LG Marquee (Boost Mobile)

Boost Mobile has a number of good smartphones, but they all seem to lack a certain wow factor. The $279.99 LG Marquee probably won't make anyone cancel their current contract and rush over to Boost, but its exceptionally bright, rich display delivers a bit more wow than anything else on Boost right now. It's also an all-around great smartphone, so it earns our Editors' Choice award.

Design, Screen, and Call Quality
A good deal of the Marquee's appeal lies with its design. The phone measures 4.8 by 2.5 by 0.36 inches (HWD) and weighs just 3.95 ounces, so it's thin, light, and comfortable to hold. It's made entirely of black plastic, with a glass screen. The Marquee's 4-inch, 480-by-800-pixel NOVA capacitive touch display looks fantastic. It uses IPS LCD technology, just like the acclaimed Retina display on the iPhone 4S. But the Marquee is even brighter than the iPhone. LG claims the Marquee is capable of 700 nits of brightness, while the iPhone has been measured at 541 nits. The iPhone 4S still looks sharper, but the Marquee definitely looks just as bright. Viewing angles are excellent, and the Marquee is especially readable outdoors. This phone shames all the other smartphone displays currently available on Boost.

The Marquee is a dual-band EV-DO Rev. A (800/1900 MHz) device with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. It connected to my WPA2-encrypted Wi-Fi network without issue. Reception is average and call quality is good overall. Voices sound warm and full in the earpiece, but volume is on the low side, and maximum volume actually causes the phone's case to rattle. Calls made with the phone sound clear, provided there isn't too much sound in the background, as noise cancellation is poor. Calls sounded fine through a?Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset ($129, 4.5 stars) and voice dialing worked fine. The speakerphone goes loud enough to use outdoors, but voices sound harsh and distorted at maximum volume. Battery life was fine at 5 hours, 40 minutes of talk time.

Last October, Boost began charging an additional $5 monthly for its unlimited data and messaging services on Android-powered devices like the Marquee. That means plans now start at $55, which are reduced by $5 every 6 months you pay your bill on time, down to $40. Considering that Boost uses Sprint's nationwide network, these are pretty incredible prices, since the same unlimited plan on Sprint costs $99.99 per month.

Apps, Multimedia, and Conclusions
The Marquee is powered by a 1GHz TI OMAP3630 Cortex-A8 processor and Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread). There's no word yet on whether the phone will receive an update to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). LG has left the OS almost completely untouched, so what you're getting here is nearly a stock version of Android. Mobile ID is installed, which lets you customize your device with downloadable theme packs from Boost that include applications, ringtones, wallpapers, and widgets.

The Marquee didn't set our benchmark tests on fire, but it demonstrated perfectly acceptable numbers for a midrange Android device. The single-core processor isn't built for high-end gaming, but it should be able to handle most anything else you throw at it. Otherwise, the Marquee is a fairly standard Android phone with all the usual features, including a powerful WebKit browser with Flash support, GPS with free Google Maps Navigation for voice-enabled, turn by turn directions, and access to the Android Market, which features over 300,000 third-party apps.

There's a microSD?card?slot underneath the battery cover, which comes preloaded with a 2GB card; my 32 and 64GB SanDisk cards worked fine as well. There's also a surprisingly spacious 2.79GB of free internal storage. Music sounded good through both a pair of wired earbuds as well as Altec Lansing BackBeat?Bluetooth headphones ($99.99, 3.5 stars). I was able to listen to AAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, and WMA files, but FLAC was a no-go.

All of the video files I tried played back smoothly in full screen at resolutions up to 720p. Unfortunately, while audio was fine through a pair of earbuds, there was a significant delay when using Bluetooth headphones.

The Marquee's 5-megapixel auto-focus camera includes an LED flash. Test photos look good, with average detail, though colors look a touch dull. Recorded 720p (1280-by-720-pixel) videos look good and play back smoothly at 24 frames per second indoors or out. There's also a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat.

The LG Marquee is one of the best prepaid smartphones out there and the best smartphone available from Boost Mobile right now, so it gets our Editors' Choice. Our previous Editors' Choice, the Samsung Galaxy Prevail?($149.99, 4 stars), is less expensive, but has a smaller, lower-resolution display, slower hardware, and a less impressive camera than the Marquee. The ZTE Warp?($199.99, 3.5 stars) is also less expensive, but has a poor camera and a far less attractive display. The Motorola Triumph?for Virgin Mobile ($279.99, 4 stars) has many of the same features as the Marquee, but for the same price, the Marquee has a better video camera and brighter display. There's also the Huawei Mercury?($179.99, 4.5 stars) on Cricket, which is our favorite prepaid phone available right now. It too has an excellent display, along with a faster processor than the Marquee. In most of the country, it also uses Sprint's network just like the Marquee does. You'll be happy with either one.

Benchmarks
Continuous talk time: 5 hours 40 minutes

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