LG Optimus 7

The LG Optimus 7 (E900) is a Windows Phone 7 based touchscreen smartphone currently available in the international markets.

Physical Facts

This LG handset when out of the box weighs 140g and with measurements of 125x59.8x11.5mm. The WVGA LCD screen measuring 3.8 inches with a resolution of 800x480 pixels on it, does its job. At the bottom are the Back, Search & Start buttons which are physical ones. The raised Windows logo acts as the start button.

Other features are the 3.5mm headphone jack, a MicroUSB socket for charging and synchronisation, a camera button and volume keys. At the top is the standby button to use the phone. The Optimus 7 is well-built with a solid metal backplate. Under it is the SIM slot and Battery bay. There's no microSD card slot for expanding memory, as WP7 doesn't support removable memory. There's instead 16GB of internal memory. It can do, unless you like to have a collection of video files.

With the power on the homescreen greets you, the colour of which you can change, and the anti-aliasing helps the viewing on the built-in Internet Eplorer. The hardware specifications defined by Microsoft make WP7 smartphones similar and leave manufacturers only some areas to tinker with. One is the People Hub app offered like LG has. The other is the camera offered.

Multimedia & Other Features

The 5MP camera is an auto-focus one with flash light. It's planted on the back cover. It offers various shooting modes like Intelligent Shot, Beauty Shot, Panaroma Shot and some tools. The Panaroma shot is intuitive and well made to yield a fine result. There's a link available to ScanSearch. Camera performance seems to be average but results are better in good conditions. Video capture is a maximum of 720p resolution at 24fps. Optionally capture HD video in a 16:9 aspect ratio if you prefer. LG has included the Augmented Reality application ScanSearch to help local points of interests. Hit the search button and it brings up the Bing search.

An useful MP3 player is pitched in too, besides the FM radio bundled in with stylish in-ear headphones. The smartphone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 1Ghz chipset. Find sensors, Bluetooth, Wifi and GPS all packed in. The 1500mAh battery lasts for a day or more when put on normal usage. However heavy use will require the handset to be charged at night.

As per Apps

The Optimus 7 comes with a collection of pre-loaded features. Foremost is the amazing DLNA sharing feature LG has called Play To. With this you can play your content from your phone on to other compatible devices, like a TV, on the same WiFi network, but is a one way stream. The WP7 app support is still not fully developed. Once the Marketplace App store is enhanced, the device too can have enhanced uses, competing with the likes of Google. LG Optmus 7 enhances WP7 technology to offer best multimedia experience with link to Zune Marketplace and Xbox Live. You can shoot and share images with friends by instantly uploading files to your favourite Social Network sites. You can customise your homepage with Microsoft Tile interface. The phone exhibits very smooth scrolling and Pinch to Zoom function on its responsive capacitive screen, such as is common to WP7. This Windows Phone 7 smartphone syncs your Calendar, Contacts and Mail of Microsoft Outlook, relatively seamlessly.