12:06 PM
Simranpal SIngh
We see how LG’s latest Android phone, the Optimus Q2, compares to Samsung’s well-established Galaxy S2.
Form:
Samsung Galaxy S2 - 125.3x66.1x8.5mm, 116g
LG Optimus Q2 - 123x65x12.3mm,147g
Samsung might not make waves by producing bombastic designs like Nokia and Sony Ericsson, but what the company does well is elegant understatement.
There’s nothing in-your-face about the Galaxy S2, instead its opting for simple, clean lines and eye-pleasing proportions. It’s very squared-off with its stark rectangular silhouette and sharp corners but we think this lends it a premium appearance.
What is slightly less premium is the build quality. It’s not exactly going to fall apart any time soon. But in order to get that wafer thin profile and feather-like weight Samsung has opted for plastic over the aluminium we’re more used to seeing on high-end handsets.
The back panel has a nice, modern-looking ‘carbon fibre’ texture to it to add a bit of panache but it’s not a distracting visual feature by any means.
LG is also well-established as a company which, in the main, makes some very attractive devices – although it has produced a few stinkers of late.
The Q2 has also gone for a minimalist aesthetic but we feel LG has perhaps been a bit overzealous in this regard, crossing the border from unobtrusive chic and into outright bland territory.
The corners are extremely rounded giving an overly soft feel to the phone’s looks.
Where Samsung has kept the details small and discreet, LG has removed them entirely, creating a completely flat and uninterrupted surface.
Winner – Samsung Galaxy S2
Display:
Samsung is well known for producing some pretty spectacular smartphone displays and the Galaxy S2’s is no exception thanks to a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen.
The pixel density is a respectable 217 pixels-per-inch thanks to an 800x480 pixel resolution.
Gorilla Glass has been used for the screen so you don’t have to worry about it taking a bit of a beating.
Built-in accelerometer and gyroscope sensors sort out screen orientation, along with Samsung’s TouchWiz 4.0 user interface (UI) which is overlaid on the Android operating system. The S2’s display supports multi-touch input and features touch-sensitive capacitive buttons under the glass.
LG’s Q2 uses an IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, it’s slightly smaller than the Samsung’s at 4-inches, but with the same resolution this gives a higher pixel density at 233ppi.
Just like its opponent the Q2 packs both accelerometer and gyro sensors and it also similarly features multi-touch and capacitive controls.
It seems LG has beaten Samsung at it’s own game here. The higher pixel density of the Q2 means you’ll get a much sharper picture.
Samsung’s Super Amoled Plus technology goes some way to compensating for its lower pixel density and it’s still a fine display, but even so, on raw numbers we think the difference is significant enough to grant LG the victory.
Winner – LG Optimus Q2
Storage:
The Galaxy S2 is something of a heavyweight contender when it comes to storage with options for both 16GB and 32GB of internal capacity.
By comparison the Q2 has 8GB onboard, which is nothing to sneeze at of course, but it’s not anywhere near approaching even the lower end Galaxy’s space.
The rest of the storage specs are quite similar between the two, each has 1GB of RAM to support their respective processors and both also feature microSD slots allowing for a further 32GB of external memory.
This is quite an easy victory for the Galaxy’s sledgehammer approach to memory, but that’s not to say the Q2 is exactly lacking, it’s simply dwarfed by the exceptionally generous amount of space on the Samsung.
Winner – Samsung Galaxy S2
Processor:
Both phones are dual core powered devices. Samsung’s baby runs an ARM Cortex-A9 processor clocked at 1.2GHz. It runs the Exynos chipset and packs a powerful Mali-400MP graphics processing unit (GPU) into the bargain.
The LG is on the same level power-wise at an identical 1.2GHz clock speed, however, it’s running NVidia-made hardware on the Tegra 2 chipset.
They’re equally high-powered handsets and you might be hard pushed to discern a performance difference between the two.
Winner - Draw
Operating System:
Each of these handsets is running Google’s Android operating system, the same version too, Android Gingerbread.
As a result, there’s nothing to compare the two here.
Winner - Draw
Camera:
LG has opted for a 5-megapixel primary camera in the Optimus Q2. The resolution comes in at 2592Ñ…1944 pixels and there’s also a secondary VGA camera with video calling support.
Autofocus, LED flash and geo-tagging keep the features short but sweet.
Exact information on the video capture quality hasn’t been forthcoming, although we’ve seen plenty of suggestion for 1080p HD, which isn’t too much of a stretch really. We’d say at the very least we’d expect 720p capture from this setup.
The Samsung goes the extra mile though with an 8-megapixel primary at 3264x2448 pixels, boasting 1080p HD video capture, video calling and a video light.
Other features include geo-tagging, touch focus, panoramic capture, face and smile detection, image stabilisation, autofocus and an LED flash. Lastly, the secondary camera is rated at 2-megapixels.
Another easy win for the Samsung with it’s strong-arm approach to in-built cameras.
Winner – Samsung Galaxy S2
Final Thoughts:
This has actually been a pretty tough contest. In some key areas the Q2 has shown itself to be the Galaxy S2’s equal, with an evenly matched processor and sporting the same operating system.
The most surprising result was a win for the LG on display, an area usually dominated by Samsung phones.
Apart from this, however, the Samsung is still as potent as ever with a superior camera, a much greater storage capability and killer looks.
We doubt if many people would find themselves dissatisfied if they get their hands on an LG Optimus Q2 and they’d be getting the better end of the bargain as far as display is concerned.
In many other ways though, the Samsung Galaxy S2 is still top dog, the Q2 proves it’s not so secure on its pedestal, but LG is not quite able to topple it just yet.
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