There is nothing unusual when the American
carriers sponsor an international smartphone, make some adjustments to the
hardware and firmware, paste their big logos in many places and then sell it to
the crowd. Verizon is no exception: the LG Intuition is an expression of the
Optimus Vu. Perhaps calling it "an expression" is somewhat
exaggerated: in addition to the enhanced firmware and Big Red's LTE, it is the
Optimus Vu. In practice, getting in close touch with this review, we hardly
believed our experience would be much more different than our experience with
the Korean version.
The
LG Intuition is an expression of the Optimus Vu, which is a 5-inch phablet.
Our first reaction is that this does not
give a lucky signal for the carrier. If Verizon selected the Intuition to fill
a gaping hole in its product series, we find it hard to understand why it would
turn on the green-light for this particular device while the Samsung Galaxy
Note II is going to occur within the next two months. The quiet launch of the
device is a firm enough signal that the network is not going to spend much
money for its marketing campaigns, so it feels like the main reason for the
Intuition’s existence is to make full of Verizon's quickly expanding LTE
portfolio. Is there something appealing about the Intuition ($200 with a
two-year contract) that was not mentioned when we first reviewed the Vu? Or
will we find ourselves in the Twilight Zone, recalling the same moment over and
over again? Let's have a look.
Hardware
The
LG Intuition has a stout rectangular shape with its 5-inch screen and 4:3
aspect ratio.
Huey Lewis praised its square shape as
being stylish, but what would he say about a smartphone that has a similar
shape? Thanks to its 5-inch screen and 4:3 aspect ratio, we know the LG
Intuition (once codenamed "Batman", pretty jolly) has a stout
rectangular shape in reality, but we would not stop drawing this comparison for
a short time after taking the phone out of the packaging box. Of course, we
already knew exactly what to expect; it's actually the same as the original
Optimus Vu that was first released in Korea. To say that it is a strange duck
of the mobile industry that might be an understatement; it's like a Pantech
Pocket with the size of a phablet.
You might reason that the 5-inch screen
places the Intuition in the same territory as the 5.3-inch original Galaxy Note
(and even the 5.5-inch Note II), but this is the important point: the Notes
have the larger screen sizes by adding vertical space and using the small
bezels, which really makes them become definitely narrower than Verizon’s
latest monster. What does this make sense? It means that both generations of
the Note are much handier to hold in one hand than the Intuition. It is very
inconvenient, even in the largest hands. Another advantage here is the
thickness of the device: with the depth of 8.5mm, it's remarkably thinner than
its rivals. With 5.93 ounces (168g), it's also a bit lighter. The dimension is
a significant matter – the one that will create or break the deal for the 99%
of potential customers - is the width of 90.4mm (3.56 inches), as we hinted at
earlier. Do not misunderstand: we get used to handling the large phones, but
that only proves how wide the Intuition is, it is too large compared to our
fairly weird standards. All of the regular operations felt confined: holding
the phone to hear the calls, putting it in a pocket (those who wear tight jeans
will probably be affected), and any other one-hand operations. The reason the
width is very significant - and worth saying much in this review – is due to
the fact that it has such a great impact on our overall experience of using.
You will need plenty of time to get acquainted.
We
appreciate the perimeter of the stylus in relation to the size of the standard
pen or pencil (it's also thicker than the S Pen), but one of extremely
disappointing points: despite regardless of being a larger phone, there is no
slot to stash that Rubberdium pen.
How can the Intuition be wider than the
Notes, but provides a smaller screen? These two factors are involved here: the
aspect ratio and bezel. The designers of the Optimus Vu wanted the 4:3 ratio
instead of the traditional 16:9 one, which leads to the result of compromising
on the vertical pixels in order to prioritize the horizontal ones. Above all,
the bezel around all sides of the phone actually looks bigger than it should
necessarily be. LG would probably feel that it was more vital to have
additional space for holding when watching a video or looking at photos. It was
possible that the additional space was necessary to fix all of the essential
components. However, we believed that the size of the device could easily be
trimmed down without any consequences. In spite of an inconvenient one-handed
experience, we found that it was a totally different story when handling the
phone and the attached Rubberdium stylus (no, not Rubbermaid) with both hands.
Similar to the Galaxy Note, the Intuition feels more natural to use when you
are writing notes, playing games or doing any other two-handed activities. We
appreciate the perimeter of the stylus in relation to the size of the standard
pen or pencil (it's also thicker than the S Pen), but one of extremely
disappointing points: despite regardless of being a larger phone, there is no
slot to stash that Rubberdium pen. You are restricted to keeping it in your
pocket (a dangerous habit, according to our views - we had difficulty in
finding the keys) or sticking it on the shirt, wallet or whatever else you use
during the day.
Similar
to the Galaxy Note, the Intuition feels more natural to use when you are
writing notes, playing games or doing any other two-handed activities.
