LG Optimus L3 2 review

This entry level handset is small in size, but can it achieve big things?

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LG Optimus L3 2 review
Can this bite-size handset become an entry-level feast?

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Camera

The LG Optimus L3 2 has a paltry 3.15MP camera on the back and no front facing camera. There's no flash either and you can't tap to focus, so its photo taking capabilities are somewhat limited. It's also worse than the 5MP snappers on the HTC Desire C and the Huawei Ascend G330.

Within the camera app there are a few different settings that are alterable. You can drop the quality down to 1MP - though doing so leads to pretty much unusable photos.

LG Optimus L3 2 review

You can also change the white balance, ISO or scene mode (with choices such as night mode, sports mode and landscape), add a colour effect or a timer or change the shutter sound. It's a decent set of options really for such a basic camera.

The one other feature worth a mention is 'cheese shutter', which if enabled will cause the camera to take a picture whenever someone says 'cheese' (or 'smile', 'whiskey', 'kimchi' or 'LG'). It's a bit gimmicky and in most cases isn't very useful.

The one potential exception to that is if the person operating the camera wants to be in the photo too, in which case you could roughly set up your shot then get into position and say the magic word. But given how poor the lens itself is we can't see many people bothering.

LG Optimus L3 2 review

Sports mode doesn't do much to reduce the blur on fast moving objects

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LG Optimus L3 2 review

The LG Optimus L3 2 really struggles with close-ups

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LG Optimus L3 2 review

It's possible to get some reasonable shots, but they're always a bit muddy

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LG Optimus L3 2 review

Indoor shots are very noisy

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LG Optimus L3 2 review

Landscapes lack much detail, particularly in the background

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LG Optimus L3 2 review

Night shots are similarly noisy, even with Night mode on

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LG Optimus L3 2 review

Sepia is one of a handful of colour effects offered by the camera

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Video

The LG Optimus L3 II can only shoot VGA or lower video, but it at least manages to shoot it at 30fps.

It doesn't have the same wide ranging set of options as the stills camera, instead limiting you to lowering the video quality to MMS size, adding a colour effect, turning the microphone off or changing the white balance, but that's still more options than it might have offered.

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James Rogerson
James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.