You saw the LG Optimus 3D Max Unboxing last month, here is the complete review of the 3D phone, successor of the Optimus 3D that we review last year. It was announced at MWC 2012 earlier this year. It went on sale in India last month, and was officially launched later. Let’s get into the review.
Hardware
It packs the same 4.3-inch (800 x 480 Pixels) stereoscopic Nova Plus LCD display that is much brighter than the previous 3D phone and this one has Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protection. The processor has also been upped to 1.2GHz from 1GHz and has Tri-Dual (dual-core, dual-channel, dual-memory) architecture. The phone feels much compact and sleek
The Screen is glossy and gets smudged easily. The display is much brighter. The front camera is at the top with the proximity and ambient light sensor next to it and the earpiece is above the LG logo.
There are capacitive touch buttons for menu, home, back and search at the bottom which lights up when you touch, otherwise you it remains dark just like the bezel.
The Volume rocker and the micro USB slot protected by a slide cover are at the right. There is no HDMI slot which was present in its predecessor.
There is a 3D button at the left and there is no dedicated camera button similar to the Optimus 3D.
The 3.5mm audio jack and power / lock button are at the top.
The back cover has patterns unlike the Optimus 3D that was smooth and rubbery. There are two 5MP cameras with an LED flash and 3D Stereoscopic written on it and a LG logo next to it. The speaker is at the bottom.
When you open the phone you can find the 1,520 mAh battery. There is a SIM card slot at the top and a microSD card slot above that which supports cards up to 32GB.
You get a in-ear headphones and a charger in the box.
Camera
The dual cameras can capture 3D images at 3MP resolution and 2D images at 5MP resolution. It has focus modes (Auto or Face Tracking) and you can even touch an area to focus. There are different scene modes (Normal, Portrait, Landscape ,Sunset and Night) and you can adjust White balance, Color effect and set a Timer. The image quality is good and there is an LED flash which you can use to capture images in the dark.The 3D image options include, focus mode option that could be set to Border or Center. There is also a front-facing VGA camera for video calling.
Here are some camera samples.
It can record video at Full 1080p HD (1920×1080 pixels) at a maximum of 30 FPS (Frames per second) in 2D that also has auto focus option that you can see in the video below.
Here is the 1080p Video sample
3D videos could be recorded at 720p (1280×720 pixels) at 30 FPS. Even though the camera module seem similar, the video recording is better than the Optimus 3D
Here is the 720p 3D video sample
Software
It runs on Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread) with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) coming soon. The Optimus 3D came with the Android 2.2 (Froyo) and later got a OTA update to Android 2.3. Everything is similar including the pinch to add up to 7 home screens. You can also add different themes, long press the screen to add widgets and shortcuts.
The LG’s usual Side up to unlock and the notification bar with shortcuts to control the Sound, WiFi , Bluetooth , GPS and Data are present.
Apps
There is a 3D Space icon on the home-screen to access 3D content including games, gallery, YouTube 3D and 3D camera. You can also use the 3D button to access it. There is also a 3D Converter app that would let you view maps and other supported app in 3D.
There are also range of 3D games such as Asphalt 6, Gulliver’s Travels, Lets Golf 2 and N.O.V.A that come pre-loaded with the phone. There are utility apps such as Alarm, App Manager, Backup, Calculator, Calendar, Finance, Memo, News, Video Editor, Voice recorder, Voice Search and Weather. There is Polaris Office to view various types of office documents, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. There are social apps such as Google+ and Google apps such as Gmail, Talk, YouTube and Google Maps.
You can download more apps and games from Google Play Store and LGSmartWorld.
Multimedia
The Video Player can play MP4 and 3gp, DivX, XviD videos at 1080p. It can’t play Mkv files. You can also view normal videos in 3D format with just a touch of a button. It also has Dolby Mobile audio support that needs earphones to be plugged in.
The Music Player can play different audio formats including MP3, AAC, AAC+, E-AAC+, WAV, WMA, OGG, AMR and MIDI. It has different equalizers such as Dolby Mobile, Acoustic, Bass Boost, Classical, Clear and more, but works only when the headset is plugged in. There are shortcuts to toggle shuffle, repeat and dolby mobile on the playing screen.
There is a FM Radio which is good addition that was absent in the Optimus 3D. There is auto tune feature that is pretty good which even grabs stations well even in closed space. The stations are listed at the bottom. You can view the station list at the bottom and select it quickly, view entire station list and arrange or edit them. You can also listen via loud-speaker which is pretty loud.
Benchmarks
Here are some benchmarks to test the performance.
Quadrant and SmartBench 2012 
CF Bench
Phone calls, Messaging and Keyboard
There were no drop calls and the speaker is good. The messaging has groups and supports MMS and Email. There is a built it Email client apart from the Gmail app. The LG Keyboard has shortcuts to enter numerals with the long press.
The browser scored 189 in the HTML5 test.
Connectivity
The LG Optimus 3D Max has 3G HSDPA 21Mbps / HSUPA 5.8Mbps, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n with WiFi Direct and DLNA (SmartShare feature to share content to DLNA enable devices). The HDMI slot has been replaced by the MHL Port that also acts as the USB that simultaneously charges the connected device. You can use power saver that automatically disconnects WiFi, GPS or other as you choose when the battery is below a certain limit.
Conclusion
The Optimus 3D Max is better than the last year’s Optimus 3D in terms of specs and the design, still the 3D experience seems to be similar. 1 GB RAM is more than enough to run multiple apps in the background. FM Radio is a good addition but still there are not enough 3D games and apps in the LG Smartworld. LG could have released it with Android 4.0 out of the box, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) offers similar experience as the previous phone which is disappointing. The battery life with the 1520 mAh battery is similar to it’s predecessor, that lasts a day with average use such as web browsing, music and images, wish they could have increase the capacity. If you are badly looking for a 3D phone then go for it, instead of the Optimus 3D or HTC Evo 3D.
Pros
Good buildStereoscopic 3D and 1080p video recording3D ConverterCons
No dedicated camera keyRuns on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)3D Games and Videos are limited
Srivatsan Sridhar is a Mobile Technology Enthusiast who is passionate about Mobile phones and Mobile apps. His current phone is Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. You can follow him on Twitter @ssrivatsan and on Google+
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