LG responds to Optimus 2X 'black screen of death' claims
Hundreds of users unhappy with dual screen device
LG has moved swiftly to release a patch for a problem that caused seemingly hundreds of Optimus 2X handsets to freeze and reboot.
The issue was first noticed two months ago and posted on XDA Developer Forums, where users began noticing the phone was rebooting randomly, freezing on a blank screen while still being turned on and getting very warm with the supplied charger.
This forum post is currently running at 106 pages of angry users who have tried everything from custom ROMs to even starting an online petition to get LG to acknowledge the problem.
LG's quick fix
TechRadar spoke to LG to see if the Korean brand was aware of the problem with the phone, and the good news is the company has already created a patch it thinks will solve the issue:
"LG is aware that a few Optimus 2x customers are occasionally experiencing random device shut-offs. While this does not affect every customer, LG regrets the inconvenience this has caused.
"We have determined the cause of the problem and have developed a software maintenance update to remedy this.
Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
"This update can be found on our support site.
"At the support landing page, user will be given full visual description of what to do from there which is to download the Support tool.
"Once they run the application they simply need to connect the handset via USB. The application should then pick up the details of the handset, the user simply needs press the upgrade button to perform the upgrade. It will take approx 20-30mins to perform update.
"LG is committed to providing quality devices and is working hard to ensure that users have a consistent and convenient smartphone experience. Again, our apologies for the inconvenience and please let us know if you experience any problems."
The petition, which saw over 600 people sign up in a short space of time, has now been withdrawn - we'll be interested to see if the new update actually does fix the issues as LG will be keen to keep its dual-core baby looking squeaky clean in the face of competition from the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the HTC Sensation.
Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grew with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.