Korea’s LG Electronics has long had to play second fiddle to rival and country mate Samsung, but with its new range of smartphones the company is displaying its mettle and making it clear it can create products that not only stand up to the opposition’s offerings in terms of functionality, but beat many of them in terms of pricing.
The Optimus Black (soon to be followed by the dual-core Optimus 2X and the Nintendo 3DS-like Optimus 3D) is a whole lot of smartphone in a diminutive package, with an equally diminutive price. At only R3 999 (excluding VAT), for the budget- and feature-conscious user it’s a compelling proposition.
With its 4-inch, 480×800-pixel display, the Optimus Black offers a pleasing browsing experience. LG calls its Nova, and claims it’s both more energy efficient, and brighter than the Amoled screens favoured by Samsung. We can’t tell if its claims are true, but in terms of colour, contrast and viewing angle the display certainly keeps up with its peers.
Not only is the Optimus a great tool for playing videos, but the auto-brightness setting is suitably responsive and the screen is as good in bright daylight as it is in darker conditions.
Boasting a 1GHz processor running Android 2.2 Froyo (upgradeable to 2.3 via a software update), the Optimus Black has less raw processing power than the soon-to-be-released 2X or the bevy of dual-core processor handsets that are either out or coming soon.
Nevertheless, it handles multiple applications without fuss. There is, however, an inexplicable lag between pushing the unlock button and the screen coming to life. In practice, though, that’s fairly minor.
Using the onboard sensors and accelerometer, the Optimus Black offers a range of gesture functions, but in practice we found them more annoying than helpful. Some are also great in principle, but less so in reality. For example, the gesture button can be used to activate the camera when the phone is locked (by holding it down and shaking the handset), but curiously it can’t be used to actually take a picture, which means users have to revert to the touch interface which results in far less stability when actually taking pictures.
Like the bulk of its competitors, the Optimus Black includes two cameras, a front-facing 2-megapixel camera and a 5-mepapixel version with an LED flash on its rear. Though the front-facing camera is of higher resolution than many competitors’ offerings, both cameras suffer from noticeable lag – image quality in optimum conditions is good, in anything less it’s poor.
Video recording is also poor, which is a pity considering how good video playback is on the device. The Optimus Black supports DivX, XVid, H.264, WMV, MPEG4, H263, and the camera supports geo-tagging via onboard GPS.
Connectivity options are as expected and include Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth and GPS. The handset can be used as a Wi-Fi hotspot, and supports Wi-Fi Direct, which is essentially a speedier Bluetooth alternative. Understandably, this functionality is only available when pairing the Optimus Black with another Wi-Fi Direct-enabled device.
The built-in e-mail client is good, but if you’re a Gmail user you’ll never need it. As with most Android devices, Gmail integration on the Optimus Black is superb. After signing in to a Google account for the first time, the Gmail mailbox is populated, along with your Google Talk, Google Calendar and other Google-related applications. Also, all sharing features thankfully include the option to e-mail via Gmail rather than defaulting to the built-in client.
As per other Android devices, synchronising contacts from Gmail, Facebook, Twitter and even Myspace is fully supported and intuitive. However, the applications for Facebook and Twitter supplied by LG aren’t quite up to the standards of the standalone applications available in the Android Market, but that is easily remedied.
Android users will find the home screen layout and interface familiar. The Optimus Black offers seven fully customisable home screens, all of which can be displayed as thumbnails with a pinch, moved between in full screen with a swipe, and the applications and widgets they contain are edited by means of a long tap.
The most noticeable interface update is the enhancements that have been made to the notifications menu. As with other Android devices, swiping from the top of the screen into it opens the notifications menu, but LG has improved the functionality by including both music player and connectivity controls. This makes toggling things like 3G connectivity and Wi-Fi on and off a breeze without the need to download additional widgets or delve into settings menus.
On the whole, the touch screen is fairly responsive, but when typing messages the spacebar can be a problem. It feels less responsive, but that may just be the size of it. Fortunately, the already sufficient keyboard can be further improved by means of browsing the Android Market for keyboard applications.
Though the Optimus Black supports Google Talk out the box, there is no built-in instant messaging application. Again, though, the Android Market offers plenty to choose from, so that’s hardly a black mark against it. What is annoying, however, is that LG saw fit to only supply a 2GB microSD card with the device. Considering its fantastic media functionality, 4GB or 8GB would’ve been appreciated.
The onboard music player supports MP3, AAC (and its variants), WAV and MIDI, and all media can be streamed to compatible devices by means of LG’s built-in SmartShare DLNA application. The onboard browser also supports Flash, which means there’s no need to download a third-party browser – although some users will doubtless still prefer to use Opera or Firefox.
Being an Android phone, the device also supports Google’s recently implemented voice search in addition to supporting support for voice commands itself. A nifty implementation of voice functionality is the “car mode” option that presents the user with large buttons for frequently performed tasks such as “navigate”, “keypad” and “contacts” and supports voice commands.
In theory, it’s possible to dictate and send an SMS or e-mail using voice commands, along with making calls and launching apps, but we found the hits-to-misses ratio too high to make it a function we’d often use. With further refinement, however, it’s certainly a feature that could prove popular, particularly for those who spend a great deal of time commuting.
LG Optimus Black promotional video (via YouTube):
Unfortunately, as with most smartphones, the Optimus Black’s battery life isn’t exactly stellar. If you turn off all connectivity options when not in use you can eke out a little over two days of battery life, but if you’re using 3G and Wi-Fi frequently you’ll have to charge it daily.
At a millimeter thinner than the iPhone 4 and weighing in at a paltry 109g, the Optimus Black is slim and lightweight. It doesn’t feel as sturdy as some of its competitors, particularly with its plastic back, but it doesn’t feel cheap either. Its shape and size mean that it does resemble a black iPhone rather closely, and considering its impressive specifications the comparison isn’t entirely unreasonable.
Considering its feature set, the Optimus Black is very well priced and is certainly a viable option for those looking for a smartphone, but disinclined to spend a fortune in the process.
The LG Optimus Black will be available in SA in early July. — Craig Wilson, TechCentral
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