LG Optimus L5 review

LG's mid-range Android phone

LG Optimus L5 review
The LG Optimus L5 reviewed and rated

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The LG Optimus L5 is equipped with rather standard camera fare: only 5MP around the back and no secondary camera on the front for video calls and self-portraits.

To be fair, its sister phone, the LG Optimus L7 carries only as many megapixels too, but it does come with a front-facing camera for video chatting.

LG Optimus L5 review

The LG Optimus L5 has an LED flash and autofocus function though, and offers a few different modes to play around with in the app, including portrait, landscape, sunset and night.

You can also edit the ISO and white balance settings and toggle the flash on and off from a dedicated icon in the menu.

All of the following sample images were shot in the highest resolution possible - that is, 2560 x 1920.

LG Optimus L5 review

Indoors, evening: normal mode

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LG Optimus L5 review

Indoors, evening, normal mode with white balance altered

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When shooting in normal mode it's possible to toggle (via the cog icon in the top-left corner) certain settings to compensate for blue or yellow tones (whichever is your preference).

The above images were taken in normal (auto) mode without changing any settings and normal with toggled white balance, respectively. They're a little grainy, but perfectly acceptable quality for uploading to a social network or passing through a filtering app.

When messing around with ISO, white balance and other settings, the end effect will display automatically on the screen without having to snap the image first, which is handy.

LG Optimus L5 review

Outdoors, night: auto mode with flash

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LG Optimus L5 review

Night mode

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These two images were taken in auto mode with flash and night mode. The light still appears flared in both images but night mode lights up the surrounding area sufficiently to reduce the pixelation a little. The end result is, however, more washed out than the former.

LG Optimus L5 review

Attempted macro shot

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There isn't a dedicated macro setting, but there is autofocus. It didn't result in any massively obvious macro-style shot, but there is a little blurring in the background.

Even taken without a flash, the whites are overblown and the colours aren't very saturated.

LG Optimus L5 review

Outdoor, daylight, landscape mode

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It was a crisp and sunny day when this image was taken, and it's hard to say whether it's the inadequate camera or the inadequate display we were using to set up our photos that washes out the blue from the sky here. The colours don't appear very true to life.

LG Optimus L5 review

Sunset mode

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While Sunset mode did capture the colours of the sunset rather accurately, it sadly threw everything else into shadow and created an evening silhouette. Changing to auto shooting mode produced an identical image.

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