Introduction

We've dived into LG's two previous L-series of smartphones, the Optimus L5 and L7, but today we're looking at the final one in the series, the Optimus L9.

In Australia LG's L-series of smartphones are exclusive to Optus and Boost Mobile, and on pre-paid. They're not the kind of phone you would look into if you wanted to go Telstra, or after something faster, but they're priced competitively enough.

I'm happy to be on the last L-series smartphone from LG, and even happier to be reviewing the best of the L-series. It's not that I don't love this job, I do, but coming from phones like the Nexus 4, Galaxy S III, and others, the L-series feels like I'm stepping into a smartphone time machine; let's see if the Optimus L9 can change that.

Specifications, Pricing and Availability

You can buy the Optimus L9 for around $260-$300, which isn't too bad, but like I said in my L7 review, the Nexus 4 is only around $50-$100 more, and is a much, much better phone.

LG have given the Optimus L9 some much-needed beefier specifications, the first of which is the larger 4.7-inch display. We have a 960x540 pixel display, giving us 234ppi. Moving from the display we have the 1GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 processor, 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage that is expandable by up to 32GB through a microSD card slot.

We have the usual Wi-Fi 802.11g/b/n, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC capabilities and 3G HSDPA. There's not much that the Optimus L9 does that stands out from the crowd, but when comparing it against its siblings, this one got the brains, and the looks.