LG Optimus 3D review

We’ve seen quite a few handsets with genuinely poor battery life, such as the HTC Desire HD and the Palm Pre 2, but none have been as bad as the Optimus 3D. During normal use (calls, texts, web browsing, application loading, downloading, watching a few videos) the phone was down to about 50 per cent charge after three or four hours – and that’s without using any of the device’s 3D features.

Once you start gaming and recording and playing back video in 3D, you can almost see the battery bar diminishing before your very eyes. It’s so bad that we’re not even sure an update to Android 2.3, with its improved battery management, would improve matters.

LG’s Optimus 3D is a brilliant yet highly compromised handset. It’s a great phone with plenty of power and the 3D works well, but it has one of the worst battery lives in normal use we have seen. If you must have 3D on your phone wait for our verdict on the HTC Evo 3D, or just stick with the Samsung Galaxy S2.