LG Optimus 2X review

LG’s custom skin is no great shakes either, especially when compared with HTC’s Sense and Samsung’s TouchWiz user interfaces. The widgets aren’t pretty and we weren’t impressed with LG’s bundled Facebook, Twitter and MySpace clients – you’re much better off searching for alternatives on the Market.

There are also many UI alternatives on the Android Market, such as Launcher Pro, which you can download for free and use instead of LG’s rather lacklustre effort. However, the 2X does have a selection of pre-loaded applications, such as Polaris Office, which will open Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, and comes with full editing and document creation capability. The Optimus 2X’s browser is fast, has full Flash support and an attractive simple layout. It’s easy to assign and navigate bookmarks and the pinch-to-zoom function works well.

The phone has some interesting multimedia features. DLNA lets you stream media wirelessly to compatible devices from the handset, and there’s also an HDMI output. You can set the phone to mirror mode, which gives you one display on the phone and one on the TV – and this does come in handy if you like displaying pictures and websites on a larger screen. This feature also means you can use the handset as a controller and play games on the TV – when combined with the Optimus 2X’s Gyro sensor for tilt controls and you have a great-fun gaming platform.

You can also send 1080p video to a TV over HDMI with the included cable. You plug it into your TV and the video appears instantly, with no setup needed. Video stops playing on the handset when it’s showing on the TV, but this is unlikely to bother most people.