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Editors’ note: Since the Optimus V is so similar to the Optimus S, in this review we’ll focus on what sets the Optimus V apart. For more design details, please read our LG Optimus S review.

We thought the LG Optimus U would be the last of the LG Optimus line of handsets (see the LG Optimus T, the Optimus S, the Vortex, and the Optimus M), but it appears we were wrong. Virgin Mobile has released its very own Optimus handset, appropriately named the LG Optimus V. As you might expect, the Optimus V is practically identical to the Optimus S, with similar features and specifications. It does offer a few minor differences over the LG Optimus S, which we’ll review here. The LG Optimus V is very competitively priced at only $149.99 without a contract.

Design
The LG Optimus V is really the spitting image of both the Optimus S and the Optimus U. It’s quite slim, just like the other phones, at only 0.52 inch thick, so it’s very pocket-friendly. It has a nice soft-touch finish all around, and the 3.2-inch touch-screen interface is just as colorful and intuitive.

The only design differences are cosmetic. Instead of slate gray, the Optimus V is pure black. It has the same button placement as the Optimus U, with the Menu key first and the Home key second, followed by the Back and Search keys. The Optimus V has a default home screen with Virgin Mobile colors (a gradient of red to black) along with a few built-in Virgin Mobile apps.

Otherwise, the Optimus V has a fairly stock Android interface, with shortcuts to the phone dialer, the main menu, and the Web browser on the home screen. The Optimus V does have the Swype keyboard built in. This lets you quickly enter text by sliding your finger in one continuous motion over the screen keyboard. Of course, you can always switch to the default multitouch Android keyboard if you prefer.

Features
The LG Optimus V ships with Android 2.2, but it should be upgradable to Android 2.3 in the future. Still, Android 2.2 is a great operating system for an entry-level smartphone. Some of its features include voice dialing over Bluetooth, app sharing, and phonebook integration with Facebook and Twitter contacts. Do note that it can’t play Flash video in the browser even though the firmware technically supports it–the Optimus V just doesn’t have the hardware for it. You can still play Flash video, but only with YouTube and third-party apps.

The rest of the features are impressive as well. It has 3G in the form of EV-DO Rev. A, stereo Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS. The GPS can be used with a variety of location-based apps, like Google Maps, Latitude, Places, and Scvngr, a scavenger hunt-inspired app. Unlike most of the other Optimus handsets, the Optimus V does not have mobile hot-spot capabilities, which is a disappointment.

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Features you don’t get
Unfortunately, Verizon’s iPhone lacks two very important features present on ATT’s device. Because CDMA essentially separates voice and data into two “pipes” (GSM uses only one), you won’t be able to stay on a call and use the Web browser, Google Maps, or any app that requires a data connection (you’ll receive a notification if you try and do so). If you’re using the navigation feature or hot spot, they will pause when you get a call and resume after you hang up. On the other hand, you will be able to send and receive texts and browse existing content on your device when on a call.

We think that’s a big deal, especially when you consider that Apple has made such functionality–you can talk on the phone and get directions to Starbucks!–a centerpiece of some of its ad campaigns. You can use voice and data at the same time if you’re connected to Wi-Fi, but that remains the only workaround. There is, however, one benefit to this arrangement. We’ll discuss it in the last section.

The good news is that the CDMA Development Group has announced that simultaneous voice and data will become commercially available in the first half of this year. Yet, just because the new technology is out there, it doesn’t mean that Verizon will start using it right away. As of now, no CDMA carrier, Verizon included, has said that it will adopt simultaneous voice and data. And even if Verizon does pick up the technology change, its iPhone 4 won’t be able to support it without the necessary hardware changes.

Also, we’re not pleased that Verizon’s iPhone will not support GSM networks. You’ll be able to use it in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and around 40 other countries outside North America, but world travelers will have extremely limited roaming capability. Bad move, Apple and Verizon.

Lastly, the Verizon iPhone 4 will not support Verizon’s 4G LTE network. That’s disappointing, but hardly surprising. As we’ve said before, Apple is not a company to jump on a bleeding-edge technology. Verizon’s 4G network has yet to be used by cell phone customers (only laptop users are on it now), and Apple will make sure it can deliver the polished user experience that it always seeks. Though nothing is confirmed yet, we expect a 4G model on both Verizon and ATT within the next 12 months. Sure, you’ll have to upgrade to a new version, but Apple is a master at that game.

Performance
A popular joke about the ATT iPhone is that it’s great device, as long as you don’t have to make calls. Honestly, we never fully subscribed to that view, but there’s no denying that for some iPhone users, particularly those in dense urban areas, ATT has delivered a less than stellar iPhone experience. And as the problems continued, the belief that Verizon could deliver a better performance became so ingrained, that many consumers saw no other possible outcome. Yet, like so many other things in tech, the reality is more complex.

Voice calls and antenna
We divided our voice call tests into three parts. First, we made calls on the dual-band (CDMA 800/1900) Verizon iPhone without picking up ATT’s device. On our end, the audio was clear with little distortion or interference. The volume was loud, as well, and the noise cancellation feature continued to do a good job of screening out background noise. When we called a friend waiting at the airport, we could hear her clearly, even as announcements blared in the background over the PA system.

We then hung up and placed a call on the ATT iPhone (to keep the test fair we called from an area where we know both carriers offer good coverage). During the call, we noticed few differences in clarity apart from a small amount of buzz that usually accompanies GSM networks. The volume was equally loud, as well, and the noise cancellation feature did the same job.

On their end, callers had mixed reports. A few people said we sounded no different, but one friend said the Verizon handset delivered tinnier audio quality on his end. The change wasn’t significant, he said, but he noticed immediately. All of the people we called could hear us adequately, even if we were calling from alongside a busy street. Speakerphone and Bluetooth headset calls were about the same as on the ATT handset, and we had no issues when using an automated calling system. Check out this blog post to see how the ATT and Verizon iPhone 4 voice samples compare.

Apple iPhone 4 (Verizon) call quality sample
Listen now:

For our last voice test, we took the phone to five locations in San Francisco that can be troublesome for both carriers. We went to an onramp of the Bay Bridge during the afternoon rush, a ground-level pedestrian tunnel under a street, the elevator in CNET’s offices, an underground transit station, and an interior stairway in a residential apartment building. In each place we made a call to the same phone number at the same time. This post explains the test in more detail.

On the whole, the Verizon handset outperformed ATT’s device. It connected first in the pedestrian tunnel and apartment building hallway and showed more bars on the home screen. ATT connected first in the transit station, but it was unable to connect at all on the bridge onramp. And even worse, it couldn’t get a signal in the elevator. Dropped calls were not a problem on either phone during our testing period. Unlike on ATT, Verizon’s network doesn’t let you drop off 3G. That’s a not a bad thing, but we were not happy that you can’t use the Field Test feature to check signal strength.

Of course, we had to see if the Verizon iPhone suffered from any of the attenuation problems that plagued the iPhone 4 last summer. Though Apple and Apple fans may deny there was a problem, we certainly experienced real issues when we touched the infamous gap on the handset’s left side. Luckily, the Verizon iPhone didn’t appear to suffer the same fate. We didn’t experience audio cut-outs and we didn’t see the bars drop when we put the phone in the death grip.

Data
Though ATT’s HSPA 3G network technically is faster than Verizon’s EV-DO technology, our tests produced varying results. To start, we compared load times for three Web sites–Airliners.net, NYTimes.com, and the full CNET site–on the ATT and Verizon handsets. We tried from the same location at three times of day: late afternoon, early morning, and just before midnight.

In most instances, Verizon’s 3G (EV-DO) network delivered faster speeds. The difference varied widely–sometimes it was short as 3 seconds, but it could go longer than a minute–and the ATT phone was more likely to have its connection time out. The ATT phone won on a few occasions, but only by 9 seconds at the most. Time of day also played a role, with the ATT handset being significantly slower in the late afternoon.

Recorded times to load Web sites (in seconds)

For our next test we traveled to four additional trouble spots in San Francisco: the parking garage in the basement of CNET’s building, Treasure Island, the Financial District during lunch hour, and the neighborhood just below Twin Peaks. In each location, we compared the number of bars on the display, used Root Metrics’ CoverageMap (find it in the iTunes App Store) app to test upload and download speeds, uploaded a photo to Facebook, and accessed the Web page Giantbomb.com. The point was to combine real measurements with real-world use.

Here again, Verizon won most of the time, but the results were all over the map. When we tested data speeds using the Root app, Big Red’s data speeds were significantly higher than ATT’s. For instance, Verizon’s offered download speeds of 651Kbps at the Financial District location, whereas ATT’s offered download speeds of 116Kbps. The gap in other locations wasn’t quite as wide, but the Verizon handset always won and it finished the data test first.

In the other tests, however, the differences weren’t as sharp. The Verizon phone was quicker to access the Web page and upload the Facebook photo most of the time, but not always by a lot. On some occasions there was no difference, and in two tests (once on Treasure Island and once on Twin Peaks) the ATT handset won. We cover the testing process in more detail in this accompanying blog post and video, so be sure to check it out.

Better, but not by much
Yes, the Verizon iPhone offered a better experience in our initial tests. And we suspect that in the first months after its release it will do the same for you. But as we said before, it’s important to step back and remember a few things. Though we tried to make our tests as fair as possible, there was one aspect that we couldn’t correct. We were, after all, using the Verizon iPhone during a period when just a handful of such handsets were in the wild. Sure, other Verizon smartphones were using the network, too, but our ATT phone was competing with thousands of other Apple devices in the immediate area.

That’s why the Verizon iPhone’s real test will continue to play out over time. As the carrier adds millions of data-hungry users (some estimates say that Verizon could add up to 13 million new customers in two years) we could begin to see more even performance results. As we approach February 10, Verizon definitely has a couple of things going for it. Its reputation for offering a strong network is well-deserved, it’s been able to use Android handsets to gauge date use, and there’s no question that it’s learned from ATT’s travails with capacity. Also, because of the two CDMA pipes, voice quality on the Verizon iPhone is less likely to be compromised by data use.

Verizon very well could be ready for the data onslaught, but we still caution you to keep those expectations in check. If you’ve torn you hair out at ATT, we certainly empathize, but don’t look at Big Red’s phone as a magic device. You’re still using an imperfect cellular network and your experience can vary by several factors, including location and interference. Your experience should be better, but then again it may not.

Battery life
The Verizon iPhone 4 promises the same battery life as the ATT phone. That’s 7 hours of 3G talk time, 40 hours of audio playback, 10 hours of video playback, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, and 300 hours of standby. In our initial talk time test, we came away with 6 hours and 56 minutes. We’ll continue testing the battery over the next few days and will report the results.

According to FCC radiation tests, the iPhone 4 has a digital SAR of 1.18 watts per kilogram.

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HP’s Netbooks have traditionally come in two versions: consumer 10-inch models such as the Mini 210, and pro-level Netbooks such as the Mini 5103. The $299 Mini 1103 is both and neither. An affordable business/education-targeted Netbook, it has a bare-bones design while offering better bells and whistles under the hood than similarly priced competitors: Bluetooth, a 7,200rpm hard drive, and mobile broadband antennas all come standard. An excellent battery life only adds to its appeal. In the end, the Mini 1103 is still a 10-inch single-core Atom Netbook, but it’s one of the better budget Netbooks you can buy.

Interested consumers will likely ask: what’s the difference between this “small business-oriented” Mini 1103 and HP’s consumer-branded HP Mini 210, a perennial top pick at CNET among Netbooks? Mostly, not much. In terms of design, the Mini 1103 is spartan. Black is the only option, unlike HP’s spectrum of Mini 210 colors. The price is better with the Mini 1103: instead of mid-$300s for a Netbook, the 1103′s $299 price puts it on par with the least expensive Netbooks from Acer and Asus. Feature-wise, the 1103 actually comes out on top; instead of removing any features to hit $299, the Mini 1103 adds extras such as Bluetooth.

Glossy black on the outside, matte black on the inside, the Mini 1103 has a clean, inoffensive look that doesn’t try too hard. The plastic Netbook is lightweight, although slightly thick with the curved lid closed. To eliminate battery bulge, the long-life battery in the Mini 1103 is largely tucked into the space between the hinges. The top lid opens up completely to a flat 180 degrees, affording plenty of flexibility when lap-typing. Its design is an analogue to HP’s consumer Netbooks, and is nothing like the high-end, crisp design of the more expensive HP Mini 5103. This one’s a rental car compared with the Mini 5103′s luxury coupe touches.

The flat keyboard and its surrounding deck are treated in matte black plastic that has a budget feel, but is sturdy and flex-free. The keyboard isn’t full-size, but it’s close enough to allow easy and fast typing. Enter and Shift keys are amply sized, and the volume/brightness buttons on top are function-reversed, meaning that they operate directly without requiring a Function button-press.

The multitouch touch pad beneath is wide but very narrow, making for awkward navigation. Two large discrete buttons beneath are generous, but the design would have made a lot more sense as a clickpad, thus saving real estate. We can’t expect too much out of a budget Netbook, but Asus’ Eee PC touch pads are more comfortably designed. The Synaptics touch-based gestures are varied, but hard to execute on such a small surface area.

The 10.1-inch LED-backlit matte display on the Mini 1103 looks better in direct light than other displays because it foregoes the glossy treatment on the majority of laptops, but the maximum brightness isn’t that high. The 1,024×600-pixel native resolution is standard for 10-inch Netbooks, offering easily readable text and clear-quality images and video, but browser windows and document layouts end up with less user real estate. Web browsing suffers the most, especially with multiple toolbars.

Video and audio playback aren’t the strong suits of the Mini 1103, nor are they with any Atom processor-based Netbook. The front-facing stereo speakers built into the lower edge of the laptop achieve functional audio, but cap at an insufficiently low volume for Hulu and other movie playback with a wide sound range. The screen on the Mini 1103 has very limited viewing angles, and is best for single-user watching. A VGA Webcam included with the Mini 1103 has average recording and picture quality.

The Mini 1103 has three USB 2.0 ports and an Ethernet port hidden away behind a flap on the right side; it also has Bluetooth, a rarity among budget Netbooks. Also included is a high-speed 7,200rpm 250GB hard drive, a step up and a contributor to zippier file-opening speeds. However, other specs are standard-issue for budget Netbooks: 1GB of RAM and Windows 7 Starter. This Netbook also lacks HDMI-out, so hooking it up to TV could be a hassle.

The single-core Atom N455 CPU is perfectly capable for basic tasks such as Web browsing, e-mail, and office document work, even some light multitasking, but the experience slows down significantly with any added multimedia tasks. Playback of full-screen streaming Hulu and Netflix videos degraded into choppiness while still being technically watchable, depending on your definition of watchable.

Bottom line: all Atom Netbooks are limited computing platforms that are fine as long as your expectations are curbed, and your concerns lie more toward size and budget than all-purpose use. There are no dedicated graphics, but the Mini 1103 could easily play casual Web-based games and the like.

Juice box
HP Mini 1103
Average watts per hour
Off (60%)
0.45
Sleep (10%)
0.59
Idle (25%)
6.31
Load (05%)
14.37
Raw kWh number
23.00
Annual power consumption cost
$2.61

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   We aren’t sure what the market is for space shuttle tiles, but apparently there is one, because a former shuttle contractor employee’s home was raided in an investigation of tile theft and resale, FloridaToday.com reports.

   David Abbey has not been charged, but authorities say he advertised tiles for sale on eBay, with prices reaching $880 per tile.

   And those tiles probably were defective, since he had access to ones that were being disposed of.

Weird news stories, bizarre news, strange but stories. You’ve come to the right place: Bizarre Florida, where weird is the norm. Exploding pythons. Armless, one-legged drivers. Yep. We certainly have unusual news stories. Offbeat news. Strange, interesting stories. Weird, unusual, true news stories. Get the picture? Have a story suggestion?

E-mail Bizarre Florida: bizarre@tampabay.com

Weird news stories, bizarre news, strange but stories. You’ve come to the right place: Bizarre Florida, where weird is the norm. Exploding pythons. Armless, one-legged drivers. Yep. We certainly have unusual news stories. Offbeat news. Strange, interesting stories. Weird, unusual, true news stories. Get the picture? Have a story suggestion?

E-mail Bizarre Florida: bizarre@tampabay.com

Features
The HTC Inspire 4G offers world roaming capabilities, a speakerphone, conference calling, voice dialing, text and multimedia messaging. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS are all onboard and as you might have gathered from its name, the Inspire is 4G capable. It’s actually the first of 20 4G devices that ATT plans to launch in 2011, but to be clear, the Inspire is running on the carrier’s HSPA+ network and not its LTE network, which isn’t expected to launch until the middle of 2011.

Still, ATT says its HSPA+ network can provide data speeds up to four times faster than its 3G network and it has seen speeds up to 6Mbps. ATT cautions that it is still enhancing its network and that there are a number of variables that can affect your results, and while absolutely true, we were disappointed with the speeds we got here in New York. A little H+ indicator in the phone’s upper right-hand corner let us know we were on HSPA+, but we averaged download speeds of 1.38Mbps and upload speeds of 0.15Mbps. By comparison, we averaged 5.37Mbps down and 1.37Mbps up on the MyTouch 4G using T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network.

In real-world use, loading Web pages and streaming media wasn’t slow by any means, but again, we wouldn’t exactly say it was speedy, either. We’ve definitely experienced faster on other 4G devices. CNET’s full site loaded in 20 seconds, while the mobile sites for CNN and ESPN came up in 10 seconds and 11 seconds, respectively. Meanwhile, a 1,004K app downloaded and installed in 12 seconds. High-quality YouTube clips and Flash video took several seconds to load but played back without needing to rebuffer and with synchronized audio and video.

Hopefully, the speeds are better elsewhere, especially since the smartphone can be used as a mobile hot spot for up to four devices. Using the built-in Wi-Fi Hotspot utility, we paired the Inspire with our MacBook Pro to share the 4G connection. With slightly better download and upload speeds (1.75Mbps, 0.31Mbps, respectively), it took a minute and a half to upload a 4.1MB photo album and 12 minutes to download a 20-track album from iTunes. To use this feature, it will cost you an additional $20 per month on top of the required Data Pro data plan for smartphones, so you’ll play $45 per month in total for 4GB of data. The 4GB applies to data consumed on all connected devices and overage fees will cost $10 per gigabyte.

Aside from the Mobile Hotspot app, the Inspire comes preloaded with a number of other ATT services, such as ATT Navigator, ATT FamilyMap, and ATT U-Verse Live TV, as well as a handful of HTC apps. Of course, there are plenty more apps available in the Android Market and Google just recently announced a Web-based Android Market, where you can more easily search for titles and download them to your computer. Here’s a how-to guide on using it. With Android 2.2, you can now save apps to an SD card, but beware, like its other Android phones, ATT has once again blocked the ability to uninstall its aforementioned services and has restricted third-party apps.

On the multimedia side of things, the Inspire 4G ships with the same media player as HTC’s other smartphones. It features a Cover Flow-like interface and has the basic playback functions, such as shuffle, repeat mode, on-the-fly playlist creation. The music player has a built-in sound enhancer where you can access equalizer settings (headphones only ) or turn on Dolby and SRS surround sound. The latter is available in the video player as well. There is 4GB onboard storage and a preinstalled 8GB microSD card, though the expansion slot can support up to 32GB cards.

The Inspire 4G has an 8-megapixel camera with auto focus, dual LED flash, and HD video recording. As we mentioned earlier, the camera app offers new features and functions. This includes a built-in photo enhancer that allows you to add effects to your photos. The cool thing is that you can see and adjust the effects right on screen while you’re taking the picture, instead of afterwards. You also get an adjustable scale for exposure, contrast and saturation, white balance controls, ISO settings, face detection, and geotagging.

We’ve been disappointed by HTC’s cameras before, but the one on the Inspire delivers. Even in low-light environments and despite the lack of a dedicated capture button, picture quality was sharp with bright colors. Video quality was also quite good. There was some slight graininess to our HD clips, but overall clear and well-lit. The Inspire lacks a front-facing camera, so no video chat here.

Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1,800/1,900) HTC Inspire 4G in New York using ATT service, and call quality was good. On our side, the audio was clear but not the cleanest. There was some hissing in the background that was particularly noticeable during lulls in the conversation but never distracting enough that we had to terminate the call. Friends were generally happy with what they heard on their end. A couple of people mentioned some garbling, but they seemed to be isolated incidents. We didn’t experience any dropped calls during our testing period.

HTC Inspire 4G call quality sample
Listen now:

The speakerphone didn’t produce the best sound. It was slightly tinny and weak. With audio at the highest level, there was just enough volume to hear our caller in a noisier environment. We had no problems pairing the smartphone with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset and the Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones.

Though the Inspire 4G may not rock a dual-core processor like some of the upcoming devices, we found that its 1GHz Snapdragon processor kept the smartphone running smoothly. Apps launched quickly, and there was no lag when playing videos or games like Asphalt 5.

The HTC Inspire 4G ships with a 1,230mAh lithium ion battery with a rated talk time of 6 hours and up to 15.5 days of standby time. We are still conducting our battery drain tests but will update this section as soon as we have final results. In general, we were satisfied with the battery life. With moderate use, we were able to get a full day out of a single charge. After using the mobile hot-spot feature for a couple of hours, we noticed that battery life reduced about 25 percent. According to FCC radiation tests, the Inspire has a digital SAR rating of 1.14 W/kg.

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Earlier we discussed how we imagined PS3 owners opting for something like the Raven because of its 360-inspired analog stick positioning. Since this layout is usually associated with playing a first-person shooter, we immediately thought to try out the Raven with the latest PS3-exclusive shooter blockbuster, Killzone 3.

While everyone’s preference differs, we definitely think using the Raven provides a better experience with controlling the game, but this also unearthed some disappointing performance from the directional pad. Killzone 3 makes use of the up direction on the D-pad to locate checkpoints–for which we found the Raven’s only worked when we pressed harder than normal. While all three other directions seem to work fine, the up direction had issues. To be sure, we tried out another Raven, but found the D-pad to be just as unresponsive.

Other than the D-pad and mushy bumper buttons, the rest of the Raven performed as expected. The controller’s motion-sensing controls performed just as well as a standard DualShock 3′s, as did the vibration feedback. The analog sticks do feel a bit springier, but we got used to their behavior in just a few sessions.

The Raven has a built-in battery pack like Sony’s standard PS3 controllers, and Nyko claims a full charge will net 25 hours of play time. We didn’t rack up that many hours in our testing, but we also didn’t have to recharge at all, either. Charging can be done with any USB wire, and we’re happy to report any powered USB will do the job, unlike Sony’s finicky DualShock 3 controller that must use a PS3 to charge.

The Raven isn’t a Bluetooth controller, so it makes use of a USB dongle that plugs into the front of the PS3. We wish there were another way around this, as it takes up a USB slot that might be needed for other PS3 accessories.

Overall, we were only half pleased with the Raven’s performance. At $35, consumers will only save $5 over Sony’s proven DualShock 3. That said, the analog stick placement is certainly unique and remains one of the only solutions for PS3 owners who want the Xbox 360 controller layout experience.

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BMW offers an impressive set of optional driver assistance features for the 740i, although not all were present on our review car. Night vision turns the main LCD into an enhanced view of the road ahead, letting you see things you would miss with the naked eye. Blind-spot detection warns of cars in the lanes next to the 740i, and the lane departure warning vibrates the wheel slightly if the car drifts across lane lines.

Enough power?
But the real question about the BMW 740i is, can 326 horsepower adequately move this big sedan? That is the amount of power generated by the twin-turbo, direct-injection 3-liter in-line six-cylinder engine, along with 332 pound-feet of torque. Compare that with 407 horsepower from the 750i’s V-8. Or the 760i’s 544 horsepower.

The answer to the above question is a qualified yes. Stomp on the gas, and the 740i digs its tires into pavement and leaps forward with a palpable feeling of acceleration. It may not feel as gut-wrenchingly strong as the 760i, but it is more than enough for the real world of freeway merging and traffic light launches. The only times when the engine begins to feel the slightest bit underpowered come when accelerating during long, steep hill climbs.

The smaller engine is intended to be a fuel saver, too, with EPA ratings of 17 mpg city and 25 mpg highway. In testing over city streets, mountain roads, and freeways, the 740i showed an average of just over 17 mpg.

As part of BMW’s EfficientDynamics program, the 740i does a little regenerative coasting. At the bottom of the tachometer sits an analog fuel-use gauge. At its upper end, a blue zone shows when the 740i is using its excess energy to help charge up its battery. This car is no hybrid, and there is no electric motive power to the wheels, so this extra energy merely keeps the engine from having to burn any extra gas to keep the battery adequately charged.

In other nods to efficiency, the power steering, fuel, and coolant pumps all operate on demand. Instead of keeping pressure in these systems up at all times, which leaches energy from the engine, the pumps only kick in when needed.

Although BMW offers an eight-speed transmission in its lineup, seen in both the 760i and the 550i Gran Turismo, the 740i is limited to six speeds in its automatic transmission. An extra gear or two might have boosted the freeway fuel economy, but other than that, this transmission performs very well. In sport mode it aggressively downshifts, keeping engine power peaked when exiting corners. Manual gear shifts are quick and snappy, and even in standard drive mode, under hard acceleration the 740i lets the tach needle tap the red.

But handling is the 740i’s real strength. Equipped with the M Sport package, which gives it active suspension technology, the car scrambles through turns like a much smaller vehicle. BMW’s active suspension equips the car with a toggle on the console that switches the car between Comfort, Normal, Sport, and Sport Plus suspension settings. This setting button also sharpens engine response in the Sport modes.

Using the same Flex Ray bus technology as in the BMW X5 M, a ton of sensor data from the vehicles gets processed in milliseconds, and commands are sent to the active suspension components to tell the car how to handle immediate conditions. The result is excellent stability in hard cornering, allowing for surprising speed in Sport mode. Sport Plus brings in the additional fun of turning off traction control.

In Normal mode, the car strikes a good compromise between stability and damping out rough road surfaces. There is a very noticeable difference when switching the car over to Comfort mode, which makes the car feel like it is floating over the road surface. But Comfort mode can also let the car oscillate up and down when going over sequential bumps, suggesting barf bags should be an accessory.

In sum
BMW may have built its reputation on excellent driving characteristics, but the 2011 BMW 740i shows that the company is equally good at cabin tech. CNET’s review car may not have been as loaded as it could be, but the standard tech is excellent, from navigation to the phone system. Add the possible extras, such as adaptive cruise control, premium stereo, and night vision, and the 740i comes out as one of the techiest cars around.

Performance tech is an obvious place for BMW to shine, and it does so with the direct-injection, twin-turbo engine. The suspension and handling are also a tour de force, although BMW engineers should program out oscillations in the comfort setting. The transmission operates very well, and has all the modes you could need, but an extra gear might have improved freeway economy.

The major place the 740i loses points is in its interface design. Although this generation of iDrive is a huge improvement over previous efforts, some screens are not intuitive enough. As a big sedan, the 740i is very practically designed, with plenty of headroom and easy trunk access. Aesthetically, the car looks nice, but isn’t anything to drool over.

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