LG Optimus One: A no-nonsense smartphone

MANILA, Philippines - As an inveterate keypad puncher, I have long resisted the lure of touch-screen phones - until I tried the LG Optimus One P500, a smartphone built around Android 2.2, Google’s latest mobile operating system.

Now the phone is my constant companion, enabling me to check e-mail, browse the Web, listen to the news, see what’s on YouTube, find my location on the map, play a game or two or read an e-book wherever I am, whenever I want. I even use it to make the occasional phone call and send text messages.

The solid build and simple design of the LG Optimus One establish it as a no-nonsense smartphone that’s meant to be used, not gawked at.

Measuring 113.5 x 59 x 13.3 mm and weighing 129 grams, the LG Optimus One is more compact than the Apple iPhone and other glitzy touch-screen handsets, and will fit easily into your pocket.

The phone’s size and the slightly rubbery material used for its all-black chassis make it easy to grip the Optimus One quite comfortably in one hand.

A metal strip running along the edges is home to the power (or lock) switch and a 3.5-mm audio jack at the top, volume controls on the side, and a micro USB port at the bottom, for recharging and for data access.

The lens of the three-megapixel camera sits near the top of the removable back panel, which hides the 1500mAh battery and slots for the SIM and a microSD card. The phone comes with 170 megabytes of internal memory and a two-gigabyte microSD card.

Four buttons below the screen give you quick access to menu, home, back and search. The 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen, with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels, is by no means the biggest or brightest in the market, but it’s big enough to get most touch-screen tasks done and provides good image quality for text and graphics.

Of course, a major attraction of the LG Optimus One is that it already uses Android 2.2 (also known as Froyo), which enjoys speed and performance advantages over Android 2.1 (Eclair), still the most commonly used version in most Android phones today.

Unlike Eclair, Froyo allows users to install applications on removable storage, freeing them from the limits of internal memory, which tends to be quite miserly on most phones. Also unlike Eclair, Froyo enables you to connect a computer to your smartphone and make it function as a modem for Internet access.

Another Froyo feature that will appeal to business users is its better support for Microsoft Exchange, making it easier for them to synchronize their accounts and organize their contacts and appointments.

For the Optimus One, LG has tweaked the user interface, with a dock that holds four icons and an app launcher drawer. The Optimus One also enables you to group programs in categories in the applications drawer.

With a little exploration and some trial and error, getting around the Android system is easy. The default home page has five panels, but this can be easily expanded to seven to give you more space for widgets and application shortcuts. You can customize the desktop by changing the background wallpaper and adding or deleting application shortcuts. Don’t do Facebook? Just press down on its icon and drag it to the trash bin that appears at the bottom of the screen.

There are lots of built-in applications, including Gmail, Google Map, YouTube, a Web browser, a voice recorder, and a number of useful GPS-enabled programs. It’s fun to fire up Map for the first time and have it display your current location on a map.

LG has also included ThinkFree Office so you can view and edit Microsoft Office documents.

If the built-in programs are not enough, you can always go to the Android Market to download more applications, including e-book readers (you can get Kindle for Android), alternate Web browsers, currency converters, mobile content, games (don’t forget to pick up the fun and addicting game called Angry Birds), and hundreds of other programs, many of which are free. LG has also included an App Advisor that highlights top-rated and innovative applications every two weeks. You can change the default country and look at what’s hot in other countries.

Applications – even games – run smoothly on the LG Optimus One, which has proved to be very stable, with no lockups or crashes to date since I began using it earlier this month.

With so many features, it’s easy to forget the Optimus One is also a phone. Quality on voice calls is good, but typing out text messages takes some getting used to, especially if you are not accustomed to on-screen keypads. You can choose a QWERTY keyboard instead, but switch to landscape mode before you do it.

The three-megapixel camera does a decent job of taking photos and video, but taking a picture of yourself, as people are wont to do these days, can be challenging on the Optimus One since the “shutter” is on-screen.

Battery life on the phone is good if you manage its power options wisely. Turning off the screen when it’s not in use will save you the trouble of charging up more than once a day. Of course, keep in mind that some applications, such as playing videos, may chew up battery power faster.

One of the great things about the LG Optimus One is its price. With a suggested retail price of P12,990, the LG Optimus One is one of the most affordable Android phones in the market today, without compromising quality or functionality.