LG Optimus G Pro was LG’s first Full HD phone which was announced way back in January but only recently launched. The Lenovo K900 was also announced in January and has been available since June in India.
Both the phones are similar in the fact that both of them have a 5.5inch Full HD display. The internals are completely different with the G Pro being powered by a Snapdragon 600 Processor while the Lenovo K900 is powered by Intel Clover Trail dual-core processor.
Lets check out how these phones compete against each other.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYlh4CDtxe4
Design, Build Quality
The LG Optimus G Pro has a solid glass front and back supported by a solid and heavy metal rim at the center. The Lenovo K900 has an all metal build with a rectangular slab design.
The Optimus G Pro is shorter, less wide but considerably thicker than the Lenovo K900 despite the same 5.5inch display. It also weighs 10 grams more than the K900.
On the front of the phones, we have the display, above which we have the earpiece and front cameras along with ambient and proximity sensors on the right side on the G Pro, while the front camera is on the left side of the earpiece on the K900. The earpiece is present on the top edge on the G Pro.
On the Optimus G Pro, we have a physical home button surrounded by LED light with capacitive touch keys on either side, but on the K900, there is no physical key, but all capacitive touch keys with a unique home icon.
The positioning of keys are similar with only the power lock key on the right side on both the phones while on the K900, we have a microSIM card slot also.
The bottom of Optimus G Pro has the micro USB port and the microphone while the K900 has a 3.5mm audio jack in addition to the microUSB port and microphone.
On the left side, we have the volume rocker and the customizable Q-slide key on the G Pro while we have just the volume rocker on the K900.
The top of Optimus G Pro has the 3.5mm audio jack, IR blaster and secondary microphone while there is nothing at the top of K900.
Moving to the back side, we find a lot of difference in terms of design and materials used. On both the phones, there is a 13MP camera along with single LED flash in G Pro and dual LED flash in K900. The secondary microphone is right next to the camera on the K900.
The Optimus G Pro has a removable battery cover and beneath the cover, we find a hot-swappable microSD card slot and microSIM slot.
Overall, the LG Optimus G Pro and K900 have a good finish and solid build quality, but because of the glassy material the Optimus G Pro feels slightly slippery while the K900 feels quite solid because of the rectangular build, but its big footprint makes it tough to hold in the hand.
Display
Display is where things are similar with both the devices sporting a 5.5 inch Full HD display of 401ppi pixel density. The LG Optimus G Pro has a Tru IPS+ display while the K900 has a regular IPS display. Both the displays are sharp, crisp and have amazing colors. The Lenovo K900 has slightly better viewing angles and the colors are much truer in the K900 than on the G Pro. The G Pro seems to have higher brightness, but it looks slightly over-saturated and unreal when compared with K900.
The Lenovo K900 has a slightly better display in terms of true color reproduction.
Hardware and Performance
The major differentiating factor between the two phones is the processor – LG Optimus G Pro is powered by a 1.7 GHz QuadCore Snapdragon 600 SoC, has 2GB RAM and Adreno 320 GPU while the Lenovo K900 is powered by a 2 GHz DualCore Intel Atom Z2580, has 2GB RAM and graphics are taken care by PowerVR SGX544 GPU.
The Optimus G Pro has 16/32GB variants(we have the 16GB variant) while the K900 has just 16GB internal storage. Out of the 16GB, Optimus G Pro has 10.11 GB available while the Lenovo K900 has 4.68GB for apps out of which 1.17GB is available and 9.77GB user accessible memory. LG Optimus G Pro has a microSD card slot of expansion of storage which is missing in the K900.
Out of 2GB in both the phones, the G Pro has around 1781MB usable RAM while the K900 has 1.9GB usable and G Pro has 1.2GB RAM free when the device is idle,but the K900 has just 1GB RAM free when the device is idle.
The faster processor and more RAM give the LG Optimus G Pro a big upper hand in terms of performance. Both the phones are super fast and you would hardly notice the difference in day to day usage.
In benchmarks, the measure of performance could not be gauged as Optimus G Pro beat the K900 in few benchmarks like BaseMark X HD(OnScreen), GFX-Bench 2.7 T-Rex HD(OnScreen), LinPack(Single and Multi), Vellamo 2(HTML5) and Quadrant while the K900 beat the G Pro in AnTutu, Vellama 2(Metal), Sunspider Javascript, NenaMark 2 and Basemark X HD(Offscreen).
Camera
Both the phones have a 13MP camera at the back. The Optimus G Pro has a 2.1MP camera at the front while the K900 has a 2MP camera at the front. Both the phones can record 1080p videos at 30fps with stereo sound from both the cameras.
The camera UI is different on both the phones with some skinning from the manufacturers. Both the phones have separate screens for photos and videos. The K900 has a lot of filters compared to the G Pro. Various shooting modes like HDR, Panorama are found in both the devices.
In terms of image clarity, the Optimus G Pro was much better with less noise, more details, better contrast and true colors. Check out the video below to get a clear understanding of the camera qualities.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rghmVIfNNpM
Software features
The LG Optimus G Pro runs on Android 4.1.2 and has lot of LG customizations like different UI elements and features like Q-Apps. These Q-apps include browser, calculator, memos and can be placed anywhere on the screen(even inside certain apps). A maximum of 2 Q-apps can be opened at a time. In addition to that, LG also given the G Pro a note taking app that reminds us of Galaxy Note 2’s S-Note app. The G Pro also has an option to support single handed usage in apps like messaging, dialer. Any such customization is absent in the K900 and we get only skinned version of the basic apps.
In terms of software, both the LG Optimus G Pro is ahead of the K900 with lots of software goodies.
Gaming
Gaming on the Optimus G Pro is excellent and it is not that smooth in the K900. The Intel Atom processor seems to undermine the performance of the device and there are occasional glitches in the games. The fluidic smoothness of the G Pro is missing in the K900.
Battery and Connectivity
The Optimus G Pro has a 3140mAh battery while the K900 has 2500mAh battery. In terms of battery life, the bigger battery in the G Pro is definitely better.
In terms of connectivity, both the devices are equipped with features like WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G, WiFi Direct and microUSB(MHL) connectivity. NFC and IR blaster are exclusive to G Pro. Also G Pro has support for WiFi 802.11 ac which is not there in K900.
Conclusion
LG Optimus G Pro is very good device overall with great internals and good build while the K900 is an equally, if not better built device, but is slightly on the other side of the line in terms of support for apps as it runs on Intel processor.
The LG Optimus G Pro retails for Rs. 39,000, while the Lenovo K900 retails for Rs. 26,000 and the huge difference in the price is unjustifiable. The LG Optimus G Pro offers a better gaming experience, better performance, better camera and has better software features while the relatively cheaper Lenovo K900 is a better built metal device with an excellent display.
Contributed by Monish Kumar.