Quick review of the LG myTouch and myTouch Q for T-Mobile

For the last couple of years, T-Mobile has been pushing the myTouch brand with the help of HTC as its flagship device. This year the company went in a different direction with a change in strategy and manufacturer in LG. This new relationship has spawned two different myTouch’s with the separation of one letter, Q. The regular myTouch includes a slightly bigger 3.8-inch OLED (480 x 800) screen and a slimmer body that weighs only 3.7 oz. The myTouch Q offers a smaller 3.5-inch screen, but has an LED flash and QWERTY keypad. Both phones came out earlier this month at $79.99 with a 2 year contract. These devices have minor differences, but when you read and watch our video you should have an idea as to what device suits you better.

	LG myTouch	LG myTouch Q
Processor	1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon	1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon
Display	3.8″ OLED	3.5″ LCD
Resolution	480 x 800	320 x 480
OS	Android 2.3.4	Android 2.3.4
Dimensions	4.82″ x 2.46″ x 0.39″	4.76″ x 2.5″ x 0.51″
Back Camera	5-megapixel	5-megapixel
Front Camera	VGA	NONE
Video Recording	720p HD	720p HD
Flash	NONE	LED flash
RAM	512 MB	512 MB
Storage	2 GB internal storage/ 2GB microSD card included. Supports up to 32GB.	2 GB internal storage/ 2GB microSD card included. Supports up to 32GB.
Battery	1500 mAh	1500 mAh
Weight	3.7 oz (105 g)	5.64 oz (160 g)

When you open up both boxes you’ll find the usual amenities: user manual, terms and conditions, USB cable, AC adapter, battery, 2 GB microSD card, and the phones themselves. The features list above breaks both phones down to the very spec, and as you can see there isn’t much of a difference between the two. I’m not going to harp on minor features, so allow for me to talk about the feel of both handsets. When I put my hands on these devices they had a nice form factor and feel, which is a credit to LG. Like I mention in the review video, LG usually gets a lot of flack when it comes to shortcomings in developing its hardware. With the myTouch’s, the company came through with pretty decent hardware.

Now, one thing about me is the love I have for the simple things. A simple redesigning element LG added to the myTouch’s is placing the power/lock button, headphone jack, and the microUSB port on the top of each device. Why is this important you ask? Well, most manufacturers usually place the power/lock button on the right side of the device, which allows for right hand’rs to power the device on or off with a thumb press. This sucks because on the left side of a device is usually the volume rocker, which can get pressed occasionally from trying to lock your phone. This is an annoyance that could be avoided if all OEMs could just add the power button to the top like LG did with both phones here.

The Q has 4 capacitive buttons, which includes T-Mobile’s Genius button, while the myTouch only has three because it doesn’t come with the Genius button. Besides this key difference the myTouch Q sports an LED flash with its camera, while the myTouch doesn’t carry one. Again, these are some of the differences shared in the features chart above. When it comes to the user interface you’ll notice a custom skin that resembles what seems to be T-Mo’s Espresso. Also, the app drawer comes with three different layouts to display your apps, category, page and list.

All in all, these phones are niche devices for people who may want a touch screen or a keypad instead. They both are mid level phones that don’t offer anything game changing, but if I were a customer looking to transition into the Android OS either myTouch’s would be a good choice.