Sometimes, a smartphone seems to have it all: good looks, serious speed, stability and a solid software bundle. The T-Mobile G2x by LG is one of those smartphones. It’s an elegant and well made Android superphone with a striking IPS display, dual core Tegra 2 CPU, 8 megapixel camera that shoots 1080p video and 4G HSPA+. Sounds great, but specs don’t tell the whole story; the Motorola Atrix, an Android phone with a Tegra 2 dual core CPU, slightly higher resolution display and HSPA+ also sounded superb on paper. It was a good phone but it lacked T-Mobile’s faster HSPA+ network, used standard LCD technology and it reeked of plastics. The Atrix was by no means a bad phone, but despite the hype, it’s not quite the phone the LG G2x (aka Optimus 2x overseas) is… that is unless you’re captivated by its nifty but expensive accessories like the Lapdock.
The LG G2x makes an excellent first impression: it looks like a quality phone with judicious use of metals and plastics that look like metal and feature complex curves. It looks like one of HTC’s better offerings, but with a less ardently masculine feel. The soft touch finish on the back feels good and makes the phone easier to keep in hand, and is a step up from the gloss black plastics used in the Samsung Vibrant and Nexus S Android smartphones. But it doesn't quite live up to the look of its competitor on T-Mobile, the HTC Sensation 4G. The bright and colorful 4”, 800 x 480 display dominates, and is the sweet spot for resolution relative to display size. The 5 ounce G2x (according to the specs, but 5.4 ounces according to our digital scale), has enough heft to feel like a quality piece in hand without being too heavy. The power button is up top where it belongs rather than on the side where it’s too easy to accidentally press like Samsung’s high end Android phones. It has micro HDMI out and a sexy metal strip on the back. Sweet.
Horsepower, OS and Battery Life
Even better, it runs standard Android 2.2 Froyo with no software overlays for slow-downs or UI bells and whistles you might not appreciate. Since it’s stock Android, it’s also very stable, and battery life is surprisingly good. The phone just works, and works well at that, with no lags, serious quirks or problems. Call quality and reception are good, and 4G speeds are double what we’ve seen with T-Mobile’s 3G smartphones and AT&T’s 3G and 4G HSPA+ smartphones.
The T-Mobile G2x runs on a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core CPU with graphics acceleration, and it’s a fast phone. It benchmarks at 2551 on Quadrant, and only the Atrix with the same CPU gets similar results. Other higher end Android phones benchmark from 950 to 1700 in Quadrant which tests the CPU, memory, 2D and 3D graphics. The single core 1GHz Nexus S benchmarks at 1648 while the myTouch 4G achieves one of the highest single core results with a 1796. The G2x feels every bit as fast as the speedy pure Google 2.3 Nexus S when navigating the UI, and it feels a bit faster than the myTouch 4G.
For those of you who like to hack and customize your phone, it's easy to permanently root the G2x using SuperOneClick-- the's phone's bootloader isn't locked down like recent HTC phone such as the T-Mobile G2.
Horsepower, OS and Battery Life
Even better, it runs standard Android 2.2 Froyo with no software overlays for slow-downs or UI bells and whistles you might not appreciate. Since it’s stock Android, it’s also very stable, and battery life is surprisingly good. The phone just works, and works well at that, with no lags, serious quirks or problems. Call quality and reception are good, and 4G speeds are double what we’ve seen with T-Mobile’s 3G smartphones and AT&T’s 3G and 4G HSPA+ smartphones.
The T-Mobile G2x runs on a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core CPU with graphics acceleration, and it’s a fast phone. It benchmarks at 2551 on Quadrant, and only the Atrix with the same CPU gets similar results. Other higher end Android phones benchmark from 950 to 1700 in Quadrant which tests the CPU, memory, 2D and 3D graphics. The single core 1GHz Nexus S benchmarks at 1648 while the myTouch 4G achieves one of the highest single core results with a 1796. The G2x feels every bit as fast as the speedy pure Google 2.3 Nexus S when navigating the UI, and it feels a bit faster than the myTouch 4G.
For those of you who like to hack and customize your phone, it's easy to permanently root the G2x using SuperOneClick-- the's phone's bootloader isn't locked down like recent HTC phone such as the T-Mobile G2.
Battery life usually suffers with a large display and fast CPU weighing it down, but the G2x’s 1500 mAh Lithium Ion battery has surprisingly good stamina. It had no trouble lasting through the day with moderate use that included plenty of web browsing, scheduled email checks and 30 minutes of streaming video using Flash Player 10.2. Speaking of Flash, playback performance was good with none of the usual slowdowns and poor frame rates we’ve seen on single core phones. Demanding 3D games likewise play very smoothly (see our video review).
The phone has 8 gigs of internal storage with approximately 5.5 gigs listed as available. There’s a microSD card slot as well (take that, Nexus S) but no card is included. The G2x has ~ 1.3 gigs partitioned for application installation (more than enough and more than average for an Android smartphone). The phone has 512 megs of RAM to run programs and the OS, and that’s a reasonable amount since the T-Mobile G2x doesn’t have to support a custom UI as do HTC Sense Android phones, Motorola’s MOTOBLUR phones and Samsung’s TouchWiz phones.
