LG GW620 InTouch Max : Review

April 11, 2010 by admin
Filed under Object, Tech, palm-pre

The GW620 InTouch Max is LG’s first Android handset and is generally aimed at the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to smartphones, obviously dominated by the likes of iPhone or other Android’s like the Nexus One. However just because of this don’t let that put you off, this phone still packs a lot of goods for the price. Not only this, it’s the first time I’ve got fully to grips with the Android OS and I like what I’m seeing but more about that later. Click on for the rest of the review.

THE BODY

In comparison to most of the new smartphones out there the GW620 is a hell of a lot smaller than an iPhone, Nexus One or Milestone and was a lot nicer in my pocket than my current brick like N97. The phone feels light but despite its plastic shell and rubber back seems sturdy and doesn’t feel like it’ll explode on impact with the floor after dropping it.

The power/lock button sits at the top and the headphone jack sits next to it, slightly raised from the body making it sit nice and flush. Now I’m indifferent really to where headphone sockets are placed but in theory this is probably the best if your phone is in your pocket with the lead coming out the top.

Now to the body sides, on one side you have a dedicated microSD slot/gate. It’s one of those rubber swinging gates once opened the card sits inside and click/pushes in and out. Now from what I know most newer Android phones place the SD card under the battery which is obviously hassle if you want to switch them over so brownie points to LG here for putting it on the side.

Just below the gate you have a music button which when pressed brings up your Music gallery options and a below that a camera button to use to shoot your pics in camera mode.

On the other side again a rubber, swinging gate only this time its your charge/usb port. Now as its micro USB a lot of new phones(ie my N97) now use micro USB as their charge/data transfer and so if you have any spare cables or chargers they should be compatible with the GW620, however it’s always recommended you use the ones supplied with the phone. Then to finish it off we have your volume controls tucked underneath the port. Although the buttons on both sides stick out slightly i never found myself accidently pressing them when removing the phone from my pocket.

The keyboard next, oh what a wonderful keyboard!!!! Extremely simple to slide out, with a nice click to let you know its extended to the max. Now this keyboard is brilliant, probably the best full QWERTY I’ve ever come across on a phone. Unlike other phones that require you to press a shift or function button for numbers and symbols, this is a five line keyboard with its own dedicated numbers buttons and cursor keys. It’s a dream to use the keys are a decent size and spaced out perfectly. Unless your fingers are massive there’s no trouble firing out a fast typed message without fingers sticking to the keys or pressing multiple digits. Truly LG have got this right on the phone and hopefully other designs like this will follow from other phone brands. I’m personally not a huge fan of on screen software keyboards like the iPhone’s or whatever as i continually press the wrong buttons. This was like typing out on my keyboard at home.

USER INTERFACE

Now as I said before this is the first time I’ve got to fully get to play with Android and obviously from blogging frequently about phones and gadgets etc I’ve noticed plenty of companies are turning to it to use in their phones, netbooks and PMPs. From what I can tell Android itself is pretty standard on whatever phone it be used on from the T-Mobile G1 to the HTC Hero, with just the obvious “skinning” differences. Now I also know that Android has been upgraded several times since its release and yet the GW620 is still using an older version, Android 1.5, which disappointed me slightly on reading it but I had nothing to compare it to in the first place.

So you fire it up. Boot up seemed to take quite a while for me, around a minute and a half, which when you’re impatient and need to quickly get on your phone can feel like a lifetime. Once it has booted up however the phone starts to get a little clever for its user. LG have incorporated it to boot in 2 modes, solely for the users preference. If you’re coming to this phone from another Android phone and you’re used to its UI, you could opt for the Android boot where everything is laid out in the plain Android way with 3 home screens which can be customised by you with your favourite quick starts/contacts or your favourite widgets etc. There’s also the drag out screen whereby all your apps and phone options are all listed and available at a click much like the iPhone screens.. The other choice option is the LG S-Class style UI over the Android one. Now if you’re familiar with LG phones, the Koreans have been using this style UI on its past few phones. Firstly the homescreens can be continuously shifted through unlike the Android 3 of left, middle and right. With the icons, instead of everything being grouped in one table, your apps and options are sorted and listed in their uses ie Multimedia, Communication etc. Now I’d witnessed the S-Class style before with the LG Arena and to be honest I wasn’t overly keen on it so I gave it a quick few plays and opted to try the Android version which was great and very easy to use.

Now its all well and good describing he initial use of the phone but what about the actual control, the resistive touchscreen, yeah I sighed too at resistive. It isn’t as bad as you might think but as always isn’t a capacitive one and therefore could be better. Occasionally you may press an icon only for the phone not to respond, you press it again, nothing, press it again and damn, the phones going mental opening things you don’t want, freezing up etc. Although not happening often its one problem I had a few times with the phone. The touch sensitive buttons at the bottom of the screen are a little sensitive too. if you’re playing about on the screen with a game or app, a slight touch of the return or home button can instantly close what you’re doing and get quite infuriating at times especially if you’re in the middle of something important. Another problem with the screen is that it can unlock your phone. There are three ways to unlock the phone keys. A double tap of the top power button, a double tap of the menu button, or a tap of the screen and hold the on screen key. I found that all three of these methods can easily lead to the keys opening in your pocket , leading to the phone obviously doing what it or the inside of your pocket feels like, like making phone calls that you’re unaware of.

MAKING CALLS AND MESSAGING

Making calls on the GW620 is pretty simple, the dialler is quick and easy to use(as it is with nearly every phone). When making calls, the phone volume is adequate although could occasionally do with being a little louder. The clarity was also good, i mean it wasn’t crystal clear but a lot of the time its also down to the person who you are talking to’s phone aswell.

Signal wise the GW620 picked up signal in places my N97 can’t but the GPRS/EDGE signal will usually stay in place even when you’re in a 3G “hotspot”. However as said it was very rare the phone didn’t seem to get a signal, a problem i face a lot when I’m at work.

The contact system in place with the GW620 works very well and depite the phone not being a top-end smartphone I was impressed with it, even though it was still quite reminiscent of the Arena’s S-Class interface style. Obviously LG are marketing the phone to a “social networker” and the contact list works hand in hand with your friends Facebook, Twitter and Bebo accounts. You can also seperate your friends into groups and even your favourite contacts get their own quick-list.

Your contact list is well laid out and has ample space for even the stubbiest of fingers to select, tweak and scan through and then another quick click to call or message them.Where the social networking comes in is the ability to link your contacts with their accounts. Facebook for example will throw your contacts profile picture as their calling picture. I’m not a “Tweeter” however so I don’t know quite how well the Twitter thing works, but if the Facebook one is anything to go by it should be good.

Messaging, an absolute dream on this phone. I honestly haven’t come across a better phone or OS for texts. The main reason for this is the keyboard as stated before is the bee’s knees and in my experience better than any other physical keyboard and much more reliable than any software keyboard. Secondly the messaging system on Android is great, it logs your conversations like an instant messenger and the same as the iPhone, great for me who forgets where his text conversations are going or what was said previous without having to scan through his “Sent Messages” folder.

The GW620 also has the Moxier suite with support for push email. Again a dream with the keyboard and quite handy for your emails on the go, although it could be a little sluggish at times and occasionally wouldn’t download messages, but I’m sure this will only improved if the phone gets an Android software update. Options are also available to set up an IMAP or POP3 account and were relatively easy.

CAMERA

LG’s cameraphones in the past have had pretty decent snappers on board. Android phones it seems lack a decent camera and the GW620 doesn’t shine like the Sony Ericsson phones or Carl Zeiss lensed Nokias. However it still takes good quality pictures and has plenty of options for you to tweak ISO settings etc. The flash was quite bright considering its just a small LED flash but in low-lit areas it provided enough light for a decent shot although i wouldn’t expect any decent night shots. When in well-lit conditions the picture quality was excellent however the one big downside to this phone and like the Arena is the age it takes between you pushing the button and it actually taking the picture. The shutter sound goes but its several seconds before the picture is actually taken which at first i was moving the phone before the picture was actually taken causing blurred images. It also means shots cant be taken in quick succession. Another downfall is the phone trying to be a little too clever. LG have tried to incorporate an “Auto-Detect” feature to the camera, suggesting that the phone can detect who the people are in your photos and then give you the opportunity to upload them to Facebook or whatever. However although the idea is fantastic it doesn’t quite work as well as you’d hope and would occasionally get the person wrong, nevertheless this could be improved.

Videos although at a fairly low res (320×240) playback at a smooth 30fps and again the option to share your videos is there like the photos.

INTERNET AND MEDIA

Internet on Android phones works great and the GW620 is one of those phones bundles with a WebKit enabled browser. The biggest hinderence to the GW620 is the resistive touchscreen which at times is unresponsive and could be hard to select links/buttons in the browser. The interface to the browser was strange though, a hidden tab at the side that worked well but occasionally got in the way when trying to read text on web pages or would annoyingly pop up when you didn’t want it to.

The browser itself though was usable in portrait but much better to use in landscape. One nice touch is the auto-fit ability it had. Double tap on a certain area, the window zoomed in and the text automatically sized to fit the screen. Despite it’s basic nature, no Flash playback etc the browser was good enough for simple web browsing and was quick and easy to use. I encountered very few problems with it to be honest.

The media gallery next. Quite confusing to look at, quite confusing to use but once you get the hang of it the GW620 is certainly decent enough to supply the needs of a basic user for photos the odd video and music listener. If you’re a bit of a techphile(if the word exists) you might be a little disappointed, but it certainly has its uses. LG has packed it with most of the worlds favourite codecs so you got decent playback of DivX, MP4 and H.264 video files and despite the smaller than average screen they still looked good and certainly watchable. The Music player is very basic, but does the job nevertherless. Lovely big icons to press and the user interface is simple and user friendly. However it just plays the songs in your gallery. Nothing more. No extra fancy tweaks, EQ or Artwork changing ability, but i guess if you wanted that you’d have got an iPhone or a Nokia MusicExpress.

FINAL THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSION

At first battery life seemed quite good for the phone, a full charge lasting a couple of days with a bit of talktime and plenty of messaging. However once i got to grips with Android and i dabbled on the market, started surfing with the Wi-Fi enabled, downloaded some apps, installed and then bam, the battery life started to drop to just over a day’s worth. You see most of the apps require either constant connection or the odd bit of online info and i struggled to turn them off completely without uninstalling them. That’s more of an Android problem then the phone itself though to be fair.

Being the first Android phone I’d got my mitts on it didn’t bother me too much that it was only running the older 1.5 but from what i understand this is the basic. The lowest form of Android. Still I was very impressed though and hopefully the GE620 will see an OS upgrade which could possibly further improve the experience, I’d have to see this to make that decision but I can’t see why it wouldn’t improve the phone.

Generally I really enjoyed this phone, for a Nokia veteran I’m tired now of Symbian, to be honest its rubbish. This phone opened me up to Android even at the lowest level but what really grabbed me was the messaging and that keyboard. LG have impressed me here with this phone. For the price its brilliant and although its not up there with the big guns like iPhone or the Nexus One it certainly is a leader in its field and if i didn’t budget myself to have a ridiculously overpriced contract and top end phone and i opted for a lower one I would seriously consider this phone. What it has also done has sung Android’s praises to me and definitely made me consider opting for an Android phone in the future. High Five LG!!

lg-gw620-android

Post from: Mighty Gadget – Gadget and Technology Blog

LG GW620 InTouch Max : Review

Tags: 3G, Android, InTouchMax, LG, LG GW620

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LG GW620 InTouch Max : Review

Tags: auto, lg electronics, lg gw620, microsoft, Nokia, palm-pre, phone, phones, pocket, review, samsung, screen, Sony

LG LU2300 : LG first “Snapdragon” Android phone

April 6, 2010 by admin
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Rumoured for the past month or so and with the success of the GW620 In Touch Max(LG’s first Android phone, review coming soon) LG has announced its next Android phone only this time they’re powering up with Qualcomm’s speed friendly Snapdragon 1GHz chip.

The news comes that the phone will appear in its native South Korea in the next month and Android France has leaked the rest of the specs on the phone. It will supposedly be packing a lovely 3.5” AMOLED capacitive touchscreen capable of a super sharp 800×480 resolution. It will also have a 5MP camera, GPS and Wi-Fi plus apparently a digital TV Tuner(promising….) Android France have also stated it will be packing the latest Android, 2.1. The success of the GW620’s physical keyboard appears to have followed to the LU2300, let’s hope it’s as good.

It seems to be the norm now for the latest Android phones to be powered by the “dragon” so obviously LG is getting in with the crowd and is looking to improve on its previous Android releases which will only be a good thing. No release or price news yet so watch this space.

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LG LU2300 : LG first “Snapdragon” Android phone

Tags: AMOLED, Android, GW620, LG, LU2300, snapdragon

Tags: amoled, auto, gw620, internet, lg electronics, microsoft, Nokia, samsung, Snapdragon

LG LD950 : Passive 3DTV launching sooner

April 4, 2010 by admin
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Originally the LG LD950 3DTV was scheduled to be released in August but now it has been brought forward allowing consumers to get a chance to snap up some 3D tech at a cheaper price(due to it being a passive 3DTV). For anyone who didn’t know this TV was originally scheduled for release, then withdrawn from LGs product line only to re-emerge again.

With the recent Sky 3D pub showings of the football recently on LGs LD920(the commercial model for LG to show off its tech) has now been upgraded to the LD950 model number as it will now have HDMI 1.4. This was needed due to the fact future 3D sources like Blu-Ray players will use this new HDMI 1.4 as its standard so the TVs needed an update so they could then be on open sale(hence the delay/re-branding).

Now this new model should be available in May time and will come out alongside the monstrous LG LX9900(the first 3DTV available with Active technology). Now for those not in the know its all to do with the type of glasses you wear and the science involved to view the image, Active being better than Passive for the image quality but Passive specs are a lot cheaper to produce. Price details are still not available.

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LG LD950 : Passive 3DTV launching sooner

Tags: 3D, LD950, LG, LX9900, Passive 3D

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LG LD950 : Passive 3DTV launching sooner

Tags: advertising, apple, auto, gaming, lcd-and-plasma-tvs, ld950, lg electronics, lx9900, palm-pre, passive 3d, phones, samsung, Tech

LG GD900 Crystal Review

September 21, 2009 by admin
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At the end of last year we blogged about LG planning on releasing 125 handsets globally and roughly 1 handset every 2 weeks in the UK. While I am not sure that figure is totally accurate today I would not be surprised if it was close, LG have certainly been pumping out the phones recently including the LG BL40, LG Arena, LG watch phone, LG Viewty II and the LG GD900 Crystal that we will be reviewing today.

LG certainly appear to be trying to increase their market share by releasing a phone for every possible niche and in today’s review it is the LG GD900 Crystal which is the first transparent phone to hit the market.

The GD900 is available from free on a £30-per-month contract, or for around £500 on a pay-as-you-go deal. You can also buy it SIM-free for around £350.

The specifications of the phone are:

Camera: 8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, Videocall camera
TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours – 480 x 800 pixels, 3.0 inches
S-Class Touch UI
Transparent touch-sensitive keypad
Gesture Shortcut
Multi-touch input method
Handwriting recognition
Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
Card slot: microSD (TransFlash), up to 16GB
Java MIDP 2.0
TV-out
MP3/AAC/AAC+/WMA player
DivX/XviD/MPEG4 player
Organizer
Document viewer (DOC, XLS, PPT, PDF)
Voice memo

From first impressions the LG GD900 is a great looking phone, the main part of the phone is metallic looking and is not vastly different from the LG Arena but it then has this extremely impressive slide out keypad which is made of tempered glass and lights up around the edges. The transparent keyboard certainly makes a good talking point about the phone, though it does add quite a feminine element to the phone so it may not have a very wide appeal to males.

It is also quite impressive how sturdy the slider, I think this was largely due to the use of glass over plastic. If the slider had been poorly implemented I think it would of been disastrous.

Interestingly the keypad is also a touch-sensitive controller which allows you to flick through items or use multi touch with either the keypad or screen. It may not be a huge feature but these little things do count.

Like the LG Arena the GD900 uses the S-Class Touch UI which we previously had mixed feelings about however one of the main issues we had with the LG Arena was with text input and to some extent this is solved with the inclusion of the keypad which allows for T9 input. Granted this is not ideal but there are not many phones out their with a dedicated keyboard or a well implemented touchscreen keyboard.

The S-Class Touch UI has clearly taken a lot of ideas from the iPhone while implementing their own features such as the 3D Cube that is used when flicking through screens (though this reminds me of Compiz). I find it difficult to make an objective opinion about the S-Class Touch UI as I can’t help but compare it to the superior iPod. The problem here is that it is not really a fair comparison. The iPhone is a Smartphone running an operating system so it can be customised as much as you want (well in theory). The GD900 is essentially a dumb phone that can not be modified to the extent of the iPhone or Android phones.

Looking at in comparison with other dumb phones then it is a perfectly good phone, it does have issues with it including sluggishness but most of these problems are found on other phones that don’t use a smart OS.

Things start to improve when you move onto some of the functionality of the phone. I found the camera to be quite good, not amazing. It suffers from serious input lag, though this is very common in phones and the LED flash is far from ideal but again a common problem with phones. In general though it is a good camera for a phone.

The phone also has a video recorder, video editor, music player and FM radio. It also has a decent amount of room with 1.5GB, though I would of liked to see more space. The phone does need an adapter for the earphones but the supplied earphones are actually very good, I would say they are the best earphones I have used that have been supplied with a phone.

The adaptor for the phone earphones uses a micro USB and this is also used for charging. I can not stress how happy I am to see this implemented, I have a huge issue with proprietary connectors and while I realise a lot of companies are planning to use a universal standard for phone charging it is nice to see a company finally implement it.

Finally we have the GD900’s browser, I found it did a reasonably good job at displaying complex pages and it managed to load them quite fast thanks to the HSPDA connection.

Overall

The LG GD900 is by no means the best phone out there, I found it to be let down by its interface slightly, but it is still a very good phone with great looks.

If the iPone is too expensive for you (and common), and other smartphones are too ugly or you just want something a little different then I would say the LG GD900 is definitely worth a look.

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LG GD900 Crystal Review

Tags: Crystal, LG, LG Crystal, LG GD900

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LG GD900 Crystal Review

Tags: apple, auto, crystal, iphone, lg electronics, lg gd900, lg-arena, microsoft, palm-pre, phone, phones, posts-tagged-with-lg, Tech

Blu-Ray Player Fest : LG BD390

September 6, 2009 by admin
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More news on yet another Blu-Ray player. We touched on this a couple of months back but now we’ver got some UK details on it. This wireless enabled player allows a WiFi connection to your network so no wired router access is needed for internet connection for all those updates and internet extras your blu-rays may need. Its also DLNA certified meaning you can share media from any other gadget that is also DLNA certified……brilliant eh??

Full Spec :

Full 1080p
7.1 sound output
Multi Format playback including DivX HD and MKV(brilliant)
BD Live Compatible
YouTube Browsing
WiFi Connection
USB port(matched with the file support can watch films straight off an ext HDD)

LG said it will be available at the end of this month and will set you back between £250 and £300

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Blu-Ray Player Fest : LG BD390

Tags: BD390, Blu-ray, DLNA, LG

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Blu-Ray Player Fest : LG BD390

Tags: apple, bd390, blu-ray, blu-ray / hd dvd, dlna, gaming, lg electronics, microsoft, news, palm-pre, samsung, Sony, Tech, windows

LG BL40 ‘New Chocolate’ phone now revealed.

July 30, 2009 by admin
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LG’s ‘New Chocolate’, otherwise known as the LG BL40 has now officially been revealed to the press after countless teaser shots and videos.

With a 21:9 ratio 4-inch tempered glass, scratchproof, LCD screen(the major selling point) and sleek black finish, this is hopefully going to be the fashionable smartphone LG is after to break into the market. The screen should allow the user to multitask ie. see your entire inbox whilst reading a message.

The full specs aren’t quite available yet but we’re looking at HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and a 5MP camera. LG says it will be released in the 3rd Quarter of this year which basically means anytime soon.

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LG BL40 ‘New Chocolate’ phone now revealed.

Tags: LG, LG BL40, LG Chocolate

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LG BL40 ‘New Chocolate’ phone now revealed.

Tags: apple, auto, chocolate, gaming, iphone, lg bl40, Lg Chocolate, lg electronics, microsoft, news, Nokia, palm-pre, Sony

Feature Packed, yet cheap LG BD370 Blu-Ray Player

July 19, 2009 by admin
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If you’re looking for a top quality feature packed Blu-Ray player that isn’t a PS3, but don’t want to pay a PS3 price, this could be for you.

On the outside the player is relatively thin and aesthetically pleasing, the inside packs power to load up your blu-rays quickly and in full HD. The player has profile 2.0, and can upscale DVD’s has USB connections and has the ability to pluck your favourite YouTube videos from the net and play them on your telly in SD.

Full Specs :

Full HD 1080p Output via HDMI
1080p Up-scaling of Standard DVDs
Wide Audio Format Support(Dolby True HD, DTS-HD)
BD Live : Enjoy additional movie content via internet
YouTube : Free access to YouTube where 15 hours of content is updated every minute
LG SIMPLINK Multi-device Control
USB 2.0
Strong Circle & LED Indicator
HD Movie Playback (H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC codec)
Compatible Container Format : *.mkv, *.mp4, *.avi
DVD, Audio CD, CD-RW/R
JPEG, MP3, WMA
DivX Playback
Quick Start up & Disc Loading
Instant Tray Open
Bonus View

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Feature Packed, yet cheap LG BD370 Blu-Ray Player

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Feature Packed, yet cheap LG BD370 Blu-Ray Player

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Feature Packed, yet cheap LG BD370 Blu-Ray Player

July 19, 2009 by admin
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If you’re looking for a top quality feature packed Blu-Ray player that isn’t a PS3, but don’t want to pay a PS3 price, this could be for you.

Full Specs :

Full HD 1080p Output via HDMI
1080p Up-scaling of Standard DVDs
Wide Audio Format Support(Dolby True HD, DTS-HD)
BD Live : Enjoy additional movie content via internet
YouTube : Free access to YouTube where 15 hours of content is updated every minute
LG SIMPLINK Multi-device Control
USB 2.0
Strong Circle & LED Indicator
HD Movie Playback (H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC codec)
Compatible Container Format : *.mkv, *.mp4, *.avi
DVD, Audio CD, CD-RW/R
JPEG, MP3, WMA
DivX Playback
Quick Start up & Disc Loading
Instant Tray Open
Bonus View

Post from: Mighty Gadget – Gadget and Technology Blog

Feature Packed, yet cheap LG BD370 Blu-Ray Player

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Feature Packed, yet cheap LG BD370 Blu-Ray Player

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LG Arena KM900 – Review

June 29, 2009 by admin
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On first looks the Arena looks like a smaller, slightly fatter iPhone. The screen takes up most of the phone with three buttons at the bottom of the screen and a small camera at the top. On the back of the phone, the camera lens is very small as to is the flash. The brushed metal finish is attractive but the plastic back seems to get dirty quick. Being a touchscreen phone thats very iPhone looking, this is obviously LG’s attempt to draw in those customers that Apple has attracted. However a smartphone this is not but this doesn’t stop it being a good all round phone.

Phone Specs :-

5 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom, autofocus & LED flash
Video recording (DivX playback)
3G video calling
Touch sensitive screen: TFT LCD, 262k colours, 480 x 800 pixels (3 inches)
Music player (MP3/AAC/AAC+/AAC++/WMA formats) with Dolby Mobile
FM radio
FM transmitter
Assisted GPS with geo-tagging of photos
Speakerphone
Voice recording
Messaging: SMS, EMS, MMS, Email
T9 predictive text
Document viewer (TXT, PDF, DOC, PPT, XLS)
Ringtones: 72 voice polyphonic ringtones / MP3 ringtones
Wallpaper
Java 2.0 games
Phonebook (1000 names)
Memory: 8 GB plus microSD memory card (expandable to 32 GB)
Connectivity: USB 2.0, Bluetooth 1.2, WiFi, 3.5mm headphone socket
Internet: WAP 2.0, GPRS Class 12, EDGE, 3G HSDPA (7.2 Mb/s)
Vibration alert
Triband (GSM 900/1800/1900) plus 3G HSDPA
Size: 106 x 55 x 12 mm
Weight: 105g
Talktime: 3.8 hours
Battery standby: 300 hours

The main thing that the Arena has is its features. It has everything you could possibly need, a total of 87 (question is, do you really need them all). However the only major problem with having all these features is that they don’t necessarily operate as quickly as they should.

The Arena is LG’s first phone to have its S-Class Interface which works like its a cube. The display looks great and the homescreens are responsive and can be customized to whatever shortcuts you like. The dialling screen is responsive and relatively easy to use. The only downside to the touchscreen is when texting or emailing. The landscape QWERTY keyboard looks easy to use but unfortunately is unresponsive if you’re a fast texter. I have small fingers and was still pressing wrong keys frequently and sometimes you’ll press the buttons and it’ll take a couple of seconds to appear in your message. The portrait keyboard with predicitve text was a little easier to use unless you’re typing out words that aren’t in its dictionary. This often left me frustrated and with text messages that were full of spelling mistakes and new words that I’d made up. The only way to make it work is to type really slow.

Other problems with the touch screen is needing to click onto certain points on the screen when web browsing or cutting and pasting in messages. Having used iPhone’s Safari software and how it makes web pages look, it appears all other web software on phones don’t compare. Unfortunately its the same with the LG Arena. I found the browser difficult to use at times and again unresponsive when clicking page links and the address bar. However with most phones and software with prolonged use, you get better at these things.

The camera despite having a small lens, takes pretty decent pictures but you have to be a little patient. Once you hear the shutter sound the picture isn’t actually taken till a couple of seconds after which if the phone was moved in this time could lead to blurred pictures. Despite not having a Xenon flash, the LED flash is still relatively bright and the camera also has a high ISO setting for low-light conditions. The video setting on the camera is also pretty nifty. 720×480, 30fps video is good in anyone’s books. It’s responsive to light changes and the colour stays quite well in the video. It also doesn’t blur much when moving.The playback on the phone also looks quite tasty with a sharp, smooth picture. The only downside to the video is the 3GP format, MP4 or AVI would’ve been better.

To be fair I only gave the music player a quick spin because its pretty hard to get wrong. Obviously compared to dedicated mp3 players the LG Arena isn’t quite as good, but it still gives a good enough sound quality for you to use it. It uses Dolby Mobile digital audio-processing, which is said to improve the quality of sound so it doesn’t sound like a bee buzzing round a tin can. Sometimes it seemed a little quiet when the phone was ringing but the sound quality of the internal speaker was good enough.

Overall I found the LG Arena ok. It delivered in some areas but not in others, unfortunately as I use my phone to mostly message, email and web use, it didn’t suit me entirely. However if you’re looking for a good all round phone with plenty of applications and decent media use, the LG is definitely a good, cheaper alternative to the iPhone or the new touchscreen smartphones like the N97.

Post from: Mighty Gadget – Gadget and Technology Blog

LG Arena KM900 – Review

Tags: KM900, LG, LG Arena, Mobiles