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LG Optimus 4X HD Review

LG’s newest flagship will be released in the Philippines in a couple of weeks. It succeeds the Optimus 2X that took the multi-core record and LG has come back for a repeat. Check out our full review of the LG Optimus 4X HD after the jump.

NVidia played a huge role in bumping up the smartphone wars with its latest Tegra 3 chip. It’s the first one to come out with a quad-core processor that a lot of handset manufacturers were excited to use. Among them is LG and that’s what the Optimus 4X HD is using.

Yugatech 728x90 Reno7 Series

Design and Construction

Aside from the size, the Optimus 4X HD has not really departed from the same design signature that they used in the L-series as well as the earlier LG Prada 3.0.

The handset looks squarish, a bit rigid but with a little accents of texture and simplicity.

There are two variants that’s coming out — a black one and a white one with a thin silver lining around the side. The front panel is all covered with a thick sheet of glass with the 3 soft buttons found at the bottom end that shows up with the backlit on.

The top side houses the 3.5mm audio jac, the noise-canceling mic and the power button. The left side is where the volume rocker is positioned while the right side is completely bare. At the bottom end is the microUSB port and the microphone.

At the back is the large 8MP rear camera with the single LED flash, both of which are flushed all the way to the top left side. At the bottom end is the speakers. The back cover has that hard leather-like finish to it, much like the one we saw on the LG Prada 3.0.

The Optimus 4X actually looks really bare on the exterior but all that twin strip of silver and the texture polycarbonate body makes it feel somewhat sophisticated.

The handset is pretty thin though, measuring 132.4 x 68.1 x 8.9mm — it’s among the thinnest we’ve reviewed so far.

Display

The HD display of the Optimus 4X is certainly something to consider. With a horizontal size of 4.7 inches and a resolution of 1280×800 pixels, the pixel density of 312ppi has given it that retina-display level of clarity.

The display is sharp and clear even if you crank it up to maximum brightness (which is good when watching videos and movies).

There’s the issue of glare, especially in outdoor scenarios but that’s a problem all other handsets have faced. You can increase the display brightness to maximum level to counter this but that’s at the expense of battery life.

OS and UI

As an Android smartphone, we expected the Optimus 4X to offer all of the basic features and functionalities of the OS. Of course, LG was free to add its own touches here and there, and they actually did although the customization are very subtle and kept it within hair’s length of the stock ICS.

The Optimus UI 3.0 has greatly improved and we’ve seen it work in the L-series that we reviewed before (Optimus L3 and Optimus L7). The one of the Optimus 4X HD is more fluid and smooth. We notice though that form time to time, hitting the App launcher causes that hour-glass status to appear for a split second (giving us the impression that there’s lag however insignificant it is).

In some areas, the Optimus UI 3.0 looks simple yet elegant. However, we find the execution of the icons and widgets needed little bit of creativity.

The virtual keyboard is simple, easy to use and well-spaced apart (the landscape mode is much wider too).

LG also added a number of really useful apps they’ve made just for the Optimus 4X. One is the Remote Call Service which allows an LG technical support to remotely access your phone, diagnose and repair it (like Remote Desktop for the PC). Another is a native Backup service and a Cell Broadcast service.

The Optimus UI has gone a long way and we’re kind of liking it already.

Multimedia and Camera

Audio quality is good but we weren’t really that impressed. The speakers are the back sounds good but is not loud enough at times. We’d suggest just using a headphone with when playing songs or watching movies.

The camera app also looks basic but actually has a lot of features and settings. There’s a nifty Time Machine Shot that captures 5 frames and allows you to pick a frame to use. Image quality of the photos doesn’t seem to be that good.

Video recording is up to 1080p and the quality looks good, basing on the clip we showed above.

Performance and Benchmarks

We’ve reviewed several devices running on NVidia’s Tegra 3 chip so we have a good idea on the performance of this handset.

First, it’s pretty kick-ass on gaming, thanks to that 12-core GPU engine that can do almost any hi-def and graphics-intensive games available on Google Play. NVidia also has the Tegra Zone which feature all of the games that are optimized for Tegra 3. The result is an almost console-level type of visual experience, albeit on a smaller screen.

As for our synthetic benchmarks, the Optimus 4X got a pretty good score of 3,849 on Quadrant and 11,210 on Antutu Benchmark.

Nenamark 2 gave it a 51.6fps score. The numbers a very close to the one we got from the HTC One X (the Optimsu 4X was better on Nenamark 2, the One X was better on Quadrant and both are tied on Antutu).

Call Quality and Battery Life

Call quality and signal reception on the handset is good. We did not experience any single call drops in the last 2 or 3 week sof daily use nor we encountered that muted voice when taking a call (where the other party can’t hear you but you hear them back really well).

Battery life of the Optimus 4X is impressive and we managed to get around 2 days of use on a single charge with moderate use (mostly calls and text with a little bit of internet and apps).

The Li-Ion battery is rated at 2150mAh, higher than the internal battery of the One X and even the Galaxy S3.

Conclusion

The Optimus 4X HD has shown a lot of promise and is certainly miles away from last year’s Optimus 2X. It’s got a fairly good mix of design, performance and battery life.

Its got some kinks here and there but the over-all build quality and the looks of the handset makes it handset to be considered.

The Optimus 4X HD has a suggested retail price of Php27,990 (street price could be lower). It’s the only quad-core handset that will be released and priced under the Php30k mark.

LG Optimus 4X HD LG-P880 specs:
4.7-inch IPS LCD display @ 1280×800 pixels, 312ppi
Tegra 3 1.5GHz quad-core processor
NVidia GeForce 12-core GPU
1GB RAM
16GB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, dual-band
MHL, DLNA
Bluetooth 4.0 A2DP, LE
HSDPA/HSUPA
FM radio tuner
GPS w/ aGPS support
8MP autofocus rear camera
1080p video recording
1.3MP front-facing camera
2150mAh Li-Ion battery
Android 4.0 ICS, Optimus UI 3.0
132.4 x 68.1 x 8.9mm (dimensions)
133 grams (weight)

What we liked about it:
* Pretty good performance
* NFC support
* Long battery life
* Most affordable among the quad-core handsets

What we did not like:
* UI needs a bit of work
* Not so impressive camera

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

22 Responses

  1. Avatar for worldnewspaperonline worldnewspaperonline says:

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  2. Avatar for Sammy G Sammy G says:

    I bought this phone last year. It was OK, but prefer the iphone

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  3. Avatar for Keerbitanat Keerbitanat says:

    just registered here and wanna say hi you all.

    cheers

  4. Avatar for Cafeloco Cafeloco says:

    will there be a possibility that this phone can be upgraded to OS4.1 jelly bean?

  5. Avatar for OliverTwist OliverTwist says:

    Sino na po naka-try bumili sa WidgetCity? Para lang po kasing sobrang baba ng prices nila. Medyo nakaka-duda… Pero kung okay naman po experiences nyo as a buyer, paki-share naman po. Thanks!

  6. Avatar for Hunghi Hunghi says:

    “I was anticipating so much for the Optimus 4X HD. You know LG Philippines is having an event. Visit its facebook page and draw something on one of your pictures with its QuickMemo feature and post it on your page as a cover. The ones who get the most votes will win LG Optimus 4X HD or L7. If I don’t win, I’m gonna buy one.

  7. Avatar for mobileaddicted mobileaddicted says:

    this is phone is best choice compared to it’s competitors…

    the cheapest price , but the same performances as the sgs3.

    looks more sexy& stylish phone! i love the black one!

  8. Avatar for Verbl Kint Verbl Kint says:

    This is cheaper than an S3 by at least 5 thou pesos. Considering it is quite close overall, this phone looks to be a good bargain.

    The HTC One series happens to have really disappointing battery life, uses microSims and is not expandable. Also, if and when the battery screws up for the HTC One, you would need to have the whole phone replaced.

    The LG 4X is definitely more value for money than the HTC One and the Galazy S3.

  9. Avatar for daniel daniel says:

    i like this one! HTC ONE X has no microSD slot and non-removable battery… i dont like phones like that. pano pagka lumobo battery? paktay itapon mo na HTC ONE X mo.

  10. Avatar for jeremiah jeremiah says:

    Any discount promo at 50% off like the 2x ?

  11. Avatar for Silverlokk Silverlokk says:

    <quote>
    What we did not like:
    ● UI needs a bit of work
    </quote>

    Frankly, I don’t give a damn since I’d use Go Launcher anyways. In fact, I consider this a pro because it probably means that LG didn’t mess too much with Android and OS upgrades should theoretically be easier — emphasis on “theoretically”. Kenth’s comment notwithstanding — wondering if it could be the carrier that’s holding back LG’s updates the same way that US carriers held back OS upgrades?

  12. Avatar for Kenth Kenth says:

    One X or Samsung SIII

    LG has poor support for future updates. They announced ICS in Canada then recently said no more ICS …

    But if you don’t plan on keeping your unit for a long time and don’t need future software upgrade/support then maybe you can risk it as this unit has a nice set of features na rin …

  13. Avatar for paolo paolo says:

    So, what’d you rather?

    HTC One X?

    Or LG Optimus 4X HD?

    Please help me. :(

    • Avatar for Marcelino Marcelino says:

      One X naman, ano ba! HAHAHA

      But mag-a-add ka na lang ng konti, Galaxy S3 na. Why not settle for the best smartphone to date? :D

    • Avatar for ALVIN ALVIN says:

      LG 4X HD IS WAY BETTER THAN HTC ONE X!
      these are the best reasons ;

      1)LG 4X HD HAS BIGGER 2,150mAh REMOVEABLE BATTERY! even better than sgs3!

      2)”HTC One X has a screen equivalent of a IPS display under a different name called Super LCD2. HTC cannot name it as IPS for some copyright reason but the technology is the same.”
      STILL LG 4X HD is more Brighter & better display true hd ips lcd rgb matrix( MORE ACCURATE & LIFE-LIKE COLOR)

      3)LG 4X HD has more responsive & VERY SMOOTHER touchscreen!
      4)LG 4x HD IS MORE FASTER IN INTERNET BROWSING OR DOWNLOADING DATA & APPLICATIONS!
      5) THE LG’S UPTIMUS UI 3.0 PROVIDE MORE GRAPHICS , MORE EASIER TO USE AND A LOT OF NEW USEFUL APPLICATIONS
      LIKE QUICKMEMO, AND VERY ATTRACTIVE ETC…

      6)LG 4X HD has MORE LOUDER SPEAKER !
      7) LG 4X HD IS MORE GOOD IN GAMING!
      8)LG 4X HD HAS MORE COMPACT DESIGN & VERY EASY TO HAND!

      LG 4X HD GOT THE HIGHEST SCORES over htc one x
      Linpack

      LG Optimus 4X HD141.5
      HTC One X (Tegra 3)126.1

      AnTuTu
      LG Optimus 4X HD11735
      HTC One X (Tegra 3)10962

      AnTuTu CPU

      LG Optimus 4X HD6951
      HTC One X (Tegra 3)6210

      AnTuTu RAM
      LG Optimus 4X HD2432
      HTC One X (Tegra 3)2302

      TIE IN quAdrant
      HTC One X (Tegra 3)4842
      LG Optimus 4X HD4814
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Evmfnor8eQ&feature=plcp

      LG 4X HD MORE CHEAPER PRICE!

    • Avatar for ALVIN ALVIN says:

      LG 4X HD BEATS HTC ONE X IN MANY REVIEWS…

      NenaMark 2
      Higher is better

      LG Optimus 4X HD52.3
      HTC One X (Tegra 3)47.5

      SunSpider
      Lower is better

      LG Optimus 4X HD1446
      HTC One X (Tegra 3)1844

      BrowserMark
      Higher is better

      LG Optimus 4X HD134813
      HTC One X (Tegra 3)126118

      WATCH THIS VIDEOS!

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Evmfnor8eQ&feature=plcp

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDCFySGP4Z0&feature=related

    • Avatar for steven steven says:

      One X than Optimus4X. LG has very poor after-sales support, just look at what they did to Optimus 2X and Optimus Black.
      Besides, HTC is rolling out Sense 4.1 soon which would improve battery life and UI responsiveness.
      microsd? wait, hindi ko pa nga mapuno-puno ang 25GB user-available storage ng One X ko eh.
      Basta, huwag LG. I owned a LG android phone and the support was bad. Though maganda ang looks ng 4X.

      If not OneX, go for Galaxy S3. Better than One X in features but more expensive.

    • Avatar for rey rey says:

      GUYS, THIS PHONE IS MUCH BETTER THAN HTC ONE X.

      THIS PHONE IS ALMOST AS SGS3! EXCEPT FOR THE HARDWARE! LG DID A GREAT JOB FOR THIS PHONE!
      THEY ALREADY RELEASING AN UPDATE FOR THE VIDEO A.F. ISSUE!

      LG IS NOW WORKING VERY HARD!
      GOOD JOB LG!

    • Avatar for rey rey says:

      HTC ONE X IS THE WEAKEST!
      GUYS WATCH THIS AND DECIDE!
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Evmfnor8eQ

    • Avatar for AMIR AMIR says:

      SAMSUNG GALAXY S III IS THE WINNER FOR THE PERFORMANCE, FOLLOWED BY LG OPTIMUS 4X HD.

      HTC ONE X IS ALWAYS @ THE THIRD PLACER.

      BUT I LOVE THE DESIGN OF LG 4X.

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