LG Optimus Elite Specs

Its going to be about 3 months since I got this phone. Since the beggining its sole purpose was to be a temporary phone after my other phone suffered an accident.

First impressions
I got it for $35 through eBay, (refurbished). The very moment I got it, I realized it takes a while to turn on. Once I got to the Home Screen I realized how bad the Pixel density is. I had an HTC ONE V, so the different was very noticeable. You can see individual pixels from a foot away (I decided to get rid of home screen icons, they are an eye sore due to the contrast with the background). Once I was done with the screen I saw the bottom part, it has the menu button in the center, phone to the left and some kind of service "Mobile ID" to the right" this can't be removed, so its a waste of space which could be used to launch the browser. Mobile ID is just another one of those "hey here is more stupid stuff you don't need! Download it now!" apps. I went in the Play Store and realized the catalog is very limited now, since it had (1GB) of storage and because its 2.2, compatibility with many modern apps is an issue. I went on to the Youtube app, and video playback was lagging so I decided to get into the browser which was very slow (default browser), So I said "f*ck it, I rather download a game", I downloaded a 3D game, and the phone couldn't get past the start screen. By then my battery was low already.

After a week of constant use I saw the battery lasted me the whole day, with minimal use and background data not enabled. But once data is turned on, it drains faster, a lot faster. After installing a couple lightweight apps, it ran out of space, mostly thanks to cache and app data. Phone started overheating, and then it would just turn off, even if it had more than ~50%, I would be using it, it would not be hot and it would just turn off, when I turned it on, it had ~5%. This happened more than once, One day it happened 3 times. Last night it didn't load any apps in the homescreen, nor the menu, waited 20 minutes, nothing loaded.

Issues with SD Cards. This phone is really Playback unfriendly. After pulling out the SD Card or connecting it to a PC and removing/adding anything to the SD Card, it can't recognize music. The songs appear, but nothing plays when they are selected, tried with multiple music apps, the only work around is leaving it for 1 or 2 days without opening music playback.

Another little insident is with headphones, I would recommend not to put headphones/earphones with microphone, the phone would constantly (every 10 seconds) turn on Google Voice recognition, turning off audio playback, dialing recent contacts, randomly playing audio through the speaker, with the earphones plugged. I tried with 2 different earphones/microphones, both different brands and had the same problem.


Last thougths:
For the price, its ok, that is if you are buying it for ~$30, the average price on eBay and not ~$120 which is the MSRP

Owned phone for at lest 1.5 years got. At first I was like ok this phone isn't that bad, but as I started using it more and more I realized it sucks. If you only make phone calls and use your phone lightly it might last you throughout the day, but if you use you phone moderately to heavily not the phone to get. Games somewhat lag and depends on the game you get. Speaker for music ok, could be better. For phone calls ok. Media browsing quality isn't that bad bit then it isn't that great. Camera is good pictures come out clean. Surfing the internet gets slow especially if you are on data.....that all I can think of now. Btw if this is your first android phone get, my experience may not be the same one you have and for you it may just be the best phone ever.

I really am impressed here. This is an entry level Android with a single core 800 mhtz processor. It has a decent amount of memory to install applications and such. It can handle a good amount of fun games, and also is capable of handling streaming video through Netflix quite well. I also really enjoy having Google Wallet and NFC capability. I can see this feature going far.

As for bloatware. The only real bloat is Mobile ID (Sprint ID). I am not a fan of it, as everything it installs is apps that can be installed from the Google Play Store. However, everything it installs can be uninstalled from the Applications Manager in the settings. So if that is all of the bloatware I have, that is fine with me.

Overall, this is a device that the average user will enjoy.