LG Optimus 3D Max P720 review: Remastered

User interface

The LG Optimus 3D Max runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, with an Ice Cream Sandwich update coming later this year. There's little to set the 3D Max apart from the original Optimus 3D, which launched with Froyo but later got updated to Gingerbread. The two are pretty much the same in terms of interface looks and features - from the LG customizations, the pre-installed apps, to the 3D launcher.

Surely, some of the apps have been updated, there are a few new additions here and there but overall, it's a virtually identical experience.

Here it is on video, for those of you who haven't seen the Optimus 3D Max in action.

LG must have been saving all their ICS for the upcoming flagship LG Optimus 4X HD. The 3D Max will also get it eventually but for the time being it will have to make do with the older Gingerbread version. ICS could've been one of few reasons for owners of the original Optimus 3D to consider upgrading but, by the looks of it, the 3D Max isn't for them.

Now let us explore how Gingerbread and LG's customizations work out.

There're seven homescreen panes to fill with widgets and shortcuts, and you can have them all at a glance by the familiar pinch-to-zoom-out gesture.

An overview of all homescreen panes appears when you pinch zoom out of any of them

When adding or removing homescreens, a button lets you set any of the available panes as the default one. A tap and hold lets you get rid of those you don't need.

As usual, there are four shortcuts docked at the bottom of the LG Optimus 3D Max screen, which are visible on both the homescreen and in the app drawer. You get Phone, Contacts, Messaging and a Home/App Drawer button.

The 3D apps aside, the user experience is about identical to what you get with the Optimus 2X and 3D

Placing stuff on the homescreen is quite straightforward. Upon a tap-and-hold on the display - or by hitting the add button in the settings menu - gridlines appear on the screen and the four docked icons are replaced by a taskbar with widgets, shortcuts, folders and wallpapers to choose from.

Adding stuff to homescreen

Moving on to the app drawer, you get not one but three different options for its layout: a side scrollable horizontal grid (page layout), a Category view - a vertical grid where you get icons grouped by categories (default or custom) and List view with alphabetic scrolling enabled.

The notification area has a few tricks as well - it's got five switches to toggle sound, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC and network data. There are also music player controls available here.

The notification area • LG brought a custom app drawer too

The LG Optimus 3D Max has the convenient accelerometer-based turn-to-mute feature that works for both the phone ringer and the alarm.

Finally, the LG Optimus 3D Max supports themes, each with its own wallpaper and set of icons.

And now we move on to what everyone really came for - the 3D Space app, which is the place for all the stereoscopic action on the Optimus 3D Max.

3D space is where it gets exciting

The 3D Space UI is exactly the same as on the original Optimus 3D. It is the place to access all the stereoscopic content with just one click. The 3D button on the side of the Optimus 3D Max launches just that.

It's more for show than it is actually useful but it has a cool interface with nice animations for each of the categories. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to demonstrate the 3D action with our camera, but here's what we came up with. Here's some animated GIF magic to give you a basic idea of the 3D effect you get.

Mind you, there's no need to shake your device furiously to get the 3D thing going. We are just giving you quickly alternating images that represent what each of your eyes is seeing when looking at the Optimus 3D Max screen. By changing them fast enough, you get a slight resemblance of the real-life effect.

The 3D Guide is a manual that will teach you how to create, view and share 3D content. You get a brief tutorial on each of the subjects, but it should be enough to teach you everything there is to know about 3D on the handset.

The 3D guide will teach the basics of the technology

We'll show you more of the 3D Space as we go along the review.

Disappointing benchmark results

The Optimus 3D Max is powered by the same hardware as the original Optimus 3D, except that the dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor is clocked at 1.2GHz up from 1GHz. The chipset is the same, and that includes the PowerVR SGX540 GPU. LG have doubled the RAM too to 1GB.

Unfortunately, the benchmark results tell a different story. The new Optimus 3D Max was often found trailing its predecessor, including the CPU-stressing ones. We are not quite sure what exactly went wrong there, but LG obviously needs to do some further optimizations here. Or better yet - just focus all its effort on the ICS update and deliver it as quickly as possible.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

• HTC One X (Snapdragon S4)
  279
• HTC One S
  306
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  338
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  344
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  351
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  408
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  452
• Sony Xperia S
  536
• LG Optimus 3D
  559
• HTC Sensation XE
  583
• LG Optimus 3D Max
  594

Linpack

Higher is better

• HTC One S
  210
• HTC One X (Snapdragon S4)
  196
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  177.1
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  126.1
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  90
• Sony Xperia S
  86.4
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  77.6
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  77.1
• LG Optimus 3D
  62.2
• LG Optimus 3D Max
  51.8
• HTC Sensation XE
  50.4

NenaMark 2

Higher is better

• HTC One S
  60.5
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  58.8
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  51.6
• HTC One X (Snapdragon S4)
  49.1
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  47.5
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  43.6
• Sony Xperia S
  37.5
• LG Optimus 3D
  34.1
• LG Optimus 3D Max
  25.8
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  24
• HTC Sensation XE
  23

GLBenchmark Egypt (offscreen 720p)

Higher is better

• New Apple iPad
  140
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  103
• Apple iPad 2
  90
• Apple iPhone 4S
  73
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  63
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  62
• HTC One S
  56
• HTC One X (Snapdragon S4)
  55.7
• LG Optimus 3D
  22
• LG Optimus 3D Max
  21

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1447
• HTC One S
  1708
• New Apple iPad
  1722
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  1757
• HTC One X (Snapdragon S4)
  1834
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  1849
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  1863
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  1891
• Apple iPhone 4S
  2217
• Sony Xperia S
  2587
• LG Optimus 3D Max
  3592
• LG Optimus 3D
  3800
• HTC Sensation XE
  4404

BrowserMark

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S III
  169811
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  113256
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  111853
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  103591
• New Apple iPad
  103264
• HTC One S
  98435
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  96803
• HTC One X (Snapdragon S4)
  92232
• Apple iPhone 4S
  88725
• Sony Xperia S
  74990
• HTC Sensation XE
  72498
• LG Optimus 3D
  46412
• LG Optimus 3D Max
  46537