In the year 2010 the Smartphone war continues and many manufactures compete to gain more market territory. The most significant product was iPhone by Apple Inc and they successfully reach the market becoming the most selling product. However the major contributing factor for their success is not only their technology but the creative marketing campaign with their well known brand name “Apple”. While iPhone get the whole public attention, most of the people didn’t get to notice other cool products which there in market sometimes for much lesser cost. LG was one of the high tech Smartphone manufacture introduced many cool product to the market with high end technologies.
Down the time with Smartphone, the main requirement that users were demanding were their speed. The reason behind this is many people partially replace their Lap top computer with these devices. So they need the speed as good as Laptop. Before 2011 most of the time Smartphone were having like 1GHz single core processor which is way behind compared to Laptop.
In early 2011 LG come in to the market with exceptional Smartphone and that was named as “LG Optimus 2X P990”. The name says it all. After this earth witness a dual core Smartphone which is speed almost same as an average Laptop. This attracted lot of public attention in that time. Over a less than one year of time, this device changes the global expectation of a Smartphone. Actually it redefined the standard for a mobile device by making lots of impossible things possible.
Features and Functionalities
Processor and Hardware
The main attraction in this device is its processor. It’s Dual Core Cortex A9 Processor with 1GHz clock speed. This platform let you run many applications in the same time due to outstanding multi-tasking capability. And it comes with GeForce graphic processing unit and Tegra 2 chipset. This GPU let you to connect this device with HD TV to mirroring video. This specification picture a Laptop in my mind not a Smartphone. Surely this device will be a huge threat to Laptop sales. It’s having on board 8GB storage for contacts and SMS with 512MB RAM. Additionally there is a card slot support microSD chip up to 32GB. Phones dimensions are 123.9 x 63.2 x 10.9 mm and 139g weight.
Display
This is one of the most important features in any Smartphone. Here is it 16 million colors LCD with multi touch sensitivity. Size is 480×800, 4 inch, pretty much standard for android Smartphone, yet approx 230 pixels per inch which is great. The touch sensitive screen is protected with denser glass, called Gorilla glass. To identify the user’s motions there is Accelerometer and Gyro meter together, same as in latest iPhone. And there is a Digital compass as well. These sensors could be used to display auto rotate and more sensitive gaming applications as well. To support the operating system function there are few hardware keys at the bottom of the display.
Multimedia
This handset comes with excellent multimedia capabilities. Its supports all common video and audio formats long with image formats. If you want to mirror your HD video in TV there is a HDMI cable comes with. According to many individual reviews on internet HD video playback is very sharp and less nosy. The audio play back with loudspeaker is quality enough, yet nothing outstanding compared to other Smartphones. However there is a 3.5mm audio out gives you total flexibility to extend your audio experience with 2X, may be by connecting your home theater audio system. This audio and video out comes in handy when you play games with the device. Further the device support advanced video compression like DivX, Xvid, H.264, MP4 and WMV. Unlike in many other Smartphone, this support Adobe Flash player version 10.1, so you won’t miss your favorite YouTube.
Camera
LG Optimus 2X is equipped with two cameras. Front camera, 1.3 mega pixel for video conferencing and it works pretty well for self portrait, as a digital mirror as well. The very special one is the rear camera. It is 8 mega pixels with LED flash, importantly the lens is covered with outer glass for protection. This is capable of capturing images with resolution 3264×2448 pixels. This is having advanced auto focusing system with, face detection and touch focus. To reduce the image blurring due to camera shake there is a digital image stabilizer system. Whenever GPS signals are available it attaches GEO tag to the image as a Meta data. Further the rear camera is capable of capturing 1080p HD videos in 24 fps and if you need 30fps you can go down to 720p resolution. The video looks professional and sharp enough to any online publishing.
Operating System
The device originally comes with the famous open source mobile OS Android version 2.2 and it’s upgradable to version 2.3 as well. Same as in any other Android Smartphone, its gives you versatile control over user interfaces and other functionalities. Further it allow you to install JAVA application, which open your device to millions of free world of applications. If you take a closer look you will see that standard android home screen is altered in LG Optimus 2X. Generally almost all the application loads faster in here than any other android device, due to the advanced hardware platform. And touch responsiveness and navigation is also pretty fast. However there are some identified bugs in the software in LG Optimus 2X, probably due to the non optimized source code in OS lead to application crash. And there is another complains from the users that phone is consuming more memory just to load the OS. These things had made this great device unpopular.
Connectivity
Today, the phone is only a feature in a Smartphone. So, people don’t talk much about the GSM connectivity to make telephone calls. Yet it’s very important, since the major usage of the phone is make calls and send SMS though there are 100s of other features. LG Optimus 2X comes with all the modern connectivity, to make phone calls as well as Data. It support quad band GSM including 850/ 900/ 1800 and 1900 for conventional phone calls and SMS. Since most of the applications require data connectivity and of course you need to browse on the run it gives you 3G connectivity with HSDPA. Other than this it comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity as well. To connect the device with PC to sync data there is a Micro USB version 2.0 port, cable comes with the package.
Market Impact
Price Curve and Guinness Record
Normally sometimes after introducing a phone to market, its prices get reduced to certain level and get stabilized. But with LG Optimus 2X it didn’t happen that way. According to cellpex.com price curve, it’s same today as the launching month. That represent continues demand to the device throughout the time. However this trend might get disturbed due to serous software issues in the operating system. And LG Optimus 2X could make its mark on Guinness Record book becoming “First Smartphone with Dual Core technology” which is amazing milestone for LG.
iPhone
The main competitor of LG Optimus 2X would be famous apple iPhone 4S which having almost same functionalities. However no Smartphone could compete with the iPhone so far in the market, not because of technology, but because of highly creative marketing campaign. At the same time LG Optimus 2X having the disadvantage of software bugs which is having only a patch as a solution. Other than that LG Optimus 2X having advantages like JAVA applications and Adobe Flash player to stand over iPhone.
HTC Android Devices
At the same time it will have to compete with the other Android phones like HTC. They are already doing well in market and gradually become a threat to famous iPhone as well. According to the market statistics, if you consider the number of HTC Android handset sales, it has already surpassed the number of iPhone sales.
The LG Optimus 2X having the advantage of be the first in the market, yet it won’t be enough to continue to survive. LG will have to take bold steps to correct the minor software issues which become bigger problems to usability. I’m pretty happy with their hardware, probably the best hardware for the Smartphone available in the market. With the solution to their software issues they will be able to give good competition to iPhone and HTC and capture significant market share down the time. And I’m curious to know what the next big Smartphone move of LG.
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