We have been playing with the LG Optimus 7 for a week now. This phone is an important element in the Microsoft marketing machine since WP7 has been launched. So is that device a “must have”?

You’ll be able to judge by yourself at the end of that review.

Hardware:

The Optimus 7 is a nice piece of hardware. It is mostly made of aluminium, with some plastic parts, and (the one that We had) it is fully black. I think that this is a very good looking device, but M. thinks that it is a phone for males: it is strict, black and very serious. I don’t know about that… a good looking device should be for everyone… Anyway, You have access to the battery and You have a nice back with the camera and its lens. (Its specs). The Optimus 7 is suppose to have a good processor (1 GHZ), I have to say that it is lightning fast (maybe this is because of WP7 though). The screen, even if it is a WVGA display is quite nice, and it is not too bad against N1 or a GS’ AMOLED and Super AMOLED screens. This phone is quite big, but somehow I like the dimensions. And finally I love the fact that it has 16 GB of storage.

Update: With further tests, the O7′s screen is not that great. Well I’m used to AMOLED and Retina displays but still, for a “flagship” device it is a shame to have a screen that bad.

So hardware wise, I would say that LG kind of scored.

Software

We gave our feelings about WP7 here. We like it, but it is under development and truly limited right now. So it is nice for people who don’t care about the latest smartphones’ functionalities. But I truly hope that this OS will evolve and make me eat my words.

Camera

Well, the Optimus 7 has a 5 MP camera, with 720p video recording, what more could We ask for? Quality? Yes, We could, cause I truly think LG blew it with the Optimus 7′s camera. I even believe my Nexus One camera to be better. The video recording is not better. Too bad cause it could have been good. And I like the idea to be able to take panorama pictures, but the app for that doesn’t work well at all and again the quality is terrible…

Update: We took some pictures at night: the flash is really good but way too powerful so every pictures end up to be white! I can’t believe this camera can be that bad… This is really disappointing.

Connectivities

We didn’t have any troubles with this phone regarding its connectivities. Wifi works super well, it is fast and there is no problem when You turn off or don’t use your phone for a while.

Performances

Again, I liked the reactiveness of that device, but I truly believe it is linked to WP7′s performances and to the fact that there are not that many interesting apps to use and that could run in background. Anyway, it works great.

Conclusion

The Optimus 7 is a nice device, it is also a nice piece of hardware with an interesting under development OS. It is too bad its camera is so bad… And moreover, this “flagship device” is absolutely not revolutionary… You won’t find anything new here, hardware wise. I was quite disappointed to see that LG didn’t try to fight its concurrence with innovation. Too bad. I wouldn’t buy that device, especially knowing that new devices will soon smash those now classic smartphones…