If earlier last year you had to pick the first brand to come out with a dual-core phone, it's unlikely you'd have chosen LG - but that's exactly what's appeared in the shape of the LG Optimus 2X.
After first confirming earlier in 2010 that it was building a dual-core handset, the rumours of the LG Star grew quickly until LG announced the Optimus 2X would be coming in early 2011.
The new phone, which is also the world's first mainstream device capable of recording in 1080p, comes packing a 4-inch WVGA screen, which looks ridiculously sharp when browsing the internet and watching video.

The latter is supplemented by two speaker grilles at the bottom flanking the microUSB slot, offering some pretty decent multimedia sound (although slightly tinny as you'd expect in a phone of this width).

The Android 2.2 functionality of this Froyo-powered phone is taken care of by four touch sensitive buttons at the bottom of the screen - with the menu button once again taking on LG's familiar pop-out window style design.

The top earpiece is flanked by two heavily-rounded edges, which make pressing the phone into the side of your head a little more pleasant than the scimitar-like blades adorning a number of today's smartphones.

The front-facing camera is also on show here, meaning video calling is a possibility, although we're yet to hear from LG if a dedicated application for this will be included with the phone at purchase.
The rest of the phone is surrounded by a nice metallic chassis on the edges, making it a pleasure to hold and use - the volume buttons are particularly easy to hit when making a call.

Another big feature LG is keen to push with the Optimus 2X is the HDMI-connectivity through the bundled mini-connector in the box - we gave this a little test as you'll see later in the hands on LG Optimus 2X review.


One quirky feature of the Optimus 2X is the back strip - initially we thought this was a kickstand, but it turns out to just be a style option for the back of the phone to proclaim the Google affiliation.

The 8MP camera sensor with single LED flash is taken care of here as well, raised slightly and making laying the phone flat on a desk impossible, although typing without holding the phone isn't much harder despite the added instability.

As we said, the screen is pretty darn good on this dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2-powered device - the colours really shine through and the resolution, despite being the same as many other smartphones out there, looks really sharp in all areas.

In the hand it's pretty good too - the large screen doesn't dominate the palm, and the screen is pretty easy to reach with a single digit, although some shuffling may occur as you try and pull down the notifications bar.

It's very thin, so will slip easily into a pocket, manbag or knapsack or whatever the metrosexual man about town is using these days.