LG Optimus GT540 review

LG India has released Android 1.6-powered LG Optimus GT540, which can be upgraded to Android 2.1 version in the coming days. The budget LG device comes preloaded with Android applications and LG App Advisor feature.

The LG Optimus GT540, at first glance, doesn't look much like a feature phone – it's stylish, lightweight and quite the looker. However, the LG GT540 feels like a feature phone through-and-through – and no amount of faux-metallic brushing can evade this fact.

Competing with the likes of the Samsung Monte and the HTC Wildfire, LG Optimus GT540 is powered by the antiquated Android 1.6 OS. It features a 3 megapixel (without flash) camera, a resistive touchscreen, 104 MB internal memory and can support up 32GB of storage via its microSD card slot.

If you've seen any pictures of the LG GT540, you'll know that it is quite a good-looking device. The body is constructed out of metallic plastic material and features a shiny metallic edging.

The LG Optimus GT540 device's screen takes centre stage, below which are optical keys for Options and Back and there's hardware keys to Call, Home and End Call situated along the bottom of the device right where you'd expect them to be.

Plus, there's also an Android search key located on the right hand side of the device, which is both extremely useful and utterly bizarre – we stumbled across it by accident.

There's also a dedicated camera button, volume rockers and mini USB port located on the sides of the device and a 3.5mm jack situated on top for all your musical needs.

Although the LG Optimus GT540 runs on Android 1.6, which traditionally only allows three homscerens, the LG UI allows you to add up to seven. You can customise these with all the widgets, apps, bookmarks, folders and contacts you like.

Granted, Android 1.6 Donut may be fairly old now, but it's still a nice OS to use and has enough features and quirks to keep anyone new to the platform interested for a good long while. With an automatically synchronized Google account, users can log on to access various applications such as Google Maps, Gtalk, Gmail and YouTube.

For instance, the SNS application on the LG Optimus is a refreshing addition, bringing all your important social networking accounts together in one place, such as Twitter, Facebook and Bebo – sure, it's no Friend Stream, but it's certainly better than nothing.

One of our main gripes with the LG Optimus is that it uses a resistive touchscreen, so there’s no multitouch, pinch-to-zoom or any real tactility when you're navigating menus, browsers or apps.

Yes, we are aware this is a budget handset, but more often than not resistive touchscreens render a device practically unusable in some instances.

For example, you'll find yourself constantly clicking things you didn't mean to, or opening links when you want to scroll down a list, or, worst still, calling someone else by mistake – something which happened to us numerous times during testing.

All in all this makes for an extremely annoying user experience – partly because it doesn't do what you want it to, and partly because you’re forever clicking Back or Home to go back to the beginning of what you’ve just attempted to do and start all over again.

And this problem carries over into the browser and Maps function of the device, where you have to zoom in and out of web pages or Maps by tapping a zoom button, which is both inaccurate and time consuming.

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