LG Optimus Vu

In competition with the Galaxy Note, Vu is also a hybrid between a phone and a tablet. The 5” screen size looks good and the sleek 0.33 inch-thickness adds to the wow factor. However, the width at 3.5 inches is less than that of Galaxy Note, and so could be irritating to some aficionados. Despite the 5-inch screen, the device is still light enough (168 gms) to hold in the hand. The display resolution is contemporary with a capacitive touchscreen @1024 x 768p and really sizzles with the 4:3 aspect ratio. The back cover is fixed though but this does not take anything away from the good overall build quality. You do not get a microSD card slot for additional storage, but with 32 gigs of internal storage who cares! The controls of the phone are easy to navigate and the keys are well placed. The left side holds the volume rocker, whereas the right has the sim slot with cover. Below the screen are four front keys: menu, home, back, and search. There is an 8MP camera at the back and 1.3 MP at the front for video calls. You can connect to a network via 3G and WiFi.

LG Vu comes preloaded with Android 4.0 ICS and is powered by 1.5GHz quad core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor and 1GB RAM. In the Antutu benchmark test which quantifies CPU, memory and databse efficiency, it scored 14,542. For its graphics and animation capabilities, the device scored 7,645 & 35,741 in An3DBench & An3DBenchXL respectively. For web browsing efficiency, the LG Optimus Vu secured an excellent 1,123 pts in Vellamo Mobile Web benchmark test. All these scores are similar to that scored by Samsung Galaxy Note in our reviews. The call quality is excellent and so is the audio and video playback. At 2080 mAh, the battery nicely compliments the overall wonderful device.

Bottomline: An excellent phablet but you might think twice because of the high price.