LG Optimus Slider (Virgin Mobile)

The LG Optimus Slider ($199.99) is an average, low-end Android smartphone. It has good voice quality and a roomy QWERTY keyboard, but it's certainly not going to thrill Android geeks. Factor in Virgin Mobile's low-cost service plans starting at $35 per month, though, and it's worth talking about. Although this isn't a four-star phone when compared to options on other carriers, it's the best keyboarded smartphone for Virgin, and that makes worthy of it our Editors' Choice award.

Design, Call Quality, and Plans
The Optimus Slider measures 4.5 by 2.3 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.5 ounces. It's a bit bulky, in part because of the large keyboard. It's made of dark gray plastic, with a soft touch back cover. The 3.2-inch, 320-by-480 pixel capacitive touch screen is?bright enough, though it could certainly benefit from higher resolution. But it's fine for most tasks, and compatible with most of the apps in the Android Market.

There are four physical function keys beneath the display, and the phone slides open to reveal a four-row QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard is comfortable and roomy with large, well-separated plastic keys. Typing long messages is easy on the Slider.

The Slider is a dual-band EV-DO Rev. A (850/1900 MHz) device with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi support. Reception is good (Virgin uses Sprint's network), and call quality is solid overall. Voices sound clear in the phone's earpiece, though a bit thready. Calls made with the phone sound crisp and natural, with very good background noise cancellation. Calls sounded clear through a?Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset ($129, 4.5 stars), and voice dialing worked fine over Bluetooth without training. The speakerphone sounds a bit thin and doesn't go loud enough for outdoor use. Battery life was great at 8 hours, 17 minutes of talk time.

The biggest selling point here is Virgin Mobile's inexpensive pricing plans. You can sign up for an unlimited text, data, and Web plan for as little as $35 per month with 300 voice minutes. 1200 minutes costs $45, and unlimited voice calling brings the price to $55 per month. If you're more of a message and data user than a talker, that $35 plan is hard to beat?especially considering that a data plan alone will cost you $30 on a carrier like Verizon Wireless, and for that price you're limited to 2GB of data per month! Virgin does have one downside for heavy data users: there's no tethering or hotspot mode, so you can't use a laptop with this connection.

Apps and OS
The Optimus Slider is running Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread). There are a few minor customizations from LG, but this is pretty close to stock-Android. There are five home screens you can swipe between that come preloaded with a few useful apps and widgets. There's also some non-deletable bloatware, but it's kept to a minimum, and navigating around the phone feels swift and responsive. The Slider offers all of Android's usual benefits, including free, voice-enabled, turn-by-turn GPS navigation, excellent email capabilities, and a powerful WebKit browser. It should work with most of the 250,000+ third-party apps available in the Android Market.

The phone is powered by an 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7627T processor. It's no speed demon, but it pulled in average benchmark scores for a lower-end Android device. It should be up to task for most common uses, but count it out for high-end gaming. Also, don't assume this phone will get an Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" update.

Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions
There's a microSD card slot beneath the back phone's cover. A 2GB card comes preloaded; my 32 and 64GB cards worked fine as well. There's also 156MB of free internal storage. Music tracks sounded good through both wired headphones and Altec Lansing Backbeat?Bluetooth headphones ($99.99, 3.5 stars). I was able to play AAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, and WMA test files, but not FLAC. Standalone video support isn't as good. I was only able to play MP4 and H.264 test files, at resolutions up to 800-by-480. Audio for videos was slightly out of sync over Bluetooth.

The 3.2-megapixel auto-focus camera has no flash. Test photos were average, at best. There's a long, 1.3 second shutter delay, and photos taken indoors show average detail, but colors are dull. Outdoor shots in bright light are a little better, but still underwhelming. The camcorder records videos at a choppy 13 frames per second indoors and a slightly better 15 frames per second outside.

Video support and camera aside, the LG Optimus Slider is a solid keyboarded smartphone, and a really good value when you factor in Virgin's inexpensive plan pricing. We haven't reviewed it on Virgin, but the?Samsung Intercept?(3 stars) is less expensive, at $79.99, though it's running an older version of Android on a slower data network. If you're willing to drop the keyboard, your best bet is the Motorola Triumph?($239.99, 4 stars), which features a much larger, sharper display, and a faster processor. But if you value texting above all else, stick with the Slider.

Benchmarks
Continuous talk time: 8 hours 17 minutes

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