If you believe some film critics, 3D movies have already had their day and film buffs are already heading back to the original 2D viewing experience. If this is the case, LG may live to regret being the first phone maker to bring out a 3D handset - the LG Optimus 3D. We have to admit to being rather excited by the whole idea, so we started our review hoping that we wouldn't be disappointed after the novelty wore off.

First impressions

LG has gone all-out on the design of the Optimus 3D. Its standout feature is the 4.3in screen, but you are more than likely going to notice the heavy-ended top of the device first. Turn over the phone and you'll see why it looks so bulky. The back of the phone features a pair of camera lenses, sitting at each side of the LED flash on a strip of metal. In the past we've criticised these metallic strips, which do nothing more than tell us that the phone is a ‘Google' device (or, in this case, that it has 3D Stereoscope).

By the way, this is also the reason it has two lenses. It's because of these lenses that the phone has a ‘chin' - however it's pretty subtle so doesn't offend the eye. We were more worried about the fact that the display just seems to attract grubby fingerprints. Now, we know these lovely screens do tend to act as fingerprint magnets, but the likes of the iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy II don't seem to suffer half as much as the Optimus 3D.

It's a pity because once you wake up the screen, the display is really impressive. Its incredibly vibrant, offers great colours, and the resolution means icons are really crisp with well-defined edges. Under the display sit four touch keys for home, back, search and settings. They light up when the phone is awake and reward you with a haptic buzz when you press them.

The Optimus 3D runs Android 2.2, which is a tad old, but we have been told that the Gingerbread update will soon be forthcoming. Although this may be a ‘Google' phone, LG has still managed to make its mark. For instance, in the main menu you'll see the apps and programs have been set out in a trio of categories - Applications, 3D Applications and Downloads. As you might have guessed, anything with 3D relevance goes in the 3D category, apps downloaded from Android Market head into Downloads and then everything else, such as camera and music player, ends up in Applications. Note that this is the default setting.

It is possible to alter the names of the groups, add other groups, and drag and drop icons into various categories. Before you can do this you'll need to pinch and pull the display to minimise the categories, and here you may have a problem. The capacitive display is just not as responsive as you would expect, and we found ourselves having to carry out actions more than once to have any effect. Finger swipes stopped and started because the screen has a greasy surface - which could be the fault of all those grubby fingerprints.

3D

Anyway, enough of that - what you really want to know about is all those 3D functions. First off, you can do away with those un-stylish 3D specs as LG has managed to incorporate a 3D technology that you can view with the naked eye - whether you're looking at photos, watching movies or playing games. With 3D being such a core part of the device, you won't be surprised to see that there's a special hard key that takes you to all that 3D loveliness. It sits on the right-hand side of the device - hold it down for a couple of seconds and you'll be swept off to a 3D carousel that feature links to the 3D gallery, 3D camera, YouTube channel, gaming hub and a guide to all your 3D facilities.

So, let's start with the camera. As we mentioned earlier, the Optimus 3D has two back-facing lenses that achieve the 3D effect. So, if you want to shoot 3D pictures or film 3D movies, you'll be holding the device horizontally. By the way, when you're looking through the viewfinder, expect it to look fuzzy - it's the very nature of the technology. It was a bit annoying after a while, but it does work. To see the results of your efforts you'll need to hold the handset still, and about 30cm away from your face - this makes it hard to share it with friends. We would have liked to see some sort of kickstand on the handset to help you set it up and hold it still. But, if you're the proud owner of a 3D TV you can hook up the handset using an HDMI cable and view your images on a big screen.

If you're looking at still pictures, just press the 3D key and you can toggle between 2D and 3D images. You'll really notice how much sharpness and colour you lose in 3D, but we still found it amazing that we could do the whole 3D thing without the need for special glasses. That was before we experienced the annoying headache and the blurred vision. Plus, the camera crashed on two separate occasions - we must point out that we had a review sample, so maybe these issues will be sorted by the time the handset launches.

It is also possible to record video in 3D, although it really suffers from colour drainage. Your footage can be uploaded to the 3D YouTube channel. Incidentally, with the likes of YouTube backing the technology, maybe 3D is set for big things. As well as uploading your own 3D media, you can also view content such as sports highlights and film trailers. We found some clips lacked sound for some reason, but if you're into 3D it does work well on the Optimus 3D.

The third 3D offering is gaming. Onboard you'll find the gaming hub featuring four Gameloft titles that include a golf simulator, a racing game and a shoot 'em up.

Expect a bit of a wait the first time you load a game, but after that it's fine. We were surprised the accelerometers were not utilised, especially in the racing game, but nevertheless we were impressed by the graphics and found gameplay really smooth. As on the Nintendo 3DS, it is possible to alter the level of 3Dness, using the virtual bar that is positioned in the corner of the display. We settled on the midway setting as our optimum level.

Internet surfing

Because the Optimus 3DS has a powerful 1GHz OMAP4 dual-core chip, we were particularly surprised to experience some lag. But to be fair, it had no problem when web browsing. Web pages loaded quickly, even when we had a number of windows open. A nice feature is that you can save pages with the native browser to be read offline later on at your leisure.

However, some aspects of the web experience weren't so intuitive. For instance, to copy and paste you'll need to delve around a number of menus, and we found it less than precise when it came to highlighting the right words.

Battery life

That powerful processor and all that 3D whizziness comes at a price - and that's battery life. We fully expected to have to charge pretty regularly, but were still surprised by how quickly the juice drained away.

The verdict

The LG Optimus 3D certainly has the wow factor, but we're still not convinced that 3D will become a mainstay of the mobile market. While we were initially excited by the 3D technology, that soon ended in eyestrain and we headed back to the usual 2D approach.

It may well be that early adopters will throng to buy the Optimus 3D, but we reckon that, at the end of the day, a device that is able to play and display holographic images might well be less suited to real life and more suitable as something to feature in movies and comic books.