LG Thrive
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The LG Thrive is nothing more than the prepaid handset version of the LG Phoenix, an entry-level Android device that looks a lot like its other affordable siblings in the company’s budget lineup of smartphones. It is in fact the very first smartphone available for AT&T’s GoPhone prepaid service. The phone measures 4.46 x 2.32 x 0.52 inches and has a silver pattern along its sides and curved corners. It features a smooth matte finish that provides a comfortable grip, while the 3.2-inch display has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels and can show up to 262k colors.
The LG Thrive is running on Android 2.2 Froyo (upgradable to 2.3 Gingerbread) and comes with a custom LG virtual keyboard, along with the standard Android keyboard. Even though it does not feature the increasingly popular Swype, you can download it yourself. Even though this is an entry-level smartphone, it doesn’t mean that we are dealing with a slow device because it is fully capable of providing a smooth experience most of the times with no noticeable amount of lag.
LG Thrive (Source: img.gadgetian.com)
Regarding applications, it comes with all the regular Android apps and widgets that you would expect, including Gmail, Google Maps, Google Latitude, Google Places, Google search with Voice, Google Talk and YouTube. The phone is compatible with Microsoft Exchange and it is capable of sending & receiving e-mails from POP or IMAP accounts. Besides the inclusion of a full HTML web browser, the LG Thrive comes with apps for Twitter and Facebook, and you have the possibility to add widgets of both applications to the phone’s home screen which will show you the latest updates.
Some of the other applications that come with the LG Thrive include a video player that has support for various formats like MP4, WMV and 3GP, along with a music player for MP3, WMA, AAC and AAC+ audio formats. It also has DivX video playback support and you can transfer media through USB mass storage.
LG Thrive (Source: lg.cellcasesandmore.com)
It has been equipped with a 3.2 megapixel camera that can take pretty good photos, but the colors could have been a little bit more vibrant. It has 160MB of internal memory and if this isn’t enough you can expand it with a 32GB microSD card.
The smartphone is powered by a single core 600 MHz processor that provides a zippy overall navigation experience which for an entry-level device like this one is quite impressive. As for the battery, it has a rated talk time of up to seven and a half hours, while in standby it should last for up to 20 days. The digital SAR rating of the LG Thrive, according to FCC’s radiation tests, is of 1.23 W/kg.
