles thingy it will be fooked in just over a year of daily charging.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I was just thinking, I don't travel enough to keep a spare battery so maybe a fixed battery is not a dealbreaker, but I agree - the ability to replace a stale battery that will no longer hold a charge is key.

    2. N13L5
      FAIL

      yep - I like to carry an extra battery when I travel...

      One of the reasons I don't buy Apple kit, and I won't buy this one either.

      No changeable battery - no sale. No microSD slot - no sale either.

      Most other things are negotiable...

      Well, I will also not buy any gear with a patented proprietary connector called "Lightning" where a standard micro USB port would have done the job, just so the manufacturer can control who gets to make peripherals and can extort those companies for cash. Then they add a chip to prevent you from being able to use your own choice of peripherals on it.

  14. joejack
    Meh

    Target market?

    I'd be more interested in this if LG scissored the phone out, dropped the price, and called it a mini-tablet. Perfect for reading PDF's in landscape mode. That might make me feel better about no removable battery or storage, no jellybean, and LG's slow upgrade cycles.

    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Target market?

      "LG's slow upgrade cycles"

      Trouble is that LG's upgrade cycles are "slow" in the same way that being shot at close range with a sawnoff 12-bore "can sting a bit".

      1. N13L5

        Re: LG's slow upgrade cycles can sting a bit?

        I'm not familiar with their upgrade cycles as I've never owned one...

        but I take it, you comment corrects the "slow" statement in the direction of "never"...?

  15. Alan Denman

    Squintings at text links is fine though.

    "That's not how it works.

    An button that's 0.5 cm across on iPad 1 is still 0.5 cm across on iPad 3."

    But there is no squinty text on the iPad 1, not to mention that your exisiting iPhone apps are purposely limited to make you need a separate new tablet app.

    What gadget an app runs on, it should really just adapt.

  16. N13L5

    I guess LG should only make Nexus phones...

    ...with their "slow" upgrade cycles then?

    I don't get why Manufacturers can't just build their Android alterations in the form of one or more apps that can be easily uninstalled and don't impede updating to the next version of Android whenever the customer feels like it.

    Unlike WindPhone, Android is very malleable and user customizable without having to mess with the foundation.

    So the only reason I can see why manufacturers would want to make this mess is to keep people from using their little apps on other brand's phones, and maybe to keep their hardware drivers proprietary. Like Samsung doesn't give out their drivers or any info in regards to them, making it needlessly difficult for people to create custom roms based on newer versions of Android.

    Android fragmentation is really manufacturer's fault. If every device was offered with a 'Nexus' option of just getting clean Android, I think 90% of phones would sell with that option. Software customization seems overrated by manufacturers, the differentiation happens through hardware - as it should be, really.

    If Sony slaps a nice, likeable media interface on their phones, but is trying to sell me last year's chippery for this year's premium prices, it only takes one somewhat informed person to prevent the rest of their family from falling for that.

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