LG Optimus 3D (Thrill 4G) Review

Introduction:

The LG Optimus 3D, expected to hit AT&T shores as the LG Thrill 4G, aims to deliver more than most other high-end devices do. With its dual-core processor, dual cameras and dual-channel memory, it scores a triple double, but will this be enough for it to get noticed in the packed high-end Android space? The dual-core TI OMAP4430 chip is one of the most capable dual-core performers we've seen and coupled with 512MB of dual-channel memory it makes the Android experience buttery smooth. Then there's 3D – the 4.3-inch screen does an excellent job of displaying glasses-free 3D, while the two rear cameras will help you create your own three dimensional content. Factor in full HD 2D video recording, and you get the strengths of the Optimus 3D, but it has its weaknesses as well – it's bulky, comes with Android Froyo instead of Gingerbread and the overall photo quality disappoints.

Design:

The LG Optimus 3D tips the scales at 5.93 ounces (168g) and has a considerable girth of 0.47 inches (11.9mm). Sure, the tri-dual muscle justifies this to a certain extent, and the bulkiness does make it look solid in the hand, but the phone definitely feels obese by today's standards.



You can compare the LG Optimus 3D with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The 4.3-inch LCD screen with resolution of 480 x 800 pixels is key to the success of the 3D-centric phone. After all, it's one of the front-runners of 3D parallax displays on a phone along with the HTC EVO 3D. When in standard 2D mode, the screen has good viewing angles, but a slightly disappointing direct sunlight legibility.

But how does glasses-free 3D work? A long press on the 3D button on the right triggers the magic and the screen activates the parallax barrier to feed your eyes with 3D images and videos,  which you can see without glasses. The parallax technology works through an extra slit plate atop the standard screen, which blocks part of the picture for each eye, so you see a slightly different variation of the same image with each of the eyes. It yields great results with some limitations - you'll have to be willing to sacrifice quality as you only get to see half of the horizontal resolution and you have to look straight at the screen. Looking from the side, you'll only see shades and won't get a sense of depth, which means that only one person at a time can enjoy 3D.


We got to show the 3D effect to unprepared viewers and the initial reaction was extremely positive. But while initially everyone is impressed with the added depth and realism of a 3D image or video, after spending a couple of minutes looking at 3D content feelings were mixed. We felt slightly tired after a couple of minutes, down to really dizzy after a couple more, so we ended up not using the feature extensively and relying more on the traditional 2D mode. The reaction to 3D seems to vary across people with some more tolerant, while others less tolerant to those after-effects, so we'd recommend you spending a couple of minutes with either the handset or the samples below to see how you handle 3D.

Taking your eyes off the screen, you'd notice the plastic build of the LG Optimus 3D. It comes with a soft-touch coating on the back and a brushed metal-like finish up front. Those cover ups make it feel less plasticky, which is a good thing. Below the screen there are four capacitive buttons giving you solid haptic feedback.

Summing up the design, the phone looks big, bulky, but well built and almost too serious with its down-to-business looks and boring grayish colors. If you don't mind its obese waistline and considerable heft, you'd be rewarded with a phone packing plenty of muscle and functionality.

Interface and Functionality:

The LG Optimus 3D runs Android 2.2.2 Froyo with a couple of tweaks mostly on the visual side to improve the experience. We're impressed with the speed of Froyo on the Optimus 3D – virtually everywhere in the menus navigation is fluid, everything moves with instant response, without the slightest hint of lag. With most other high-end handsets running Gingerbread, though, having only Froyo looks like a downside, but LG promises to fix this with an update coming soon.

To get into the home screen of the Optimus 3D, you pull the curtain-like transparent lock screen updated with latest information on messages, calls and your battery status. By default, everything runs in standard 2D mode, so 3D won't really get in your way. There are seven home screens, which you can flick through, but they also support pinch to zoom for an overview and you can pull down from top for the typical Android drop down, garnished with five additional icons for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, volume control and screen rotation. Pre-installed comes a beautiful weather widget getting information from AccuWeather and the Social+ social network aggregator bringing you the latest updates from Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. A long tap on some of those widgets like Weather and Calendar allows you to resize them which sounds neat, but you actually only get to pick between pre-defined sizes.


Except for those peculiarities, you have the standard Froyo UI, looking much like the interface of the LG Optimus 2X, so feel free to check out our detailed look at Froyo and the Optimus UI.

The contacts application is the standard Froyo address book, but LG had stepped up the game with a contacts widget granting you quick access to your best buddies. A single tap on their icon shows a pop-up menu through which you can call, text or locate the person.

Messaging on the 4.3-inch screen is a breeze with plenty of space for the buttons, so your fingers can type essays worth of text free of errors. That won't protect you from misspelled words, though, as by default the spell checker is turned off. Threaded conversations are also supported, while for emails you get LG's own simplistic interface.



3D Space:

Long hold the 3D button on the right and you fly into 3D Space, the three-dimensional menu of the handset. Bells and whistles or a core feature? It's up to the user to decide, but a carousel of 6 huge icons swirls around with each of the icons unfolding your way giving you a clear sense of the 3D effect. The first thing that you'd want to tap in the 3D Space view is the 3D guide icon showing you the ropes of 3D viewing and recording. Then there is the YouTube icon taking you directly to all 3D videos in YouTube.

The 3D gallery application opens the world of self-made 3D content. It all works smoothly and offers impressive visuals in two different views – one with diagonally arranged content and the other with a horizontally oriented tiles. Alas, you can't really sort the content as it's displayed in a continuous row of icons arranged by date, but while not extremely functional, the app does deliver the visuals.

What's 3D without the 3D Games and Apps section, you might wonder. And rightly so – the phone comes with only four 3D-optimized titles. There are three games with slight modifications to fit the 3D concept – Asphalt 6, NOVA and Let's Golf 2. While all those apps claim to be optimized for 3D we saw only a very minor effect there, mostly noticeable in the menus and titles but not so much within the game, making us often wonder whether that's really the 3D we were looking for. Finally, there's also a weird version of Gulliver's Travels, allowing you to scroll through something like a very short animated 3D storybook without any text of the actual story.


Overall, while there are some additional 3D trailers, the Optimus 3D sorely lacks the appealing content that would justify its three dimensionality. You'll have to rely on your own photographic skills using the handset's cameras.

Camera and Multimedia:

Cameras - the LG Optimus 3D has three of them, but it still left us with a mixed bag of feelings. The phone is a front-runner of 3D image capture and video recording and that's impressive. We loved experimenting with three dimensional pictures and videos, which turned out to be quite fun. But our guess is that traditional 2D capture is what most people will pick most of the time and that's where the 5-megapixel auto-focus camera on the back falls short of any stellar high expectations.


Images are by default captured by the left camera from the duo, but the biggest problem here is the way below average picture quality. Details were at a very low level with the background eating up the edges. Contrast was also bad and the camera had a poor dynamic range. That's just a warning, though, you can check out the samples below yourself to get an idea. Except for those issues, the camera is fairly quick to shoot. It also supports digital zoom, different focus modes including macro and scene settings. Sadly, LG has implemented a limitation that forbids you from using the camera after the battery drops below 10%. That might make sense for users saving the last breath of their battery for a call, but after all it's the user who has to decide and for some taking a picture before the battery dies might be more appropriate.

When recording video, you'll be pleased to see support for 1080p full HD at 30 frames per second with continuous auto-focus. Things are looking slightly better here as you get more details and the exposure compensation algorithms better adjust the video, recorded in MP4 format, but some of the issues with contrast and dynamic range remain. Just like in most other full HD-enabled cameraphones, zooming was supported only in 720p, but not 1080p mode.

LG Optimus 3D Sample Video:



LG Optimus 3D Indoor Sample Video:



Next comes the 3D camera serving 720p HD videos and 3-megapixel image stills. You got it right – the quality of the picture gets noticeably degraded in comparison to the standard 2D recording at 1080p full HD and stills of 5 megapixels. The viewfinder itself shows a 3D picture, so you won't have a problem picking the right moment to snap.



LG Optimus 3D Sample Video in 3D:



LG Optimus 3D Indoor Sample Video in 3D:



Traditional settings like scenes and white balance controls are all there, but you also get to control the depth of the 3D effect. There's also an in-built image editor – a welcome addition for basic editing. You can crop and rotate images, add filters frames and even combine images. Overall, we found the camera interface to be very intuitive, especially when you have to switch between 3D and 2D stills and recording, which happens quickly with one or two taps.

The spacious 4.3-inch screen is the perfect tool for watching videos on the go and we appreciate the fact that LG has included support for DivX/XviD codecs. Unfortunately, high-def MKVs are a tall order for the Optimus 3D. Audio sounded clear even at its loudest with the standard Android music player. You can also add up to 32GB of memory to the built-in 8GB through microSD cards. Finally, with the microHDMI-out port allowing you to easily wire the phone to a big screen TV, the phone is a multimedia powerhouse.

Internet and Connectivity:

The Optimus 3D comes with the stock Android Froyo browser supporting all the essentials including Adobe Flash, multitouch and double tap to zoom. The browser supports text reflow only when you double tap to zoom in and out, but doesn't reformat text when you use pinch to zoom. The only slight change is the addition of a strip stretching at the bottom, allowing you to quickly go back, forward, switch between tabs, open new tabs and access settings. It's convenient but some idealists might find it annoying that they can't disable it or view the browser in full screen. Next to the address bar in the browser is the bookmark icon, taking you to four tabs of bookmarks, most visited pages, history and pages you've marked to read later. Those temporary bookmarks are only saved until you view them and then automatically disappear – an elegant solution for readers.

Overall, the browser has been slightly tweaked and makes perfect use of both the big screen and the dual-core processor. Flash also runs great and if you're looking for a capable mobile device to access the web, the Optimus 3D is among the best out there.

In terms of connectivity the only thing missing seems to be 4G, but the phone features HSPA 3G at 14.4Mbps on the downlink, Wi-Fi b/g/n with Mobile Hotspot, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS and DLNA via LG's SmartShare app.

Performance and Conclusion:

When it comes to the battery life, the huge 4.3-inch screen is a key factor squeezing all 1500mAh of juice by the end of the day with moderate use. Actually, when in stand-by mode the battery drain is not that noticeable, but just after lighting up, the screen greedily devours juice. The performance of the phone's battery is among the phone's biggest downsides, so you should either prepare a spare battery or keep a charger nearby if you want to make sure that your phone will last you through the day.

Even though the Optimus 3D doesn't have a second mic for noise cancellation, call quality on the handset is very good. Our callers reported no issues and heard us loud and clear in our natural tones, while on our side, the earpiece was so loud we had to set the volume at just above the middle.

The LG Optimus 3D is different if only for its 3D function. Luckily, it's also a great all-around player and doesn't focus solely on 3D, which is entertaining for a while, but might come with a bonus in the form of a slight headache for some. When you use the handset in standard 2D mode, though, it's an extremely powerful device with one of the snappiest chips out there. It makes a huge difference when navigating in menus and fiddling with the browser.

But this overweight powerhouse eats battery like there's no tomorrow, and if you don't plug it in for a while, its battery doesn't last to see tomorrow. 2D images were also a disappointment, just as the fact that it ships with Froyo instead of Gingerbread, but LG will hopefully fix the latter with an update soon. We wouldn't let those spoil the enthusiasm of early 3D adopters – for them the LG Optimus 3D will definitely deliver, but the rest might prefer a thinner handset with a more durable battery.

LG Optimus 3D Video Review: