Design and Call Quality
The LG REALM is well-built, though not particularly inspiring. It features an all-plastic design that measures 5.01 by 2.63 by 0.38 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.8 ounces. It is the perfect size for one-handed operation, and I found it very comfortable to use. Silver plastic accents add some visual texture to the mostly black design, just like a vaguely iridescent pattern on the back cover of the phone.
There is a volume rocker on the left corner of the phone, and a Power button on the right. A 3.5mm headphone jack is on the top left corner, while a port authority can be seen below. Featuring 2,100mAh REALM A removable battery that is good for a very solid 13 hours, 43 minutes of battery life.
The front of the phone is home to a 4.5-inch TFT LCD. It has decent viewing angles and gets reasonably bright, but features a 800-by-480-pixel resolution only. It does not hold up well against phones like the Motorola Moto G, featuring higher resolution 720p. Moto vs. G, some text and icons on the REALM can look somewhat jagged. Below the display is a physical Home button, surrounded on both sides by capacitive Back and Menu navigation buttons.
The REALM supports 3G CDMA (800 / 1900MHz) nationwide network of Sprint's. I can get a solid connection where I tested the phone in New York City, but I prefer to see some more support 4G LTE as well. Sprint LTE network is constantly growing, and as we saw in our testing for the Fastest Networks Mobile this year, it brings significantly better than 3G speeds if you live in an area with coverage. You do not have to spend a lot more to get a 4G phone, either. The HTC Desire $ 99.99 510 do deceiving. Network connectivity in addition, you also get Bluetooth 4.0, dual-band 802.11b / g / n Wi-Fi, and GPS.
Call quality is a strong point for the REALM. Voices in the earpiece sound powerful and rich, with some very slight Hiss sneaking in the background. Shipping via mic is equally strong, with voices sounding clear and full, and background noise dial down to a minimum. Sounds also back-ported speakerphone clear and loud enough to hear outside getting. The REALM is no problem connecting to a JAWBONE ERA Bluetooth headset to deliver some good calls, and voice dialing worked without issue.