LG G Pro Lite – A taste of the budget side

LG’s G Pro Lite is up against some stiff competition. Its largest competition comes from LG itself, specifically the LG G2 which the G Pro Lite resembles. There are some serious differences though: the G Pro Lite is noticeably larger,  the screen is obviously at a lower resolution and the handset is definitely slower. Now, the G Pro Lite isn’t intended to compete in the same market as the G2 and its compatriots but LG have left one hell of a yardstick lying around.

With that last item in mind, here is where the G2 comparisons will end. It cannot match up but then, the G2 cannot compete on a price level. If we were going to compare it to anything, the standard G Pro is where the measurements should be taken. But, since this is the lite version, some of the awesome that is the G Pro has been lost along the way.

The screen resolution has been dropped from a full HD display to a 540 x 960 IPS screen, something that we noted immediately after the phone booted up. That isn’t to say that the display isn’t clear and easy to see but we’ve been spoiled in the past.

Swapping between menus and loading apps brings with it some noticeable lag, which we can lay at the door of the dual-core Cortex A9 processor, 1GB of system memory and the Android 4.1.2 operating system. If not for its overall design, we’d suspect that this handset was re-released onto the market by accident. But again, this is by design as it’s a budget phone.

With that in mind the G Pro Lite comes with BBM pre-installed, something that LG was very vocal about last year. LG’s usual run of apps are also in place, there doesn’t seem to have been much pruning taking place on that score, making this handset ideally placed for the loss well-endowed bank account.

There are a few other features that cement its position as a budget phone but the chief one is the massive removable battery. 3,140mAh is enough to get users through even the toughest of days, especially with the slightly smaller power draw that the reduced specs are demanding.

There are a few other bits and pieces that we’ve yet to mention. The G Pro Lite carries an 8MP rear camera, which takes adequate snaps but isn’t going to stress out even a fairly old point-and-shoot. There are about 4.6GB of the 8GB of storage that LG offers with this handset available but that’s almost okay, since microSD cards are supported this time around. And then there’s the stylus, which is a handily-designed bit of metal with a rubberised tip that can be extracted from the top of the phone. It makes using the G Pro Lite as a note-taker very effective, though the screen lag between scribbling onscreen and having the words pitch up is a bit disconcerting.

The long and short of it is that the G Pro Lite is a budget 5.5-inch smartphone, with all of the pros and cons that entails. Its specs aren’t the greatest but you’re looking at around R240 per month on a contract as opposed to R400 and up. It has most of the features of LG’s high-end phones but they’ll run too slowly to be truly impressive. And it’s got a battery that will last all day (and then some). We can’t really argue with that.