{"id":580775,"date":"2010-05-26T18:25:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-26T22:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phonedog.com\/2010\/05\/26\/aaron-s-first-impressions-lg-ally-verizon\/"},"modified":"2010-05-26T18:25:00","modified_gmt":"2010-05-26T22:25:00","slug":"aarons-first-impressions-lg-ally-verizon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/580775","title":{"rendered":"Aaron&#8217;s First Impressions: LG Ally (Verizon)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/r.phonedog.com\/shared\/images\/2010\/5\/106582-IMAG0155.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"299\" height=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>What&#8217;s Good<\/strong>: Another good Android device on Verizon, tactile and responsive physical keyboard, Android 2.1 out of the box.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What&#8217;s Bad<\/strong>: Sluggish at times, camera is ho-hum in comparison to the 5 and 8-megapixel alternatives on the Android market today.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Verdict<\/strong>: Though the lack of a Snapdragon processor and the 3.2-megapixel camera firmly entrench this device in the mid-range category, the LG Ally is a welcome addition to the Verizon lineup of Android devices.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/r.phonedog.com\/shared\/images\/2010\/5\/106582-IMAG0158.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"299\" height=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Ally ships in a small box with the device, battery, AC adapter, USB cable (which doubles as the charging cord), and instruction manuals.&nbsp; Though it ships with a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen display, it wasn&#8217;t nearly as responsive as I would have liked.&nbsp; In the time that I&#8217;ve worked with it, I&#8217;ve had to tap several icons two or more times to get the screen to work properly.&nbsp; The device is pretty packed on the button side, with the volume rocker and microUSB charging port on the left, and microSD card slot and camera on the right.&nbsp; The 3.5mm headphone jack is on the top, and the camera is on the back.<\/p>\n<p>The LG Ally offers a QWERTY keyboard, and though I&#8217;m not a huge fan of  sliding keyboards, the keys on the Ally are tactile and quite  responsive.&nbsp; Like a lot of the condensed QWERTY devices on today&#8217;s  market, I wish there was an additional row for the space bar and some of  the symbols.&nbsp; The phone sports Android 2.1 out of the box, a welcome improvement over Android 1.5 and 1.6 that is often found in the mid-range category.&nbsp; Though LG offers a custom &#8220;theme&#8221; to go with it, it can be easily turned on and off, leaving the device highly customizable for those that choose to take advantage of it.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/r.phonedog.com\/shared\/images\/2010\/5\/106582-IMAG0159.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"299\" height=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Surprisingly, the LG Ally offers a 3.2-megapixel camera, and while it takes decent pictures, it&#8217;s no comparison to the 5-8-megapixel alternatives on the market.&nbsp; Complete with flash, autofocus, and digital zoom, it&#8217;s well equipped.&nbsp; Editing options include eight effects, white balance, and and ISO settings.&nbsp; There&#8217;s a slight shutter lag, but it&#8217;s not nearly as bad as other smartphones.&nbsp; The Ally also offers video recording, and quality was equally decent.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been testing the Ally in the Charlotte metropolitan area, and in my testing to date, call quality has been good thus far.&nbsp; I&#8217;ve experienced no dropped calls, and overall call quality is very clear and crisp.&nbsp; Speakerphone is on par with most other smartphones, and my Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset connected without issue.&nbsp; Though I haven&#8217;t conducted formal testing just yet, overall data speeds seem to be reasonably fast.&nbsp; The mobile CNN homepage loaded in seven seconds, and other data-intensive apps like Google Maps, the Android Market, and the Amazon MP3 Store loaded without delay.<\/p>\n<p>The Ally can be pre-ordered online at VerizonWireless.com for $99.99 after a $100 online discount.&nbsp; While the rumored launch date (and ship date for those pre-orders) is May 27th, nothing has been set in stone as of yet.&nbsp; Stay tuned for my full review of the device!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/NpwoJ4vmm9RaksGv6vqlFURhU-w\/0\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/NpwoJ4vmm9RaksGv6vqlFURhU-w\/0\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap=\"true\"><\/img><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/NpwoJ4vmm9RaksGv6vqlFURhU-w\/1\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/NpwoJ4vmm9RaksGv6vqlFURhU-w\/1\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap=\"true\"><\/img><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/phonedog_cellphoneblog\/~4\/Lxh-gcWIkcM\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What&#8217;s Good: Another good Android device on Verizon, tactile and responsive physical keyboard, Android 2.1 out of the box. What&#8217;s Bad: Sluggish at times, camera is ho-hum in comparison to the 5 and 8-megapixel alternatives on the Android market today. Verdict: Though the lack of a Snapdragon processor and the 3.2-megapixel camera firmly entrench this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":671,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-580775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/671"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}