LG Optimus L9 review: Living large
Living large
Synthetic benchmarks: Two Cortex-A9 cores still gets the job done
LG Optimus L9 is powered by the TI OMAP 4430 chipset with two 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU cores and the PowerVR SGX540. Sure, the L9 hardware is not the benchmark champion of every geek's dreams, but it's nowhere near the end of its lifecycle. In fact, it's more than adequate for the price range. Anyway, let's take a look how this one stacks among the competition.
Benchmark Pi is a simple single-threaded benchmark, so we know what we can expect from it. The Optimus L9 falls behind the Krait-powered and the latest quad-core smartphones, but comes close to its Cortex-A9 CPU siblings - the Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Nexus.
Benchmark Pi
Lower is better
-
HTC One S
306 -
Samsung Galaxy Premier
372 -
Samsung Galaxy Nexus
447 -
Samsung Galaxy S II
452 -
LG Optimus L9
480 -
Samsung Galaxy S III mini
499 -
Samsung Galaxy S Advance
530 -
HTC Sensation XE
536 -
Sony Xperia S
536 -
Sony Xperia sola
551 -
HTC Desire X
639
Linpack offers multithreaded benchmarking, making it essential for testing dual and quad-core beasts. The Optimus L9 stacks the same as its dual-core siblings - the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Nexus.
Linpack
Higher is better
-
HTC Desire X
74.79 -
Sony Xperia sola
68.1 -
LG Optimus L9
65.9 -
Samsung Galaxy S Advance
64.74 -
Sony Xperia J
38.37 -
HTC Desire V
34.4 -
HTC One V
34.4
Quadrant is a composite benchmark (it tests CPU, GPU and I/O). The LG Optimus L9 scored almost the same as the Samsung Galaxy S II, beats the Galaxy Nexus but was outrun by the Galaxy Note, Xperia S and naturally, all the quad-core beasts.
Quadrant
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S III
5365 -
HTC One X (Snapdragon S4)
5146 -
HTC One S
5047 -
HTC One X (Tegra 3)
4842 -
LG Optimus 4X
4814 -
Samsung Galaxy Note
3531 -
Sony Xperia S
3173 -
Samsung Galaxy S II
3053 -
LG Optimus L9
3019 -
Samsung Galaxy S III mini
2644 -
Samsung Galaxy Nexus
2316
Another worthy composite benchmarks are AnTuTu and GeekBench. Here are the results.
AnTuTu
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy S III
12288 -
HTC One X (Tegra 3)
11633 -
LG Optimus L9
7168 -
Motorola RARZ i XT890
6150 -
Samsung Galaxy S III mini
5823 -
HTC Desire X
5177 -
Sony Xperia J
3546 -
Sony Xperia miro
2916
Geekbench 2
Higher is better
-
Nexus 4
2100 -
Samsung Galaxy Note II
2000 -
Samsung Galaxy S III
1845 -
LG Optimus G
1723 -
HTC One X (Tegra 3)
1634 -
Apple iPhone 5
1601 -
LG Optimus L9
908
The Optimus L9 uses the PowerVR SGX540 GPU and has a qHD screen to fill with pixels. Obviously that's a pretty tall order, which explains the rather poor showing in NenaMark 2. The L9 result is comparable with the Xperia S, but that one uses a 720p screen.
NenaMark 2
Higher is better
-
HTC One S
60.5 -
Samsung Galaxy Premier
55.3 -
Samsung Galaxy S II
51.6 -
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
43.6 -
Samsung Galaxy S III mini
38.9 -
Sony Xperia S
37.5 -
HTC Desire X
35.4 -
LG Optimus L9
32.5 -
Samsung Galaxy Nexus
28.7 -
Sony Xperia sola
27.7
GLBenchmark isn't particularly kind to the Optimus L9, either, but the smartphone can take consolation in the fact that it matches the HTC One X result. We're using the Egypt test in offscreen 1080p mode so that results are directly comparable even though each device has a different screen resolution.
GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
-
LG Optimus G
29 -
Apple iPhone 5
27 -
Nexus 4
26 -
Samsung Galaxy Note II
17 -
Samsung Galaxy S III
15 -
HTC One X+
12 -
LG Optimus L9
9 -
HTC One X
9
SunSpider is a JavaScript benchmark and as such isn't strongly affected by the number of CPU cores - it mostly reflects the raw performance of a single core and how optimized the JavaScript engine itself is. The Optimus L9 score is somewhere between the previous generation Galaxies and the iPhone 4S.
SunSpider
Lower is better
-
Samsung Galaxy Premier
1171 -
Samsung Galaxy Nexus
1626 -
HTC One S
1708 -
Samsung Galaxy S II
1849 -
Samsung Galaxy S III mini
1888 -
LG Optimus L9
2029 -
Apple iPhone 4S
2217 -
HTC Desire X
2259 -
Sony Xperia S
2587 -
Samsung Galaxy S Advance
2663 -
Sony Xperia sola
2837
BrowserMark adds HTML to the equation - behind the scenes JavaScript computing won't do much if the web page can't update fast and smooth. Since BrowserMark got updated we don't have all the results from previous phones, but you can still get the idea. Interestingly, the Optimus L9 managed to beat the Galaxy S III here.
BrowserMark 2
Higher is better
-
LG Optimus G
2555 -
Acer CloudMobile S500
1877 -
Nokia Lumia 820
1760 -
Samsung Omnia W
1632 -
LG Optimus L9
1329 -
Samsung Galaxy S III (JB)
1247 -
Samsung Galaxy S III mini
714 -
Sony Xperia J
587
The Vellamo score isn't too bad either. We only have the results of quad-core smartphones to compare the L9 performance to, but the difference isn't too huge, which bodes well for the LG mid-ranger.
Vellamo
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy Note II
2418 -
HTC One X (Tegra 3)
2078 -
Samsung Galaxy S III
1641 -
LG Optimus 4X HD
1568 -
LG Optimus G
1522 -
Meizu MX 4-core
1468 -
Nexus 4
1310 -
LG Optimus L9
1162
Overall, the LG Optimus L9 is hardly the most powerful smartphone around and there are certainly be plenty of devices out there to give you faster ride around Android. However, it's no slouch either and it's raw power will be more than enough for the vast majority of the users.
Reader comments
- Harryblack
- 24 Nov 2019
- r4N
Its a great fone for its price.....
- ashok kumar
- 23 Jul 2015
- 0Cn
Asus VivoWatch With 10 Day Battery Backup Is Awesome And Unbelievable
- SA_Kids
- 21 Oct 2013
- N96
The screen of this phone is just pathetic. The brightness is so low which makes the outside visibilaty so poor, I can't even see what's on the screen. I wouldn't take this phone when there're beter phones for the same price, the huawei P6 is a far be...