Amongst all the chaos of launches at Nokia World 2010, splashes in the compact camera world from Canon and Samsung, and the highly anticipated events from HTC, it’s almost passed unnoticed that LG has put two more Android Optimus handsets on the market. You could be forgiven for missing them but, of course, we couldn’t.

Android 2.2 mobile phones are beginning to fall like rain in a place where it rains all the time and so, before another couple of drops join the flood waters, here’s a closer look at what these two are all about. With both being called the LG Optimus -, it seems best to compare them to each other in a friendly, fraternal kind of way. Ahhhhh. So, here is the LG Optimus One vs LG Optimus Chic. Which is the one for you?

Form

One

113.5 x 59 x 13.3 mm, 129g

Chic

112.5 x 57.9 x 12.9 mm, 132g

The LG Optimus Chic certainly lives up to its name in terms of having the more svelte form of the two handsets. It’s marginally shorter, thinner and more narrow. Curiously, it’s also a touch heavier but that all comes down to the difference in materials used. It doesn’t take much of a glance up from the stat sheet to see that the Chic offers much more in the way of design style over the relatively standard looking Optimus One. If looks are what counts for you, then it has to be the Chic.

Engine Room

One

600MHz CPU

Chic

600MHz CPU

Neither one of these phones is an athlete and it’s worth noting that a sub 1GHz CPU is going to mean no upgrade to Android 3.0 when it finally hits at the end of the year. There’s no RAM or graphics details available for these two at the moment but with identical central processors, it’s more than likely that they beat with the same heart anyway.

Imaging

One

3MP with AF, VGA video @ 18fps

Chic

5MP with AF, VGA video @ 30fps

Neither of these phones is going to be much cop at taking photos out at night as neither of them features a flash. Of the two though, the Chic is clearly better with 5MP vs 3MP and the ability to encode VGA (640 x 480) resolution video at a vaguely normal frame rate.

Battery

One

1500mAh

Chic

1250mAh

So, the LG Optimus One might not be looking like a good choice until now but it does have a bigger battery to boast and longer quoted talk times as well. It’ll give you 460 minutes 3G use on a single charge compared to 330 from the Chic. So, while the Chic might make you look cool, how cool are you going to feel when it dies on you at 4 in the afternoon? This cool? Cool, is it?

Display

One

3.2”, 320 x 240px, capacitive TFT

Chic

3.2”, 320 x 480px, capacitive TFT

It rather makes sense for LG to be using the same parts for two sibling handsets and that’s exactly what’s happened with the screens on these phones. Both feature a rather basic, small, HVGA touchscreen with 262k colours and, mercifully, multitouch thrown in as well.

Storage

One

170MB expandable with microSD

Chic

150MB expandable with microSD

Both handsets have precious little onboard storage which is going to be a pain in the bum when it comes to squeezing apps onto that tiny frame. Fortunately, a few of the apps on the Android Market will allow you to out them on your microSD cards but not enough at the moment. 20MB isn’t a lot but it might tip the balance in favour of the One.

Connectivity

One

Wi-Fi b/g, HSDPA, BT2.1, USB 2.0

Chic

Wi-Fi b/g, HSDPA, BT2.1, USB 2.0, DLNA

There’s little difference in connectivity with either of the handsets here. Both feature the kinds of spec you’d see on last year’s top superphones but that’s perfectly respectable for the budget Android mobiles that they are. The only difference is that Chic supports the DLNA standard which is rather useful if you want to stream your music and videos over your home network and onto your TV.

Conclusions

It’s pretty clear that the LG Optimus Chic is the older child of these two Android litte ‘uns. It’s got the more respectable camera, better connectivity and it looks that bit classier too. Doubtless that difference will be reflected in the prices when the phones arrive later in October and November.