LG's Tegra 2 smartphone will arrive with Android 2.3

SMARTPHONE MAKER LG will ship its Optimus 2X smartphone with Android 2.3 in the UK in March.

LG's top of the line device took centre stage at Nvidia's press conference yesterday when Jen Hsun Huang, Nvidia CEO and president used the Optimus 2X to promote the firm's Tegra 2 system on chip.

Today, an LG employee told The INQUIRER that while the Optimus 2X currently runs Android 2.2, the update to Android 2.3, known as Gingerbread is "very close".

So close in fact that by the time LG releases the Optimus 2X in Blighty, pencilled in for March, it will be running Android 2.3. We were also told that the update will bring further features to the phone, though our informant wasn't able to go into further details at this time.

Playing around with the Optimus 2X, the grunt of Nvidia's Tegra 2 chip was especially evident in games. Compared to the Nexus One, there is a perceptible performance increase when playing games and video, however for relatively basic tasks such as email and ebook reading, the difference was less noticeable.

Given that Google has yet to update its own Nexus One handset with Android 2.3, it is refreshing to see LG quick off the mark.

The combination of impressive hardware and current software should make the Optimus 2X one of the most desirable Android handsets around when it arrives in the UK. µ