LG Optimus GT540

Although the incumbent Nokia may be sticking by Symbian as the OS of choice for its range of smartphones, practically every other major player in the market is leaping onto the Android bandwagon with such gusto that it's a wonder the wheels haven't fallen off under the intense weight.

Sony Ericsson, Samsung, and Acer have all pledged allegiance to Google's burgeoning mobile OS, as well as popular Korean brand LG.

The firm's previous Android handset – the likeable InTouch Max GE620 – was a confident (if rather muted) opening salvo in the budget smartphone arena, and the Optimus GT540 is a continuation of this strategy.

It won't be troubling the Samsung Galaxy S or HTC Desire in the realm of top-flight Android blowers, but it's a tantalising entry-level proposition.

Initial impressions are overwhelmingly positive. Build quality is great, with a solid casing and amiable design. The GT540 looks a lot more costly than it actually is.

It's the resistive display which really betrays the phone's budget roots. It's more responsive and accurate than the one on the InTouch Max, although at three inches it offers the same amount of visual real estate.

Sadly, it can't compete with the capacitive screens boasted by most mid-to-high range smartphones these days.

Resistive tech means that multitouch is naturally out of the question, and that's a shame because many Android developers are starting to make convincing use of pinch commands in their apps.

It also means that the plethora of retro gaming emulators – including Gensoid and NESoid – are going to be unusable, because they require either multitouch or a physical keyboard to function. The GT540 has neither.

With a 600MHz processor at its heart, the GT540 is only slightly faster than first-generation Android devices like the HTC Hero and T-Mobile G1. With many Google phones now packing 1GHz CPUs as standard, the GT540 feels a little sluggish during routine operations.

If you have several apps running at once then you can expect slowdown, although it's not as bad as that seen on rival budget Android phones, like the T-Mobile Pulse Mini.

The biggest shortcoming of the phone isn't the screen or the CPU, however – it's the fact that the GT540 is running Android version 1.6, which is way behind the most recent edition, 2.2.

This means you'll miss out on more recent innovations introduced by Google, and many apps on the Android Market require at least 2.1 to operate.

Despite its reliance on an outdated version of Android, the GT540 does come with a few tricks up its sleeve. The number of home screens is boosted from the default three to seven, offering plenty of space for widgets and shortcuts.

In the multimedia arena the GT540 performs admirably. A 3.5mm headphone socket grants access to your own personal set of cans, and the 3-megapixel camera produces decent shots, although they're naturally not quite as detailed as those generated by other high-profile phones, like the HTC Desire and Motorola Droid 2.

In gaming terms, the aforementioned lack of multitouch and absence of a physical QWERTY keyboard really hurts the GT540's entertainment potential. Many modern Android games require you to tap several points on the screen simultaneously, making them unplayable on this device. You'll probably find that it's best to stick with games that use tilt control rather than the touchscreen.

The GT540 has its fair share of issues and looks a little tame when placed alongside the best handsets that Android has to offer, but like the InTouch Max it's not intended to go toe-to-toe with the market leaders. This is a budget option that is aimed squarely at Android novices.

However, with more and more cheap Android phones hitting the market with 2.1 as standard, the GT540's superseded OS could prove to be a costly drawback in the long run.