Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
LG Optimus 2X review: Camera
The camera on the LG Optimus 2X looks like it should be one of the phone's strong points judging by the specs. An eight-megapixel sensor sits inside, with a single LED flash to help it.
1080p video recording is included, presumably to make the most of that micro-HDMI port (and the processing power of the Tegra 2 chip). At that highest resolution, it's stated to record at 24 frames per second, while lowering to 720p ups that to 30fps. 720 x 480 widescreen standard-definition recording is also available, as is 640 x 480 VGA and lower.
The stills camera has a load of options for when you're snapping, including quick access to the digital zoom, exposure adjustment and flash settings.
Delve into the full settings and you get access to image size and quality options, focus modes (including Macro and Face Tracking), scene modes (including Landscape, Portrait and Night), ISO settings (up to 800), white balance, colour effects, self timer, shooting modes (including Panorama shot, Smile shot and Continuous), image stabilisation, geolocating and a few more options besides.
With the standard autofocus on, there's no tapping to choose the focus point, as on the iPhone 4, but get your subject in the centre of the viewfinder and hit the button to take a photo and it'll generally focus very quickly.
Click here for full-res version
OUTDOORS: A good job has been made of dealing with the light and shaded areas. Detail's a bit lacking in the people, though
Click here for full-res version
SIMPLE: In this simple image with block colours, the camera's output looks quite good. Colours are a little less vibrant than we'd like, but the board appears crisp and clear. Look at the background and things aren't quite as good, but it's generally fine
Click here for full-res version
MACRO: With plenty of light around, Macro mode is crisp and clear. The overall picture is a little dark, and only some of the petals have all the texture they should have, but it's an appealing shot overall
Click here for full-res version
DIGITAL ZOOM: The digital zoom at full whack. It looks OK in smaller sizes, but view this at anything larger than the size we embed them here and it's very poor
Click here for full-res version
LANDSCAPE: Landscape mode captures a nice green vista, and doesn't overexpose the sky or underexpose the other side of the valley. However, there's not much detail to see once you make the picture bigger
Click here for full-res version
SEPIA: The Sepia mode is pretty good, as far as these things go. This is one of the more convincing versions of it we've seen
Click here for full-res version
VIBRANT: The Vibrant mode doesn't really add anything to this shot, blowing out the pink blossoms to the point the barely visible
