The 4-inch WVGA 800-by-480-pixel LCD display showcases videos, games, and the user interface quite nicely. Colors are bright and vivid, details look sharp, and movement and animations look smooth. It was a rare sunny day in San Francisco so I took the G2X outside to see how it fared in bright light. Unfortunately, the on-screen image completely vanishes once you step outside. I had a hard time even trying to dial a number. And to make matters worse, the screen is a fingerprint magnet, so it is extra hard to see with all those smudges.

Android 2.2: No Frills

As I mentioned earlier, like the other G-series phones, the G1 and G2, the G2X has no overlay running over Android. For Android purists like myself, this is good news. I actually do like certain aspects of the manufacturer overlays, like HTC Sense's Weather widget or Samsung TouchWiz's media player. In other areas, however, I feel like overlays can take away from the functionality of Android-whether by slowing it down or replacing some native apps. For example, Motorola's Motoblur software replaces the multi-featured camera app found in stock Android with its own, lesser app.

The bad news is that the G2x ships with the 2.2 (Froyo) version of the Android operating system, but T-Mobile confirmed with us last month at CTIA that it will get an update this summer.

We've covered Android 2.2 pretty extensively in the past. For a hands-on look of the hottest features in this update, go . Despite being overlay-free, the G2X comes with quite a bit of T-Mobile pre-installed apps. You get T-Mobile's AppPack, which are bundles of apps picked out by T-Mobile, T-Mobile TV and T-Mobile Highlight for even more video content. It also comes with Tegra Zone, NVIDIA's gaming store, the Zinio e-reader, EA games and a few other random apps. Unsurprisingly, Need For Speed Shift is also tucked in there (is it just me or does every phone come loaded with NFS?).