I bought my LG Optimus G on 5/10/13.
I upgraded to JB 4.1.2 almost immediately. The AT&Fee sales rep told me other G owners had issues after the update but I figured it had been a month since release so I decided to chance it. After I updated, the only issue I came across was a location issue. Nav and Maps knew EXACTLY where I was but Google?s homepage in my mobile browser and Speedtest both thought my phone was in France.
A factory reset fixed the issue. Both updating the OS and reloading 216 apps (forgot to use a back up app ? DOH!) took NO TIME on the G over an LTE connection.
My last phone was a 2+ year old HTC Inspire running GB. Moving to the G was like going from an aging Camry to a new Lexus.
I do a lot of photography and viewing images taken with my DSLR uploaded to Dropbox look INCREDIBLE on this display. My microSD card is from my HTC and full of images from that phone. The Inspire did a better job at capture but the G does a MUCH better job at displaying those images.
Yes, the camera is not that great but it does not suck. This is not an issue for me. If I want a ?real? image, I?ll use my Nikon.
So my personal cons are:
- Camera is meh (though the retouching software does help make up for a lot).
- Ambient light sensor is kind of wonky (I tend to adjust the brightness manually as needed using widget).
- Gmail app force closes when using the in-app back button to return to message list from within an open e-mail (using the capactive back button at the bottom of the display is a viable work around ? I have already sent off bug reports to LG and Google).
- Cannot seem to get Swiftkey to fully take as the default keyboard (I get a notification asking me to select input method in my notification bar when using certain apps)
Pros (there are more but these are the obvious ones imo):
- $100 cheaper than both HTC One and SGS IV with comparable performance (HTC One has a nicer display technically speaking)
- MicroSD slot (I had one on my HTC Inspire so it was nice to have the option of moving the card to this phone)
- Display, display, display
- Build quality (I like the weight and solidity of this phone)
- Plenty of horsepower (1st LTE phone with Krait quad core Snapdragon); relatively the same guts as the Nexus 4
- Battery life (My charge was at 48% after 20 hours on battery - though that included being unplugged on stand-by over night with WiFi and data off).
So let me say upfront that I am a big fan of both HTC and Samsung. I needed a new phone and the long and short of it was this was the best phone for the ?money? the day I walked into my AT&T store. They gave me $100 for my Inspire effectively making this a free phone (and a hell of a free phone at that).
Had $200 been burning a hole in my pocket, sure I probably would have gone for the HTC One but I do not regret getting the OG. It was not an impulse buy. The week before I read every review (user and tech media) I could find on the phone and the overall consensus was this was a solid effort from LG.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I am eligible for a 2nd upgrade in July and I am thinking about still getting the One (or a Nexus phone). If I do, the OG may become my back up phone or, who knows, maybe it will be the other way around.