LG DoublePlay review

Innovative phone with two screens falls flat in daily use

LG DoublePlay
Double the keyboard, double the displays

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.

Calling

Since the DoublePlay uses the older Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, you won't find any of the new and improved contact management tricks of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. For example, when a call comes in, there isn't a slider that lets you send the caller a text message instead.

LG doubleplay

Despite an antiquated interface, the phone was loud and clear for most test calls, and the speakerphone was plenty loud.

The DoublePlay has the dreaded "taco phone" look when you make calls, due to the larger size and thickness. Imagine talking on the Nintendo DS as a phone and you will get the idea.

Contacts

LG doubleplay

We did like the quick responsiveness for searching contacts. You can press the search button to type a name, and once you do, a list of contacts and saved e-mail addresses appears almost instantaneously.

LG doubleplay

With a few other phones we've tested, including the Galaxy Nexus, there is sometimes a slight pause when searching. The Contacts app tended to load a bit slow, probably due to having 3000 Gmail contacts.

For each contact, you can view the history of your interactions. The phone also lets you add Twitter, Facebook, and other contacts for social networks and search for those as well.

John Brandon
Contributor

John Brandon has covered gadgets and cars for the past 12 years having published over 12,000 articles and tested nearly 8,000 products. He's nothing if not prolific. Before starting his writing career, he led an Information Design practice at a large consumer electronics retailer in the US. His hobbies include deep sea exploration, complaining about the weather, and engineering a vast multiverse conspiracy.