THE SMALL AND nimble LG OPTIMUSONE

LG revealed back in July that it will launch ten smartphones in a newly-coined Optimus line by year-end. For now it looks like an even mix of Android and WP7 devices will be in it, and LG will be topping it off with a dual-core smartphone, and a Honeycomb-running tablet. In the initial announcement, the Optimus line naturally started with the Optimus One, and the Optimus Chic, both of which are running Froyo.
Android's "Froyo" update is making its slow, inexorable march across the handsets of the globe, and it's now appearing on new devices as the default operating system. After the hash that was the manual Telstra update this is definitely a plus.One handset that comes with the Android 2.2 update pre-installed is the LG Optimus One. It forms the "budget" end of LG's planned ten-strong Optimus line.

The LG Optimus One looks and feels quite contemporary. There is soft-touch coating all around the phone, interrupted only by the four nice, clickable Android buttons below the 3.2” screen, the 3MP camera on the back, and the chrome-like bezel. The metallic rim is thin around the top, and widens in the bottom half. The volume rocker on the right side, and the lock/power button at the top are designed to be a part of the thin half, and thus hard to find and press.The bezel also wraps around the 3.5mm audio jack on the top, and the microUSB port at the bottom, for an uninterrupted, stylish accentuation of the chrome on black concept. Since the LG Optimus One is not so thin  at 13.3 mm (0.52”), or light at 129 g (4.55 oz), it actually matches its price point as far as physical dimensions are concerned. 

The 3.2” capacitive touchscreen is rather basic as specs (320x480 pixels of resolution, 262 000 colors), but decent in terms of sunlight visibility, viewing angles and responsiveness. The color gamut and contrast could be wider, but at this price point, sacrifices are inevitable. The rounded design, with nice soft-touch coating front and back make the LG Optimus One a pleasure to hold. The chrome-like bezel, and the elevated plate for the two most used Android buttons in the front, add just the grain of pizzazz required to make the handset stand out in the sea of Android design mediocrity.  

On the other hand, music sound quality produced by the handset was very good, but only if you upgrade the bundled headset with ... well ... anything else. The player itself is useable, but there are plenty of viable options available on the Android store.

We were impressed with the quality of the camera too which was able to deal well with some tricky lighting conditions, though low-light performance was as poor as can be expected with no flash. The video camera is serviceable — if you want better performance, invest in a Bloggie or something similar.

Battery life was quite respectable for a smartphone with between one and two days between charges. Charging via a PC is predictably slow with a full charge taking five hours.

The phone comes with a number of applications, including its own App Advisor, and is mildly skinned. Most of the apps worked as advertised though we were disappointed with the voice recorder: it would record for as long as you wanted to but only to an arbitrary amount of time. Moral: don't rely on this for work!

Lastly, the GPS is not bad for free. While it can't compete with even a decent GPS — it can randomly shout "Left" when you're supposed to be travelling in a straight line — it's something that LG's competitors don't offer. (Just watch those cliff roads.

SPECIFICATION

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 900 / 2100
	Announced	2010, July
	Status	Available. Released 2010, October

Size	Dimensions	113.5 x 59 x 13.3 mm
	Weight	129 g

Display	Type	TFT capacitive touchscreen, 256K colors
	Size	320 x 480 pixels, 3.2 inches (~180 ppi pixel density)
	Sensors	Accelerometer, proximity, compass

Sound	Alert types	Vibration, MP3 ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes, check quality

Memory	Card slot	microSD, up to 32GB, 2GB included, buy memory
	Internal	170 MB user available, 512 MB RAM

Data	GPRS	Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
	EDGE	Class 10, 236.8 kbps
	3G	HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Wi-Fi hotspot
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
	USB	Yes, microUSB

Camera	Primary	3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus, check quality
	Features	Geo-tagging, face and smile detection, Beauty Shot
	Video	Yes, VGA@18fps
	Secondary	No

Features	OS	Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo), upgradable to v2.3
	Chipset	Qualcomm MSM7227
	CPU	600 MHz ARM 11
	GPU	Adreno 200
	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
	Browser	HTML
	Radio	Stereo FM radio
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	Black, wine, titan, blue, silver, purple
		- Social networking integration - Google Search, Maps, Gmail - YouTube, Google Talk - DivX/Xvid/MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player - MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+ player - Document viewer/editor - Organizer - Voice memo - Predictive text input

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh
	Stand-by	Up to 700 h (2G) / Up to 550 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 8 h (2G) / Up to 7 h 30 min (3G)

Misc	SAR US	0.45 W/kg (head)     0.37 W/kg (body)