Review of the LG Lucid On Verizon

If you're looking for an inexpensive entry-level smartphone that weighs in with some high-end specs, you may want to check this out. The LG Lucid is an Android smartphone with a dual core processor, IPS display, and some 4G LTE love.

Score: 7.5 out of 10.

Great:  

• Gorilla Glass is great – will not have to worry about scratches like one would with a soft, plastic screen.
• Camera snaps great pictures instantly, reminding me of the zero shutter lag on the Galaxy Nexus. 
• Killer speed on Verizon's 4G LTE network – The Lucid keeps a constant strong connection (great radio).
• Swipe-down notification area brings that Cyanogenmod 'ish goodness (like running a ROM without Rooting). 

Not So Great: 

• Fingerprint magnet.
• External speaker quality was, well, not so great.
• Battery life was mediocre, barely making it through a day.

Hardware – What We're Working With

The LG Lucid is a slim device with a 4-inch IPS display, protected by durable GorillaGlass. Powering this “entry-level” device is a beastly 1.2 GHz Dual-Core processor with 1GB of RAM. In addition to having 8GB of Internal Storage available, you may also add a microSD card (up to 32 GB).

On the left side of the phone, you will find the Micro USB charging port just below the volume rocker. Above the volume rocker at the rounded top of the phone, there is a circle that looks like a button, but it's nothing at all; This seemed sort of strange to me. Not a big deal - it just threw me off at first. There is also a 3.5mm headset jack.

I popped off the back cover and was pleased to see that the battery does not have to be removed in order to insert or remove a microSD card. In the photo, you can also see how easy it is to access the LTE SIM card (that white thing at the top). The battery is a 3.7 V 1,700 mAh, Lithium Ion. Having this decent-sized battery, I was disappointed when I found out that I could barely get through an entire day while using this device. I found myself needing to give a mid-day charge just about every day during the course of my 2-week trial with the Lucid.

Camera and Camcorder

The camera on the Lucid is one of it's biggest strengths. I really like how fast I could snap photos without them turning out blurry (the above photos were all snapped while moving). I felt that the shutter lag was near zero – you know, like the Galaxy Nexus! I'm not kidding – it snaps instantly. To me, this is a big deal because there have been so many times where I've meant to take a photo of something with my phone, but totally missed it due to the phone's delay. This camera just works.

The camera software is nothing short of awesome sauce. The camera has built-in face tracking, color effects, and much more. All of the camera features are simple to activate with beautiful icons overlaying the view so you'll clearly see exactly what you're doing. I've never been disappointed with a camera on an LG device; They've always been thought out well.

The Lucid can record video in “HD”, but you can't view HD-quality on a screen that is not. . .HD. Nothing is stopping one from uploading the video to their computer or YouTube where the camcorder's full potential can be seen. The video quality was not bad at all. Here's a video clip of me visiting my mother's dogs.

Battery Life

I've already blurted it out a few times: I could barely even get through an entire day. So far my experience with this phone in other areas had been going well, the battery life was not enough for me to discourage friends/family from buying this device. With the money saved when buying this lower-priced smartphone, one could buy a larger battery. I recommend searching the Internet for a deal on an extended battery for the Lucid.

Call Quality

Call quality from the earpiece was excellent. The external speaker was really sensitive to cancellation from the mic picking it up. When I cranked up the volume of the external speaker, it sounded muddy to me. Whenever I tried using the speaker phone, I always ended up going back to using only the earpiece. Like usual on Verizon, I never had a dropped call during my 2 weeks using this device.

Software - System and Apps

The LG Lucid comes with Video Producer. This app allows you to edit HD videos on your phone. Remember though, the phone's display is not HD - but you are still working with HD. LG also includes Smart Share (DLNA), which allows you to view the phone's media content right on your television. So if a friend's device is DLNA-enabled, you can share media with them.

My Verizon Mobile and Backup Assistant Plus are pre-installed (as well as V-apps and V-Cast). I used my laptop on the road, connected to the Mobile Hotspot. As usual, the 4G Speeds were blazing fast and it felt just as if I was surfing on my high speed internet at home.

The Lucid did not come pre-installed with a ton of unnecessary bloat. The default home screen on the Lucid is very simple, not swamped in messy widgets. In the "app drawer" photo above, the launcher I used was Zeam Launcher. You don't have to install a home screen replacement like i did, however.

The default home screen on the Lucid has a very nice feature that sorts your installed apps into categories so that they don't look like a big messy app drawer. But, being able to chose your own launcher is one reason I love the freedom of Android.

Conclusions

The only deal breaker for this phone (out of the box) would be battery life. But the low cost of this beast-of-a-phone is enough for me to recommend it to my friends and family. Verizon often has some really good sales on accessories and batteries. When I started testing this phone 2 weeks ago, Verizon was selling an extended battery for $24.99, but it has since sold out.

Verizon is bringing 4G everywhere. In the last 3 weeks, my small rural area of Richmond/Memphis, MI just received 4G! Being able to purchase a 4G LTE Dual-Core smartphone for 79.99 is pretty awesome. I say go for it and get the device directly from Verizon here.

On a scale from 1 to 10, I give the LG Lucid a 7.5