LG Marquee (Sprint) Review

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As for applications, the LG Marquee features the standard selection of Android apps, including Gmail, Latitude, Maps, plus Music and Google Talk. Google Navigation provides free turn-by-turn driving directions, while the Telenav app allows use of the company's paid service. Strangely, the app wasn't functional and asked us to update it via the Telenav website. When we tried this, however, the Marquee was not listed as a compatible handset.

Another interesting offering is the Sprint Mobile Wallet app, which promises to make payments easy by linking credit card info to the phone. At the moment, only Namco Wireless and Skymall are participating merchants. The phone doesn't have an NFC chip built in like the Samsung Nexus S 4G, so it doesn't support the new Google Wallet service.

Specs and Performance

The LG Marquee's hardware is what you'd expect for this price. Under the hood is a single-core 1-GHz Snapdragon CPU and 512MB of RAM. The phone muddled through our battery of benchmarks, achieving a relatively low Linpack score of 11.98, 11 points less than the current average. Still, this was enough to surpass the venerable HTC Evo 4G's result of 6.7 on the same test. Despite running a slower 800-MHz CPU, the HTC EVO Shift 4G (29.71) handily beat the Marquee here, as did the Samsung Nexus S 4G (13.77).

The Nexus S 4G (3,164) and HTC EVO Shift 4G (1,702) also easily trumped the LG Marquee's Benchmark CPU result of 1,602 even though it was slightly above what we typically see from Android phones (1,552). The older Evo 4G (649.67), however, lagged far behind.

Graphics isn't the LG Marquee's strength, with the phone scoring 4,897 on An3DBench, which is a full 1,500 points lower than the current average of 6,413. The Nexus S 4G logged a strong 6,785 here while HTC Evo Shift 4G also mustered a higher 5,984 on this benchmark. The EVO 4G pulled up the rear with an underpowered showing of 3,186.

During everyday use, the LG Marquee felt a little pokey. For instance, scrolling through apps felt choppy, and the device was a hair slower when opening menus and opening apps when compared to dual-core phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S II.

Web Surfing

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The LG Marquee operates strictly on Sprint's 3G cellular network. On Speedtest.net, the phone averaged just 278.6 Kbps on downloads, which is on the low end of the 3G scale. Oddly, we clocked uploads at a faster 523.3 Kbps. Sprint's first 4G phone, the EVO 4G, demonstrated better download speeds, between 3.8 to 4.3 Mbps, while the Nexus S 4G averaged 3.6 Mbps. Average uploads were also faster for both the EVO 4G (1 Mbps) and the Nexus S 4G (854 Kbps).

The LG Marquee's pokey 3G connectivity translated into slow web surfing, too, with the phone loading mobile versions of ESPN.com and NYTimes.com in about 10 and 5 seconds, respectively. Both the EVO 4G and EVO Shift 4G launched mobile sites in 3 to 5 seconds, and the Nexus S 4G did so in 4 to 5 seconds.

Camera and Camcorder

Equipped with a 5-MP camera with LED flash, the LG Marquee snapped lackluster pictures outdoors. Greenery of shrubs along with the blue in skies looked washed out and muted. While the Nexus S also has a 5-MP camera, pictures from that phone showed more vibrant color.

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Video we captured at the Marquee's highest resolution (1280 x 720) was also choppy and grainy, with weak colors.

Call Quality

The LG Marquee is one of the better performers on Sprint's network in terms of call quality. Voices through the earpiece came through loud and clear, while callers on the other end reported clean audio with no distortion. The handset's speakerphone doesn't have much volume, but we were able to hear callers clearly within a large conference room (provided, it was quiet).

Battery Life

One of the trade-offs of owning a such a thin phone with an extremely bright screen comes is short battery life. The LG Marquee ran for only 3 hours and 40 minutes on the LAPTOP Battery Test, which involves continuous web surfing at 40-percent brightness. This runtime is two hours less than the average Android smartphone. The Nexus S 4G (5:32), the EVO 4G (5:27), and the EVO Shift 4G (4:11) all lasted longer than the Marquee.

On the plus side, the Marquee's screen looks brighter than the competition at 40 percent. That means you could squeeze more juice out of this handset by setting it to 30 percent or lower and still be able to see the screen.

Verdict

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Sprint hopes the LG Marquee will entice budget-conscious shoppers seeking a slim and attractive Android handset. However, it's not the best bargain. The HTC EVO 4G Shift ($99) and Samsung Nexus S 4G ($29) offer 4G network access and faster overall performance. And while the Marquee's screen is bright, the Nexus S 4G's Super AMOLED screen is pretty impressive, too.

Then there's the iPhone 4, which will soon be available to Sprint customers. It has a much sharper display, a better camera, and a larger selection of apps. The LG Marquee does indeed shine bright, but it's not much more than a pretty face.