LG whips out dual-core Android smartphone

Say hello to LG's latest Android handset: the world's first - the company claims - smartphone with a dual-core CPU. Hence the name, Optimus 2X, which also applies, for now, to the version of Android it'll run: 2.2 Froyo. LG pledged to release a 2.3 Gingerbread update for the device. LG Optimus 2X The handset incorporates …

[iamapizza]

Lovely

Does it come with a fan?

[John Riddoch]

Battery life

I'm guessing the "hefty" battery is there to ensure the thing lasts longer than 6 hours on a charge.

I've got an HTC Desire, and while it's a great phone and I'm enjoying the smartphone features, it's a pain that the battery only lasts a day on a charge, less if I use it heavily (particularly GPS which kills the battery). My last phone would go 5 days on a single charge quite happily.

Add in a dual core CPU and you can imagine the drain on battery life...

I'm hoping that more efficient CPUs are on the way which will help the longevity of a single charge on a phone.

[hyartep]

fine iphone design

as for design - fine iphone4 copy.

but i'd like to know more abour battery life. any info?

[BristolBachelor]

iphone 4 copy ?

In what way is it an iphone 4 copy?

Because it's flat?

It has a screen on one side?

It has a bezel?

The screen is touch sensitive?

It's black?

I'm lost. To me it looks like every other touch-screen phone for the last 2 years (except the iphone 4, which has a big crack in the glass back)

[Giddy Kipper]

Is it just me ...

... or does that phone look bloody enormous? Or maybe those girlies have really small hands.

[Mr Brush]

Hmmm

Dual Core CPU? - Yay!

Trying very hard to look like iP4? - Booo

[Patrick O'Reilly]

Who had December 16?

I knew there would be a dual-core Android phone announced before the end of the year. Pity it wasn't the latest Nexus.

[Mark Broadhurst]

Nice but....

Can it play "Crysis" ?

[Jim Coleman]

Blimey!

Bloomin' heck! What kind of a bloatware phone OS needs a dual-core CPU? Not surprised the battery's so hefty. Even IOS and WP7 manage to be speedy on a single core. And how come no 2.3 already? How often do Android manufacturers promise updates but not deliver or deliver very, very late?

Getting really fed up with Android - heck, even new games are coming out for WP7 before Android due to fragmentation making development take so darn long.

[Charlie Clark]

Not all cores are created equally

ARM cores are not directly comparable to x86 - they have a lot less silicon and do less. This is the main reason why they use so little power. This actually makes an asynchronous, multicore architecture more attractive in the few cases where you do actually want two applications to run in parallel such as browsing and listening to music which we take for granted on a PC. Depending on the actual task and configuration this could end up using less juice than a single core, ie. the cores can run at different speeds throttling where needed.

I, for one, welcome our new multicore overlords.

[Anonymous Coward]

aahh

"The 2X also supports the DLNA medai streaming platform"

media?

Gotta be said though i am looking forward to having a play with this handset.

[gautam]

WOW

Yes ! I want one. How much ? More tech details please.

[Fuzzysteve]

mr pedantic strikes!

DLNA medai streaming platform

media, i think you mean

[TeeCee]

Hmmm, what for?

A quick check would seem to suggest that background applications in Android are suspended, with the exception of those using specific, low impact services as permitted by the OS and designed to avoid unduly impacting the foreground task.

A dual core CPU would therefore appear to be in the "chocolate teapot" category on the wishlist and a faster single core would be more likely to yield benefits.

Then again, maybe Gingerbread will be providing "true" multitasking support? There has to be a reason for LG to bother with an upgrade version, they've been consistantly lax in doing so for the rest of their Andoid range, large chunks of which appear to be officially stuck with 1.6 in perpetuity. Actually I reckon that the announcement of a planned LG ROM upgrade is the seriously gobsmacking part of all this. Is this "pledged" to happen before or after hell freezes over?

[BristolBachelor]

Dual Core

Maybe if you are doing something very intensive like gaming (maybe also using the HDMI out), then one core runs the OS library routines for helping with rendering / coding video, while the other core allows you to still tell the phone what you want to do; like shoot the zombie running at me?

I'll get me coat; it's the one with the 10 year old phone in the pocket

[Anonymous Coward]

HDMI..

Won't be run by the CPU, but by the GPU, so having running over HDMI wont affect general usage.

To be honest, most smartphones already have > 1 processing unit in them - one for the baseband, one for the GUI and apps, and one or more in the GPU. They are already pretty powerful devices!

[IndianaJ]

Maybe

Maybe it'll be able to play Angry Birds.

[Jim Coleman]

Haha!

Good point - after all, Angry Birds has a specific list of compatible Android phones doesn't it? So whereas any app runs on any IOS phone* or WP7 phone, with Android you have to make sure you've got one of the compatible handsets. What does that remind you of? Oh yes - Windows Mobile, that ugly child of the last decade.

*ish.

[RichardBarrell]

Re: "And how come no 2.3 already?"

2.3's stable release was only just this month. That isn't *nearly* enough time to put it (and all of LG's inevitable customisations to it) through anything like proper QA testing on the device.

[Peter Townsend]

Battery

At least they seem to have learnt from the HTC Desire HD - a cracking phone but the 1230mAh battery is way too small. Getting a full days use out of it is a major struggle.

[Anonymous Coward]

Usual iPhone fanboyism...

...Apple of course invented the rectangular slab with a screen on one side design...

Tell us oh wise ones, exactly how would you design a touch screen phone? I have an old iPaq (look, someone invented an 'i' device before Apple!) that is basically a rectangular slab with a button at the bottom and a screen - guess Apple copied that then?

[Tempest]

So how did my Palm II PDA have the rectangular form years ago if Apple invented the shape?

Sounds more than likely it is more likely a copy.

Pity they did't copy the flip-lid, too, I never had a broken or scratched screen.

[JaitcH]

Unless the models have large hands ...

it appears LG has really worked some miracles in packaging this smart phone.

Interesting how Korea is home to of the leading smart manufacturers.

[Frederick Tennant]

Well spotted!

Apple only produced a phone and claim they made the wheel lol

All the have done is make a os based on the old fustrations of that stupid pen I used to use on my ipac. There are lies, dam lies, and then there is marketing

[Grozbat]

Core blimey

Humble featurephones have had dual cores for years - one core for the OS and one core taking over multimedia duties from the DSP that used to be common in phone architectures.

And smartphones have had three cores for good while - one for multimedia, one for the phone OS and one for the Application OS (Symbian, Android, whatever). Not sure what's new about LG's phone.