This is a flash hands on review to give you the chance to see what the phone is all about as soon as possible. Stay tuned as we'll be expanding and upgrading this review very shortly with more info.
The LG Leon is part of the new spread of mid-range smartphones that the Korean company has announced, and I got to try it out at MWC 2015.
Not only is the LG Leon a mid-range handset, but it sits firmly in the middle of the new collection of handsets, so you could say it's in the middle of the middle, which isn't an enviable place to be: neither cheap enough to explain some of the lacking features, nor expensive enough to benefit from a few extra bells and whistles.
The LG Leon sits just after the LG Joy at the bottom of the range, with the LG Spirit and LG Magna above it. Although it has been already released in the US, LG hasn't confirmed when we'll be seeing it in Europe and Australia, though an LG representative told me they are aiming to release it in the next two quarters (about six month's time in normal language). There's no news on price either.
The LG Leon features a 4.5-inch wide VGA display with a pixel density of 220ppi, along with a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 5MP camera, VGA front camera and a 1900 mAh removable battery.
Storage space is limited to 8GB, and when I say limited I mean it as there's no way to expand this slight capacity via microSD.
LG's aim with the LG Leon is to bring a premium feel to an affordable handset, and to do this it has a plastic back with a metallic finish that comes in five different colours: blue, black, white, gold and silver. Though made of plastic, the body does look nice, and also feels pretty robust.
Both the power button and the volume controls are also located on the back, just below the camera. This is quite a canny decision, as it is much more comfortable to reach with a finger when holding the phone, rather than the side or the top. The buttons are slightly recessed, which helps prevent accidentally pressing them.
The VGA screen isn't going to blow any minds, but Android 5.0 (which comes preinstalled) looks fine and responds well to touch commands. LG has removed layers between the screen and the touch sensor in a bid to make the screen more responsive, and it works well with menus gliding smoothly underneath my finger. It also helps make the bezel around the phone smaller, for a more premium look.
The LG Leon, like the other devices just announced by LG, is selfie stick friendly, with voice and gesture commands that can be used to take photos. While the voice recognition didn't work, I'm inclined to give it a pass due to the loud environment I tried it in. Gesture control worked very well: all I needed to do was open my hand, then close it into a fist. A three-second countdown then appears, letting you ready your shot.
Final verdict
I'm not too convinced that LG has achieved the "affordable premium" goal it has been aiming for with the LG Leon, as it is still an unmistakeably budget blower. There are some nice features you'd find in more expensive devices, such as NFC and the gesture control, and Android 5.0 is a nice touch, though LG seems to have drawn the line at including 4G, as this is a 3G-only handset. However price is essential when weighing up this smartphone, and LG needs to judge this perfectly. At the moment we don't know what the price will be, so let's hope LG chooses something sensible.
- Check out the rest of our MWC 2015 coverage
from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/1wEnezz
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