PhoneLon

The LG GT540 Optimus, LG’s take on the mid-range Android smartphone, is now in stock at Mobiles.co.uk. Packing in all the features you’d expect from a high-end smartphone without the price tag, the LG Optimus certainly punches above its weight.

Running Android OS 1.6, whilst it misses out on the ?clair goodies enjoyed by the Samsung Galaxy S and HTC Desire, crucially the Optimus does benefit from Google Maps Navigation giving you free voice guided navigation on your phone. Time to banish that Tom Tom to the drawer and join the Android revolution. Boasting a vivid 3.0 inch touchscreen the display, the Optimus is perfect for use as a SatNav in the car and on foot. The touchscreen itself is responsive and crsytal clear making navigating the phones many features, browsing the web and watching video a joy. The Optimus boasts a promising multimedia package with an updated Android media player, 3.5mm audio jack, support for a wealth of audio and video file formats and expandable memory up to 32GB with a MicroSD Card.

Just as adept on the social scene, the LG GT540 (formerly known as the Swift) integrates with all your favourite social networking sites, pulling in live updates, tweets, allowing for photo uploads, status updates and more. Downloads and uploads are suitably speedy with HSDPA and Wi-Fi both on board and Bluetooth v2.1allows for quicker file transfers and streaming music to a compatible Bluetooth headset.

Rounding off this impressive package is a 3.15 Megapixel camera with auto-focus and video capture and of course, full access to the Android Market App Store with over 50,000 apps now ready to be downloaded. And how much for all this Android goodness? Well, you can pick up an LG Optimus on Orange, free on a ?15 per month tariff with 50 minutes, unlimited texts and 250MB of inclusive data for web browsing and downloads. Click here to see this and our other great offers on the LG GT540 Optimus and order now for next day delivery!

Last year, Google delivered the news that all SatNav manufacturers were dreading when they announced that the Motorola Droid, known worldwide as the Milestone, would ship with free Google Maps voice guided navigation. Future Android releases such as the Google Nexus One would also benefit from the free SatNav software but the catch for European users was that it was restricted to the US. But now, SatNav manufacturers can expect their share prices to take another hit with the news that Google Maps Navigation is now available in the UK and Ireland!

The update comes to Google Maps and is available to all smartphones running Android 1.6 or higher meaning al you lucky Xperia X10, Desire and Milestone users out there can get in on the free navigation action. Google Maps Navigation offers a comprehensive list of features; search lets you type a key word such as ‘Restaurant’ and Google Maps will find all your local restaurants and navigate you to them with a simple double tap. If you’ve synchronised your Google account, you can tap on the contacts icon in Google Maps and get step by step voice guided navigation to any one of your contacts that have supplied address information.

The fun doesn’t stop there. Google Maps Navigation even supports voice commands; simply start a command with ‘Navigate’ and then tell your Android powered friend where you want to go and you’ll be presented with the navigation interface. Obviously this can be a little hit or miss but both the fun factor and satisfaction when you get it right are worth the price of admission alone.

And just what is the price of admission for such a fully featured navigation tool? Absolutely nothing. In keeping with the US offering (and matching Nokia’s Free SatNav Forever campaign), Google Maps Navigation is available absolutely free on phones running Android 1.6 and above. Simply hit the Google Maps icon on your phone and get exploring!