LG Optimus 2X review

The dual-core smartphone wave is building, with both theSamsung Galaxy S II and now the LG Optimus 2X hitting the PC Pro Labs with the latest CPUs. There’s no doubt the extra core boosts performance, but with the S II eagerly hoovering up the awards, LG is hoping a more affordable approach can differentiate its new handset from the crowd.

The Optimus 2X is free on a reasonable £20-per-month contract, which works out around £120 cheaper over two years than the Samsung. That saving means, if you go with LG, you’re not going to get the Galaxy S II’s stupendous Super AMOLED display, but you do get the next best thing.

That’s because the 4in, 480 x 800 screen is one of the few we’ve seen to use IPS technology – the other notable example is the Apple iPhone 4 – and it’s bright. Although it won’t blind you like Apple’s Retina display, we measured the LG at a maximum 357cd/m2, which is far beyond the 300cd/m2 of the Samsung Galaxy S II. Its 729:1 contrast ratio is also plenty to ensure photos and videos are punchy and full of detail.

The rear camera captures 8-megapixel stills, but they’re decent at best. They lack the obvious sharpness of the Galaxy S II’s wonderful photo output, and the image stabilisation did an average job on both stills and video. To be fair to LG, the Samsung has one of the best phone cameras we’ve seen: compared to most other handsets, it isn’t at all bad.

The Optimus 2X is an Android 2.2 handset for now, and LG has applied minor tweaks to the interface. An icon bar sits permanently along the bottom of the homescreen, while the applications grid has a separate area highlighting recent Android Market downloads, which can be useful.

You get 8GB of storage and a microSD card slot to extend this amount, plus the LG has all the usual connectivity, including 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1.