This phone is now 3 days old and I realize there are tons of reviews out on the web already. All of the facts and opinions below are mine and mine alone, and you can’t have them. Nor can any other blog :-). But seriously, I haven’t read anyone else’s, so here goes:
Right off the bat, the box looks nice. Sexy and minimalistic, it’s got everything in a convenient and “green†packaging. Removing the two warning stickers alongside the edges reveals a beautiful and sleek device. After unwrapping it, one notices the beveled edges right away. The glass is slightly curved along the edges to sit perfectly within the bezel. There are no gaps whatsoever and it feels extremely smooth, really. It’s a joy to hold. Speaking of holding, I don’t have the stats on weight but it’s perfect for my hand. The phone is not as light as the plasticky Samsung Vibrant or Nexus S (not that it’s a bad thing), and not as heavy as an all-metal T-Mobile G2. Along the back cover runs a metallic strip that reads “with Googleâ€, a signature which may only be worn with a stock (aka vanilla) OS. The beauty of vanilla is there are no overlays which can change one’s experience and perception of Android. I love stock, personally.
DISPLAY
Looking straight on at the device, I notice the glass is very shiny; moreso than any other phone I’ve had in the past. However once hitting that power button on the top right, a flurry of magnificent colors flew throughout the screen and we’re welcomed to Android. Despite this screen being a standard IPS LCD (not a Super AMOLED or qHD display), it was very sharp and vibrant. Dare I say the colors appeal to my eyes more than the enhanced screen devices, though it may be the result of some coating used on the glass. There does appear to be an oleophobic coating which prevents heavy fingerprints attacking the device, though no coating will survive the grease marks of french fries. From what I hear the screen is also made of Gorilla Glass, which is more resistant to normal scratches than normal display glass. I’ve had good experiences with this type of glass in the past. There is one caveat to this beautiful experience; it appears that the glass does not recognize light touches. I’m not one to punch keys on a regular desktop keyboard and also don’t make that a practice on smartphones. The sensitivity should be raised and hopefully that can be a software fix.
BUTTONS
One thing I’m not too happy about is the placement of the volume buttons. My left hand has been trained to hold the phone, power it on, and change the volume, all on the left side of the phone. This phone is the opposite. All of this functionality is on the right side and I’m not used to it…nor am I too fond of it, but not a dealbreaker yet. Even though I raved about the display, when playing media or viewing a dark background, some backlight bleeding is very visible. For my phone, it’s on the top two corners and from what I’ve read on some forums, many people with this phone are stuck with this problem — most worse than mine so I won’t complain too much, but for a near-perfect device as this one, you’d figure some additional testing should have been done. For a good number of people, this may actually be a dealbreaker but that’s what the return/exchange policy is for.
Now, moving along to the experience! Android is android and anyone who has used one of these phones will be familiar with it right away. I won’t bore you with the software and its functionality, but it is worth noting that this phone is very, VERY smooth when moving around the various menus. I’ve never seen smoother…not even iPhone is this smooth. I promise. This is due to the dual-core processor under the hood, something that a chunk of computers (mostly netbooks) don’t even have yet! It’s a winner when it comes to software. However, even though it is a vanilla phone, T-Mobile managed to get some of their own bloatware on, and that’s a no-no but from what I’m told, this is how they are able to sell the phones so cheap (with a contract). I buy all my phones without a contract, so it irks me slightly more than it should.
SPEED
The G2X has 512MB of RAM and upon bootup, about 200MB is available to the user. While it’s not the most I’ve seen on an Android phone, it’s just enough to not worry about quitting applications which may bog the phone down (hooray for multitasking!). Also, thanks to T-Mobile’s “4G†network, the G2X navigates the internet at whopping speeds, like it’s the king! I put 4G in quotations because geeks know it’s not true 4G, but what the hell, we’ll roll with it for now for the sake of marketing. Whereas 2G speeds are about 130Kbps, 3G speeds are about 3Mbps, 4G speeds that my phone has seen are 12Mbps. Tell me that isn’t fast. But what I end up telling people is that on a phone, the difference between 3G and 4G doesn’t really matter. Where it does have an effect is tethering a laptop/desktop/computer to the phone. That’s where you’ll want the full bandwidth potential. What’s fascinating is that many people’s dsl/cable internet connection at home may not even reach 12Mbps. I am thoroughly impressed. Do keep in mind that not every city has 4G yet and one should check the coverage viewer on T-Mobile.com.
BATTERY
Ultimately, whether I make a decision to keep or ditch the phone is usually up to the battery. One would think that with a dual-core chip, the battery would be weaker since there are the equivalent of two processors in there. As I learned, that’s incorrect. Quite the opposite even. Dual-core phones and computers will eat up less battery because the strain on the one chip is spread out between two, therefore keeping heat down and taking the rest of its power usage in that direction as well. My first full charge and discharge cycle were disappointing — only 7 hours went by before the phone hit death. I prayed that this wasn’t the actual result and a real calibration would help. Well, day 2 was a great improvement. So far the phone has been off the charger for about 18 hours with medium-to-heavy usage (lots of email and texts, some twitter and facebook, and several 10-minute phone calls), and it’s at 10% remaining. I’ll take that! While it may not sound impressive for those coming from Blackberry’s or non-smartphones, rest assured that for relatively heavy use, this is very good. For a light-to-medium user the battery can last easily through a day and a half easily. My other phones died around 15 hours of use. I’m banking on another charge cycle will help out even a little more.
CAMERA
I love having a camera everywhere I go and as they evolve, manufacturers are pushing more megapixels in an effort to sell phones. But here’s a tip. It’s not really the megapixels that set quality for a camera. It simply sets the maximum size that a photo can be. And frankly, I don’t need to print poster-sized images from my phone’s camera. With that said, LG provides a generous 8MP rear-facing camera with quality being 8-8.5 out of 10 stars. It’s pretty good. Throw in 1080p recording with the video camera and we have ourselves a winner. A front-facing camera weighs in at 1.3MP for some video chatting with your friends.
GPS
A few blog posts ago, I told the world that my Foursquare habits are dying. I checked in only once after that post but no more since. For those who continue using the app (or Google Maps, Navigation, etc.), you will be shocked at how quickly and accurately the GPS places you. I found that I’ll usually get a 10-ft radius or so which is spectacular given all the tall buildings around the heart of Manhattan. A good GPS also makes for more accurate running statistics when using apps such as Runkeeper.
AUDIO
One of the last items I’ll review is the sound. Like the iPhone (and unlike most other phones on the market), LG placed two metallic grills at the bottom of the phone. The left one is a mic, the right one is a mono speaker. While it’s not the best sound I’ve heard, it’s certainly one of the loudest. It makes talking on the phone via speakerphone a joy, but music can sound a bit overblown and distorted when volume is set to high. But even still, it’s nice to have a non-tinny speakerphone. Even non-morning people who sleep through their alarms will wake up to throw their phone across the room when set to the highest level.
My overall thoughts: I like the phone enough where I’d almost say love. If it wasn’t for the LCD backlight bleed, I wouldn’t mind burning every other phone on the market and just leaving this one. Ok so that’s wasteful and I wouldn’t realllllllly do that. But this is the BEST phone I’ve ever used. Smooth like butter, colors as nice as an HD display, a network that’s quick without any hesitation, a dual-core processor to double the enjoyment, this phone is a MUST-HAVE for anyone who is a smartphone enthusiast or whose contract is running out. No other phone right now compares to the experience that the LG G2X gives. This of course keeping in mind that no phone, even this one, is perfect. I forgot to mention up top that one of the best feature of the phone is quadband 3G. Even though it’s made for T-Mobile, slipping an AT&T SIM card will actually give you 3G data! For those world travelers or a people afraid of AT&T gobbling up the Magenta corporation, this phone will bring you through all of those experiences.
Submitted By: Allen Schneider
