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LG Optimus GT540 First Impressions

We had a closer look of LG’s first ever Android phone today — the LG Optimus (LG GT540). LG Philippines is positioning it to be the most affordable Android phone in the country with a suggested retail price of Php12,900.


The specs of the LG Optimus is close to that of the HTC Hero, only way cheaper, and could be closely compared to the Samsung Spica. The line-up consists of 4 colors (white, black, silver and pink) although LG reps say they’ll skip the white one once it’s released in stores.

The various colors are targeted to specific demographics with the black (brushed-metal finish) one for men and the pink (quilt-like pattern on a glossy finish) one for women. LG is obviously looking to capture the lifestyle-inclined segment of the market.

One big question we repeatedly discussed was the use of a resistive screen instead the more commonly used capacitive display in Android phones. It takes a bit of time getting used to (especially if you’re very used to capacitive touchscreen phones) and there are obvious drawbacks like the inability to do multi-touch.

I reckon LG is looking to repeat the success of the Cookie with the Optimus (thus the resistive-TFT) — an affordable, fashionable Android phone.

LG added a UI layer on top of Android 1.6 (Donut) that allows for user-selectable (3, 5 or 7) Home Screens. First time I saw this option on an Android phone. Here’s a short clip of how the UI looks like.

LG Optimus GT540 specs:
3.0″ screen @ 320×480 pixels
Qualcomm MSM7227 600MHz CPU
130MB internal storage
up to 32GB via (2GB included)
3G/HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth 2.1
3.15MP autofocus camera
FM Radio w/ RDS
GPS w/ aGPS support
Android 1.6
Li-Ion 1500 mAh battery

Instead of adding its own LG App Store, the system has an App Advisor that recommends useful and cool apps in the over 50,000 selections of the Android Market. LG also promised that an upgrade to Android 2.1 will be available via Service Center before the end of the year.

The LG Optimus will hit the stores in the first or second week of August with a recommended retail price of Php12,900.

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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.

44 Responses

  1. Avatar for tebenets tebenets says:

    just recently acquired this unit. graduated from symbian phone (E71). so far so good. but i noticed that sometimes it had do an auto reboot (updated to eclair). hopefully they give this a froyo update.

    battery life is not as good as e71 (2 days vs 3-4 days). internal memory is quite limited.

    planning to upgrade this to Wildfire but after seeing some problems, might as well stick around with this. that is until globe offers the rumored iphone 5. hehehe

  2. Avatar for marco marco says:

    @JR ebora tama ka jn bro..d2 kna pabili £100 lng makakamura ka..i got this phone last dec 15..ngayon nkasale pa..its user friendly..android 2.1 na..lot of features..kulang nlng mg-transform..LOL!cheers!!

  3. Avatar for John Ray Ebora John Ray Ebora says:

    eto na lang kaya ipabili ko sa ate ko, gusto ko kc eh archos 70 tablet, since £100 lang to sa uk, which is 6,800php to be exact, mas mkakatipid pa xa.

    ok lang kaya features nito? mejo sanay naman ako sa resistive (Im a samsung star user)

    hehe.

  4. Avatar for jun jun says:

    Dont buy any LG products.. !!!Low quality… low Resale Value….

  5. Avatar for Adi Adi says:

    Got this phone and it is very nice… 600mghz is not bad for the cheapest android flatform mobile phone. The web browser is fantastic.

  6. Avatar for bubbles bubbles says:

    too late na ba mag comment dito? nawala optimus ko eh. Okey video capt niya. ung camera walei (walang flash). but im fine with it being resistive kuno kasi di siya kasing bilis magrespond. I mean, onting hawak mo lang kahit di mo sinasadya di naman siya bigla gagana. ung iba ang hirap gamitin, nadikitan mo lang kung anu ano na napipindot. okey na android siya kasi may freedom sa halos lahat. ewan. trip ko bumili ulit nito… tas bumili na lang ng matinong camera.

  7. Avatar for Clarz Clarz says:

    sang brach / place po available ung white LG optimus na yan??

    my friend really want that badly.. nagpa2help po siya..

  8. Avatar for yukime yukime says:

    Went to an LG shop and a saleslady let me try an actual unit for a few seconds. Waaaahaaaw! I want one. But I’m having doubts with the battery life of this one. Having a 6-month LG Cookie, I get out of the house with a fully-charged fone and at 10pm, I need to charge it again. And I’m not a heavy texter, not even a caller.

  9. Avatar for Sheena Go Sheena Go says:

    When will this arrive? Where can I find this? Thanks!

  10. Avatar for melai melai says:

    comment ulit ako..
    ndi super nice and specs nia okay lang..
    i thought super nice kasi i just looked at the pic knina…hahai

  11. Avatar for melai melai says:

    i like the phone it’s fantastic…i wish i had not yet purchased my nokia phone, too bad…hahahaha

  12. Avatar for leeto leeto says:

    thanks everyone. now i know the difference between a capacitive and resistive screens. SALAMAT sa inyo

  13. Avatar for nero nero says:

    wow i like this!

  14. Avatar for sylv3rblade sylv3rblade says:

    @Ton
    Capacity touch screen too. That’s a plus

  15. Avatar for Guest Guest says:

    The HTC Wildfire was just available today. found 2 sellers in TPC selling them for 15,500.

  16. Avatar for Ton Ton says:

    vs. Spica….spica has no radio, but higher proc and slimmer build. But this has less buttons (which I think is better on a touchscreen UI). Still Spica for me.

  17. Avatar for Miguel Miguel says:

    But the Samsung i5500 “Corby” has a QVGA screen – perhaps the comparison should be against the i5800 “Apollo.”

  18. Avatar for mike mike says:

    just wait for the Samsung Corby Android. It is priced at 11k pesos.

    or better wait for the Redfox Android phone. It is priced at 9k pesos, dual sim.

  19. Avatar for simplynice93 simplynice93 says:

    I have seen this phone at SM manila last monday lang. Problema lang talaga yung resistive touchscreen nya kung sanay ka na sa capacitive touchscreen. Pero ito na siguro ang pinakamurang android…for now. :)

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