LG Marquee Android smartphone hands-on impressions

We got some hands-on time with the new LG Marquee that was just announced for Sprint at an event last night. The LG Marquee is the American version of the Optimus Black smartphone that was released for global markets earlier this year.

Much like the Optimus Black, the most impressive part of the Marquee is its 4-inch NOVA screen. LG claims that it is the brightest display on any smartphone in the U.S. market, and it is hard to argue with them on that. The screen is extremely bright, with good viewing angles, and you should have no problem seeing it outdoors in direct sunlight. LG rates the Marquee's display at 700nit brightness.

Other than the display, the rest of the Marquee is standard fare for a mid to high-range Android smartphone these days. It is appreciably thin, at just under 10mm, and it is remarkably light in your hand thanks to its all plastic construction. The back battery cover is a glossy silver plastic that unfortunately collects fingerprints like no other.

Unlike the Optimus Black, the Marquee does not have LG's custom interface on top of Android. Instead, it runs a pretty stock version of Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread, though there is the Sprint ID system for customization. The Marquee's 1GHz, single-core processor pushed things around just fine, but nobody will mistake it for a dual-core processor - that's for sure.

Unfortunately, the Marquee does not have support for Sprint's 4G WiMAX network, so you have to be satisfied with 3G data speeds when outside of a Wi-Fi network. Sprint will release the LG Marquee on October 2 for $99.99, after rebate, with a new two-year agreement. Anxious customers can pre-order the phone starting on September 20.

LG Marquee

LG Marquee

LG Marquee

LG Marquee

LG Marquee

LG Marquee

LG Marquee