LG Optimus 4X HD Hands-on Review

We are not going to lie to you, guys, we do have a soft spot kept for the LG Optimus 4X HD, and how wouldn't we? After all, it's the successor to last year's LG Optimus 2X – the phone that kicked off the dual-core game. But now that dual-core is pretty much what you'd expect from every self-respecting smartphone, LG has decided that it's finally time to take things up a notch by introducing a quad-core handset.

Well, this time, the company actually couldn't be the first to out a quad-core smartphone, but hey, that's not what's most important, right? What's important for us is the Optimus 4X HD itself, which, as you can imagine also features an HD screen to complement its raw power. Indeed, everything on the specs front seems to be top-notch with the Optimus 4X HD, as it also comes with 1GB RAM, 8MP cam and 16GB internal storage. The HD screen itself measures the enormous 4.7” and uses the True HD IPS technology, which means that it sticks with the good-old RGB matrix, so what you read on the specs sheet is what you get.



After telling you the size of the screen, you wouldn't be surprise if we add that the Optimus 4X HD is one quite bulky handset, would you? Well, that's actually not the case, because the handset is very, very thin and light. To tell you the truth, the LG Optimus 4X HD is quite pocketable, and we are certain that its significant width and height dimensions won't be a problem.

The phone is predominantly made of plastic, but it does feature some nice metallic accents along the side, which look very cool. Although we're not sure if they are real metal, or just plastic. The back side is all plastic, having a nice texture to provide better look and feel.



On the software side of things, the Optimus 4X HD will come pre-loaded with Android 4 Ice Scream Sandwich, but of course, LG is adding its custom Optimus UI to the deal, which delivers tons of personalization options. We're glad that LG hasn't overdone it in this aspect, and the handset does look like an Ice Cream Sandwich device. Still, LG has added a lot of nice little animations and transitions to make the whole user experience a bit more entertaining.

Now, on to the topic that everyone's interested in – the quad-core Tegra 3 processor. Well, after we spent a few minutes wit the Optimus 4X HD, we can safely say that it will simply fly. We encountered no lag within the interface, and what was even cooler than that was that an LG rep showed us how the Riptide 3D game runs on the phone, and boy was this a cool demo! Interestingly the game was specifically optimized for the quad-core chipset, and it featured effects that one cannot otherwise see on a dual-core handset, like some very beautiful and realistic water and blurring effect.



And that pretty much sums up our first impressions of the LG Optimus 4X HD. It's not a handset from the manufacturer's new L-Style line, but it does look pretty similar to those L-phones, with its simple, rectangular shape. All in all, it seems like a very promising handset for the hardcore geek in you, seeing that it's packed to the brim with all kinds of features, the most important of which being the quad-core Tegra 3 processor.

We tried to get some availability info from one of the reps, but the response was simply “It will launch very soon.”, hopefully in the following months.

If you're interested in the LG Optimus 4X HD (which would be completely understandable) and would like to learn more, check out our detailed LG Optimus 4X HD specs page.