LG G2 - wow I love this phone!
 

I have never been a fan of LG products. When it comes to smartphones, I have always been a fan of HTC & Samsung. The two flagship phones from those carriers were top of my list when buying. I was coming from an HTC Sensation 4G (overclocked and with a bigger battery) so I was leaning towards the HTC One.

Then I noticed the LG G2... and I had to dig deeper. Specs on this phone were very impressive. After reading every review, I decided to take the plunge and oh baby!

This thing is the most impressive device I have ever used. It's not perfect (no phone is) but in the things it excels at, it goes so far beyond the rest it's mind boggling!

My only complaint is the glossy plastic back.it smudges and it feels cheaper on the hand. So I removed the back and took some ultra fine steel wool to it and bam, smudges gone and the phone Feels better in the hands now, very solid feeling.
This is an amazing device. If you're in the market for a new Android phone, do yourself a favor and check this phone out!

I grabbed my first LG recently. It's an Optimus L9. It was only 100 bucks after rebate and I'm happy with it. I'm not a power user or anything. It's only my second "smart" phone, but it does more than I need and does it well.

How can you control the volume and such when it's in a case? I'd be concerned about using it at the gym, in that it would be difficult.

Not sure what you mean. Cases pretty much always leave all buttons accessible.

The cases are made with a cutout in the back for the button/camera housing.

For those that don't know, Verizon cheapened the phone from high end for their version. So worth remembering if you're on Verizon.

I did mine on T-Mobile. They have it at 99 down. I use them because of their Wi-Fi calling feature. Cell phones don't get signal in my house so this was a must.

LG phones are pretty nice. I just have a Venice, but it is pretty cool.

Not sure what you mean here, other than small tweaks to the UI (for the better) the phone is the same.

Sure, but what I was really getting at was in the second part of my question, which I structured poorly. If you're using it while you're running or working out or something, and it's on your arm, the inability to access physical buttons would be supremely annoying. Is there a workaround for that, besides using the screen (not always an easy option) or headphones with a built in volume controller (again, not my favorite thing to use)?

The physical buttons are on the back of the phone. Cases are designed for these to be accessible. In the case of a workout band, as long as the band is setup so the back of the phone is facing out, the buttons would be accessible. Since I don't work out, I have not looked in to these type of cases!

I can't decide if this is better or worse.

Other than for the workout band aspect, I love this configuration. It took me a day to get used to it but it honestly feels so intuitive now and I'm kinda surprised that someone hasn't done this already.

It has a cheaper back plate, buttons, and speaker, along with some software changes.

Checking back in to say that I really like my Optimus L9. Battery life is great. Does everything I want and then some. Great phone for $100.