Glasses-Free 3D on AT&T with the LG Thrill

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The LG Thrill sports the most basic and staple design a smartphone can have, they simply did not bother to put any effort into the design whatsoever. The perfectly rectangular phone weighs a supremely heavy 5.93 ounces (168 g) and has rather uncomfortable dimensions of 5.07 x 2.68 x 0.47 inches (128.8 x 68 x 11.9 mm), so it's going to be palm-stretching and thick compared to the other high flyers of the smartphone world. But it is indeed very well built, for a completely plastic phone. The chrome brush effect near the capacitive touch based Settings, Home, Back and Search buttons looks rather dashing, and the cute robot face on the back looks...well pretty cute.

On the front we have a Parallax (i.e. glasses-free 3D screen) 4.3 inch WVGA capacitive touch screen, with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels which is capable of supporting 16 million colors. On the top left side we have a mini-HDMI port nestled next to a mini-USB 2.0 slot. Both slots are protected by two very difficult to open and rather flimsy plastic flaps. Over on the right side the thin and rubbery volume rocker does not fare much better. You seriously have to pay attention when changing the volume or you'll simply miss the rocker. Beneath the rocker we have a 3D button where the camera shutter key is traditionally found. Oddly enough it has nothing to do with taking pictures in 3D. Press it and it will launch into the 3D "hub" where you can access all of the phone's media centric 3D features, while in the camera menu it will switch the picture or video mode from 2D to 3D. It is not a quick camera launch button. The quickest way to launch the camera on the LG Thrill is to keep it as an app on your home screen.

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Up on top we have the 3.5 m headphone jack and the Lock/Power button. On top of the screen we have the usual two sensors for brightness and proximity, with a front facing 1.3 MP camera. The bottom has nothing but the tiny mic hole. On the back we find something unique indeed, two stereoscopic 5 MP cameras with a tiny flash in between them. Oh and the AT&T logo.

As far as the design goes, it's pretty boring, but well built. The side buttons and slot covers are a hassle to use, while some are badly placed, others feel too brittle and rubbery. So it scores a good rating, but not great, all because of those pesky side buttons and because the MicroSD card slot is under the battery cover.

If you were expecting a pure Android Gingerbread (2.3) experience on the LG Thrill, you're unfortunately out of luck here. Instead you have to make do with a Froyo (2.2) experience when compatriots are all stocked with the latest Gingerbread. However, AT&T has promised an upgrade to Gingerbread soon. If you know your way around an Android phone you could always simply upgrade it yourself but remember that doing so will void your warranty.

Anyhow, LG has added a few tweaks and UI elements to improve upon Froyo, nothing too drastic thankfully. You get a black background in the apps menu, with your apps segregated by the Applications, Downloads and Favorites sections. A unique twist is that you can minimize everything into three simple bars with the pinch-to-zoom function, while tapping on Applications, for example, will open up the apps drawer, the same applies for the remaining two sections. Pinching-to-zoom in the opposite direction does not reopen all sections as they were, bit of an oversight by LG there. Also you can choose between LG's keyboard and the superior Android one.

Otherwise, the best Froyo has to offer, including Flash is on the table with the Thrill, the phone has absolutely no lag whatsoever. Multitask to your heart's content, keep as many apps open as you wish, nothing will cause this phone to stutter. Eventually if overburdened, it will open the multitasking menu and inform you that certain apps need closing, but it will not stutter. So of course the real question here is, how does the 3D UI fair? Well, it's a bit of a mixed bag to be honest.