The LG Optimus L5 II or the Nokia Lumia 620 – Which Phone Should You Buy?

There are so many mobile phones to choose from on today’s shelves that deciding between them can be difficult. Top of the line models are going for well over £500 these days, and that's a lot of money. However, you can limit your choices a little by budget, since not many of us can afford to pay top end prices in today's economic climate.

Many mobile manufacturers are starting to produce great budget phones, and you can get a good smart phone for under £200. This doesn't mean compromising on quality though, which is a good thing since so many of us today are dependent on our mobile phones for both personal and professional reasons. You will want to make sure that you're not giving up too much performance or too many features to get a low price tag. This means that you'll need to compare mobiles to find out which offers you the best set of features for your cash.

Comparing mobiles can be tough though, since most mobile descriptions contain plenty of technical jargon and big numbers. We're here to help you though. We've looked at some of the top budget phones on the market, and matched models up in head to head comparisons so that you can easily see which phone is the best value for money. If you want to get a new mobile without spending a fortune, then read on to find out more about today's two models...

Introducing the Two Phones...

Nokia is one of the most well-known brands on the mobile market. They're probably best known for their Lumia line of Windows devices. Windows phones aren't exactly renowned for being affordable, but Nokia have launched a couple of budget phones this year. The Nokia Lumia 620 has great build quality, and some pretty good features for its price.

Can a Windows budget phone really compete against an Android model though? LG might not be quite as well-known as a mobile maker as Nokia is, but the company have been releasing some great phones recently. The LG Optimus L5 II is a great combination of features and price, and packs some impressive specs into a very affordable package. Whether or not LG is ready to stand up to mobile giant Nokia though remains to be seen...

What You'll be Paying...

Obviously price is going to be an issue if you're shopping for a budget smart phone. The Nokia Lumia 620 is going to cost you around £190 for the SIM free hand set. The LG Optimus L5 II is a little cheaper at around £170.

A SIM free hand set is ideal for use as a pay as you go phone. Pay as you go phones have several advantages. They tend to be cheaper for light phone users, generally you can't use them abroad, so you'll avoid roaming charges when you're on holiday (and roaming charges can be extortionate), and you only ever pay for the services that you actually use.

If you prefer to get your phone on contract, then the best deal on the Nokia right now is with Vodafone, and you'll get the phone for no money down on a £13 a month calling plan. The best offer for the LG at the moment is with Talk Mobile, and again you'll get the phone for no money down but this time on a £12.50 a month contract.

The Similarities...

There are many similarities between these two phones. They're both touch screen phones with large, 4 inch displays. This gives you plenty of space for viewing and for comfortable on screen typing. They both run the same 1000 MHz processor, so they're equally fast and responsive.

Camera specs are very similar, with the LG having a 4.9 MP camera and the Nokia a 5 MP camera, so there's no noticeable difference in picture quality. Finally, both are 3.5G devices, so there's no access to fast 4G mobile internet services.

The Nokia Lumia 620...

The Nokia Lumia 620 has several advantages over the LG Optimus L5 II. It does have the better quality screen. The display on the Lumia is a TFT LCD screen rather than the older LCD style screen on the LG, so you get better and more vivid colour reproduction. It also has around 10 per cent more PPI (pixels per inch), so the picture quality is clearer and more defined than that of the LG model.The Lumia has more internal storage than the Optimus, coming with an 8 GB internal memor y as compared to the LG's 4 GB memory. This means that you can store double the amount of music, photos and other data on your device.

When it comes to Bluetooth support, the Lumia is also superior, running the newer 3.0 Bluetooth version rather than the 1.0 version on the LG. This means that you'll get faster data transfer and that your phone will use less battery power when connecting to a Bluetooth device.

Finally, whilst both phones have more or less the same camera specs, the Nokia's camera can shoot high resolution HD video, and the LG's can't.

The LG Optimus L5 II...

The LG Optimus L5 II has a few advantages of its own though. It is an Android device, so you have many more app possibilities, since the Android App Market has around 7 and a half times more apps and games available to download than the Windows Phone Marketplace has.

The LG is also the more portable device. It's around 10 per cent generally smaller than the Nokia, and about 20 per cent thinner. It's lighter too, weighing in at just 103 grams versus the 127 gram Lumia. This means that the LG is just easier to carry around with you all day. Finally, the LG also has a built in FM radio, and the Lumia doesn't.

Which is Better?

Both of these are nice phones, but we're going with the Nokia Lumia 620. The better screen quality and bigger internal memory just make the Lumia a better buy than the LG Optimus L5 II.

Phil Turner researched various tariffs available on uSwitch and similar sites before finding a network with reasonable roaming charges.