LG Optimus 4X HD review

Maps

Android handsets are brilliant for those who want to use them as navigation devices. The reason is simple – Google Maps is hands down the best free mapping solution for mobile devices and when linked to the incredible (and free) Google Navigation, you have a full and powerful mobile sat nav with live traffic information in your pocket with no charges to pay other than the data ones.

Going out of range used to be a problem but no longer. Google has now updated Maps so that it allows users to download sections of a county for offline use.

Not only this, you can even browse maps of some indoor locations (though obviously, you won't want to drive your car indoors.)

And if all of this is not good enough, you also get a multitude of other navigation apps available on the Google Play store – some free, some chargeable.

Obviously, using GPS drains the battery so make sure you have a charger cable in your car and that should keep you going. As for the signal, we really had no complaints. It was fairly quick to lock on in under 15 seconds for the first time and managed to keep that signal in open air. When going through tunnels, it regained a lock almost straight away on emergence into the bright daylight.

Apps

App wise, the Optimus 4X HD comes with a fair smattering of offerings.

Aside from the obvious ones like calculator and clock (plus the standard Google suite), you get others like Backup (which backs up your Google apps to an SD card), Memo taker, Yahoo! News, Remote Call (which allows LG to get in touch and help you if you can't work your device) and a few other bits and pieces.

There is a Media Hub too which brings together all of your music, video and pictures but we couldn't quite see the point – it just replicates the individual Gallery, Music and Video Player apps.

Of course, these are just tasters – there are hundreds of thousands of apps available in the Google Play store and part of the fun is hunting around in there to see what you can get for nothing.