LG Prada 3.0 Review

Introduction:

The year is 1913. Italian enterprenours Mario and Martino Prada start a new leathergoods shop, called Fratelli Prada (meaning Prada Brothers), in Milan. Initially, their operations centered around selling of various leather goods, as well as imported English steamer trunks and handbags. Little did the Prada brothers know that their undertaking was going to become what's one of the leading fashion houses of today, with a total revenue of €2.15 billion for 2010, and 2,841 employees around the world as of 2011. Today, Prada's business model focuses on selling luxury goods, such as various leather accessories, shues, hats and luggage.

Being the adventurous type, Prada would sometimes venture out of its traditional fields to deliver something fresh and different to its loyal customers. 2007 was the perfect time for a foray in the booming cell phone market. However, since the company could't tell a transistor from a chip, it needed to partner with a veteran phone maker, in order to produce its new offering – the Prada phone. Eventually, it would end up having LG on board for the project. In early 2007, the duo unveiled the original LG Prada phone, which quickly gained popularity, due to it being one of the very first handsets equipped with a capacitive touchscreen. For its time, the handsed was very cool, so we rated it a well-deserved 9! Its sequel came in late 2008, and sadly, even though it appeared almost two years later, the Prada II brought very few new features, most notably – a side-sliding QWERTY keyboard. Being spoiled by the iPhone and many other touch devices that were beginning to flood the market, we found the Prada II to be somewhat lacking in comparison to the competition, eventually giving it a modest 6.

It is now 99 years after Mario Prada flipped the door sign of his new store to "Open for business", went back to his counter and sat down, impatiently waiting for the first clients to come in. The year is 2012, and these are times of great economic stagnation and hardship. With everyone constantly tightening up their belts, one would wonder if there's still place on Earth, where the words "luxury goods" would be welcomed with a smile on the face and a wallet that's eager to be opened. Luckily, the latest product coming from the collaboration between LG and Prada, the LG Prada 3.0 phone, doesn't fall into that specific category of overpriced products, but is rather keeping things simple and accessible for all of us.

Having almost nothing in common with its predecessors, and tailored to the needs of contemporary smartphone users, we're taking our chance to see if the new LG Prada 3.0 sports that characteristic Prada style that will have the numerous fans of the brand flock to it hastily!

Design:

Actually, the LG Prada 3.0 isn't much of a luxury device. It is a high-end Android smartphone any way you look at it, but it doesn't feature any fancy materials to make it feel classy. As a whole, the Prada 3.0 is one very Galaxy S II-esque phone in terms of design, being very slim and having a cheapo plastic casing. If you read the official press-release, you'd be left with the impression that the Prada 3.0 is going to sport a Saffiano leather material (that's the characteristic leather texture used by Prada), but in reality, it's just plastic with the said Saffiano pattern. The result, in terms of appearance and feel is so-so, but make no mistake, it's much closer to being cheap, than classy. To tell you the truth, we're a bit frustrated to find such kind of approach in a product which has the branding of a major fashion label all over it. Speaking of brandings, it's worth mentioning that the only easily visible logo on the body of the device is that of Prada. There's an LG logo on the back, but you'll have to look closely in order to see it.

In terms of looks, the Prada 3.0 does qualify in the category of the better-looking Android handsets. It comes with a visually-pleasing perfectly rectangular shape, which we do appreciate. The rectangular shape does create the impression of a very large phone, but it's actually possible to operate it with one hand only. Judging by its minimalist, predominantly black and white looks, the Prada 3.0 seems like a solid candidate to join the company's product line for businesspersons.


The top side of the handset is where you'll find the 3.5mm jack, microUSB port, hidden under a very well-made sliding cover, as well as the power/lock key, which isn't situated in a way that would make it comfortable to press when working with one hand only. There's another button on the top, sitting right above the front facing cam. What it does is to launch the camera app, with the front-facing cam active. Press it again and it takes a picture of... you, most likely. It kind of makes us wonder if this phone is targeted to serious businesspersons, or rather – teens.


LG and Prada have decided to stick with touch-sensitive navigation keys below the screen, which we're fine with. We actually didn't happen to press any of them by accident, however, the bad thing is those keys turn completely invisible when used under bright sunlight, which makes them hard to use.


All in all, if we overlook the cheap plastic on the back (and we won't), the design of the LG Prada 3.0 pretty nice, though it could have been better. Anyways, it's still one of the better-looking Android phones, so we hope to see more steps being taken in this direction by manufacturers working with the OS. Style is the name of the game for the Prada 3.0, and style it delivers, be it a somewhat unpolished one.


Display:

Even though specs aren't the main focus of the LG Prada 3.0, it is one very well-equipped phone. Not lacking compared to the competition in the form of other premium Android smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S II, Motorola DROID RAZR and Sony Ericsson Xperia arc S, the Prada 3.0 comes with a large 4.3" screen, which is of the IPS type. All in all, colors are on the natural side, while viewing angles are pretty tolerable. The Prada 3.0 doesn't make a statement with its WVGA (480x800) resolution, especially in the HD age we're living in. Its pixel density of ~217 ppi is still adequate though, so you won't have trouble reading the display on most occasions. Plus this takes some load off the processor, resulting in some buttery smooth movements, so there's a bright side to it after all. Speaking of bright sides, LG has used the so-called NOVA PLUS screen tech, delivering the impressive 830 nits of luminance. Indeed, the handset's display is very visible when looked under bright sunlight. We'd say that it's about equal to an iPhone 4S.

We would have preferred it much more if the LG Prada 3.0 had an AMOLED display. This way, its entire front would have been completely black, making for an even more stylish and simpler appearance. Who knows, maybe we'll see that in Prada 4.0.

Interface:

In contrast to previous Prada handsets, this time the manufacturer has crafted a smartphone, using the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS. However, just like with the previous Prada phones, LG has made sure to tweak the interface so that it fits the minimalist design of the exterior. The default theme features very simple white icons, which stand particularly well when placed on top of a dark background. Many of the widgets in use by the LG Prada 3.0 are also drawn in that same style. This overly-simplistic appearance comes to deliver a characteristic Prada look, that will supposedly appeal to the fans of the brand. In addition, there are a few "Scenes" that the user can chose from, which are basically different homescreen setups, designed to suit different activities better like "Travel", "Play" and "Work".


LG has customized the icons of all Android applications, except for those of Google's services, which are the original ones. It's a nice touch that in the main menu, all the Google services are placed in a separate section, which makes the menu appear uniform in its various parts, as well as well-organized. That's very important for a style-conscious device.


Overall, most elements of the UI have been enhanced in order to achieve that specific look and personality of the phone. The font, wallpapers, apps – all of those have been customized in order to utilize that black/grey/white theme.

As we said, almost all the apps have been customized, and that includes the core ones such as the phonebook, calendar and messaging. However, their functionality has not been altered one bit from the typical Android experience that you’ll find on any phone with the OS.

Naturally, the landscape on-screen keyboard is quite big due to the generous 4.3” size of the display, at least in landscape mode. The portrait one is also comfortable enough if you just want to type a quick text with one hand.


Well, the LG Prada 3.0 might be a fashionable phone, but this doesn't mean that it skimps on hardware. The processor inside the LG Prada 3.0 is the dual-core TI OMAP 4430, clocked at 1GHz, and complemented by a gig of RAM. We're delighted to find that the interface moves very fluidly, with almost no stuttering at all.

Internet and Connectivity:

LG's UI customizations often extend to the Android browser, and the one in the Prada 3.0 isn't an exception. Thanks to the strong specs sheet, the browser delivers a very good experience, though it isn't as smooth as what you'll find in iPhone's Safari, or Galaxy Nexus's ICS browser. Of course, Flash Player is supported. Still, if you'd really like to increase that FPS count within the browser, we'd recommend that you install Opera Mobile (free on Android Market), as it manages to deliver a superior browsing performance and a more convenient implementation of tabs.


Since the LG Prada 3.0 is unlikely to end up offered by a U.S. carrier, here's the frequency breakdown. The phone supports the 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz bands for 2G, and 900, 1900 and 2100 MHz for 3G. This means that you should be able to use it on AT&T's HSPA+ network, but 4G and 3G will be out of your reach with T-Mobile. And the handset does support HSPA+ speeds, seeing that its radio can go up to 21.1 Mbit/s on the downlink and 14.4 Mbit/s on the uplink.

The built-in GPS of the LG Prada 3.0 works as advertised – our location was pinpoined in about 3 minutes on a clear day when not using the assistance of Wi-Fi networks.

Camera and Multimedia:

There's an 8MP camera coming with the Prada 3.0, and you're probably dying to know how it fares? Hold on, we're almost there. First of all, the camera interface is very intuitive and easy to work with. We're a bit hesitant about the animated transition that's displayed before the Flash settings show up, but overall, we didn't run into any troubles while working with the layout that LG has come up with. In terms of speed, it takes a couple of seconds for the cam to focus, so it's neither the fastest one out there, nor is it the slowest.


Now, it's safe to say that the pics that we took outside turned out fine, with decent details and saturated colors, though a bit on the colder side. Unfortunately, our shots also exhibited a fair amount of noise.


Indoor images are tragic, for the most part, but at least the LED flash is capable of illuminating a scene.

The third installment in the Prada series by LG is equipped with 1080p video recording, and we're happy to report that it's quite smooth, though fast moving objects aren't very clear. Detail level is decent, while color are, similarly to the situation with the stills, on the colder side. As a whole, this is a passable phone for video recording, we've seen much worse, but it doesn't get us excited either.

LG Prada 3.0 Outdoor Sample Video:



LG Prada 3.0 Indoor Sample Video:



Since LG and Prada have obviously wanted to put some accent on the 1.3MP front-facing cam (judging by the dedicated front-facing cam button), we took a few test pics with it as well. As expected, they are fine for casual self-portraits, but nothing too serious.

Video support is very good. Strangely, you first have to register the handset on the DivX site in order to play DivX files, but once you do that, you won't have any problems with 1080p videos in various codecs, including H.264 and Xvid. If you still run into troubles with a certain file, though, a single download of a new player from the Android Market will most probably fix the issue.

The loudspeaker has decent power, it sounds OK on the highest volume setting, but it's nothing special both in terms of loudness and quality. The tunes coming from it are quite sharp, with almost no depth to them.

Performance:

The Prada 3.0 is fine as a phone, incoming voices are loud and clear, and you can even tell who's calling with ease. The handset is equipped with a noise-cancellation microphone, so if you happen to be in a busy place with lots of ambient sounds, your callers will be able to clearly hear your voice, with decent loudness, although a bit on the unnatural side.

The 1540mAh battery is said to deliver the modest 5 hours of talk-time and 13.8 days of stand-by on 3G. In our usage we didn't experience inferior battery life compared to most of the Android competition.

Conclusion:

It's a good thing that LG has relied on Android for the third Prada phone. This way, the collaboration has yielded a phone which is both stylish and functional. Although a bit bigger than normal, the LG Prada 3.0 looks cool and manages to stand out from the Android pack.

However, this doesn't mean that it's the finest design of the year. Although it scores well in the appearance department, we can't go over the fact that it's made of such low-quality materials, such as the cheap-feeling plastic on the back, which is absolutely inappropriate for such a fashion-centric handset.

As a smartphone, the Prada 3.0 is on par with most of the other high-end Androids out there, so it's more than just an expensive phone. Actually, when it comes to price, you shouldn't be afraid of the LG Prada 3.0, as it costs just as much as any other high-end Android. Still, its specific looks and overly-simplistic interface won't be for everyone.

For us, "normal" users, suitable alternatives to the Prada 3.0 can be many other premium Android phones, like the Galaxy S II, Sensation XE, Xperia arc S or the DROID RAZR. But of course, these alternatives are suitable for only one part of the audience. For the other part, there's only one Prada.

LG Prada 3.0 Video Review: