T-Mobile G2x Review: Gingerbread-Infused
by Vivek Gowri on August 3, 2011 2:09 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Tegra 2
- Android 2.3
- LG Optimus 2X
- Android
- G2x
- Mobile
I’ve been a loyal T-Mobile user for the last five years, so the logjam of sorts at the top of The Big Magenta’s smartphone linuep is particularly interesting to me. On one side, there’s the excellent Sensation 4G that Brian reviewed recently. On the other, there’s the dual-core MyTouch 4G Slide, which is set to launch in the coming weeks. And then there’s the G2x. The G2x is T-Mobile’s version of the LG Optimus 2X, better known as one of the first shipping Tegra 2 phones on the market. The best way to describe the G2x is that it’s an Optimus 2X with a different baseband and the stock Android UI, so Brian’s excellent Optimus 2X review offers a solid background for what I’ll cover in this article. It’s been on the market for some time now, but the long-awaited Gingerbread update has finally started being pushed to devices earlier this week, so let’s take a look to see how it stacks up.
| Physical Comparison | ||||||
| Apple iPhone 4 | HTC Thunderbolt | T-Mobile G2x (LG Optimus 2X) | HTC Sensation | |||
| Height | 115.2 mm (4.5") | 122 mm (4.8") | 123.9 mm (4.87") | 126.3 mm (4.97") | ||
| Width | 58.6 mm (2.31") | 67 mm (2.63") | 63.2 mm (2.48") | 65.5 mm (2.58") | ||
| Depth | 9.3 mm ( 0.37") | 13.2 mm (0.52") | 10.9 mm (0.43") | 11.6 mm (0.46") | ||
| Weight | 137 g (4.8 oz) | 183.3 g (6.46 oz) | 139.0 g (4.90 oz) | 148 g (5.22 oz) | ||
| CPU | Apple A4 @ ~800MHz | 1 GHz MSM8655 45nm Snapdragon | 1 GHz Dual Core Cortex-A9 Tegra 2 AP20H | 1.2 GHz Dual Core Snapdragon MSM8260 | ||
| GPU | PowerVR SGX 535 | Adreno 205 | ULP GeForce | Adreno 220 | ||
| RAM | 512MB LPDDR1 (?) | 768 MB LPDDR2 | 512 MB LPDDR2 | 768 MB LPDDR2 | ||
| NAND | 16GB or 32GB integrated | 4 GB NAND with 32 GB microSD Class 4 preinstalled | 8 GB NAND with up to 32 GB microSD | 4 GB NAND with 8 GB microSD Class 4 preinstalled | ||
| Camera | 5MP with LED Flash + Front Facing Camera | 8 MP with autofocus and dual LED flash, 720p30 video recording, 1.3 MP front facing | 8 MP with AF/LED Flash, 1080p24 video recording, 1.3 MP front facing | 8 MP AF/Dual LED flash, VGA front facing | ||
| Screen | 3.5" 640 x 960 LED backlit LCD | 4.3” 800 x 480 LCD-TFT | 4.0" 800 x 480 LCD-TFT | 4.3" 960 x 540 S-LCD | ||
| Battery | Integrated 5.254Whr | Removable 5.18 Whr | Removable 5.6 Whr | Removable 5.62 Whr | ||
T-Mobile G2x - The Hardware, Part I
The device hardware is nearly identical to the international version that we reviewed earlier in the year. It’s a fairly conservative design, with mildly curved edges and corners softening an otherwise rectangular body. The front side is a continuous glass surface, with a slight curve on the right and left sides. The bezel is thin on the two sides and larger on the top and bottom. The upper bezel contains the front facing camera, proximity and ambient light sensors, earpiece, and a silkscreened T-Mobile logo. The bezel underneath the screen is significantly larger and contains the four capacitive touch buttons, but there doesn’t seem to be a readily apparent reason for why there is so much wasted space on the surface.
The battery cover takes up the entire backside of the phone. It’s matte soft touch plastic in a colour that T-Mobile refers to as “Mocha Brown,” and has an aluminum strip down the middle. The camera resides under a slightly recessed window in the battery cover, and there’s a cutout next to it for the single LED flash. Unfortunately, this results in dust getting all over the inside of the battery cover, and especially between the camera module and the lens window. Common sense and good design decision, this was most definitely not.
The matte metallic silver ring around the four sides of the device bridges the glass front and the battery cover. As with the aluminum strip on the back, it gives the device a touch of brightwork to keep things visually interesting. LG devices in recent times have used variations of this design language, with a lot of rectangles, radiused edges, and a metal or mirrored chrome strip down the backside of the device. You can see in the Revolution, Optimus 3D, and even the Optimus Pad/G-Slate tablets. It’s a no-nonsense aesthetic with a bit of subtle visual flair. It seems a bit staid at first, but the more you use it, the more you’re drawn in. Count me a fan.
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aegisofrime - Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - link
My Galaxy S II does Sunspider 0.9 in 3423.8ms, if you guys want another data point.Brian Klug - Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - link
Sunspider 0.9, or Sunspider 0.9.1? Methinks the latter ;)-Brian
fixxxer0 - Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - link
My droid x on CM7 rom does the sunspider 0.9 in 3945ms (vs 7014 for stock) for peoples comparison.not overclocked at all (undervolteded though)
yourwhiteshadow - Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - link
if you're going to mod the phone you get, you might as well get the G2x, but otherwise you're better off with the sensation.hopefully we'll see these benchmarks repeated with a stable CM build.
Brian Klug - Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - link
That's actually our plan - to do a CM story and show some performance numbers. I've actually run all the betas and the final stable CM7 builds on the Optimus 2X which we still have kicking around.Honestly from the sound of it, CM7 is much, much more stable than the binary that LG has pushed out to the G2x. I can't speak too much for the G2x version of CM7, but the Optimus 2X CM7 build is flawless.
-Brian
arbarath - Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - link
I own Optimus 2X and I was very excited when I bought it.I am really disappointed after I bought. Sometimes my single core HTC desire performs better than Dual Core Optimus 2X. I have all above mentioned problems. The phone suddenly becomes very slow. The pre dexopt issue also killing. When you want to add a widget u need to wait for 30 sec to bring up the list of widgets.
I tried Cyanogen Nightlies but not stable yet. I get too much of dropped calls with RC1. I will move to cyanogen. I have no hope on LG's software side. Better they could hire some cyanogen group persons to develop their software.
I am not recommending LG Phones to any of my friends.. after all these..
fabarati - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
You should try out Modacos GR2 alpha. It's fluid and smooth and quick and pretty damn stable. But more importantly, it has all the LG software improvements, like a better texting app, better contacts app, 720p mkv playback, LGs camera app.Also, there's a camera app mod that allows 30fps 1080p recording @ 17 mbps and 30 fps 720p @ 10 mbps, greatly increasing video quality. It's also available for CM7.
But yeah, it's a tinkerers phone.
/optimus 2x owner
roguecong - Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - link
i recorded a clip on the "high" setting and it showed as 1080(8)/23 in windows properties - with a lousy 128kbps audio.fabarati - Friday, August 5, 2011 - link
There's a camera app mod that allows 30fps 1080p recording @ 17 mbps and 30 fps 720p @ 10 mbps, greatly increasing video quality.The audio is limited by the microphones. Increasing the bit rate won't improve audio, but lowering it won't necessarily worsen it.
Vinas - Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - link
I liked the last half of this review. Still I feel that the benchmarks are not a good indication of performance since these phones are not running the same stuff. For instance the HTC sensation only had about 100MB free with sense 3.0 running. It also has a much better qhd screen, so the resolution is just higher although it keeps up well. Basically I bought the sensation over the g2x. In the end sense 3.0 is pretty awesome and I'm not wanting to switch back anytime soon.