Pros and Cons of the LG Nitro HD

[MassacrMan]

So, I have sealed the deal today and decided that I will be picking an LG Nitro HD this friday.

These questions are directed at those who already own one:

What do you like about the Nitro?

What does it do best?

Lastly, what bothers you?

With that being said, I am very excited to get this phone and hope it turns out to be as great as some of the reviewers are saying it is.

 

[rsohne]

1) Gorgeous screen , thin and light without feeling cheap.
2) Seems to do everything well.
3) The browser, can be laggy at time and doesn't resize pages correctly with a double tap.

 

[RoboMonkey]

+1 on the above.
It's just a cool phone.

And...and I played 3 2hour movies back to back to back before the battery gave out.
So whoever said this thing has a short battery life must have had a bad one. My Vivid will only do 1 and 1.75 movies before giving up the ghost.

Con..I can't find a dang hotSpot icon...I don't think it exist.

 

[Mr. Ed]

Phone looks and feels amazing.

I liked the screen, but clarity was nowhere near what it is on the Skyrocket. Sad too because color felt dead on (not over saturated, more real life on the Nitro) But it was "fuzzy" and did not show as much detail


Performance..dead on exactly the same on Antutu EXCEPT for RAM, the Nitro scored MUCH higher.

Linpack scores were high 80's-low 90's compared to the Skyrockets mid 70's low 80's

the deal killer....the rear speaker

At full volume we could barely hear multiple youtube videos that played loud and clear on the display Skyrocket and our Inspire

I did this test display vs display in store. We spent an hour in there.

I did notice the wierdness mentioned about the browser but it was not that big of a deal to me.

Oh, and I know I would break that usb port cover lol

and of course..the 4gb internal mem is a huge deal to me but I was willing to overlook it

in the end we ordered 2 white skyrockets from bestbuy for $139 each (frys electronics pricematch)

It really is a great phone, but not in the key areas I WANT it to be

 

[cuseguy]

I have had a Skyrocket for 29 days and almost 12 hours. I have hemmed and hawed and researched and lurked and researched again since the Nitro release was announced last week. I have looked at the Nitro in person, I have camped out in my ATT store for such long hours, that I literally know all 12 employees by name and title. I am quite sure they question my sanity.
The Nitro HD is a nice phone, it seems. The screen is certainly beautiful. BUT..the phone has just enough quirks and shortcomings that I can't seem to pull the trigger and exchange my trustworthy and very capable Skyrocket for it. Honestly, I wish the Skyrocket did something....anything.... wrong so that I could justify jettisoning it for the chance of that 720p goodness!
But no...., it just consistently runs all smooth and buttery with consistent Antutu scores around 7000 with it's ample 48GB of memory (32GB Class10 card). And sure that LG screen is better...but only marginally. I thought it would much more honestly.
So it seems that I will bypass the excitement of the latest and greatest and stay with my old (1 month) tried and true!

 

[MassacrMan]

I certainly respect the research you two went through, it seems the Skyrocket may be the better of the two. Barely...

I will make my decision when I get my Nitro, like I said before. I can always just return it before the 30 days and get the Skyrocket.

 

[Mr. Ed]

I certainly respect the research you two went through, it seems the Skyrocket may be the better of the two. Barely...

I will make my decision when I get my Nitro, like I said before. I can always just return it before the 30 days and get the Skyrocket.

it was definitely a barely. the youtube test/audio test was the decision maker

I was all for the nitro until then. no matter what I did the sound was 1/3 of that of the Skyrocket

 

[jflexe99]

Wear earbuds or head phones....I only watch youtube/netflix on my Nitro in bed before bed...so no disturbances which is nice.

Like everyone will say, THIS SCREEN! Amazing!!! Battery life will def not be as good as GS2 or GS2 SR...but I can care less, at low light screen viewing, all I saw was lines and blobs on the Samoled screen...unacceptable! LG has finally made a damn good phone! Can't wait to see this with ICS.

 

[Mr. Ed]

Wear earbuds or head phones....I only watch youtube/netflix on my Nitro in bed before bed...so no disturbances which is nice.

Like everyone will say, THIS SCREEN! Amazing!!! Battery life will def not be as good as GS2 or GS2 SR...but I can care less, at low light screen viewing, all I saw was lines and blobs on the Samoled screen...unacceptable! LG has finally made a damn good phone! Can't wait to see this with ICS.

You may be surprised, battery life should be quite a bit better on that screen.


keep us posted!

 

[slatestud14]

The only thing I'm worried about on my Nitro is battery life. Hopefully manufacturers will start developing extended 3500mah batteries. I dont care about the bulkiness.

 

[RoboMonkey]

The only thing I'm worried about on my Nitro is battery life. Hopefully manufacturers will start developing extended 3500mah batteries. I dont care about the bulkiness.

Again, I had it on for 6 hours watching movies. I don't see a issue with the battery. And I keep the brightness around 80%

 

[bhype1]

I liked the screen, but clarity was nowhere near what it is on the Skyrocket. Sad too because color felt dead on (not over saturated, more real life on the Nitro) But it was "fuzzy" and did not show as much detail

Mr. Ed, you made this SR "30 day return period expired" owner's day with that statement. I went back and forth between the SR and Vivid, stuck with the SR, then the LG Nitro was released after my 30 days was up. I thought the LG Nitro's screen would have been a lot better...thanks!

 

[RingKing]

I wonder why people are not factoring in the sure future burn-in with Amoled screens when choosing between the Skyrocket and Nitro.

 

[Mr. Ed]

I wonder why people are not factoring in the sure future burn-in with Amoled screens when choosing between the Skyrocket and Nitro.

I am not sure why it would be "sure future" but under the right circumstances it can happen, I have actually seen it on several displays at Best Buy

 

[RingKing]

I am not sure why it would be "sure future" but under the right circumstances it can happen, I have actually seen it on several displays at Best Buy

I say "sure future" because there's really no way of avoiding it. That's how Amoleds work. Yes there may be ways to "prevent" it but one would only delay the inevitable.

 

[Mr. Ed]

I say "sure future" because there's really no way of avoiding it. That's how Amoleds work. Yes there may be ways to "prevent" it but one would only delay the inevitable.

If you have time can you provide me more information on this. I honestly have not come across that issue in my research.

I am sure others will find it useful as well!3

Everything I know about Super amoled is that burn in is purely circumstantial

 

[RingKing]

Here's a good read about the burn-in issue on Amoled screens: Samsung Galaxy SII SAMOLED display burn in - OLED screen persistence, retention S2 - WebDevSys

Here's an excerpt from the above link:

What can you do about it?

Unfortunately, not very much, apart from the points listed above. LED displays have a lifetime that specifies the time to half brightness (similar to the half-life of radioactivity). The light output will gradully become dimmer the more the display is used. So, things such as the clock and battery symbol will cause the areas of the screen they occupy to reduce in intensity, thereby leaving a sort of a darkened 'imprint' when the screen is showing a solid colour when the said icons are not displayed.

 

[Pevey]

Took the plunge and got a Nitro today, free from my 3Gs. Really liked the Skyrocket but everything was too even on performance and technical stuff so I just went with the one that felt the best in my hand. Both had killer screens, I just like going with the lesser known regardless of the drawbacks of having a very small support community.

Hopefully people will give this great little phone a chance, the girl at the AT&T store said they had not sold many and Skyrockets were flying out the door.

 

[RoboMonkey]

Not being a lemming is a good thing.
Samsung is all marketing and benchmark scores mean squat.

 

[MassacrMan]

Took the plunge and got a Nitro today, free from my 3Gs. Really liked the Skyrocket but everything was too even on performance and technical stuff so I just went with the one that felt the best in my hand. Both had killer screens, I just like going with the lesser known regardless of the drawbacks of having a very small support community.

Hopefully people will give this great little phone a chance, the girl at the AT&T store said they had not sold many and Skyrockets were flying out the door.

So, they were Skyrocketing out of the door? :-D

 

[Pevey]

Not being a lemming is a good thing.
Samsung is all marketing and benchmark scores mean squat.

Not to offend anyone in the motorcycling community but i also don't ride a Harley. Me and my ratty BMW are used to being outnumbered by very good products that do not quite fit my needs and personal taste.

 

[Gruvin2]

it was definitely a barely. the youtube test/audio test was the decision maker

I was all for the nitro until then. no matter what I did the sound was 1/3 of that of the Skyrocket

So far this is the only flaw I have found as well (sound quality). Battery life isn't great but to be expected with that beautiful large HD pixel pushing screen.

UPDATE- Went to my local At&T store to compare the phone with other Nitro's & the Skyrocket to be sure i didn't get a dud. I found When i had a youtube video side by side with the Skyrocket with the volume maxed on the Nitro I had to have the Nitro a few inches from my ear to be heard over the Skyrocket which was 3 feet away! I swapped my SIM to the skyrocket and made a call to my kid and she immediately said i sounded much clearer.

I then asked to look at another Nitro side-by-side and noticed something immediately the other screen reproduced the video with better flesh tones and didn't look as washed out. One odd thing though was the other Nitro didn't have the brightness set to auto but was in fact greyed out and had no adjustment available. The rep was baffled. While taking pics with the Nitro and Skyrocket I did notice the screen on the Nitro looked ALOT clearer and crisp over the Skyrocket but that's not to say the camera is bad..just the screen isn't near as nice.

I'm so torn. Fast CPU/great screen but cr@p sound from both speakers and low battery life to support that many pixels. Also didn't catch this before but the phone only has 2GB internal storage! Oh also found out that the LG OS 2.3.5 does NOT support 3rd party apps to play WMV files. Called LG and the rep said they do not currently support WMV viewing, but she did go on the tell me that they are going to release the upgrade for Ice cream sandwich soon.

For being touted as a Flagship product with these flaws it makes it hard for me to commit 2yrs to this product. Again this is an amazing phone that has all the potential to be a top tier Droid with some shortcomings that will be hard to overlook. I'll be doing more research and spending more time in my local store for hands on to see what to do next.

 

[Bmxant]

After doing more research about this phone, there's a few things that people need to know.

1. With LauncherPro, this phone is smooth as HELL

2. I checked another store to see if the speaker was the same as the previous one I checked out, and it was slightly louder.

3. This phone may be LG, but it's still a powerhouse.

4. With ICS, this phone is faster than the Nexus

5. This phone has better whites and grays than the Nexus and Note SAmoled screens.

6. The camera is also very good. (Fantastic in sunny weather, average in cloudy weather)

7. Browser performance is terrible for being stock, but if you switch out the browser to chrome, or another popular browser (Dolphin?) it's just as smooth as the S2.

8. As mentioned before, LG really sucks at developing software. But it seems that their hardware is up there with the rest. If not slightly better.


I'm like Mr.Ed in a way, I'm always looking to purchase a new phone, YET I can't afford to do that, so I just do constant research on all of the current high end devices


Edit with #9

: The battery life is bad when not rooted and debloated, but afterwards it's decent enough to be used throughout the day.


Just to add, even though there's so many positives, I just can't see myself being stuck with this device for 2 years. I wonder if we will see another device come out in January? If not, I might just pick up the Nitro and root/tweak it to my needs. The main issue that I see (Compared to the Skyrocket) is the not so sensitive screen, the battery life, and the fact that we're getting ICS in Q2 of 2012!

 

[padimatt]

hello. I just this forum today in order to talk about this phone.

I have had the nitro for 3 days. I have struggled for a month on what phone to get. really, it came down to the screen on this phone. however, I am struggling with my choice because the phone has a number of bugs.

First of all, as I am typing this, I am getting the error message "NO CONNECTION" when I try to go the android market...even though I am currently connected to the wifi network. what does this mean?

when I first got the phone, I tried downloading angry birds, and the phone froze then when I turned it off and turned it back on, it made a sound like a burglar alarm. ????what the helll??? had to turn it off and then it was okay and was able to download.

haven't had a chance yet to download many apps. So far, I like the screen but the browsing experience doesn't seem as crisp and as smooth as my brothers iphone.

I also cannot believe that the new phones haven't gotten the hint that a dedicated camera button would be nice. they put these great cameras in their phones and then make you tap the screen to take a photo..what is that about?

the battery doesn't seem that great. I haven't had another android phone to compare it to, but it seems the battery is half gone by lunch time. and connecting the phone to a computer via the usb doesn't seem to work...it seems to only really charge when it's plugged into the wall.

will keep you informed. as it stands right now, it is 50/50. by the way, was looking at the iphone 4s, skyrocket and the HTC vivid.

(quick addition: no headphones come with the phone...is this standard with android? I think it is cheap!!! also, the HTC vivid has an fm radio...no not an fm app...an actual radio..almost got the vivid because of the radio).

 

[Gruvin2]

So after much debate I have decided to stick with the Nitro! I took my phone back to the local dealer and told them I'd like to compare it to another Nitro. The other unit had better sound quality from both speakers. Even the screen was a bit better with more "true" color vs my unit. I asked to swap it out and been happy ever since.

It is still a battery hog, but like others have said if you use something like Juice Defender and turn off all the bloat & such it lasts much longer.

I also swapped out the stock browser for Dolphin so I could have full screen viewing. Very nice screen to view the web on!