Google Now was first introduced in Jelly Bean 4.1 and is definitely one of the most interesting additions to the OS. Simply put, it's Google's version of a personal assistant. Google Now is in the same neck of the woods as Apple's Siri, but it learns constantly from your use patterns.
It's accessed by swiping up on any of the on-screen controls and gives you a short overview of information it believes is relevant to you. Going to work the same route every morning? Google Now will let you know there's a big traffic jam on your usual way to the office and will offer an alternative route.
It can interpret a lot of things from your search history as well. If you've been searching for, let's say, your favorite football team, Google Now will prepare a card showing you the next match the team is playing and will provide you with score updates once the game begins.
Google constantly updates Google Now and in its latest version has become even smarter. If you allow it, the service can scan your email for upcoming flights, deliveries or restaurant reservations and let you know when they are due. There are also numerous kinds of cards like birthdays (yours and those of your contacts and friends in the Google+ social network) and what distance you've walked in a particular month.
Google has also integrated Voice Actions. They can handle stuff like sending messages (SMS or email), initiating a voice call, asking for directions, taking a note or opening a site. Google Now can also launch apps, check and manage your calendar and look for nearby places of interest and stuff like movie openings in theaters.
One big advantage of Google's Jelly Bean is that the voice typing functionality doesn't require an internet connection to work. You can enter text by speaking anywhere you can use the on-screen keyboard - be it the Messaging app or a note taking app - without the need for a data connection as long as you have pre-downloaded the needed language packs (and those only take about 20-25MB of your storage per pack).
Making voice typing available offline also made things faster as it's not dependent on the speed of your data connection. What's even more impressive is that the transition hasn't cost it anything in regards to accuracy.
The LG Optimus G Pro boasts a Snapdragon 600 chipset with four Krait 300 cores clocked at 1.7GHz, 2GB of RAM and the Adreno 320 GPU. With specs like that you would expect the phablet to be a real benchmark champion and luckily it delivers.
The Optimus G Pro managed to top the Benchmark Pi and Linpack tests, which are meant to judge single and multi-core performance respectively.
Lower is better
Higher is better
The 5.5" LG flagship had excellent performance in the two compound benchmarks we run, too. At Antutu it didn't quite manage to come on top, but it still posted a great score of over 20,000 points, while Quadrant saw the LG Optimus G Pro score another victory.
Higher is better
Higher is better
We ran GLBenchmark off-screen, which means we're testing at a fixed resolution, which lets us test the raw GPU power. The Optimus G Pro didn't disappoint, but failed to beat the HTC One. Still, it scored as much as the less powerful Xperia Z, and a tad better than the iPhone 5.
Higher is better
But most games will probably want to run at native resolution, so we're including Epic Citadel, which uses Unreal Engine 3. Unreal Engine is popular with mobile game makers, so it's a pretty important test. The benchmark was run at the High Quality setting and yet the Optimus G Pro posted a great result and is breathing in the Xperia Z's neck pushing the 60fps limitation.
Higher is better
SunSpider is all about pure JavaScript performance. Here, the Optimus G Pro only got a mid-table finish, but the truth is the difference is hard to perceive in real-life scenarios.
Lower is better
Higher is better
Overall, the Snapdragon 600 platform proved itself to be an excellent choice for the full HD Optimus G Pro, turning it into an excellent performer. UI navigation is fluid and smooth with apps launching more than swifly.
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