Design

Targeted at the youth market, the GT540 comes in a number of different colors. We got the pink version for our review, and this came with a patterned back battery cover. This will probably appeal to a very niche crowd–those who play with dolls well into adulthood, perhaps. There are conventional shades, too, including black and silver.

The smartphone has dimensions of 109 x 54.5 x 12.7mm, which makes it quite compact. It is kept light with a plastic chassis, tipping the scales at just 116g. Unlike the solidly built midrange handsets we are used to from LG, the GT540 lived up (or down, in this case) to its budget price tag. The side panels on our test unit rattled a little when the phone was shaken and the clear acrylic buttons on the front felt cheap and wobbly. Furthermore, the glossy plastic exterior attracted fingerprint and face smudges readily.

Aesthetically, the design isn’t remarkable, but it isn’t ugly, either. It is rectangular in shape and tapers off to curved oval edges at the top and bottom. The 3-inch HVGA (480 x 320-pixel) screen is made to look small as it occupies the front with lots of excess space on its top and bottom. Above it is the LG logo and below you will find five buttons in a two-three configuration. This includes the touch-sensitive Menu and Back keys above the physical Call, Home and End keys, laid out as a single clear plastic strip.

A 3.5mm audio connector is found on the top of the GT540, while volume controls are on the left edge. The right flank is the most crowded side with a covered micro-USB port for charging and syncing, as well as for the Search and Camera shortcut keys.

For memory expansion, this smartphone comes with a microSDHC slot behind the back battery cover. This is positioned so you do not need to remove the battery to swap cards.

Features

Though inexpensive, the LG didn’t scrimp on the connectivity options for this Optimus. It comes with everything most users will probably need including HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and even A-GPS for satellite navigation. We like that LG modified the notifications pull-down page with toggle buttons for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS, making it convenient to turn these wireless options on/off.

Since the Optimus runs the Android operating system, you get all the standard software features such as Gmail, Maps and the Android Market to find and install third-party apps. LG has added some customizations to the interface, so items such as the Home screen and applications menu looks different from the default Android OS. For example, the LG Home interface puts permanent shortcuts to the dialer and text message apps, something not found in the vanilla version of Android 1.6. But if you prefer Google’s default interface, LG Home can be turned off, unlike the customizations from HTC (Sense) and Samsung (TouchWiz). According to LG, an upgrade to Android 2.1 (Eclair) will be released in the coming months. This is good news because it adds a number of significant user enhancements like an improved contacts list and browser.

The GT540 comes with an HVGA display, a screen resolution that the first Android phones started out with. This is good because third-party developers created most of their apps supporting this resolution. This LG has a slight advantage in this respect compared with other budget Android phones which come with QVGA screens.

However, this same touchscreen uses resistive technology, which is less sensitive than the capacitive technology more commonly found in Android phones. The difference is felt when you use the onscreen keyboard–more pressure is required when thumb typing, which slows down the process. Furthermore, the small 3-inch display and narrow keys on the virtual QWERTY make typing a chore. We ended up using the phone keypad more than the QWERTY.

While we understand that the use of a small resistive screen keeps costs down, we can’t help but feel frustrated by the impaired text input experience. Considering the importance of emails, texting and Web browsing for an Android phone, this is a big downside of the GT540.

The LG Optimus does not come with an ambient light sensor, which means you have to adjust screen brightness manually depending on your surroundings. This is important because lowering the backlight in dark situations will help save battery life and maxing it out is essential when used under direct sunlight. Anyone getting the GT540 should definitely download a brightness setting widget to make this task more convenient.

The GT540 also does not come with a proximity sensor. This means the screen will remain turned on when you put your face to it while taking a call. Though it’s a convenient feature to have, its omission doesn’t affect usage as much as the light sensor.

Photos from the GT540′s 3-megapixel camera have fairly accurate colors, though they may appear a little “soft” to some. The shooting application comes with quite a number of settings, so those who like to tweak options should have some fun with it.

Performance

This is where you really feel the “budget” element of the Optimus. LG’s specifications sheet doesn’t list the type and speed of the CPU, but a third-party system information app identifies it as a 600MHz processor. The device comes with 256MB RAM. These specs aren’t too shabby, but they didn’t translate to good performance. We felt slowdowns when switching between apps and the Home screen. This happened periodically, enough to be annoying.

LG has included an application called TasKiller which lets you close apps manually so they don’t hog the limited memory. The app even has a feature, which automatically kills all applications when the screen is turned off. While this may alleviate some of the sluggishness, it’s not something we suspect most basic users will want to fiddle around with.

Battery life proved decent, giving us about 1.5 days of use on a single charge. This included phone calls, use of social networking apps and Gmail set on autosync. Call quality was good and we didn’t experience any dropped calls. Without a front camera, video calls are not supported.

Conclusion

If you are on a tight budget, the LG Optimus is a decent choice compared with a feature phone. You get a lot more functions than “dumb” phones in the same price range, thanks to the Android OS. But if you don’t want to live with the small resistive screen, consider instead the Samsung Galaxy Spica I5700, HTC Magic or HTC Hero. Of course, these are older models and may not be available from every operator, but we do feel they are better options with prices similar to the GT540.

By John Chan