Review of the LG Treasure (L51AL) from Tracfone
Welcome to TracfoneReviewer, a blog with information, reviews and promo codes for Tracfone. Below is our review for the new LG Treasure. We hope you find the information helpful!
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| Tracfone LG Treasure Review |
The LG Treasure is a mid-level (compared to other Tracfone smartphones) Android 5.1 powered phone newly available to Tracfone prepaid customers.
Tracfone is beginning to release phones at a faster pace, with several new devices becoming available over the last month (including the ZTE ZMAX 2, Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime, and Samsung Galaxy S6). We are excited to be bringing to you today our review for the LG Treasure for use with Tracfone Wireless.
The LG Treasure is basically the Tracfone version of the LG K7, which was just released earlier in 2016. Tracfone has now also released several more LG phones in this lineup, including the
LG Rebel and
LG Premier. For more on these other phones, visit our post,
New LG/Samsung Phones Coming to Tracfone.
The LG Treasure is a budget smartphone that still comes with a large screen and some great features. Many Tracfone customers are looking for smartphones that fit into the budget phone category and won't break the bank.
The question many users might be wondering is if this phone is worth upgrading to from some of Tracfone's older smartphone options. We'll try to answer that a little further on, but first let's look at the quick facts for the LG Treasure.
LG Treasure (L51AL) Quick Facts
The Good:
-Android 5.1.1
-5" Touchscreen
-5MP Front and Rear Camera
-Reasonable Price - currently $99 from HSN.com
Not So Good:
-only 4GB useable space
-somewhat smaller processor - 1.1 Ghz
At first glance, this phone appears to deliver some great features for the price, but it does neglect a few things, like internal memory and processing power. But you can't really expect to get a high performance phone for a low cost, unless you buy a used/refurbished phone and bring it to
Tracfone's BYOP program.
LG is one of the largest companies in South Korea and produces a wide range of products sold across the globe. They are also one of the largest mobile phone manufacturers, and have a diverse lineup of phone options, including their new flagship phone the
LG G5 which features the latest version of Android, v 6.0.1 marshmallow.
The LG phones released by Tracfone to use with their prepaid service won't have quite the same performance features as LG's flagship, but they also won't cost as much.
Let's take a look at the full list of features and specifications for the LG Treasure.
LG Treasure (L51AL) Features and Specs
Below are the phone's features, followed by the technical specifications
- Android 5.1.1 Lolipop
- 4G LTE service using AT&T's GSM Network
- 5MP Front and Rear Camera
- WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1
- Access to over 1 Million apps via Google Play store
- Alarm Clock
- MP3 Player
- GPS capability
- 2 Home screens
- Voicemail, Voice Dialing
- Handsfree speaker
LG Treasure Specs
- Size: 5.65" x 2.85" x 0.35" Weight: about 5 oz.
- 5.0" Touchscreen at 480x852 resolution (196 ppi Pixel Density)
- 1.1 Ghz Quad-core processor
- 1 GB RAM
- 8 GB Memory (about 4GB Useable) MicroSD card slot
- Battery: 2045 mAh with Talk time 9hrs, Standby 11 days
A quad-core processor combined with 5" touchscreen and Android 5.1 is a very nice collection of features that make the Treasure a desirable option for many people. But what about the 4 GB of usable internal memory, is that too little?
Let's get into our review of the LG Treasure from Tracfone with our pro's and con's for this device, followed by a quick comparison to some of the other similar devices available from Tracfone like the LG Sunset and LG Ultimate 2.
LG Treasure Review - Likes and Dislikes
What we Like about the Treasure
There's quite a bit to like about this phone. After all, it is a newer device built to be budget friendly while still maintaining some great features
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| Tracfone LG Treasure front, side and back |
We really like the screen size, the dual 5 MP cameras, and that the Treasure runs Android 5.1.1. We also think this phone is a great value at the current price.
The LG Treasure comes with a 5" touchscreen, which is about the average size these days for a smartphone device. The resolution isn't the best, at 480x852 pixels, but LG did a really great job on making this screen bright and clear.
When taking pictures with the LG Treasure, you will notice that it has a 5 MP rear camera and 5 MP front camera. This gives you fairly good image quality for taking selfies or other photos. The rear camera also has an LED flash, while if you are taking photos with the front camera it has a neat feature that lights up part of the screen to act as a flash in low light situations. It is unusual for a budget smartphone to have such a high resolution front camera, and we hope this trend continues.
The volume and power buttons are located on the back of the phone, which may be more convenient for some users, and keeps the edges of the phone free from any buttons. This is great for those of us who tend to accidentally hit the buttons on the side of phones when trying to hold them.
Tracfone devices, unlike most unlocked phones, do not get Android OS updates (it has something to do with compatibility issues, and Tracfone would have to be involved in making sure the updates worked properly, but they don't currently want to do this) so it is nice to see that the LG Treasure comes with Android 5.1.1, which is a newer version that doesn't have some of the vulnerability issues previous Android versions had.
Finally, we are really happy with the overall value of the LG Treasure as it is currently offered by HSN bundled with an airtime card worth $100, and the whole bundle is going for $99, making the phone free. If you need airtime anyway, you might as well upgrade to this phone. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, lets look at a couple of concerns we do have.
What we Don't Like about the Treasure
There are two main concerns we have about the LG Treasure and we want to mention to help our readers before they buy this phone.
First, the LG Treasure only comes with 8 GB internal memory, of which, only about 4 GB is actually usable (the other 4 GB is used by the OS and pre-installed apps). For many users, this won't be a big deal because most of Tracfone's other smartphones, like the LG Sunset and LG Ultimate 2, have a similar amount of internal memory. Just keep in mind that you can't load this phone up with too many photos or large applications. Some apps can take up a full GB of space, so you would run out quickly.
The LG Treasure does come with a Micro SD card slot, which allows you to use up to 32 GB of external storage. This is great if you have a lot of music or other files you want to add.
The second concern we have is with the processor performance. The Treasure comes with a 1.1 Ghz quad core processor. This is more than enough power for everyday apps like Facebook, Instagram or calling/texting. But if you want to running larger, resource intense apps like certain games, you may run into performance trouble. The Treasure does have 1 GB RAM, which is average, yet overall we think the average user won't have any issues with performance.
That concludes our likes and dislikes, let us know in the comments if we missed anything, or if there are certain features you like/dislike!
Update - initially it appeared that the LG Treasure would have 1.5 GB RAM, but it urns out to only have 1 GB RAM.
LG Treasrue compared to LG Sunset and LG Ultimate 2
The LG Treasure is similar or an improvement over the
LG Sunset and
LG Ultimate 2 in almost every way, which makes sense since it is much newer. The improvements, however, are generally only small improvements.
Compared to the LG Ultimate 2, the Treasure comes with a larger screen (5" vs 4.5") a better processor (quad-core vs dual-core) better cameras (5 MP front and rear vs 5 MP rear camera and 1.3 MP front) and more internal memory (8 GB vs 5 GB). The LG Treasure also comes with Android 5.1.1 versus 4.4 which the Ultimate 2 come with. These improvements are noticeable, but not huge. If you are currently using an Ultimate 2 and considering upgrading, the Treasure would probably be a little faster and have a little better performance overall.
One important piece of information to note is that the Ultimate 2 is a CDMA phone that uses Verizon towers while the Treasure is a GSM phone that uses AT&T service. So be sure to check your coverage before switching.
The differences between the LG Sunset and Treasure are a little less noticeable, but still exist. The LG Treasure has a newer processor but slower speed (1.1 Ghz vs 1.2 Ghz) a larger screen (5" vs 4.5") slightly newer Android OS (5.1.1 vs 5.0.1) and better front camera (5 MP vs 1.3 MP). They both have a quad core processor, 8 GB internal Memory and 4G LTE service using AT&T cell towers.
The LG Treasure is an upgrade over the LG Sunset, but we might only suggest you upgrade if you are also in need of the airtime that comes in the bundle. Otherwise, you might want to want and see what other phones Tracfone releases in the coming months.
Overview and Where to Buy the LG Treasure
The LG Treasure brings great features including a 5" touchscreen and Android 5.1.1 at a very reasonable price making it a great upgrade from older Tracfone smartphones.
It doesn't have the performance to match some of Tracfone's other recent releases, like the Samsung Galaxy S6, but it also is significantly cheaper.
You can find the LG Treasure bundled with a 1 Year/400 Minute airtime card (and other items) on
HSN where it is currently on sale for $99.
You can also view
Tracfone's Tutorial to learn more about how to use this device.
There is also a CDMA version of this phone which we expect to be released sometime in the near future.
We hope you found this review useful, and if you have any questions or thoughts you can share them in a comment below.
Here are some additional helpful resources we have created for Tracfone Android users:
How to Check your Airtime on Tracfone Android Phones
How Minutes Work on Tracfone Smartphones
How to Buy Only Texts for your Smartphone
Are Data Cards a Good Deal from Tracfone?
Analysis of the New Smartphone Only Airtime Cards from Tracfone
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