There are times in life when you just can't settle for anything less. Agree? Take for example, an instance that you needed a flashlight but a pinlight just won't do so you opted for a LED light instead. Or that time when you needed to edit a video but your netbook just miserably fails in doing so, therefore, a laptop was required. Or perhaps that evening you wore that special Valentino dress and your wedge sandals just didn't do justice so you had to beg your older sister to let you borrow her sexy Christian Louboutin shoes in exchange for one kidney (I'm just kidding!).

There are circumstances in life when "smart" just doesn't cut it anymore. You need to be at a "genius" level to perform things and get the job done. Enter LG. (Yup, life's good!)

My mom has an LG phone. It's a Cookie. She got it last year when she wanted a touchscreen phone. I guess she wanted an upgrade from her QWERTY phone knowing that everyone else is getting ones with the big screen and touch interface.

Okay, here she is tinkering her mobile.

You gotta hand it to her. Isn't my mom pretty groovy? She's a Senior Citizen who loves gadgets like me! She has a PSP, you know. I gave her one during her 61st birthday because she asked for it. She's like Lola Techy and I love her dearly. Tee hee!

And so she has been using this LG phone for almost a year now and "like mother-like daughter" the technolust has struck again. She now wants a faster phone... with a better camera! Now I'm pressured to give her one since I didn't give her anything last Mother's Day and on May 31st (Ack! That's today!), she's celebrating her birthday at the retirement age of 65.

But I'm broke. Woe is me!

Nevertheless, I went to the nearby cellshop to check out my options. Having been well acquainted with the LG interface thanks to my dearest mother, I asked straight for the available LG phones at the store. I figured she might want an upgrade and not a whole new learning experience with another brand.

Lo and behold! The LG Optimus 2X and Optimus Black phones!



Don't let the price sway you... Listen up! 'Coz you're gonna get what you pay for! (And I mean, really... having paid for many phones in my life that were too expensive to actually do anything more than just give me bragging rights!)



Alright, let's start with the LG Optimus 2X. This baby's got style and it's got class. And it's insanely fast. Thanks to its dual core processor and NVIDIA's Tegra 2 system-on-chip. This landmark handset has not just one but two 1GHz Cortex-A9 CPU cores and eight GeForce GPU cores. What? That doesn't thrill you at all? Okay, let me break it down for you.



Since it comes with HDMI connectivity, you can be sure that with all that power from the Optimux 2X, what you see on Optimus 2X's screen is mirrored on your HDTV when you connect it. Picture yourself playing Angry Birds on your 32-inch HDTV! Those pigs are sure gonna get it good! Tee hee! However, it's been said that only the HDTV gets the moving picture feed once you start playing back video. Come on, why would anyone wanna see both screens with video feeds once you start watching the movie on the bigger screen? Although it should be noted that you can play sharp 1080p videos flawlessly! I bet my mom is gonna be so psyched with using this phone especially when watching all her koreanovelas with it! She keeps making me put videos on her current phone but I keep telling her, "Ma, you don't want to get yourself frustrated." And I drop the subject. Well, I'm just being honest.

Also worth mentioning is that when you disconnect the HDMI, the screen on the Optimus 2X comes alive again with sound coming out from its integrated speakers. Then when you connect it back to the HDTV, it just continues to play seamlessly.


Video credits to Engadget.

Now that's the kind of genius I'm talking about in addition to the power of NVIDIA's chip. (Believe me, we just upgraded to NVIDIA's GT 560 Ti for our desktop PC and the beast just plays Crysis2 and Call of Duty: Black OPS devilishly! But that's another story.)

I would want to talk about the benchmarks of this phone but that will probably bore you guys to death, although let me just say that multitasking maniacs (ahem!) will definitely find themselves owning a really fast phone. Average phone users may or may not feel the difference since they don't really maximize their phones to their full potential. However, it's like owning a sports car. You don't really get to drive a Lamborghini at full speed everyday. But when you're going to take it out for a long drive then honey, you got a real charmer there!


Hands-on with an LG Optimus 2X!

Next, let's see what else the Optimus 2X has to offer. You get 8gb of internal memory and a 4-inch WVGA LCD with 800 x 480 display resolution from an IPS panel! (Our local cellshop here sells it with an additional 8gb memory card so you can get 16gb in total!) Not excited with the news? The IPS (In-Plane Switching technology) has gotta be the best type of panel technology available today in the market for the manufacturing of LCD. Mind you, it shouldn't be the price of the LCD that you should be looking into, it's really about what it's made of! And in our case, the Optimus 2X uses an IPS panel, which is considered best for high accuracy in colour, the image quality, and wide viewing angles. This is something you really have to see for yourself. And I'm pretty sure mom will be utterly impressed with this feature.



Then there's the camera. Of course, in the recent years, a smartphone won't be smart anymore unless it's got a camera to brag about. Our hot genius phone, the Optimus 2X boasts an 8-megapixel camera! Wait, isn't that overkill for a Senior Citizen? Well, my mom could surely use all the details that the LG's camera sensor is able to capture. In a situation such as this, having more is definitely better than having less. And she likes to print her photos so the megapixels would surely be a (+).

See? It can take panorama shots like this one:

Photo from Ubergizmo.

So you see, it's a very fast and functional phone overall. ^_^ Mom will surely love it!

But wait, what about the LG Optimus Black? Ahhh, you thought I'd forgotten all about it! No way... I'll tell you right now that it's also a very impressive phone.


Photo by gadgetpicture.

It looks and feels like it's brother at first sight with the 800 x 480 display resolution on a 4-inch screen running Android OS. However, the main difference between the two is that the Optimus Black comes with an energy-efficient NOVA display (700 nits) on an IPS screen *PLUS* slimming down its size to just 9.2 mm and weighing very light at 109g.

But it doesn't stop there, because it also has a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Better self-shots for camwhoring, would you agree? ;) Although the 2gb memory may not be enough, still it has expendable memory up to 32gb just like it's bigger brother. The Optimus Black also comes with Wi-Fi Direct, which is lets you do file transfers directly between sets with no need for an access point. (Think: Peer-to-peer file transfers!!!) It could come in handy, you know.


Photo from ethiopianreview.

I really don't mind the 5-megapixel camera found at the back of the Optimus Black which can also record 720p video. For me, this particular spec is quite enough.


Photo from geeky-gadgets.

In fact the whole minimalist design that the Optimus Black is trying to convey is absolutely awesome. I mean, it screams of sophistication anywhere you look at it. If I'm not going to buy this phone for myself, then my dad will surely adore this one. Do you know how he is? I mean, I think he's the only person I know who doesn't have a camera phone and it doesn't even have a colored screen! Heck, our helpers in the house have far better mobile phones than he does! But you know, that's my dad. A very simple man with very simple needs. But can you imagine if he would be using an LG Optimus Black? Yes, I can and it will definitely suit him very well.


Photo from manekinekophones.

I believe the best feature of the Optimus Black that my dad will definitely love is the screen's brightness. He plays golf every day not because he's sosyal like that (in fact, you can ask my friends and they can verify that he doesn't even have a social life!) but he must play golf for exercise. He's got diabetes (on insulin) and cardiovascular problems, so he really needs to keep moving to get his blood flowing and to be in top-top shape. Now can you imagine how hot the weather gets lately? Now imagine this, the Optimus Black under direct sunlight.


Photo courtesy of Engadget.

BINGO! No more eye squinting under the sun and it makes it very easy to do video calls!!!

As for the camera, I found this photo via web from techiexplorer taken by his Optimus Black and I must say I'm pretty impressed even if it was taken in low light. Not bad indeed. I say it would suffice.



And when taking pictures in broad daylight, this sexy phone absolutely astounds.


Photos by (L) mobilitylounge and (R) lgblog_de

Other things I would like to highlight with the Optimus Black is that it sports a TI OMAP 3630 1GHz processor, its camera has geo-tagging features with face and smile detection, 3G HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and  HSUPA 5.76 Mbps with Class 12 EDGE and GPRS (have you ever tried using a smartphone as a modem? at this genius level, you should because it's meant to be!), SMS with threaded view (hey, it truly helps in keeping track of conversations to save yourself from embarrassing out-of-this-world replies!), and like the Optimus 2X it comes with Android OS v2.2 (Froyo) although both are upgradable to v2.3 (Gingerbread! Woot!).

I guess all that are good enough reasons why I should get this phone for my dad or for myself. Would you believe he broke his old phone a few weeks ago and then bought a new one... only to my surprise that it was the same model as his old one. Ayayay! Poor dad. I must get him to upgrade already! Tsk...

Oh and of course, Father's Day is just around the corner and he will also be celebrating his 65th birthday on June 17th!

Then again, I'm broke as a joke and it ain't funny. ~_~ *POOF!* So much for wishful thinking!

Well, maybe I'd get lucky in a few weeks or maybe earn a bit of extra dough, and should the Universe hear me out... maybe it will conspire and allow me to acquire these beautiful LG babies for my parents. Can anyone hear me? If someone out there is really listening, please grant my wishes. =D

Anyway, take a look at another cool video from YouTube featuring the stunning LG Optimus Black:



So in conclusion, here's a comparison of the two to give you a better idea of what we had been discussing:



I can picture it now. When my parents are gonna get their hands on these genius phones, I'm pretty sure that they both will be welcoming their first ever apo by taking a gazillion photos and videos as soon as I give birth. They'll probably be sporting a different wallpaper of the baby each day on their kick-ass 4-inch screens! *sigh* Mighty proud first-time grandparents they are gonna be... and these LG smart genius phones are sure to go down in our family history. :)

 
My parents. Pic taken during my wedding.

I want what's best for my family so I won't settle for anything less. Smart is not good enough anymore, you have to be GENIUS to rise above the rest. ^_^


xoxo,