LG Optimus 3D review

Not even mobile phones are immune to the march of 3D, the technology fad of the moment. LG’s Optimus 3D handset is the first smartphone we’ve seen with a 3D display. Like its chief rival, HTC’s Evo 3D, you don’t need a pair of glasses to view 3D images on the screen, as it uses Nintendo 3DS-style parallax barrier technology.

Compared to the last LG Android handset we saw, the Optimus 2X, the Optimus 3D looks and feels much more like a polished premium handset. It’s very large, though, measuring 129x68x12mm and weighing a huge 168g. That’s 20g heavier than the HTC Sensation, which was one of the biggest phones we’d seen when we reviewed it in What’s New, Shopper 283. It’s still 2g lighter than the Evo 3D, though, which we’ve yet to review.

The Optimus 3D’s 4.3-inch, 480×800-pixel display takes up almost the entire front of the device, with just a hint of brushed faux-metal plastic above and below the display to finish off the look. The four touch-sensitive Android navigation keys sit neatly below the display. The back panel is composed entirely of matte black plastic – it all adds up to a subtle and stylish handset.

As you’d expect, LG is keen to help you experience the display’s 3D capabilities, so it has included a range of applications under the title ‘3D Space’. These work well, giving you direct access to YouTube 3D, 3D Games, 3D Guide and 3D Camera mode all from a single click of the ‘3D’ hardware key on the bottom-right of the phone. 3D Space has a spinning 3D user interface popping out of the screen. From here, you have the option to play and download 3D games (Asphalt 6, Nova, Let’s Golf! 2 and Gulliver’s Travels are included, and are great fun in three dimensions), read tutorials on how to use your 3D camera, view 3D images and watch content on YouTube 3D.

You can also shoot 3D videos and images with the device’s dual 5-megapixel cameras. 3D still images aren’t quite as good as their 2D counterparts but they do give you a pleasing illusion of depth. You can shoot 3D video in 720p at 30fps, although the quality and image stabilisation in 3D mode is pretty iffy. Switching back to 2D with the 2D/3D toggle in the camera application gives you significantly better still image quality, and you can shoot 2D video footage at 1080p and 24fps.

You can display these images and videos on a 3D TV using the Optimus 3D’s micro-HDMI output, but you’ll need to buy your own cable (£8 from www.play.com). You can always upload your images directly from the handset to YouTube 3D for anyone with a 3D device to view.

Once you’re done messing around with 3D, you’ll find all the normal Android apps, along with Polaris Office to view and edit Office documents. However, LG has decided to launch the handset with Android 2.2 (Froyo) instead of the latest – 2.3 Gingerbread. It seems strange to launch a premium handset with an outdated operating system – we’re pretty sure HTC’s Evo 3D will have the latest Android installed.

However, what the Optimus 3D lacks in the OS department it more than makes up for in processing power, thanks to its dual core 1GHz TI OMAP4 chipset. In our Quadrant benchmarking test the Optimus 3D scored a very impressive 2557, which makes it one of the fastest smartphones we’ve seen, if not quite up there with Samsung’s Galaxy S2. It’s blisteringly fast, especially when compared to the Optimus 2X. There’s no lag whatsoever, applications launch in the blink of an eye and 3D content is handled with ease.

Couple this awesome processing power with the device’s 8GB of onboard storage, microSDHC slot, 512MB of RAM, 802.11n Wi-Fi, DLNA media streaming, Wi-Fi hotspot creation and HDMI output and the Optimus 3D starts to look like a very impressive smartphone, even if you don’t care about 3D. That is, at least, until you come to battery life.

We’ve seen quite a few handsets with genuinely poor battery life, such as the HTC Desire HD and the Palm Pre 2, but none have been as bad as the Optimus 3D. During normal use (calls, texts, web browsing, application loading, downloading, watching a few videos) the phone was down to about 50 per cent charge after three or four hours – and that’s without using any of the device’s 3D features.

Once you start gaming and recording and playing back video in 3D, you can almost see the battery bar diminishing before your very eyes. It’s so bad that we’re not even sure an update to Android 2.3, with its improved battery management, would improve matters.

LG’s Optimus 3D is a brilliant yet highly compromised handset. It’s a great phone with plenty of power and the 3D works well, but it has one of the worst battery lives in normal use we have seen. If you must have 3D on your phone wait for our verdict on the HTC Evo 3D, or just stick with the Samsung Galaxy S2.