Verizon LG Lucid Review

Posted By Jacob Krol on April 23, 2012 9:58 am

Our friends over at Verizon have sent us the LG Lucid for us to review. It is their latest 4G LTE device to hit the market, and the best part is that the price tag is not bad at all. It comes in at $79.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate with a 2-year contract. So, this is a lower end Verizon 4G LTE device. Do not expect the highest features on this device, but for the price it may be your best choice. It features a 4 inch display, an awesome design, a 5 mega-pixel camera with LED flash and much more! So, is this the phone for you? Continue reading our full review of the Verizon LG Lucid to find out!

Design

The Verizon LG Lucid has a very nice design to it, and when I mean nice, I truly means beautiful. I cannot get over how nice the device looks. Along the sides you have a gorgeous aluminum mirror finish. The left hand side you have the volume rocker and micro USB port(under the siding) built-in to the aluminum siding. On the right hand side you have an oval button at the top that is your power/sleep button. It fits right into the design of the device, and on the other side you have a little oval that does not stick out but, it does mimic the design of the power/sleep button. The top of the device has curved slope design, that is not found on most phones. Most of the time you see a flat top, this gives the device more of a feel in the hand. You have a microphone and headphone jack built-in. On the back you have the LG logo, 4G LTE logo, speaker, 5 mega-pixel camera and a LED flash. The back has a red tint, which makes the device look even better. Besides for the red tinting and the aluminum side finish, the device is black. One bad thing about the back of the device is that it does collect finger prints. If you take the back off you will find the Verizon 4G LTE Sim Card, a microSD card slot, and a LG 3.7 volt Li-ion battery. Above the display you have a ear-piece at the very top, a VGA front facing camera, and a LG logo. The ear-piece is hidden, it has the same color as the device and it hides it. Under the display you have a Verizon logo, and the classic Android buttons. Those are the menu, home, back, and search buttons. These buttons do light up, and are touch-capactive. They fit in nicely with the design of the phone.

Network Performance

As many of you know the LG Lucid is running on Verizon Wireless’s 4G LTE Network. And as of a couple of days ago the network now covers more than 2/3 of the country. This is a great accomplishment, for Verizon and I cannot wait for the network to be complete. As expected we received some pretty fast speeds during our Network test with the device. We run our network tests using the “SPEEDTEST.NET” application. You can see our results here:

Verizon LG Lucid Speed Test

• Ping 93ms, Download 8.95Mbps, Upload 1.90Mbps
• Ping 80ms, Download 23.53Mbps, Upload 14.38Mbps
• Ping 83ms, Download 13.58Mbps, Upload 1.16Mbps
• Ping 73ms, Download 15.56Mbps, Upload 8.74Mbps
• Ping 85ms, Download 17.97Mbps, Upload 11.67Mbps
• Ping 73ms, Download 22.85Mbps, Upload 7.83Mbps

We got some really great results with out tests. Keep in mind that Verizon’s network may be better or worse in your area. It all depends on how much coverage is in your town. During our tests we had anywhere form 2-5 Bars of service, at any given time. We were also always on 4G LTE service, we did not see the 3G symbol at all. Our highest download speed on the LG Lucid was 23.53Mbps, while our lowest was 8.95Mbps. The highest upload speed we got on the LG Lucid was 14.38Mbps, while the lowest was 1.90Mbps. If you have a 4G LTE phone from Verizon and your area is not yet covered or if the network is down, then you will be reverted back to their 3G network. Overall, I was very impressed with the speeds on the Verizon LG Lucid.

Hardware

Just because the LG Lucid has a low price tags, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have good hardware. It has a 4-inch IPS Touch Screen Display, with a resolution of 800 x 480 .  It has great brightness and the viewing angles are fantastic. You won’t be able to scratch the device, since it is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. Now, for speed you already have 4G LTE from Verizon, but the LG Lucid’s operating system runs very fast. And this was very impressive, especially because of the small price tag. It has a 1.2GHz Dual-Core Processor and 1GB of RAM, that makes the phone very fast. I really have to hand it too LG for making this decision, it really goes fast. I am taking almost no delays what so ever throughout my time while testing the device. Maybe if I have a bunch of application running, it may lag when closing an application. But the performance in the operating system of the device is great. On the back of the device you have a 5 mega-pixel camera with LED flash. It also records 1080pHD video. The camera gets the job done, but depending on the conditions you are shooting in, the photo may not be good at all. Recording quality is very good, and I was impressed with on board “Video Producer” application. This lets you edit, and share your videos that are on the device. On the front of the device you have a VGA front-facing camera that is great for making video calls on the go or take “selfies”(photos of your self). The LG Lucid does not come with a pre-installed microSD card, but it does have a slot for it. It has 8GB of internal space, but in reality out of the box you get 4GB of space. So, you may want to go out and pick up a microSD card. Now, the battery on the LG Lucid is okay depending on how much you are going to use the device. As many of us know 4G LTE does use up battery. So, if there is a WiFi network near by, you should most certainly try to get on it. If you charge the device everyday, you should be able to make it through the day. That is if you are not constantly using the 4G LTE speed, and as expected with any device using the Mobile Hotspot feature does drain the battery. The hardware on this device is a great deal, when you consider how much you are paying for it.

Operating System

Just want to clear this up, the LG Lucid is running Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread and in the press release they said that an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is coming in the future. It has the famous LG User Interface put on top of the device, which both makes the device easier to use and adds more features to it. For starters you get a great weather widget, that has awesome graphics and looks very nice on the screen. When you open up the applications folder you will find that they are organized into different sections, Communication, Verizon Wireless, Media, News And search, Tools, Applications, and Downloads. If you tape the name of each section, it will close. To re-open just simply tap it again, this will help you keep your applications organized.  When charging the home-screen, is a jar catching fireflies. There is no lag what so-ever with this graphic, and it adds a warm feeling to the device. On your home screen, you have 4 quick-access applications, Phone, Messaging, Voicemail, and Camera. Slide anyone of those down into the unlock area and the application will open. And they open quite quickly, once again with almost no lag. The LG Lucid does have Android Market Google Play. The update is now on most Android devices. Now, let’s move onto the pre-loaded applications. Out of the box you get the Google App Suite, Voice Dialer, Google +, Amazon Kindle, VZW Backup Assistant, Let’s Golf 3, Mobile Hotspot, My Verizon Mobile, Plants vs Zombies, V Cast Tones, VZ Navigator, Music, Netflix, SmartShare, Share Genie, Video Producer, YouTube, Finance, News, App Manger, Guided Tours, Polaris Office, Setup Wizard, and more. Most of the other devices on the market, come with more bloatware than the LG Lucid has on it. So this is always a good sign, and a lot of pre-loaded applications will come in handy. I have to say that sometimes the manufactures change Android too much, but this time LG and Verizon changed it just the right amount.

Bottom Line

The LG Lucid, is meant to be a low-end 4G LTE offering for Verizon’s customers. However, even though it is a low-end device doesn’t mean that it’s hardware and features are. In fact it has some really great features like a beautiful 4-inch IPS Touch Screen Display with Corning Gorilla Glass, a speedy 1.2GHz Dual-Core Processor with 1GB of RAM, a 5 mega-pixel camera that gets the job done, a gorgeous design and much more! I would have liked to seen a better battery that lasts longer, and pre-installed microSD card; But for the amount that you are paying for the phone it really can’t get better than this. I would recommend the LG Lucid to anyone looking for their first-time smartphone or a cheaper-priced 4G LTE device. Either way if you are looking for a new phone, at least check out the LG Lucid on Verizon. The Verizon LG Lucid retails for $79.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate with 2-year contract. Without a contract the Lucid will cost you $449.99 . You Can Get More Info On The Verizon Wireless LG Lucid, By Clicking Here. We would like to thank Verizon for providing us with a copy of the “Verizon Wireless LG Lucid”.