Playing with a new phone

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I’ve been playing with a new phone for a little while. It’s fun. I love all things gadgets, and I’m sure if I was rich, I’d have a ton more. We’ve all been playing with the LG Connect 4G.  It’s a smartphone (I’m not sure there is any other kind to play with!) with the speed and connectivity.

It is on the metroPCS 4G service and is super fast and super light. It isn’t gigantic, which I like. I’ve tested out phones that I couldn’t hold in one hand. I can hold this one in one hand and actually use it. (and, I have huge hands). It features a 4” NOVA touchscreen.

It is built on the Android 2.3 platform, and with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor plus 1GB of RAM (that’s a lot of RAM for such a small little thing) and 4G LTE speed, making it perfect for both multitasking social butterflies as it is for power-professionals. Since it is an Android based phone, you have access to over 100,000 apps in the Google Plus (previously Market) app store. Most of them I’ve found that I use are free (like Instagram, Hootsuite, Draw Something and more).

One of the cool features is the front-facing 5MP camera. It allows you to take pictures of yourself without awkwardly holding the phone backwards, and also for video chat. Mr. Serious and I used it  to do a google+ hangout which would be great when one parent is out of town without a webcam. (He was on the computer, which allowed him to add funny facial features, but this is a shot of the camera’s screen. It was very clear and easy to see him!)

It also has the ability to capture 720p HD video.

The camera takes nice pictures inside (the flash tends to wash out the skin a bit, but what flash doesn’t?)

  After testing out the phone, one thing I’d like to see improved is the battery life. Compared to other phones (and even my almost two year old droid), it was very short. I would charge it for 12 hours, and it wouldn’t even last through the day in stand by mode (meaning, I didn’t even turn it on, just to see how long it lasted). I know batteries on smart phones don’t last very long, but this was definitely the biggest disappointment for me.

In using the phone for phone calls, I only experienced one dropped. Not too shabby at all.

The service stayed within the 4G range most of the time. I noticed a couple times, it would revert to 3G, but I know the 4G is new technology and growing. I didn’t have an opportunity to test it in a non-4G market.

One of my favorite things about all Android phones is that they link so seamlessly with all things google. The gmail app is awesome and works just as well as it does on my computer. It pulls in all of my phone contacts and makes using it a breeze.

MetroPCS has many generously priced plans (and they all require no contract). You can get a plan with unlimited calls, text and web and all taxes and fees for as low as $40/month.

If you like to listen to music on your phone without purchasing, the Rhapsody Unlimited plan is between is $60-$70/month. You don’t have to purchase any music and can stream a playlist you create directly on your phone (now I know why my students were ALWAYS on their phones). It was fun to be able to pull up a song on request of the girls and jam to it (yeah, it might have been some Bieber, but they love it!)

Even if we had two separate phones with MetroPCS, compared to what we pay now, we’d save about $15-$20/month!

*I was provided the phone and service for the purposes of the review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.