Hands on: LG Optimus 4X HD review

Arriving fashionably late to the party, can the LG Optimus 4X HD, the firm's first attempt at a quad-core phone, offer anything to set it apart from the Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC One X?

Launched alongside the four core toting One X at MWC 2012, it's taken LG a little while to get the handset out, with an expected arrival date of August now on the cards.


As it's set to go up against the Galaxy S3 and One X, as well as the Huawei Ascend D1 Q when that finally sees the light of day, you can expect the Optimus 4X HD to carry a price tag in the region of $500(around $780) SIM-free when it does arrive.

The Optimus 4X HD boasts Nvidia's powerful 1.5GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor with 4-PLUS-1 technology, 1GB of RAM, 4.7-inch (1280 x 720) True HD IPS display, 16GB of internal memory and NFC technology.


Approach the LG Optimus 4X HD and you do feel that you are looking at a premium phone, with the dual metal rims running around the circumference, sandwiching prism detailing which is all part of LG's new signature design.


The textured back sits nicely in the hand and the tapered sides make the slim (8.9mm) phone feel even thinner, giving the illusion that the Optimus 4X HD is not a wide (68.1mm) as it actually is.

Weighing in at 133g the Optimus 4X HD is similar in weight to the likes of the iPhone 4S, One X and Galaxy S3 -providing an even distribution and comfortable hold in the hand.


The case is made of plastic, which keeps the weight of the handset down, but build quality does not suffer and the Optimus 4X HD feels solid, so not to detract from the premium look.

On the left hand side there's a volume rocker switch which gets the prism design flare, easy enough to hit and the textured finished ensures your finger doesn't slip.


On top you'll find a 3.5mm headphone jack and the power/lock key which is also easy to hit when holding the LG Optimus 4X HD in one hand.

The right side of the handset is devoid of buttons, leaving you to admire the stretch of uninterrupted prisms, and on the bottom the only features of note are the microUSB port and microphone pin hole.


The touchscreen is very responsive and had no trouble picking up even our lighter gestures - the touch sensitive keys below the screen weren't quite as alert, as we sometimes had to hit them a couple of times.


The power of the quad-core processor is obvious as you skip through the home screens and app trays -although there was a couple of times where it would stall when navigating from the homescreen to the application list, lag we haven't experienced on the One X or Galaxy S3.

LG has added its own skin to Ice Cream Sandwich making it easy to update your screens with whatever widgets, apps and backgrounds take your fancy.

It has also grouped various options into sub categories within the menus, allowing users to navigate to what they want a lot quicker.

Pull down the notifications bar at the top and you'll find LG has implemented some handy settings toggles, a la Samsung's TouchWiz interface, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS and Volume.

Even more handily, you can edit the order and number of toggles which appear here, so you can fine tune it to show only your most used features.

The LG Optimus 4X HD certainly has some neat tricks up its sleeve and it will be interesting to see how it shapes up in our full, in-depth review against the likes of the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S3.

From our brief time with the phone so far, the Optimus 4X HD looks like a perfectly capable handset, with a style which will appeal to some people and enough power to guarantee its future for at least the next couple of years.

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