New Android Phone-Samsung Galaxy S II

Introduction

Last year, the Android ecosystem grew exponentially, leap-frogging the dominant market share held by Apple and finally giving users a smartphone option to the iPhone. At the head of the Android charge was the HTC factory, but it was the Samsung's Galaxy S that came in from the outside to conquer the Android universe.  Now, enter the Galaxy S2, the heir to the throne. But the battle of the phones has only just begun with Apple's iPhone 4, LG's Optimus 2x and HTC Sensation hitting Indian shores. So can Samsung  improve upon their flagship smartphone?

Packaging and Content

Samsung has always been pretty good packaging wise and they have not disappointed this time round. The Galaxy S2 gets a very premium looking package that oozes class.  Content wise, the usual suspects are all there. There's the Galaxy S2 itself, along with a very plush looking felt-type case, standard charger, USB data cable, Samsung headphones and the 1650mAh battery. Unfortunately, there's no HDMI cable but we are guessing most won't feel it's absence.

Sadly for Samsung, someone on the packaging chain was sleeping on the job as the slide-out cover of the package had 'SuperAMOLED+' misspelt all over it.

Hardware and Styling

At only 8.5mm thin, the Samsung Galaxy S2 is the sleekest smartphone available in the market. It even has a large 4.3" SuperAMOLED+ display that takes center stage.  Apart from the titanic SuperAmoled, there is the home button which is well backed up with touch-based menu and back buttons. Samsung has wisely used Gorilla Glass, which protects the large screen from all kinds of scratches and smudges. There's even a 2 mega-pixel snapper on the front. The rear end of the device is covered by a textured plastic, which has a matte finish. This, we believe, is a welcome change from the original Galaxy S, the glossy black plastic on which was a finger print magnet. There is an 8-megapixel camera with LED flash. The sides of the device are tapered with a metallic finish. The volume rocker is located on the left hand side and, weirdly, the power button is placed on the right hand side. The bottom end of the device houses the micro-USB port, which also doubles as an HDMI port through an adaptor. The top houses the standard 3.5 mm port.

At first glance, the Galaxy S2 does not feel like a premium device because of the plasticky nature of its construction. Next to the iPhone 4, it's like chalk and cheese. In spite of this the device is very well put together even though it might give the illusion of shoddy construction.

Stylistically too the device boasts of a very minimalistic bare-bones design. With the abundance of plastic prevalent in its construction, it is very light at only 116 grams.
 
Interface

The Galaxy S2 comes pre-loaded with Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Samsung has, as usual, added its TouchWiz skin over Android. TouchWiz - now in its 4.0 version - is a much-improved skin than its previous iterations. Many hate the inclusion of custom skins but, surprisingly, TouchWiz 4.0 is a boon to the user.

Interface wise, there is not a lot of difference except the fact we get custom widgets optimized for TouchWiz and dock bar, which can be customized according to users' whims and fancies.

Samsung has introduced a couple of neat touches in the contacts and call history menus. If one has to call or message a contact one just needs to swipe the contact towards the right for calling and towards the left for messaging. This reduces the steps involved in calling and messaging. Definitely a neat feature.

Icons, as usual, look like cheap iPhone rip-offs but even that is quite bearable thanks to the lovely SuperAMOLED plus display gracing the Samsung Galaxy S 2.

Also, TouchWiz allows users to scroll horizontally rather than vertically in the applications menu. It also allows users to change the font of the device. This change even  translates to webpages.

The on-board keyboard is a beauty. Thanks to the large display there's ample real estate to navigate your fingers on the virtual keyboard. Samsung has also managed to improve the auto spell correction abilities of the T9 dictionary. There's also SWYPE, though one needs to get used to SWYPing rather than typing. For now, we will stick to the virtual keyboard - its not too shabby, you know!

Samsung has added some specialty tricks to the Galaxy S2 as it utilizes its gyroscope more than any other device has to-date. On the web browser, with double finger tap we can engage the tilt zoom by moving the device. Similarly, we can move widgets on the home screen through these double taps. This very cool indeed and comes in handy.


Multimedia

In the age of the iPad which rules the world of media consumption, manufacturers are striving to create smartphones with the double whammy of large screens and  the horsepower of tablets. Essentially, the Samsung Galaxy S2 is the synthesis of this very ideology.

The star is the mouth-watering 4.27" SuperAMOLED plus display which is, to the naked-eye, the best smartphone screen available on the market.

While the iPhone 4 boasts of a 'Retina Display' with a resolution of 960x640 with 327 PPi (Pixels Per Inch), the Galaxy S2 responds with a somewhat middling 800x480 display. In spite of this disparity, we find the Galaxy S2 has a brighter and richer display with fantastic viewing angles. Why? According to Samsung, 'the secret sauce' is hidden in the sub-pixels. While the Galaxy S2 has fewer pixels than the iPhone 4, it has twice as many sub-pixels as the original Galaxy S, which in it-self was pretty sweet display wise. Add to this the fact that the Galaxy S2 eclipses the iPhone 4 display in size by almost an inch and it's a no brainer. Watching a video on the Galaxy S2 is truly a delightful experience - easily the best.  Though we would still say the iPhone has the sharpest display in town.

The phone features the stock Android MP3 player which also has Dolby 5.1 support. While the sound quality on its own is quite stellar, the activation of the Dolby 5.1 produces sound which detaches all the frequencies and one can hear every note or beat in its entirety. Obviously, the surround sound element is also there with channel sweeps happening all the time. The Dolby functionality will not appeal to the layman as it would produce an aurally weird experience but still is a very interesting feature to have on board, especially for audio junkies.

Samsung has jazzed up the MP3 player with various equalizers and sound modes, which enhance the customization options. Google really needs to provide users with better stock MP3 player; hopefully Ice Cream Sandwich may be the answer to the prayer.

There is the standard Android video player, which can handle most common video codecs such as .Avi, DivX and Xvid. All videos work smoothly sans the glitches and this is something new for an Android device.

Now, the 8-megapixel camera with LED flash in the rear and a 2-megapixel camera on the front for video chats. The rear camera is surprisingly clear providing detailed pictures, which stack up well against the imaging capabilities of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc and the Nokia N8. We noticed minimal noise and graining in the images, which is rare for a mobile camera.  Even in low light conditions, the camera performed superbly thanks to the LED flash only to be pipped by the Xenon Flash of the Nokia N8.

As far as 1080p recording went, things were smooth and the video was crystal clear. In comparison to the LG Optimus 2x, these videos were slightly clearer with better contrast and they were jitter free. The built in image stabilization definitely was brilliant.

The Galaxy S2 provides HDMI mirroring facilities through a proprietary HDMI connector and also supports Samsung's AllShare technology for sharing content.



PC Sync and Market

Changing a device brings with it the mammoth task of data transfer - especially painful is the transfer of contacts. Thankfully, Android smartphones are amongst the easiest devices to sync data with thanks to a wonderful thing called Google Contacts. All you have to do is sync one's device with Google Contacts and you are ready to go. Make no mistake, Google Contacts is a vastly useful tool given the host Gmail users floating round the web, and this just increases the appeal of Android devices as Google users get the best possible experience of all Google applications on Android.

Samsung added their Social Hub functionality to TouchWiz. Social Hub is designed to be the single point of entry for users to enjoy their social content. Be it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, MySpace or even a basic Email or SMS, all these functions can be accessed from the Social Hub.  While it may not be as intuitive as the HTC's "Friends Stream" it gets the job done and that will be enough for most people. Those not satisfied can always download the Facebook and Twitter apps, which come for free.

With syncing on the Galaxy S2, Samsung has pushed the envelope further with the Kies Air app built in to the device. Kies Air adds Wi-Fi sync capabilities with the user being able to accesses each and every shard of information stored on the computer. All one has to do is enable the app on the phone which will pop an IP (Internet Protocol) address on the phone which one has to enter in the web browser. From the laptop's web browser we could see everything, even our SMS threads. We could also easily transfer data easily including music, videos and photos. This app goes long way in cutting the cord with USB.

Like the Apple App store, the Android Market is the largest haven for Android apps. Android Market at the moment in home to more than 290,000 apps and Google expects it to overtake the Apple app store by August.

As we know, Android is an open-source platform so app developers have more leeway in making apps they like. But this is also coupled with poor quality control on Google's part, which gives Android Market the unwholesome flavor of a flea market. For instance, Fruit Ninja has quite few clones running round - like Fruit Cutter. Some are very good but, unfortunately, many are just dreadful.


Essential Apps

Samsung has always been in a habit of loading its devices with a lot of bloatware but, luckily, this time round they have provided only the necessities, though we still do get a lot of stuff.

As expected on an Android device, we do get our share of standard Google Apps such as Gmail, Search, Gtalk, Maps and Latitude. All these work exactly like they work on other devices, obviously the experience is a tad smoother on the Galaxy S2 thanks the extra processing mojo.

Samsung has provided its FM app, which we have always loved. It has a very cool virtual dial through which we can modulate the frequency of the FM station. Sound quality is also pretty impressive considering we were able to get a decent signal in the basement.

We get Samsung's 'patented' Hubs, which include the Readers Hub, the Social hub discussed above, and the Gamers Hub.

The Readers Hub is designed to provide users a single of point of entry to the world of print. The Books section is powered by Kobo's E-Book service, the magazine service is powered by Zinio's popular service and the news service is powered by Press display.

We also get Polaris Office, which has become quite popular among OEMs as it provides impressive document editing capabilities handling all Microsoft Office formats natively. It also acts like a file manager and syncs with Box.net accounts what more one needs. Unfortunately Polaris Office does not always handle Microsoft Excel formulas properly, which can be quite problematic for power users.

Samsung has also provided apps for basic Photo and Video editing.

Performance
 

Most people who buy touch smartphones are looking for an iPhone like experience and too many Android devices fall short in this respect. Even the dual core Tegra 2 powered LG Optimus 2x never came close. Samsung believes the Galaxy S2 will. To ensure it does, they have given it a 1.2 GHz dual core processor based on the ARM architecture but made in-house. They have also added 1GB of RAM to boot. That's a lot of firepower; this would even put the USS Nimitz to shame!

We have some staggering statistics to prove this theory. In our Quadrant benchmark test, the Galaxy S 2 scored a blistering 3212. To add some perspective to this we compared it to the Nvidia Tegra 2 powered LG Optimus 2x which managed just 2436 in the same benchmark.

In the Linpack test again the Galaxy S2 came up trumps as it scored 47.257 MFLOPS in 1.77 seconds while the Optimus 2x only managed 35.389 MFLOPS in 1.57 seconds.

Even in the Benchmark Pi test, the Pi was calculated in 617 milliseconds while the Optimus 2x lagged behind at 700 milliseconds.

But the real kicker came in the Rightware Browsermark test in which the Samsung Galaxy S2 scored an unheard of 72879 which was even faster than the iPad 2 at 69760. The LG Optimus 2x lagged way behind at the 42300 mark.

Even the call quality was much improved from the original Galaxy S. However, it still cannot compete with the likes of Nokia and BlackBerry.

Thanks to the large 1650mAh battery we did not face the usual battery issues associated with smartphones with large displays. The battery easily lasted a day with constant 3G and Wi-Fi usage. Along side this we made our usual round of calls and also utilized the Wi-Fi tethering functionality.

It is clearly the most powerful smartphone money can buy at the moment.

On a disappointing note, our review unit suffered from over heating issues which resulted in the phone hanging. Often the touch based buttons would stop functioning and the touch display would not be able to differentiate between various gesture commands. We believe this is due to a fault in our particular unit, as no one else has faced this problem but if it's a defect troubling the entire production line then Samsung must get it rectified quickly. Some of these errors include unnatural heat generation in the SuperAmoled + display while others include improper color reproduction in displays. These are massive production oversights and, as far we can gather, almost limited to India. Samsung better tighten up its act as the HTC Sensation is a pretty polished device and not far behind as far as hardware artillery goes. So consumers, beware!
 
 
Verdict

If there is a smartphone out there which manages to provide the sheer speed of the iPhone then it has to be the Samsung Galaxy S2. There are no two ways about it - it is currently the fastest phone in the market and quite reasonable priced at Rs 32890, given the amount tech crammed into it. It even manages to eclipse the iPhone's Retina display, which is a feat in itself. While all this is good we still don't like Samsung's TouchWiz in-spite of all the improvements.

Buy it if you need the sheer speed and the geekyness of Android. Don't buy it if you don't like the look of TouchWiz.



Specifications

Pros


Sublime performance
Slim Design
Good Camera
Brilliant Screen
Good Battery Life
Motion controls


Cons

TouchWiz
Over heating issues
Underwhelming Build quality


Ratings
Performance:  5
Price:  4
Ease of Setup: 4
Ergonomics: 4
Wow Factor: 4.5

Review: Dell XPS 15z

Intro

Apple, be warned: the Dell XPS 15z has definitely got the 15-inch MacBook Pro in it's sights. Elegantly designed, with an aluminum chassis, chrome strip and a well laid out keyboard, it's clearly gunning for Apple's high style quotient. The hardware under the hood is quite impressive as well. But is all this enough to steal the MacBook Pro's thunder?

Packaging and Contents

The packaging is what we've come to expect from Dell's XPS series. A stylish box houses the device along with the charging adapter and a bunch of CDs.
 

First Impression

Look at the device from a distance and you will be forgiven for mistaking it for a MacBook Pro as it has the same silver matte finish. But what distinguishes it is a unique hinge, prominent Dell logo and a chrome strip around the border. Lift the lid and you will be greeted by a 15.6-inch Full HD Widescreen display and a well laid out, backlit, chicklet style keyboard.

 

Our instant reaction when lifting the device - it's really heavy, but the build quality is extremely good.
 
Performance
 
Straight off, for a machine that costs Rs. 80,900, it boasts of some impressive specs including 8GB RAM, 750GB HDD, a Sandy Bridge 2.70 GHzcorei7 processor and a 2GB NVIDIA 525M graphics card. Two USB 3.0 ports also make an appearance. Too bad Dell couldn't round up the package with a No Blu-ray drive, as the device possesses a standard read/write dual layer DVD drive. The device also has a gorgeous full HD 1080p display.

On PC Mark, the device had a score of 8518 so you can expect it to do some serious multi-tasking with ease. Converting video, listening to music, downloading a file from the Internet and copying a file to a thumb drive were all executed simultaneously.


The hinge that holds the screen in place is by far one of the best built we've ever seen in a notebook. The keyboard on the device is very unique. If the Lenovo G570 has great rounded keys, then the Dell XPS 15z takes it to the next level. The chicklet style keyboard has rounded individual keys that feel a little smaller than what you'd expect but are very comfortable to type on. The keys themselves are soft and well spaced out, thereby allowing little room for error.

The F1 to F12 keys can be used for functional controls such as brightness, volume, media controls etc. To control these functions you need to hold down the "fn" key. We would have liked to see an option to have these keys dedicated to functions without the use of the 'fn' button.


 
Unlike the Mac or other laptops that lets you control the level of backlighting on the laptop, the 15z has just one setting - on/off.

Just like the MacBooks, the 15z has a slot loading drive rather than a DVD tray. This adds to the ergonomic and novelty value of the device.

In terms of connectivity, the device houses an HDMI out, mini display port, e-SATA cum USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports along with a 7-in-1 card reader on the left. Another cool feature picked straight out of the MacBooks is the LED battery indicator located on the left panel. There are 5 led lights and the number of lights that glow indicates the battery level. The device need not be turned on to check the battery level and it's a quick and handy way to see how much juice you've got left. Previously, Dell housed this same feature at the bottom panel of the device and we are glad to see it repositioned to the left panel.

On the right, the device houses the slot loading dual layer DVD drive alongside one headphones and microphone jack. Previous Dell laptops have been credited with housing two headphone jacks. It was a handy feature and we definitely felt the absence of the second jack on this machine. The charging port is located at the rear of the device.

The trackpad is fairly large and has dedicated left and right click buttons. Going the Apple way, Dell has incorporated multi-touchcontrols on the trackpad. You can now use two fingers to scroll horizontally and vertically. The scrolling experience fells rough on the plastic trackpad and you will most likely use the traditional method of click and drag to scroll.

         

The 6-cell lithium ion battery of the device is a bit disappointing. On the Battery Mark test the device scored 110423. Push the device to its fullest potential and it will last you for 1 hour 51 min. Use the device sparingly and the test shows that the device will last for about 4 hours. We expected a bit more from the battery life of the device. 

Multimedia

You will undoubtedly use the device to browse the Internet watch videos and listen to music. On this count, the Dell XPS 15z performs well. The device has a beautiful 1080p display and movies look great on it. The colours produced on the display lack a bit of vibrancy. We noticed this, not while doing regular work, but when watching  full HD movies such as Avatar, Tangled and Megamind. The display is a great USP especially if you are one who is a HD buff and like all your videos in 1080p.

The audio produced from the speakers is relatively loud, the vocals are clear but the speakers lack bass. The Dell XPS L501X had a dedicated JBL 2.1 speaker system that sounded awesome. These, however, can't match up to those but produce great audio none-the-less with a bit of sacrifice on the bass.   

Gaming
 

With a 2GB Nvidia 525M graphics card, a 1080p display and a 3D mark score of 7381 users can really expect to push the device to its limit. We played a bit of Crysis 2 on it. Pushing the graphics settings to hardcore and resolution to 1080p, the game ran but we faced a lot of lag. Reduce the settings to moderate and you can have a decent Crysis 2 experience.

 
This may not be ideal for a dedicated gaming notebook. You may want to take a look at the Alienware series for that, but for those of you that need a machine for dedicated processing and a bit of gaming on the side can consider picking this one up. 

Verdict

The Dell XPS 15z is a great overall package. Take it's claim of being one of the thinnest notebooks around with a pinch of salt though - it isn't. Though it's a bit heavier than we would like, the build quality is splendid and the internal hardware impressive. If you need some serious power under the hood of a notebook, the XPS 15z should definitely be on your list.

Pros
Very good build quality
USB 3.0
1080p display
Loud speakers
Great keyboard


Cons
Heavy
Battery life
Would Blu-ray be too much to ask for?

Price: Rs.80,900

Specifications:
Processor: Intel Core i7 2.7GHz
RAM: 8GB DDR 3
OS: Windows 7 home premium 64-bit
HDD: 750GB
Graphics: 2GB Nvidia 525M
Display: 15.6-inch 1080p
Backlit keyboard
6-cell lithium ion battery




RATINGS:
Performance: 4
Price: 4
Ease of setup: 5
Ergonomics: 4
Wow Factor: 4
Overall: 4.5
 
Benchmark scores:
3D Mark: 7381

Battery Mark: 110423
Forecast: 3 hours 47 min 16 sec
Test: 1 hour 51 min 13 sec.
 
PC Mark Vantage:
PC Mark Score: 8518
Memories score: 4678
TV and Movies score: 4592
Gaming Score: 5168
Music Score: 7192
Communications score: 10597
Productivity score: 6972
HDD score: 4226

HP TouchPad makes an awesome tablet

A year after Hewlett-Packard Co. purchased flailing Palm, the technology behemoth is rolling out the first tablet that uses Palm's webOS operating system.

The July 1 release should be a triumph for HP, showcasing its ability to compete in the increasingly crowded tablet market. Yet while the TouchPad's software is beautiful and intuitive, overall the tablet is more of a "meh-sterpiece" than a masterpiece.

The TouchPad looks a lot like its peers: It's black and shiny with just a few buttons dotting its frame. The screen, 9.7 inches at the diagonal, is the same size and resolution as Apple's iPad.

At $500 for a model with 16 gigabytes of storage or $600 for one with 32 GB, the price is essentially the same, too. The device I tested used Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet; HP says a version will work on AT&T Inc.'s wireless network later this summer.

At 0.54 inches thick, the TouchPad is fatter than the iPad. It's heavier, too, at 1.6 pounds. With its rounded edges and smooth plastic, it's also more slippery than other tablets I've tested.

Turn it on, and the TouchPad looks like webOS smartphones. Thesoftware makes perfect sense on a tablet. For example: Applications appear onscreen as little "cards" that you can scroll through sideways, tap on to enlarge or flick to close. Each window you open within an application - numerous Web pages or in-progress emails, for example - shows up as its owncard in a small stack for that app, and you can rearrange them as you please.

The TouchPad has the latest version of webOS, which adds features like the ability to pull your photos from Facebook and online photo sites into the device's photo library, and "Touch to Share," which will let you share content with certain webOS smartphones.

Generally, webOS made navigating a breeze. Its layout keeps the TouchPad's home screen uncluttered, with the "Just type..." universal search function taking up a small amount of space in the center of the display and a strip of applications on the bottom of the screen.

I figured that the TouchPad's screen would be great for watching videos. I wasn't disappointed. Whether I was streaming Lady Gaga's latest video oeuvre from YouTube or checking out the old Mike Myers comedy "So I Married an Axe Murderer" on Crackle, colors popped and images were crystal-clear.

The TouchPad was also good for surfing the Web, in part because it supports Flash video content, which the iPad does not. It couldn't do everything. Here and there, a website didn't look quite right, and TV and movie streaming site Hulu would not work on it. Overall, however, websites loaded and functioned as they would on a standard computer.

The device includes a fine on-screen keyboard. I wouldn't havewritten up this review on it, but it was fine for sending emails and instant messages.

The TouchPad's battery life was decent. After streaming videos, viewing photos and surfing the Web, the tablet lasted six and a half hours with Wi-Fi on. HP said it is rated for up to 8 hours of Internet use over WiFi, or 9 hours of video playback.

One of the TouchPad features HP touts is its ability to connect with a Pre 3 smartphone to share content like webpages and videos and receive texts sent to the phone on the tablet and reply to them from the TouchPad. Though the Pre 3 is not yet for sale (it's slated for release this summer), HP lent me one to test this feature. The sharing was easy to set up via Bluetooth, and to pull up a website on the Pre all you have to do is touch its back near the bottom of the TouchPad's screen.

Sure, it's a cool idea, but I'm skeptical the feature would really get much use.

Of course, there were plenty of fumbles. Several times, I was in the middle of an IM conversation when the virtual keyboard mysteriously stopped allowing me to send text. I could type, but whenever I pressed "enter," nothing happened. I had to restart the device to fix it.

The TouchPad also seemed to stutter sometimes, like when I flipped through on-screen album covers while running other apps. And when I streamed TV shows from network websites, they would sometimes freeze. Once an incoming message notification somehow turned off the sound and I couldn't turn it back on.

The video chat feature, which I'd hoped would contend with theiPad's FaceTime, was dismal. The TouchPad has a video camera on its front and uses Skype for video calls, so I asked my colleague Peter to help me give it a whirl. But when we tried to connect, he looked pixelated and sounded OK on my end and he said I looked "like a Monet painting" and sounded crackly on his.

I tried video chatting with a high school buddy but every time we got the video to work the audio was muted. I also attempted to talk with mylittle brother, and after four or five misfires we got the video chat working but the picture and sound were awful.

Like any other tablet that wants a chance of survival, the TouchPad includes access to an application store. HP said its App Catalog will have at least 300 TouchPad apps at launch, and 70 percent of its 6,200 webOS phone apps will work on the device. Still, this is slim pickings compared to the 90,000 iPad apps in Apple's App Store (there are hundreds of thousands of apps total). And tablets running Google Inc.'s Android software can run any of the more than 200,000 apps in the Android Market.

Sadly, the TouchPad is more blah than brilliant. The software is great, though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that HP can come up with a stronger tablet next time around.

It's finally here - LG Optimus 2X

Introduction

When a phone makes the Guinness Book of World Records, people are bound to sit up and take notice. The LG Optimus 2x holds the record for the world's first dual core smart phone. It's also the first twin core powered device to arrive on Indian shores. Powered by the NVidia Tegra 2 the Optimus 2x boasts of a formidable feature set. Naturally, expectations are sky high. Does it live up?

Packaging and Content

LG has really stepped up their packaging and the device is very neatly presented. It includes an USB based wall charger, which also doubles as the USB cable. It also includes a nice case made of felt-like material that cleans the device as it is taken out of the case.

Hardware and Styling

At 139 grams and 10.9mm, the LG Optimus is not the most slender smartphone on the market, when compared to lightweights such as the Sony Ericsson Arc and the Samsung Galaxy S II. But in no way is it a large device like the HTC Desire HD.

The build quality of device feels very premium with its construction predominated by high quality plastics.

The back of the device houses the 1500mAh battery and the 8-megapixel-image sensor. The back is covered with a rubberized plastic which gives the device a premium feel.

The front of the device welcomes the user with a glossy 4.1 -inch IPS screen (800x480) with four touch based Android keys.

The top of the device holds the HDMI port, which is covered with a neat flip-out mechanism. On the bottom end of the device is placed the USB port, which also doubles as a charging port.

On the whole, the build quality of the device is first class and matches the iPhone top to toe, but design wise it feels quite mundane and boring. It feels somewhat like a large shiny brick but is pretty comfortable to hold.


Interface

The Optimus 2x is powered by Android, just like its sibling the Optimus, but unfortunately it is running the dated 2.2 Froyo build. LG also opted to jazz up things with their custom UI which, in our opinion, does not add very much besides visual pizazz. The interface is laced with a neat looking weather widget, a calendar widget and the icons are redesigned.

We have noticed a disturbing trend in the field of Android skinning, as most manufacturers opt to redesign Android in the mold of the iOS, in an attempt to mimic the icons found on the iPhone. LG is no different and the icons look very much like those found on the iOS.

The main problem with the LG UI is that in its attempt to spruce up things it ends up as a major resource hog, making the interface slow. While swiping between the home screens we faced constant lags and the Optimus 2x did not feel like a dual-core processor powered device. Undoubtedly the UI is to blame, as the US variant, which ships without the LG UI, has received accolades for its speed.


Multimedia

The Optimus 2x is billed as a multimedia beast and luckily, in-spite of the laggy UI, it performs splendidly.

It comes loaded with a host of features such as 8-megapixel camera with 1080p video recording capabilities, an extremely vibrant 4.1inch display, Dolby audio support, 8GB of internal memory and a HDMI port.

In our testing, the camera shot sharp images but the flash had a tendency to overcook the images.  In comparison to the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, the images contained many artifacts and a lot of noise.

As far as the 1080p recording went, the device performed decently and for the most part matched up to the Xperia Arc camera, which shot at 720p. But under low light situations, the Xperia's Exmor-R technology showed its worth and though the videos of the Optimus 2x were of a higher resolution, the color saturation and overall stability of the videos were better on the Xperia Arc.

As far as audio went the built in audio player blasted tunes enhanced by the Dolby technology.

The in-built Android player also came with equalizer settings, which is an enhancement over the stock Android audio experience. For once, the LG enhancements worked in favor of the device. There was no noticeable difference in the sound quality with the bundled headphones, but the moment we engaged our Bose puppies the channel shifts were apparent.

Even the loudspeakers were pretty loud and clear - coupled with two speakers, it gave a neat stereophonic effect to the sound.

LG has also bumped up the screen for the Optimus 2x, which provides an enhanced contrast ratio and is very bright. Interestingly LG manufactures the 'Retina Display' for Apple but have not managed to catch up on the pixel density battle. The iPhone is still sharper and has slightly better contrast ratios, but all that happens in a smaller 3.5inch display.

LG recently announced the Optimus Black which has their latest 'NOVA Display' but for some odd reason they did not include it in their current flagship device.

The device is DLNA enabled, which meant we could stream our content to DLNA, powered HDTVs. This trend is catching on and the incoming Samsung Galaxy S 2 will also feature similar functionality.

HDMI mirroring was seamless and we could play games easily.

PHONE & MESSAGING

The phone aspect of the device is brilliant and there were  no issues in that, the network was strong and sound from both the earpiece and mic was excellent coming in and going out. This fact is also unlikely of an LG phone, where people often complain of network issues. The bars were strong, even while in transit, and we can safely say the device delivered more than we expected.

Messaging is simple for those with a knack of touch screens, the touch keyboard is reminiscent of design hues from the Apple iPhone keyboard, so is fairly fast and efficient, the touchscreen is responsive so you wont find yourself struggling. Whats more you can always install the various keyboards from the marketplace : Read Swype.

PC Sync and Market

As with all Android Phones, PC sync is quite painless thanks to Google's clever cloud computing strategy. All that one has to do is insert one's sim card in the Optimus 2x and sync it with one's Google account. Even the built in social networking app syncs all Twitter, Facebook and MySpace feeds but unfortunately we don't get a social aggregator which would integrate phone contacts, email and social networks all in one.

The onboard email application does a brilliant job of syncing email although this is true of all Android devices.

We also get dedicated Facebook, Twitter and MySpace apps for the Optimus 2x. However, these are not very different from the standard Android apps.

Essential Apps

Unlike the Vanilla Android experience found on the Samsung Nexus S, the LG Optimus 2x is loaded to the teeth. The sheer number of apps borders on bloat-ware.

LG has graciously included a Car Mode, which offers a 'Windows phone' like tile interface providing quick access to all major functions of the device such as phone, messaging, email and handsfree mode. This is a neat touch as many people use their devices while driving (we advise against this!) and touch screens are notorious for being difficult to use with a single hand. The large screen provides quick access to all functions. We have seen this feature before in the Google Nexus devices and, ideally, it's meant to be used in conjunction with a car dock but we are guessing many people are going to use it anyway.

LG has included the F-secure antivirus and it's a pretty good thing to have as the Android malware situation is slowly exploding into a Windows like situation. One should note that the anti-virus is a massive resource hog while it scans.

Besides Android Market, LG has provided its own app Advisor which basically helps users in selecting applications. But in no way does this app offer different content from the Android market.

Polaris Office provides brilliant document editing capabilities and it also doubles as a file manager. It handles all the Microsoft Office formats easily.

The Video player supports various video codecs such as DivX, XviD, and Mpeg-4. But unfortunately some .Avi files don't work properly. The mirror app facilitates HDMI mirroring.

Web Browsing (very good)

Browsing: Web browsing is very good, and that’s no surprise given that the operating system is provided by one of the largest web companies in the world. Pages display properly, and it’s easy to zoom in and out: just use a double-tap to quickly auto-zoom to an area of text that you would like to read. Double-tap again to zoom out. If you need to look at a small icon, use the pinch and zoom gesture to get closer as double-tap has been designed for text blocks. Even pages with Adobe Flash content work well.
Web page loading is fast too. I noticed right away, but it was even more obvious when I compared it with the Nexus S, side by side. Pages load faster than either the Nexus S or the iPhone 4 (all using WIFI). And it’s not just what you see, it’s also all the javascript that gets executed faster.
That said, once the page is loaded, the iPhone 4 tends to be more responsive to zoom and scrolling. This is something that Google definitely needs to improve upon.
Adobe Flash support: talking about Flash support,  the Optimus 2X provides a very good support for Adobe Flash. You can now go on sites that rely heavily on Flash. Although companies try to accommodate mobile phones, the reality is that all the cool stuff is on the desktop version on their website, and the simplest way to address this is to have the ability to display the desktop site on your phone. I’m not saying that mobile sites aren’t better or better suited – I’m merely describing today’s reality. Overall, it’s definitely possible to do without having Flash support as most popular services will cater to a mobile audience. But it’s nice to have Flash working when you need it. That’s simply the way it should be.


Performance

The hype around the Optimus 2x mainly involves its lightning fast NVidia Tegra 2 processor. But all is not good as currently most of the software available on Android Market is not optimized for the dual core processor.

In daily use, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc felt snappier in comparison to the Optimus 2x. The much heralded dual-core 2x performance was mysteriously missing. This is not to say the phone was slow - in-fact it was quite fast: just not twice as fast as a single core Android phone and in the case of the Xperia Arc it was struggling to keep up.

In the Quadrant test the device scored a blistering 2479 which eclipsed the Xperia Arc's score by more than 1000 points. More interestingly, in comparison to the Acer Iconia Tab it scored poorly as the Iconia smashed the Optimus 2x by more than an 1100 points. Currently all these benchmarks are subjective as they are not optimized for dual core processors.

In the Linpack test, the device scored in 35.73 MFLOPs in 1.3 seconds which was pretty impressive considering the next best Xperia Arc scored 37.93 MFLOPs in 2.21 seconds.

In the BrowserMark test, the Optimus 2x disappointed as it only managed to score 42436 while the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc was not far behind at 41076.

In the Benchmark Pi test, the device calculated Pi in 700 milliseconds which beat the Xperia Arc by a good 400 milliseconds.

Overall call quality was extremely impressive. Calls were loud and clear. Battery life was, sadly, fairly average as the phone struggled to last a day. Our usage involved constant Wi-Fi use, a few calls; web browsing, and a bit of the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality. We can hope for a Gingerbread upgrade, which might elevate the performance and battery issues.


Verdict

Lets be clear, it's not the Formula 1 car everyone thought it would be. Having said that, it's still one of the fastest smart-phones currently available. It also is running an older build of Android with a laggy LG UI running over it, which is not a good thing. Aside from that there is not much to complain about, as it is quite reasonably priced.

In a nutshell the Optimus 2x is a jack of all trades but master of none. So if you are looking for a phone which can do it all, then this is the one, but you are looking for some extra oomph then we say hold out for the Samsung Galaxy S 2.

Pros:

Fabulous Build Quality
Reasonably Priced
Feature Set


Cons:

Underwhelming Performance
Android 2.2 Froyo
LG UI
Spartan Design
Average Battery Life

Ratings:
           Performance:  3.5
          Price: 4
          Ease of Setup: 4
          Ergonomics: 3.5
          Wow Factor: 3