Remember when cell phones looked like military-grade tools and required a satchel-size battery cases? It's easy to scoff at those over-sized devices these days, but LG, Samsung and other Android handset makers seem hellbent on returning us to those days, or at least the updated equivalent of those days. They may not require the extra satchel, but clearly Samsung, LG and others think that bigger is better.

The latest entry comes from LG, which has released the gargantuan Optimus G Pro, the company's answer to the very nearly equally gargantuan Samsung Galaxy Note II. In fact the Optimus G Pro looks so much like the Note II it's difficult to tell them apart when they're side by side. LG has even copied hardware features like the single home button, which pulses white light whenever you have a new message.

There's much to love about the Optimus G Pro -- a gorgeous hi-res IPS screen, impressive, all-day battery life and some genuinely nice tweaks to stock Android -- but in order to love this phone you're going to have to first make peace with the sheer, pocket-hogging size of the thing. It does, for the record, fit in most pants pockets, but with little room to spare and you're never going to not notice that it's in your pocket. 

The other significant downside to the size of the G Pro is that it's nearly impossible to use one-handed (unless you have very large hands). It's not too hard to *hold* one handed, but stretching your thumb all the way across the screen is awkward at best and will be, for many users, just plain impossible. LG has a couple of features designed to help -- like the ability to dock a down-sized version of the dialpad to one side of the screen -- but for the most part this is a two-handed phone.

In exchange for dealing with the size of the G Pro you do get some impressive specs, most significantly the gorgeous 5.5-inch 1080p HD IPS LCD screen which is quite simply the best screen I've seen on a mobile device. The G Pro's screen handily blows the Note II's screen out the of the water. 

The G Pro's screen is sharp, bright (too bright by default, dimming it will save considerable juice and still look just as good) and so big you can use it more like a tablet, or even a laptop, than phone. In fact, comically large though it may seem at first, the G Pro may be my favorite device to have when I'm out and about because the screen is big enough to multi-task and get real work done, but still small enough to fit in a pocket.

To help you take advantage of the massive screen LG offers some Android customizations, like the company's "QSlide apps". The "apps" are widgets that sit above the currently open app and offer access to a note taking app, calendar, calculator and video player. For example, you can have the GMail app open and view your calendar at the same time, take notes while you chat with co-workers or check your email while watching a video.

The downside of the QSlide apps is that they're part of LG's horribly cluttered notifications panel. LG's Android customizations are pretty minimal (my main phone is a Samsung Galaxy Nexus so I'm most familiar with stock Android), but the company makes a mess of Android's handy notification screen. LG has tried to cram several dozen features into the panel, which ends up making it near useless for actual notifications.

The Pro G also has a QSlide button on the upper left side of the phone which allows you to quickly activate the app of your choice. By default this is the notes and annotations app, though I quickly tired of accidentally activating it so I mapped the button to the camera app (which also enables it as the shutter button).

The LG's 13 MP camera takes perfectly acceptable photos, though the results are not significantly better than what you'd get from the 8MP cameras found in most previous generation phones. 

The Optimus Pro G runs Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and, given LG's update track record you can pretty much expect that to remain unchanged for the duration of the phone's life cycle. I tested two different models of the Optimus G Pro, the international version and the AT&T version. AT&T clutters up the app list with half a dozen AT&T-branded apps that are just bad clones of other Android apps. Luckily AT&T's apps are easily deleted.

The Optimus Pro G is blazing fast, flying through app screens and popping opening applications in the blink of an eye. Even HD games are smooth, with no discernible lags or stuttering.

The speed comes from Qualcomm's quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor, which clocks in at 1.7GHz. There's also 2GB of RAM and 32 GB of built-in storage (expandable via an SD card slot). In addition to the aforementioned 13MP rear camera you also get a 2.1MP front-facing camera for video chats. As with the Samsung Note II, you can record video on both cameras simultaneously. The international model also came with a handy dock and even handier second battery. 

The second battery in the international version initially struck me as an ominous sign, especially given the bright display and powerful processor, but I was pleasantly surprised by the battery life. The Optimus G Pro handily made it through a normal work day for me, which typically includes several hours of talking, Skype-based meetings and of course many hours browsing the web. 

The international version also included a little antenna which, in Korea, lets you watch live over-the-air TV. The U.S. version has no such capability, though there is the handy QRemote app, which uses IR to control your TV.

My initial reaction when I unboxed the G Pro was to laugh and I still feel self conscious holding it to my ear in public, but at the end of the day the over-sized screen is just so damn useful that I'm a convert. For me the upsides of a big phone outweigh the down and, so long as you're in the same boat, the Optimus G Pro is a great phone well worth the $200 (subsidized) price tag.


Wired: Awesome screen, good battery life and a nice set of widgets that make it possible to multitask with ease.

Tired: The camera is passable at best, sub-par AT&T apps and of course it's big, too big for easy one-handed operation. If you don't want a big phone, this is not the phone for you.

Rating: 7