If the LG Optimus F6 was launched in 2012, perhaps, it would be able to challenge the top-class smartphones. Announced in 2013 and belonging to the LG Optimus series, the F6 is designed for the smartphone market of budget consumers. There is nothing astonishing about it, but it is likely to be able to compete within the middle-class devices as its functions are not that bad. The Optimus F6 is running Android OS, version 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) and is made in bar form factor. The retail price of the phone is $289 on T-Mobile, or $199 on MetroPCS, while via T-Mobile the device is now available for $49 starting prepayment with a 2-year contract, meaning monthly $10 payments during two years, plus a $10 fee for its SIM Starter set. The final cost will be $289. Reasonable price, a speedy dual-core processor, a 5-megapixel camera, and nice-looking 4.5-inch display together with a number of user interface features make the LG Optimus F6 rather attractive.
Design
The LG Optimus F6 has a rectangular form with rounded edges, with black front and back panels divided by a narrow silver line. Being a typical representative of the LG family, designed in accord with LG principles, the device looks accurate, compact, and quite presentable. The Optimus sizes 5.03 inches tall, 2.59 inches wide, and 0.40 inch thick. With 4.44 ounces weight it is light and easy to handle with one hand. Made of high quality plastic, the F6 case is durable, protected from scratches and scuffs, imparting softness and comfort to the surface.
The central position of the Optimus F6 is its 4.5-inches IPS touch screen, which is typical for a smartphone. The resolution is low, 960x540 pixels, and the display is able to provide only a 245ppi density, which is a measure for display sharpness. Though the screen looks vivid, with true-to-nature colors, you should take into account that the Optimus F6 refers to a middle-class devices and in comparison with higher mobiles, as, for example, the LG G2 with its 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution and 423 ppi density, the F6 display is not sharp-cut. Sometimes it seems that the display slightly lacks a smooth transition of colors, as if individual pixels are seen.
On top of the display there is a 1.3-megapixel camera to take a picture of yourself, and proximity sensor to prevent you from accidental activating the touchscreen, when held near the ear during a call. In the center below the display Home key is located, which allows to return to the Home screen from any screen. Besides when pressed and held it lets you view a list of the recently used apps. To the left and to the right from Home key there are Back and Menu keys respectively. On the left side edge you can find Volume keys and Quick button to access Quick Memo for creating memos and capturing screen shots. On the right side edge there is Power/Lock key, and on the top side is a 3.5mm earphone jack. A micro USB port/Charger is located on the bottom edge.
The back panel of the Optimus F6 gives house for a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash just below it and two thin slots for the speaker. The soft dark-blue battery cover looks as if delicately patterned with the overenlarged pixels. This design, and solid, high-quality plastic the phone is made of, give elegance and expensive appearance to the device. When you remove the back panel, you can see a removable 2,460mAh battery, a SIM card slot, and a micro SD slot, which accepts cards of up to 32 GB.
Software features
The operating system of the LG Optimus F6 is Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, which provides typical set of Google applications: Gmail, Chrome, Google+, Search, Maps, Google Books and Play Magazines, Movies & TV, as well as Music, Talk, and YouTube.
Essential applications contain a calendar, a clock, weather, a voice-recorder, a voice dialer, a voice search, a dictionary. NFC technology and Bluetooth4.0 are included. The Optimus F6 has 4GB of internal storage, which is below average level for storing music and video. Luckily, you can expand its storage as much as 32GB with the help of a microSD card.
T-Mobile provider as well offers its traditional apps. You can receive access to T-Mobile My Account to view your account number, to get the information about your current plan and its services, to change your plan, data, services etc.; a test subscription service for Caller Name ID, with the help of which you will be able to see names and pictures of people who call you, even if they are not in your list of contacts; plus apps for you to use Visual Voice Mail services, permitting callers to send a voice message in case you do not answer your mobile phone; and Mobile Hotspot. In addition T-Mobile TV media service suggests a free service for the first 30 days of watching shows on Fox News, ESPN channels and the like.
MetroPCS model includes such apps as 4G Hotspot; MyMetro helping to check your balance, make payments or change plans; MetroMusic offering albums, music tracks and ringtones; Metro411 for quick and easy search of anything you need around you: shops, hotels, restaurants;
Metro Block-it to reject undesired calls; MetroPCS Screen-it allowing to see the name of the caller even if his name is not saved in the phone; MetroZone, a news app.
Some of the LG unique functions are VuTalk, QuickMemo, and QSlide apps. VuTalk lets you share your screen with the person you are calling. With VuTalk you can also send handwritten messages, comments and notes back and forth in real time during calling. It makes your communication more interactive and imaginative. QuickMemo can be on with a button on the left side edge of the device. QuickMemo enables to take onscreen short notes or sketches easily and quickly. QSlide feature provides access the Internet without closing the other apps.
It should be noted such pre-installed applications as SmartShare giving you the opportunity to display the contents from your smartphone on the biggest screen in the house, while FileShare allows to transfer files between desktop computer and phone over local WiFi network. Polaris Viewer for Good is an application for enterprises, allowing to safely and conveniently view on your smartphone text files made with Microsoft Office on PC. Added to this is a language translator app and Lookout Security protecting your phone from malware.
Camera and video
The Optimus F6 has two cameras: a 5-megapixel rear facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera. Both cameras include five white balance setting options, four color effects, a luminance meter, a voice shutter feature letting you activate the shutter with just your voice, pronouncing selected words like “cheese” or “smile”; geotagging, which provides geographical information to photos in the form of metadata.
The 5-megapixel camera has a digital zoom, three focuses, face tracking included, five shooting modes, namely Normal, Panorama, HDR, Portrait, and Continuous shot, as well as Time Catch shot to capture frames before and after you press the Camera button, and plus seven scene modes. You can save pictures in three sizes in the range from 1,280x960 up to 2,560x1,920 pixels. With the front camera it is possible to take only two sizes, 1,280x720 and 1,280x960 pixels, and two scene modes.
The rear-facing camera provides impressive quality of your pictures, particularly in surroundings with good lighting. Edges are clearly defined, and colors are perfect. In low light though the images are clear, there is some weak distortion of brightness or color. On the whole, the camera functions quickly with no any delay.
Similarly video-recording features white balances, color effects, a digital zoom, a flash, a luminance meter, and geotagging. There are four video sizes, the Live Effect mode, providing a complete range of events in your video record, During recording you can make a motionless photo, make a pause without interrupting the process of shooting. Video quality is rather good.
Recording aspects of the 1.3-megapixel camera are almost the same, but the front camera lacks a digital zoom, a flash, and it has four video sizes.
Performance
As far as the performance goes, the LG Optimus F6, running on a 1.2GHz Qualcomm dual-core processor, is not a speedy devil, but it performs required assignments with no effort and very good for daily use. There are no any troubles in terms of performance of any individual apps, or speed of the user interface. Switching through pages of applications or home screens is done easily, without delay, and within an adequate time. The processing speed of a device is on a par both for the T-Mobile and the MetroPCS models. It takes 35 seconds to off and on the T-Mobile phone, and 36 seconds for the MetroPCS one to do the same tasks.
Quality of calls on both T-Mobile and MetroPCS models is quite good. The sound is clear, with no interference. During the time of complete silence no superfluous noises or humming is heard. The volume is not great, but it is rather sufficient, though the speaker seems to lose some loudness at the maximum.
Data connection in the T-Mobile model is normal, though it is not the fastest compared with other networks like Verizon. Sometimes the device suffers from slow data transmission, but after restart it speeds up and works even faster. About 6 seconds are needed on the average to load ManualsDir’s, ESPN, The New York Times sites. That’s funny, but it seems that the speed of loading depends on the phone’s mood, as, for example, deviations in the transmission time of the Temple Run 2 video game varies from 10 to 2 minutes.
Contrasting to the T-Mobile version the MetroPCS showed no big variation between the fastest and slowest periods registered. It features more stable and constant loading time for apps and sites.
The LG Optimus F6 is powered by a Lithium-Ion battery with a massive capacity of 2460 mAh, which is a good indicator of a full battery life. The phone has an announced talk time up to 8 hours, and a standby time is 20 days. So it can operate all working day long without a charge, perhaps, at an average level of its using.
Conclusion
A good-featured and reliable Android LG Optimus F6 smartphone with a large bright screen, efficient performance, and quite a reasonable price of $289 can be considered a valuable choice in the market of mid-class devices. Among the midrange phones select the one which like Optimus F6 possesses user-friendly simplicity and Google app’s functionality with all basic functions you need: talk, text, surf the WEB, take pictures and do many other things for a competitive price.
The Good:
Lightweight and compact design with a large and vivid screen
Efficient 5-megapixel camera
Proper performance
Useful LG unique functions
Affordable price
The Bad:
Low resolution display
Limited internal memory
Unsteady 4G LTE data connection for T-Mobile from time to time
