LG KT610 (2)

 LG KT610 review: Communicator wannabe

KT610 is LG’s way of saying the communicator class isn’t reserved for insanely expensive high end devices. Packing a large full-QWERTY keyboard and neat and simple looks, the S60 Symbian handset spells business. It might have a few features missing but a frown at the spec sheet may as well melt into a smile at the price tag. Economy class is good enough as long as it gets you there. One particularly exciting thing about LG KT610 is the stark contrast between the touchingly old-school front and the serious stuff inside. So let’s open it up and see what we say.

LG KT610 official photos

Key features:

• Full QWERTY keyboard
• 2.4″ 262K-color QVGA display inside
• 1.45″ 262K-color secondary display
• Symbian OS v9.2 with S60 rel. 3.1 UI
• 3G with HSDPA
• Compact dimensions for a communicator
• 2 megapixel fixed-focus camera
• Built-in GPS receiver with excellent sensitivity
• More affordable than other communicators
• Bluetooth and USB v2.0
• 64MB of internal memory and microSD card slot

Main disadvantages:

• No Wi-Fi
• Mediocre camera
• No image geotagging
• Tiny external display of little usability
• Unimpressive battery life
• No A-GPS
• No document editor out-of-the-box
• No PDF reader or ZIP manager preinstalled

LG KT610 is a blessing for heavy texters who do appreciate the Symbian way of handling messaging. The dream texting skills however come at a price – the multimedia handling has suffered. In addition, cutting corners on cost has affected the preloaded content, which is rather scarce.

LG KT610 in our office

As this stage it should have become obvious that the KT610 is a niche model. It still makes a nice alternative in the full QWERTY Symbian segment, where supply isn’t exactly profuse. LG KT610 is rubbing shoulders with a few Eseries handsets and Communicators, and a couple of Sony Ericsson P-line phones. All right, a fact’s a fact: the Nokia E90 secondary display is almost the size of the KT610 main screen and the difference in price is hard to swallow. But still, plunging head first in the shark pond sure takes some cojones.

Another tough question is how the lack of Wi-Fi would affect a communicator, no matter how affordable. Well, we are to see about that when the phone spends some more time on the market. As for now let’s cut to the chase and start inspecting the LG KT610 exterior.

Before we jump to the next page though, a fair warning is due. We are reviewing a beta unit, so improvements and bug-fixes are quite likely.

LG KT610 360-degree spin

The LG KT610 dimensions of 108.9 x 53.9 x 17.2mm are desperately short of compact in regular phone terms. However, it’s the most pocketable communicator-style handset around. The same holds true for the weight of 125.5 grams – a good achievement for the class but far from spectacular in common mobile terms.

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Design and construction

The LG KT610 was never meant to be a hot looker, so don’t count on the exquisite finish of the LG KF750 Secret. The form factor isn’t exactly the kind to expect design miracles but the LG approach is interesting enough. The KT610 is simply not a foldable eye-sore: the neat and simple exterior, the smaller dimensions and, above all, that vintage look give it a charm of its own.

When closed, LG KT610 looks so 1998 with its tiny screen and giant keypad and controls. Looks on the inside are way more conventional, simplicity and ease prevailing again. One still can’t help but wish the screen was bigger. The 4:3 aspect ratio is probably just as important for compatibility but it looks like a lot of space was simply wasted.

LG KT610 resembles a retro phone when closed

The folding top of LG KT610 locks in two positions. The first is at about 120 degrees, which is very comfortable for desktop use. In this position the KT610 is best used sitting on your desk. The other position is full flat and it’s more convenient for holding the phone in your hands.

The two positions of the folding top

The earpiece of LG KT610 is located at the top of the folding front, the mouthpiece is at the very bottom, while the stereo speakers are on either side of the internal display.

There is a loudspeaker on either side of the internal display

The microSD card slot is on the right side of the handset. LG KT610 will ship with a 1GB card included but if that seems insufficient you can go for a bigger one. The handset had no trouble handling an 8GB memory card, which is the largest capacity currently available on the market. In our pre-release unit however inserting a memory card, regardless of its size or used/free space ratio, slows down the file manager on the device. We really hope they fix that in the final retail product.

The right side hosts the microSD card slot

The volume rocker is on its left side, right between the hinges, and the LG proprietary USB slot is at the top. A standard miniUSB or microUSB slot might have been more welcome but it’s not that much of a bother.

The volume rocker is right between the hinges • The USB slot is on top

The backside hosts the 2 megapixel fixed-focus camera lens and the self-portrait mirror. Communicator or else, the KT610 sure ain’t a cameraphone, but we’ll discuss that later on in the dedicated camera chapter.

The 2 megapixel snapper is complimented by a self-portrait mirror

Sliding down the latch at the base of the battery cover makes the 960 mAh Li-Ion Polymer battery pop out. Its capacity isn’t spectacular by any means but you can still count on up to 2 days of rather extensive usage.

The 960 mAh battery is a decent performer

The build quality of LG KT610 is very good, and that’s one aspect where it comes close to communicators. There are no special or rare materials used, but the plastic casing is quite solid and there are no creaks or other disturbing noises during operation. The metallic framing of the folding top is a nice accent, and the rubbery texture at the rear ensures a nice grip.

Even though you only get full access to all phone features in QWERTY desktop use, single-handed operation of the KT610 is still quite sensible.

The LG KT610 held in hand

Display – improvement all over

LG KT610 packs a 1.45″ external and a 2.4″ internal screen, both handling 262K colors. The external display has very poor picture quality but still does a decent job for answering calls and checking the device status. It does give access to some more basic features, including texting and music player.

The 2.4″ external display

We have already mentioned that there is more than enough space to fit a larger internal display. Putting size aside, the unit fitted on the KT610 is really nice with very pleasant picture quality and good brightness. It is probably the best display on an LG handset, even though the KT610 is not among the company’s high-enders.

Sunlight legibility is praiseworthy. LG handsets have so far been virtually useless when exposed to direct sunlight. The LG KF750 Secret is almost impossible to work with outside in the bright sun and the KU990 Viewty isn’t doing much better either. However the KT610 is a whole different story: it remains perfectly legible even in the brightest of days and the vivid picture doesn’t suffer as much as we expected.

Keypad fantastic: external and QWERTY alike

All the keys and controls on LG KT610 are simply great. The keypad on the outside has superb large keys on terraced rows that are rather tactile and pleasingly solid to press. There’re no borders between keys within the same row but that’s hardly an issue with the plenty of space the keypad enjoys. The D-pad and the adjacent controls are also a pleasure to use. An important side note: the main control up front is not a D-pad per se, for it only allows scrolling up and down. Nevertheless, it’s perfectly comfortable and responsive.

The external keypad is praiseworthy

The inside full QWERTY keyboard is just as good with the well-sized and spaced knobs. The only minor problem is the D-pad confirmation center, which might feel too small to first-time users. However getting used to it is rather quick and you’ll be speeding through menus and selections in no time.

The QWERTY keyboard is great too

The typing experience the KT610 delivers is awesome. It falls behind the Nokia E90 larger keyboard of course but let’s be honest – the Nokia Communicator is huge.

The backlighting deserves a decent mark too: it is strong enough and fairly even, save for the control and space keys on the inside.

Backlighting is strong and fairly even

Telephony is excellent

LG KT610 might be a few things short of being the ultimate communicator but reception and call clarity sure ain’t among them: we experienced no issues for the time of testing. You can dial right on the external screen or on the inside but it feels much more natural to use the phone closed for conversations. Video calls are another story – you have to open the phone, as the video-call camera is next to the internal display. It feels the right way to have a video call and we consider this more of an advantage actually.

Calling Dexter on the KT610

The vibration is also strong enough to make sure you never miss an incoming call or message when the phone is in a pocket. The results from our loudspeaker test are at your disposal – LG KT610 turned out a decent performer in this respect too, though far from the spectacular achievements of some other LG handsets. Check out the table for how it stacks against some of the handsets we’ve measured. In case you want to find out more about the test itself or a complete list of tested devices, hit the link.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overal score
Apple iPhone	67.2	60.2	66.6	Below Average
Samsung U800 Soul b	65.9	65.9	75.8	Average
LG KT610	66.7	68.8	81.6	Good
Sony Ericsson W890	69.6	78.2	72.7	Very Good
HTC TyTN II	76.0	75.7	82.7	Excellent

Dual-face user interface – worth the shot

LG KT610 runs on the Symbian 9.2 OS with Series60 3rd Edition user interface. It didn’t stick around long enough to get the Feature Pack 2 treatment, so users will have to settle for FP1.

The external screen handles six basic features: contacts, new message, message inbox, music player, camera and calls log. Those are all pretty trimmed down when launched from here due to the specifics of the display. What you get on the inside of LG KT610 is little different from the other Symbian devices with FP1.

External screen UI: home screen • contacts list

If you open any of these applications through the small external display and then flip the KT610 open, they get opened on the main screen too, which is rather handy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work the other way around, as closing the flip always minimizes all open applications.

Typing a new message and checking the call logs

Now let’s open up the main screen. For starters, LG KT610 features an active standby mode. You have a bar of shortcut icons for instant access to pre-selected functions at the top of the display, while scheduled events from the calendar, along with the currently playing track or radio station (if any), get displayed underneath.

Active standby mode is available

When assigning Active Standby shortcuts, you can choose any application or even a website. The functionality of the two soft keys is configurable too. Another standby screen feature that we really like is the Google search bar giving instant access to the search engine.

The phone has 5 profiles plus an offline mode that switches off all transceivers. If the phone gets started without a SIM card the offline mode get activated automatically allowing full access to the functions of the phone that do not require cellular network coverage. All the profiles can easily be edited to best suit the user needs.

As with any other S60 smartphone, the task manager of LG KT610 pops up upon a press-and-hold on the Menu key. It allows switching between applications or turning off any running application by pressing the backspace key.

Holding the menu key starts the task manager

There are only two menu views for the KT610 but they are basically all you need. The options are a 4 x 3 grid of icons, and a standard list.

There are two main menu view modes

Finally, LG KT610 has a voice recognition feature that (supposedly) allows you to control the whole user interface without even having to touch the phone. It does all right but still not as well as we hoped. Although speaker independent, the application has trouble recognizing some user commands, especially the longer ones. It’s still a good help on some occasions and, given the beta status of our unit, it may get even better in the retail version of LG KT610.

Rich customization options

If you get bored with the phone’s looks, you can always change the theme. There’s a single preinstalled theme on LG KT610 but downloading additional ones is a piece of cake. Those are all around the internet so sky is the limit here. Unfortunately the looks of the external screen cannot be altered in any way (not even the wallpaper).

You can easily change the wallpaper of your KT610

Symbian phonebooks – no reason to grumble

Symbian phonebooks are a real treat – they are easy to use and have practically unlimited capabilities. The number of entries is only limited by the available memory, which means that you will have no problems even with thousands of contacts.

Depending on your liking, contacts can be ordered by either first or last name. You can then search by scrolling through names or by gradual typing of any of the names of a contact. The phone will search in both first and last name fields, as well as additional names in those fields. This means that even if a contact has a really complicated name, you will have no problem finding it provided you remember at least a part of it.

The contacts can be arranged by either first or last name and can be searched by gradual typing of the desired name

While editing a contact, you can select from a huge number of preset fields, which you can repeat as many times as you like. There is virtually no way any information about the contact will have to be left out. You can attach as many numbers as you like to each contact as well. Finally, if by some very rare chance, you happen to need a field that doesn’t exist, you can always duplicate one of the already existing and simply rename it.

You can add a huge number of fields when editing a contact gives you

The Call log department has always been a Symbian strength too. The LG KT610 is no exception, offering a detailed record of all your communications for the past 30 days. It stores all the calls, messages and even data transfers for that period. You can also reduce the amount of saved data but it doesn’t use up that much space so such a choice is unlikely.

The call log application is among the S60 phones’ elements

There is also a more convenient way to access your latest calls. Pressing the call key in standby brings up three tabs on the screen. Each of them holds up to 20 missed or received calls, or dialed numbers.

Messaging: communicators rule

With the large and comfortable full QWERTY keyboard and the great software support of the S60 UI, LG KT610 is one of the best texting devices around. The software layout is almost perfect and completely on par with the great ergonomics of the keyboard.

The SMS editor is a very intuitive and easy to use application. It has a counter of the characters left to the limit of 160. There is also an indicator in brackets showing the number of separate parts the message will be divided into for sending should that limit be exceeded. If you are exiting the message editor without having sent the message, the editor offers to either save it to the drafts folder or delete it.

Typing an SMS to Dexter is as easy as it gets with the LG KT610

Naturally, a delivery report can be activated if the user prefers. The reports pop up on the screen, and are consequently saved in a separate folder in the messaging sub-menu. This is surely one of the most convenient ways of dealing with delivery reports.

The MMS editor is almost identical to the one just described. The only noticeable difference is the added subject line and the option of inserting multimedia content.

Finally, there is also an audio message editor. It can either record the message on the fly or use a previously recorded sound clip.

The great email client won’t surprise anyone who has ever used a Symbian powered phone. It supports POP3 and IMAP protocols and can download headers only, as well as entire messages. There is also support for attachments and SSL/TLS communication protocols, so with LG KT610 you will have no trouble meeting almost any emailing requirement.

The emails are typed in a similar manner

The email client can be set to automatically check mail at a preset interval and the number of maximum retrieved messages can also be configured. All this adds up to a great messaging experience on the LG KT610 – the handset has passed the dream texting device exam with flying colors.
The email client is very convenient

Music player does the job

Except for the landscape screen orientation, the LG KT610 music player looks exactly like on any other S60 3rd edition device. It is surely not the most attractive of applications but its functionality is more than OK offering most of the features you can think of.

All the essentials are duly covered – LG KT610 supports a huge number of audio formats including MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA. Files are automatically added to the music library once you choose the refresh option in the music player. Track-sorting based on artist, album, genre and composer is also available.

The music player “Now playing” interface

There are four equalizer presets, plus auto option. You can also create new equalizer patterns if the preinstalled seem insufficient.

Four equalizer presets and an auto mode is available

The external display has a very basic interface for the music player but it also does the job. This means that you can listen to your music without even having to open the phone.

Accessing the music player through the external screen

Audio quality is remarkable

Even though the KT610 was never meant to be a music phone, its audio quality easily makes some dedicated music handsets blush with embarrassment. It’s probably the best performing LG device in this aspect that we’ve ever got to test.

We are pleased that LG didn’t compromise the audio capabilities of the KT610, never mind its business mindset. Here are the results so you can see for yourselves. If you would like to learn more about the test itself you can follow the link.

Test	Frequency response	Noise level	Dynamic range	THD	IMD + Noise	Stereo crosstalk
LG KT610	+0.49, -1.63	-86.0	85.8	0.0066	0.028	-85.8
LG KF750 Secret	+0.53, -1.02	-87.1	87.3	0.0099	0.023	-85.8
LG KU990 Viewty	+0.29, -2.07	-86.8	83.8	0.020	0.124	-86.6
Nokia E71	+0.74, -1.26	-74.5	74.7	0.016	0.097	-75.8
Samsung i550	+0.74, -0.76	-90.8	86.9	0.0024	0.033	-89.1
Sony Ericsson W980	+0.31, -1.25	-86.0	89.4	0.037	0.828	-86.3

LG KT610 frequency response graph

You can find more info about the testing process here.

Video player

LG KT610 comes with Real player preinstalled for watching video. The videos can be displayed in fullscreen to make better use of the display. In fullscreen, the softkey labels are hidden, so they don’t stand in the way, and only pop up when a key is pressed. The great picture quality is also a boost to video watching experience. The fact that the phone can easily be used in desktop mode makes it even more suitable for watching video.

Picture gallery is OK

The LG KT610 image gallery is accessed from the My Stuff icon in the main menu. It doesn’t look as good as the 3D rotating gallery on the Nokia N-series devices but functionality is good enough.

The gallery allows viewing pictures in both normal and full screen mode. Once you pick a picture you can zoom on it for greater detail. The actual zooming is very fast for the first step and somewhat slower, but still acceptable, for the next steps. Panning is quite fast and isn’t going to bother anyone.

Looking at a picture in normall and fullscreen modes • zooming in on a photo

The LG KT610 gallery also offers adequate file-management allowing selection and sending of multiple files. In addition to that, the smartphone has the usual file manager that does a very good job itself. It allows filtering files according to the memory used as well as marking, moving, copying single or multiple files at a time.

Regretfully, the LG KT610 has no feature similar to the “Search” application we found on Nokia Symbian phones. This means you have to spend a little extra time organizing your files and applications, unless you want to end up in a mess. Anyways, there are a bunch of third-party applications available for download that are up to the task.

2 megapixel snapper

The camera of the LG KT610 is one of things indicating that it is supposed to be a business device before anything else. 2 megapixel snappers are nowadays considered rather low-end but, given that even the omnipresent E90 only pulls off 3 megapixels, we shouldn’t be too particular.

The camera on KT610 however is really hard to operate. The outside screen is comfortable to use when shooting like you would with a regular bar phone. However the small external display shows only a part of the frame to be captured. It cuts about 2/3 of the frame and only displays its central area. Also worth pointing out is that you can’t capture videos using the external display as a viewfinder.

When using the inside screen as a viewfinder you’re facing other problems. For one, your finger tends to cover the lens when you hold the phone. You have to risk dropping it or hold it vertically and shoot in a really unnatural and awkward way.

On the positive side, the camera interface is rather nice and easy to work with. In fact it is the same as the one on Nokia 5320 and Nokia 6210 Navigator. It doesn’t offer too many features but with a snapper like this they are more than enough.

LG KT610 camera UI

The sequence and scene modes are all there and there is a really nice panorama mode where the handset can easily make panos with excellent stitching. However, this panorama mode produces photos of too low resolution, which are suitable for viewing on the phone screen only.

Unfortunately, much like on the Nokia 6210 Navigator, despite the built-in GPS receiver, the camera of the KT610 is not able to geotag your shapshots. Pity, indeed!

The picture quality is about average for a two megapixel camera. Color rendering is rarely on the spot but the amount of captured detail is decent. Noise levels are acceptable for the class. The image processing algorithm is good enough and there isn’t much detail loss due to noise reduction or oversharpening.

Check out the sample pics to get an idea of how LG KT610 fares in imaging.

LG KT610 sample camera photos

As far as video recoding is concerned, the LG KT610 is able to manage CIF resolution. Videos have a frame rate of 10fps and are saved in 3gp format. This makes them rather useless on most occasions but capturing videos isn’t the selling point of KT610 anyway.

Connectivity: no Wi-Fi is a no-go

LG KT610 fares decently in terms of connectivity. The biggest absence is of course WLAN. Frankly, we would have proffered Wi-Fi support over GPS big time. After all, Wi-Fi is among the make-or-break smartphone features.

But first thing first – let’s start with the wired connectivity capabilities of LG KT610. USB pairing is truly seamless, as with any other Symbian device. You can set a default connectivity mode when a cable is connected or you’ll be prompted every time. The card slot is also an option with the good transfer rates card readers can offer.

In the wireless department you get Bluetooth v2.0. The network connectivity is also at the expected high level with GPRS, EDGE and 3G all covered. HSDPA is also on board to take network data transfers to top speed. We doubt it the lack of an Infrared port is going to make anyone change their mind.

Web browser is worth the praise

As you probably know, we do fancy Symbian web browsers. The LG KT610 makes no exception, plus on the landscape display pages look really great.

Browsing the internet with LG KT610 is a pleasure. No matter how elaborate the web page, it fits perfectly on the screen and is very easy to read and navigate. The virtual mouse cursor earns the handset another point. It is easy to control and generally works great.

The web browser is very good

A mini-map can be activated to help finding your way around large sites where lots of scrolling is required. The zoom level and font size are also adjustable at the expense of only a few key presses. This is where the landscape 2.4″ screen gets much appreciated, as it makes the font readable even when downsized to only a few pixels height.

LG KT610 gets you organized

Organizing applications come by the dozen in Symbian handsets. Those are also very practical and usually quite user-friendly.

The LG KT610 calendar has three different types of view – monthly, weekly and daily, and four types of events available for scheduling – Meeting, Memo, Anniversary and To-do. Each event has its own unique fields and some allow an alarm to be activated at a preset time to act as a reminder.

The calendar application

The mobile office applications are reasonably well covered. The preinstalled applications are able to open Word and Excel and PowerPoint documents. However, the PowerPoint files took ages to load and managed to get on our nerves.

LG KT610 can open .doc .xls and .ppt files out of the box

Unluckily our unit of LG KT610 lacked the PDF reader and the ZIP manager we are used to seeing in most other Symbian handsets. Furthermore, the KT610 lacks support for editing documents. If you are to need this feature you will have to purchase the full version of the office application for a fee.

There was neither PDF reader nor ZIP manager preinstalled on our unit

Here are some of the other included organizing and time-management applications: a very capable unit converter and a decent calculator, as well as a Notes application. There is of course also a convenient voice recorder. As we’ve mentioned repeatedly, recording length is now up to an hour.

The calculator and the unit converter are well familiar

Finally, we come to the LG KT610 alarm application. You can set up a virtually unlimited number of alarms on your handset. Furthermore, each of these can have its own name, activation day and repeat pattern. You can also adjust the snooze time. In addition the clock offers to show you the time in any time zone of the world.

Thumbs up for the GPS

The final noteworthy feature of Samsung LG KT610 is the built-in GPS receiver. Its performance did manage to impress us with remarkable sensitivity. Even though A-GPS is nowhere in sight, the KT610 just nailed down that satellite lock in less than two minutes in cold start. The hot start time is only a few seconds.

The handset ships with Google Maps preinstalled which sadly doesn’t offer turn-by-turn voice guided navigation. This means that a third party navigation software is your only option for using the KT610 as a GPS navigation system. Luckily there are plenty of those available on the market. Of course, you will have to give it some serious thought of how you are going to position the phone on your dashboard to use as an in-car navigation unit.

Google maps comes preinstalled on the KT610 but a third party application is needed for voice guided navigation

Games

The LG KT610 comes with two game trials – the official Shrek III game and Bubble Breaker. The demos run for a minute and a half and then automatically exit. The availability of demo versions only is quite in line with the business orientation of the device. Anyway, you are free to download more games to your LG KT610 or go on and purchase the full versions of those already available.

Only two game trials are to be found on the KT610

Final words

As a whole LG KT610 is a no-nonsense, neat performer. It has its shortfalls here and there but, having in mind the price gap to the next best thing in the class, those are understandable. Still the handset is simply ticking quick and neat, plus ergonomics are commendable.

The KT610 is a somewhat eccentric attempt by LG to enter the relatively small communicator niche. We can see the point of throwing in an unpredictable and rather low-key contender, instead of trying to beat the giants in their own game. We find LG KT610 quite well equipped for the campaign, save for one key absence: Wi-Fi. We would’ve gladly swapped it for the fishy GPS (brilliant chip, but questionable in-car usability).

So at this stage, we hope LG KT610 puts up a good fight for the favor of the almighty user. It’s not about communicator top dogs feeling threatened but a neat performer finding a hard-earned spot of its own.

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_kt610-review-276p7.php

LG KT610

In a sea of ostensibly similar S60 phones, at least you can’t deny that the LG KT-610 sticks out. Even more curious than the hardware design is the question of who it’s aimed at – but I think I’ve worked it out. It’s just not who LG would say it’s aimed at.

On the face of it, the KT-610 is a mini-communicator, with superficial similarities to the much larger Nokia E90, but there’s no way a professional would settle for something this small and limited, despite the qwerty keyboard. No Wi-Fi, tiny external screen and, let’s be honest, retro looks, aren’t going to win hearts and minds around the office.

What about the traditional S60 market, power phone users? They’ll be let down by the disappointingly small internal screen, the very poor multimedia performance. And, again, by the looks.

What about High Street phone buyers? However much LG claim that the KT-610 is aimed at heavy texters, I cannot believe that this will attract sales in any High Street I’ve walked down. And heavy texters will already be faster at predictive text on a keypad than most people will be on the quirky qwerty keyboard here.

So who’s left to buy this? I think I have the answer – the older generation. This… THIS is the S60 phone to give your mum or dad. With less than perfect eyesight and less dextrous fingers, they’ll be able to make calls and send texts using the huge external keypad, while the limited outside screen does it’s best not to confuse them with unnecessary information. And, when you do want to introduce them to some S60 staples, or if they decide that predictive text isn’t for them, there’s the full and obvious keyboard waiting inside, with S60 as you know and love it (you just know they’re going to be giving you a slew of ‘how do I?’ calls).

A very simple but very limited external UI…

The purple grille seems to be purely cosmetic

So, not a huge market, but still a market, I’d argue.

Regular readers here will be curious as to the technical aspects of this unusual S60 phone though, even though you’re probably not actually going to rush out and buy it. So here goes – there are certainly enough unique features of interest.

Although the clamshell’s all plastic, the bottom half has a textured finish that makes the KT-610 easy to grip (yet another plus factor for the older generation?) The number pad is sumptuous by modern phone standards and is useable by even the clumsiest fingers. Although there’s no d-pad on the outside, it’s not needed, since the external screen is a dumb-phone-like vertical menu, and so up/down arrow keys suffice, together with a ‘back’ button. 

There’s a dedicated camera button on the front – as you’d expect, a long press starts the camera and a further press takes a photo, although we’re only talking 2 megapixels and no focussing here, so strictly fun snaps only. And, with that slim external display, only the central stripe of the current frame is shown, which is just plain wierd. Trying to take photos with the KT-610 open works slightly better but you’re then hampered by the lens location and avoiding covering it with your fingers. In short, photography is a bit of an afterthought here.

No focussing, no flash, no frills

The external display copes with 3 lines of normal-fonted text, but this is enough for the limited outside UI. This seems to have been added to a subset of the main S60 applications, with Contacts presenting its list for persusal of phone numbers, Messaging allowing for new outgoing messages and browsing of received SMS, Music player allowing for control of the currently playing track and Log presenting your call logs. As you’d expect, with an application ‘running’ on the external screen, opening the KT-610 shows the same application in the same screen on the internal UI.

And it is, of course, by opening the KT-610 that you get access to most of its functions. The clamshell doesn’t attempt to rival the likes of the E90 in any way, despite the superficial similarities. The screen’s a bog-standard 2.4″ QVGA affair, with small stereo speakers either side (fairly loud, though not close to N95-levels or quality), and the keyboard is a restricted-travel, clicky calculator-style affair. Not that it’s unusable, it’s just obviously built on the cheap. 

The d-pad’s surprisingly useable, with a prominent central ‘OK’ button and there are even ‘Ctrl’ and ‘Chr’ modifiers that work exactly as on the likes of the Nokia E61i and E71. The biggest problem by far is that the space bar has been drastically shortened and moved to one side – although you would, I suspect, get used to this, it doesn’t make for an intuitive typing experience coming from other qwerty computers and handhelds. Even more annoying is that full stop and comma both need ‘Chr’ – these should be single keypresses on any keyboarded device, in my opinion. Not good.

The smallest space bar in the world?

There are two locking positions, as shown, for the screen, although it will just about sit at any other angle as long as you’re gentle with it.

‘Flat’ mode works well when standing up, typing with two thumbs

Brightness and colour are good, although the display’s not transflective and suffers in bright sunlight, becoming invisible, unlike many Nokia S60 designs. The left/right function keys are well positioned beneath the main landscape display.

…and yes, the screen IS on…

Although the main S60 menu doesn’t hold many surprises, a dedicated Google launcher is certainly new to me, even though it doesn’t really add anything over simply having an S60 application folder of the same name. ‘Search’, ‘Mail’ and ‘You Tube’ are merely bookmarks to the appropriate mobile web sites, while ‘Maps’ is the native S60 version but not the latest. Attempting to install the very latest Google Maps for Mobile results in an error message ‘Component is already built-in’ – not a huge problem now, but something that will be annoying once Google Maps hits v2.3, v2.4 and so on. At least LG didn’t go down the same route for Google Mail!

 

The link through to YouTube reveals another potential showstopper in the KT-610: even trying to play back the 174 by 144 pixel low-res videos is a struggle and in this respect the device is the antithesis of phones like the N95 and Apple iPhone – multimedia is very weak and underpowered here. Loading on something ‘modern’ (I tried a QVGA programme from my Phones Show) showed just how bad the media rendering is – the clip would play at less than a frame per second and with stuttering audio and resets. Hmmm….

 

If a phone can’t copy with QCIF (176 by 144) videos then there’s something seriously lacking under the hood!

Yuk. That’s not anything ‘-USB’…

Connection to a desktop is via supplied USB cable, although the connector itself is LG proprietary (headphones and mains charger also come in via this route). Data transfer speed was appallingly slow, the slowest I’ve seen since the days of Psion – 100K/s was typical, again reinforcing the KT-610’s huge bias against multimedia (and the large files needed). Although LG has rebranded Nokia’s PC Suite, it’s not directly compatible – a beef of mine, why on earth can’t manufacturers recognise that people often have more than one phone and don’t want to have to keep messing around with multiple, 99% similar, PC Suites?

Also of note on the main menu are that Gallery has been renamed ‘My stuff’, an interesting idea which may catch on, and that ‘Installations’ (where third party apps end up by default) is now buried in ‘Tools’. The latter organisation again reflects the way LG are aiming this at people who don’t know a lot about S60 and indeed may not ever get round to installing extra applications.

           

A smattering of KT-610 screens, all pretty familiar to hardened S60 users

The S60 menus do look a little bare, but then this isn’t a Nokia and most of Nokia’s add-ons don’t work, so there’s no Podcasting, no Share online, no Sports Tracker, and so on – LG haven’t put any serious effort into adding extra software to take up the slack. One glimmer of light is that there’s a version of Nokia Maps, here dubbed ‘Maps on Ovi’, that’s supported and available for official download. The S60 regulars are all here and work well, but you’ll be very familiar with these and there are no other surprises.

At every turn the central question of who the KT-610 is aimed at rears its ugly head. Music fans will like the decent audio quality but will be frustrated by the limited functionality of the external screen and also by the way they’ll have to put up with the proprietary headset or seek out an LG-to-3.5mm adapter. One advantage of the common in/out port is that the device can charge over USB, so it’s not all bad news, I suppose.

Very limited music functions on the external screen

In use, the KT-610 is a functional S60 3rd Edition FP1 phone, although I missed the ability to change profiles from the external interface – pressing the power button didn’t have the usual effect because it has to double as call hangup – a problem shared by some other S60 handsets. At least ‘#’ worked to toggle ‘Silent’ profile on and off.

Web proved troublesome at first, with Vodafone’s default pages coming up with streams of image URLs rather than actual images. Not really the KT-610’s fault, although the lack of Wi-Fi was what forced me to try using Vodafone for data in the first place. Once I stopped Vodafone trying to transcode everything, browsing was fine and typical for S60 Web, subject to the RAM caveat below.

Navigation is possible using Google Maps, as usual, with the built-in GPS doing quite well in terms of sensitivity, thanks to an Assisted GPS utility simply dubbed ‘XTRA’, which updates its GPS almanac over the Internet each day. There’s no reason why third party navigation software shouldn’t work, other than to perhaps worry over rendering performance for the maps.

 

There’s another aspect of the KT-610 which takes me back a year or two: RAM. Back in 2004, 5 and 6, we were all used to the fact that most S60 smartphones were always chronically short of free RAM and thus had to jump through hoops to keep things running smoothly. Then the likes of the E90 arrived and most phones since then have had sensible (between 40MB and 90MB) amounts of free RAM, meaning that you don’t really have to worry about it anymore. The LG KT-610 has only around 17MB of free RAM after booting, a cripplingly small amount in 2008 and a real showstopper when trying to look at heavy web sites. 

In reality, I doubt anyone will notice though. The KT-610 isn’t going to be used by anyone wanting to really give S60 a workout, this is perhaps one device for which the RAM quotient has been correctly calculated. This device can’t even play videos properly, let alone play Flash videos within heavyweight web sites – so even 17MB might be enough.

Pricing for the KT-610 is tricky as it doesn’t seem to be very widely on sale. Selling prices seem to average around the £200 mark, though our review sample was picked up from eBay for around £100. At £200 I’d argue that it’s probably overpriced, given some of the device’s limitations – at £100 it’s a bit of a bargain – if you’ve got someone sensible in mind as a recipient.

Returning to my opening theme, the KT-610 works best as a ‘smartphone for the older generation’, with the large keypad and simple external UI, but with more S60 ‘power’ under the hood for when you want to help the owner out with an application or two. Am I being too harsh?

One thing’s for sure – this is no Nokia E90 competitor – and LG have managed to mess up the qwerty keyboard, which is the one really unique selling point here. Would I like to see more from LG in this vein though? Absolutely, the idea’s great. Rework the keyboard layout, optimise the media handling and (pretty please), add Wi-Fi and I’d be more inclined to recommend this quirky slice of S60 to a wider audience.

Source : http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/reviews/item/LG_KT-610.php

LG KG920 vs. SE K800 vs. Nokia N73: One more photo shootout

Introduction

Recently we’ve got LG K920 for testing; this is one of the first 5MP camera GSM phones available on the market. We’ve decided that it’s a good idea to test it against one of the best currently available 3MP camera phones, and also great rivals – Sony Ericsson K800 and Nokia N73.

The contestants: LG KG920, Nokia N73 and Sony Ericsson K800

We, on other hand, just can’t tell you which of the 3 megapixel shooters to choose. However it’s more important for us to tell you what the differences are, so you can choose for yourself.

The Nokia N73 produces over-saturated, over-sharpened, high-contrast photos. For the untrained eye these photos have more punch, more “wow” factor. When shooting a dull scene this approach produces more pleasant results. The problem comes when the scene is colorful and contrasty. Then the extra processing can lead to unnatural looking photos. It’s quite ironic that Nokia N73 won its fans taking the idea of the so called “Sony colors” to extremes. Some years ago Sony used to boost the color saturation of their digital cameras as an extra advantage over their rivals. They don’t do this anymore in their recent models.

On the other hand Sony Ericsson K800 has more laid-back approach – the photos aren’t over processed, which ensures better results if you are going to edit them later.

It’s not fair

Yes, it’s not fair to compare 5 megapixels to 3 megapixels camera. However, we are doing it for you to see what the difference is and if an upgrade is worth it.It’s tricky to compare photos with different resolution as in our case. To be able to compare apples to apples there are two approaches. The first one is to downsample the higher resolution photos to the lower resolution, but this will reduce the advantage of the higher resolution camera, and the amount of the sharpness applied in the post processing might be taken as a real ability to resolve detail. The other approach, the one we chose, is to upsample the lower resolution images to the higher resolution. This method shows about the same results you would get if you print the images. The con is that the jpeg artifacts get enlarged too, which is not fair to the lower resolution cameras, but this is a minor concern.

When viewing at actual 100% size the 5 megapixel photos and even the 3 megapixel ones just don’t fit in the nowadays monitors. You usually see a small portion of the photo and scroll around. In this shootout we are taking a different approach. For all the photos we are showing you 1024×768 versions, downsampled in a special way. We’ve tried to eliminate as much as possible the difference in the sharpening applied in the camera processing. This downsampled photos can be used to evaluate the color and exposure accuracy or the dynamic range. To get however a correct presentation for the resolution of the cameras, you have to look at the crops on the right. As explained above, these are made by upsampling the K800 and N73 photos to 5 megapixels resolution and then cropping the same part of the image.

Studio shots

This test was carried out under the same lighting conditions we use to make the photos for all our reviews. The scene is lit by white light sources.

LG KG920 (full) • Sony Ericsson K800 (full) • Nokia N73 (full) • crops

LG KG920 shows at the same time better resolution, correct colors and lower noise levels. Although the phone manufacturers don’t publish the specs for the sensor used in their camera phones, photos like this make us think that KG920 have a sensor with larger physical dimensions than the ones used in the phones, maybe this is the same sensor used in some low-level digital cameras. The colors of K800 are quite off (especially the green), while N73 has e serious problem with the yellow – the oversaturation sometimes comes at a price, look at the yellow cube.

LG KG920 (full) • Sony Ericsson K800 (full) • Nokia N73 (full)

We are sorry, that we can’t show you crops for this image, because it was framed somewhat differently on the three phones, but we are showing you the full resolution images instead. Again, excellent results from LG KG920. Nailed color balance, lower noise than the rivals and amazing resolution. There is one more thing to note here – look at the highlights of paper clips. LG KG920 shows a lot better control of the highlights, the overexposed areas of the paper clips look more natural in KG920 photos. All in all – great macro results from the 5 megapixel contestant.

LG KG920 • Sony Ericsson K800 • Nokia N73 • crops

Outdoor photos

LG KG920 (full) • Sony Ericsson K800 (full) • Nokia N73 (full) • crops

The first thing we notice on this set of photos is the yellowish cast of the KG920 photos. The resolution advantage is here, but it’s not as pronounced as in the previous samples. Sony Ericsson K800 shows the most accurate colors. Nokia N73 has troubles with the high contrast scene this time – look at the arcs, they are overexposed and snow white.

LG KG920 (full) • Sony Ericsson K800 (full) • Nokia N73 (full) • crops

First, let’s look at the tree branches on this photo. Nokia N73 manages to show more resolution than K800 here and it’s very close to KG920. Looking at how sharp the images from N73 are we start thinking that it just doesn’t have a low-pass filter installed, or it’s somehow tweaked. The low-pass filter exists in one form or another on almost all digital cameras; it improves the image quality in several ways, for example eliminating jagged edges, moiré and color shifting. The down side of the low-pass filter is that softens the image.

None of the phones in the tests managed to get the colors of this scene right. The real colors looked somewhat like the result of Nokia N73, but a lot less saturated. In fact the colors of N73 are so much saturated that the train looks like it comes from an animation movie. LG KG920 shows again yellow cast, while the K800 results are slightly reddish.

LG KG920 • Sony Ericsson K800 • Nokia N73 • crops

LG KG920 • Sony Ericsson K800 • Nokia N73 • crops

These two sets of images show almost exactly the same results as above.

LG KG920 • Sony Ericsson K800 • Nokia N73 • crops

Naturally, the image from KG920 looks smoother than the 3 megapixel cameras, but we just can’t find any real resolution advantage over them. Sony Ericsson K800 presents this scene better than Nokia N73 – it shows the correct colors and handles the highlights in a more natural way.

LG KG920 • Sony Ericsson K800 • Nokia N73 • crops

Here again the Sony Ericsson K800 gets the colors right and shows about the same resolution as Nokia N73. LG KG920 gains some advantage over the previous image – it seems the closer the object, the better it performs.

LG KG920 • Sony Ericsson K800 • Nokia N73 • crops

LG KG920 shows good results here, you can see the resolution advantage in the crops. Both K800 and N73 shows also good results for their class, but look at the purple color between the branches in the Nokia N73 photo – maybe this sharpness comes at a price?

Indoors

LG KG920 (full) • Sony Ericsson K800 (full) • Nokia N73 (full) • crops

Indoors, where the light is not that strong, LG KG920 has the chance to use it’s larger sensor for a bigger advantage. Indeed its pictures look more like made from a digital camera, than from a phone. The yellow cast is here again, but it’s normal in this environment.

What’s more interesting in this comparison is the Nokia N73 result – look at the holiday lights. In reality they are white, like on the photos of KG920 and K800. Nokia N73 however shows random colors in the lights. This again makes us think that Nokia N73 lacks a low-pass filter. Color artifacts like these in the small white objects, are usually caused by the lack of such filter.

You can see exactly the same here – these lights are white, Nokia N73 just loves to make the things colorful.

Using the flash

LG advertises the flash in KG920 as “strobe flash”, which means that this is not the type of LED flash used in most of the mobiles phones. It’s more like the xenon flash in Sony Ericsson K800, so we expected similar performance. Nokia N73 has standard LED flash only, so even on paper it can’t compete with the others.
LG KG920 • Sony Ericsson K800 • Nokia N73 • crops
LG KG920 • Sony Ericsson K800 • Nokia N73

The first test was against a white wall from about one meter. Here KG920 shows the best results – the object is well lit and the color of the background is almost uniform.

LG KG920 • Sony Ericsson K800 • Nokia N73

The second test is against a brick wall from about two meters in almost total darkness. For our surprise here the LG KG920 failed miserably. It seems that its flash was not as strong as the one of K800. Moreover KG920 doesn’t boost the sensitivity in this situation to compensate for the insufficient light. In this scene even N73 delivers better results than KG920. So, if you want good results with KG920, make sure you shoot from close range.

Performance

Sony Ericsson K800 wins by a small margin here. Nokia N73 is a smartphone and is expected to be slower, but in reality is not much slower than K800 in both focusing and saving times. The auto focus reliability is very high on both 3 megapixel cameras. LG KG920 disappointed us in this aspect. Yes, it should process a lot more data, as it works with larger photos, but the saving time was just too long. The auto focus is not that reliable as in the 3 megapixel photo mobiles and the shutter works somewhat strange – it you full-press from the beginning, you might not be able to take the photo. We should also note that the shot-to-shot time of KG920 is more than 10 seconds.

Conclusion

As we expected, in almost all of the test LG K920 showed better ability to resolve detail than it’s 3 megapixel rivals. No surprises here. It also showed amazing macro capabilities and better dynamic range. What stops us from highly recommending it is the really slow performance and the yellowish tint on auto white balance outdoors. As for the Sony Ericsson K800 and Nokia N73 – they are equally good photo devices, but tuned differently. It’s just a matter of preference – if you like your photos with more “wow” factor and never plan to edit them later, then your safe bet is Nokia N73. Otherwise, if you want your photos as accurate as possible and preserving as much detail for further editing, then you should go with Sony Ericsson K800.

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/kg920_k800_n73_photo-review-125p3.php

LG KG920

LG KG920 review: 5 megapixel exotic

Last year we stood and watch megapixels grows and grow, and just when we thought that the cameraphone battle would continue in another direction – additional features such as auto-focus, better camcorder capabilities, etc. we saw a GSM mobile phone with a 5 megapixel camera. Well, here it is, the LG KG920 finally arrived at our test site and we grabbed it with hands itching to go out and shoot something… Shoot with the camera, that is. The 2” TFT display with a QVGA resolution, a miniSD memory card slot and a clever rotating design all add up to make the LG KG920 an interesting proposal and a lot of fun too. It’s our job to get on to it and see for ourselves (and for yourselves for that matter) if it’s got what it takes to rule the current cameraphone market.

LG KG920

Key Features:

• 5 megapixel camera with auto focus and strobe flash
• Solid metallic construction
• Swivel body design
• USB mass storage support
• miniSD memory card slot

Main Disadvantages:

• Hefty weight
• Far too many buttons
• Slow camera interface
• Slow image browsing
• Inadequate web browser

Koreans have been enjoying 5 megapixel cameraphones for quite some time now. The original version of the KG920 – the LG SV550 has been available since 2005. Current Korean CDMA mobiles have reached the heights of 8 and 10 megapixels already. The GSM world is far from those achievements though and a 5 megapixel GSM cameraphone can no doubt make the headlines with an ease. The same would happen with Nokia N95 which is the next 5 megapixel GSM cameraphone to appear on the market.

LG waited for almost a year to announce a GSM version of their SV5500. Supposedly they would try to build on the success of their innovative LG Chocolate phone so their timing for releasing the LG KG920 has its marketing strengths. Since the cameraphone is rather expensive, riding the wave made by the previous successful mobiles can be of nothing less than in its favor.

Buttons all over

Truth be told, LG KG920 has a quirky design – it’s one of those designs that you just love or hate from the very first glance. The first impressions we got when we saw the device was that it had pretty solid construction. The metallic parts, the high-quality plastics and the visible bolt heads add to the feel of a very sturdy build. The KG920 is not among the smallest or slimmest devices with its dimensions of 108 x 50 x 18 mm, nor is it among the lightest ones with its impressive weight of 138 g which is more suitable for a smartphone or even a PocketPC. Our opinion is that the dimensions are pretty ok, only the weight is a bit too much for our taste.

The LG KG920 compared to Nokia N73 and Sony Ericsson K800

The front panel has a rather intriguing design since the keypad is situated in the lower half of the panel. The top part doesn’t feature a navigation D-pad, but three contextual soft keys. Most of the time you would end up using only two, but there are instances where a third option appears – for example they come quite handy in the camera interface. On both sides of the soft keys you can see the green and red receiver keys. The navigation D-pad is placed on the further right side of the keypad. There are some icons on it which designate the preset function of the corresponding directional key.

The unusual keypad

As we already said, the keypad has a rather strange design due to the rotating construction. The keypad is located on the front part of the rotating part, while the 5-megapixel camera lens is located just on the opposite. The swivel joint has a pretty solid feel to it and we doubt that it might cause any problems in future. Rotating it to 180’ degrees allows you to take a self-portrait picture while still using the display as a viewfinder. Our impression is that there really isn’t a need for that functionality. One could live with it anyways, but the real issue is that it affects the user-friendliness. The reason for the quirky placement of the navigation D-pad is exactly that rotating swivel design. What is more, this is also the reason for the small alpha-numeric keys. Just the opposite, the correction C key just below the D-pad is extremely large when compared to the other keys.

The lower rotating part: rotated half the way • fully rotated

Speaking of strange keys placement we should add that the front panel incorporates several more keys. Those are two dual shortcut keys – one starts the MP3 player and can be used for toggling the flash settings in the camera menu. Furthermore it can toggle the self-portrait’s timer. The second dual key is used for controlling the digital zoom.

The additional shortcut keys

The left side of the handset incorporates the miniSD memory card slot, the charger port and the headset port.

KG920 left side view: memory card slot • charger port • headphones port

The right side of the KG920 hosts the camera release key which is positioned on a special elevated plate which makes it more comfortable to use. Just beside that are the two volume control keys.

KG920 right side view: camera shutter key • volume keys

The top and bottom side of the LG KG920 are pretty bare and don’t feature any special elements.

Top side view

Flipping the phone around reveals the back panel, the 5 megapixel camera lens and the bulging battery. The camera lens has a mechanic cover, a LED flash which aids the auto-focus in dark environments and the strobe flash which is almost as good as a regular xenon flash used in digital cameras, only a bit weaker. Just beside the camera lens is the loudspeaker grill.

KG920 back panel • lens cover: closed & opened • loudspeaker grill

The battery of the KG920 can be removed easily revealing the standard SIM card bed. The battery itself is Li-Ion and has a capacity of 820 mAh. According to the manufacturer it should keep the phone running for up to 180 h of standby and up to 3 h of talk time. Real figures are much different of course. When put to low to moderate use the battery charge lasted around 2-3 full days. When used for continued playback, the LG KG920 would stay alive for no more than 6 hours. Generally, do not expect much from it.

Removing the battery

Well, we were very pleased with the construction of the KG920 – it seemed as though it was made to last. No doubt about it, the manufacturer has intended that when creating the design. In the current wave of ultra slim devices, the KG920 main selling point won’t be the dimensions themselves but the exceptional quality of the construction and finish.

LG KG920 held in hand

A touch away

The LG KG920 has a wonderful display, although… we would have liked it better if it was larger. It has a diagonal of 2” and a QVGA resolution of 320×240 pixels. The TFT display can display up to 256K colors. It stays legible even under direct sunlight, although it fades slightly. The backlighting strength is good enough and there are several brightness levels you can choose from according to the environment.

KG920 display in the dark

As we already discussed, the strange design of the keypad proves to be a certain drawback to its ergonomics. Yet those problems seem to disappear with the time and one gets used to it. The feedback of the keys is great and it’s easy to type your messages.

The keys are evenly lit in red and are readily visible in the dark as you may see for yourselves.

KG920 keypad in the dark

Caller ID

When it comes to using the KG920 as an ordinary everyday mobile phone, we were very pleased with how it performed. Signal reception was nice, so was the voice clarity. Speaking of voice quality we would have liked it if the voices sounded a bit deeper. Volume-wise the KG920 has one of the loudest loudspeakers we have seen recently and there is not a chance that you would miss a call in the street. The only problem is that when you walk into a room you have to lower the volume level because in a quiet room environment it’s more than what your colleagues would tolerate. The vibration strength is also very high so you won’t miss a call even if you set the mobile in a silent mode.

An insider’s look

The standby screen of the handset displays info about the battery status and signal strength. The carrier’s name can be turned off and we find that a really pleasant feature that should be seen in other phones too. In standby the two soft keys correspond to the Main Menu and the Contacts menu.

Standby screen

The main menu is a 3 x 4 grid matrix of icons which get zoomed in when you select them. We must admit that the overall color scheme and icons match perfectly the design of the KG920.

Main menu

The submenus are viewed as a list. Generally speaking the LG KG920 lacks any complicated settings and doesn’t require long set-ups. Here are the nice wallpapers that come preinstalled.

Preset wallpapers

In standby the four navigation keys each have a predefined shortcut function. Pressing the LEFT key takes you to the Profile shortcut menu. Pressing the DOWN key naturally takes you to the Phonebook list. Pressing the RIGHT key takes you to a special functional menu that allows you to open the Messages menu, check your voicemail messages, schedule an appointment in the Organizer or schedule an Alarm. Pressing the UP key takes you to the Favorites menu which is a list of shortcuts which is user-configurable.

Standby screen shortcut menu

It’s a good thing that all the menu items have numeric shortcuts assigned to them. You can see those in front of every menu item while browsing the menu.

Numeric shortcut icons in the beginning of each row

Pick one

The phonebook is about average and all we can say about it is that it does its job on a satisfactory level. The phonebook doesn’t have a dedicated main menu icon; instead, strangely enough, it’s positioned under the Organizer menu item.

The phonebook capacity is 1000 contacts which is more than enough for most users. Search is performed through gradual typing of a name’s characters. The phonebook allows the storing of 4 numbers /mobile, home, office, fax/ and an email. Further on, the contact can be included into a caller group or can be assigned a picture. All the available options are showed into separate screens. Generally the phonebook interface has a clumsy design and reminds the phonebook interface of older mobile phones regarding the way the options are ordered and altered.

Phonebook search • Different contact fields: clumsy and inconvenient

An interesting solution is the option to view the contacts list along with the respective pictures.

Viewing the contacts with pictures

Another limitation of the phonebook is that you cannot assign a ringtone to a certain contact of your choice. The only way to do that is by including the contact in a caller group and assigning a specific ringtone to the caller group itself. The KG920 has several preinstalled caller groups which can be customized.

Each caller group has its icon and that can be shown in front of the respective members’ names in the contacts list in order to recognize easily which group they belong to.

Caller groups list with their respective icons

Yet another limitation of the phonebook is that you cannot save a second or a third number to an already existing contact directly from the standby screen. For that you have to find the contact in the phonebook and enter the Edit mode.

Call management

Nothing special in the call records department. They are available as a separate item in the main menu and can also be accessed by pressing the call (receiver) key on the touch pad. In fact pressing the call key takes you to the general list of all dialed, received and missed calls. It has a capacity of 20 numbers. If you wish to see the separate registers you have to go to the abovementioned Call Register menu item. The GPRS data counter is also available in the Call Register menu.

Call register menu

Messaging: heart-warming

The LG KG920 supports the sending and receiving of SMS, EMS, MMS and email messages. Generally speaking, the LG messaging machine managed to surprise us with a few nice features.

When you start a new message you are given the option of choosing among a text message, multimedia message and an email message. If you choose the text type further on you could easily change it by just attaching multimedia content to it and thus turn it into an EMS or MMS.

Messages menu • starting a new message

The phone supports EMS release 5, so it is capable of sending color pictures, sounds, text styles, etc. The message typing is assisted by T9. A thing we noticed is that in order to type a number in your message you need to change to numeric mode (123) and then when you are done, go back to the text mode (abc). That’s really bugging if you have to enter frequently numbers in your messages. It would have been nicer if one could enter numbers by long press of the respective keys which is a standard feature in almost all contemporary phones.

One nice feature is that if you have started a new message and all of a sudden you have to cancel its typing, it’s saved automatically as a draft and next time you decide to start a new message the KG920 not only stores it for you but offers you to continue it from where you left it last time.

Previous draft readily available

Another nice feature is that the KG920 keeps a record of the last numbers you have sent messages to and when sending a new one you can choose among them instead of digging down in the full phonebook list. It’s a feature we would like to see in more phones nowadays.

Recent recipients list is a favorite feature

Another interesting option here allows for typing of color highlighted text. Furthermore there are three available input text sizes as well as options for formatting the text in Italics, Bold, Underline, Strikethrough styles… You could also align the text in the left, right or center portion of the screen. Receiving that kind of formatted text depends on the EMS version support of the recipient’s mobile device.

Typing a message • text formatting options

The email client supports the POP3 and SMTP protocols and as regards sending and receiving text emails it successfully does it job as we managed to found out during the test period. Regarding emails with file attachments it poses rather strict limitations. The maximum size of one sent message is 300 KB along with the attachments, and the maximum size of one received message is 300 KB. In case you have received message with more than 5 attachments, only 5 of them will be received. For each e-mail account you may save up to 50 messages (totally 150 for three accounts), while in the Inbox you can store up to 30 messages for each account. The other 20 slots are reserved for the Drafts and Outbox folders. A good thing is that there is an option to provide a separate username and password for the SMTP server.

Multimedia – worse than expected

The LG KG920 has an integrated memory of 8MB which will prove pretty inadequate for your multimedia needs. The miniSD memory card that comes in the retail package would certainly improve the issue but truth be told, you would be far better off buying an additional one. The maximum external memory size support is unknown but even 1GB of additional memory can really mean a difference.

The File manager appears as a “My stuff” item in the main menu. It includes separate factory preset folders for different multimedia content. In fact these folders are the only ones you will see since the file manager doesn’t actually support user-created folders. There aren’t also any options for marking, copying or moving files between folders. Besides those preset folders there is also an External Memory shortcut which displays the contents of the miniSD memory card. The folders on the memory card are preset too and even if you add new ones through a computer card reader they won’t be listed.

My Stuff menu

Generally speaking, the file browser provides basic functionality and is not really that user-friendly. And when browsing pictures it takes forever to load their thumbnails. You can zoom in pictures too but that’s a painstaking task that really gets on your nerves since it takes ages. The MP3 player, the camera application, and the Photos/Videos album are kept into a dedicated Multimedia menu which can be started with the external camera/mp3 player shortcut key. Now, the Photo album presents the same capabilities as the file manager.

Browsing through stored images

Zooming in an image

There is another photo album too, which even allows browsing the pictures in landscape mode – it’s accessible via a shortcut when the camera is turned on. Too hard to get to; and again, awfully slow.

Browsing in landscape mode

Unfortunately, the MP3 player is on a mediocre level too. The presence of a memory card slot really makes the things a lot easier when it comes to listening to music. The player though doesn’t support playlists and it plays all the files you have saved in the MP3 folder. The supported file formats are MP3, AAC, AAC+, AAC++, WMA, MP4 (audio), and WAV. The AAC support is a good thing since AAC files tend to be smaller in size than MP3. The problem is that it doesn’t read ID3 tags and the tracks in the file list are arranged by the respective file names – ordering by either artist or song name is impossible.

The player cannot work in the background. It has three different animated visualizations which have nothing to do with the music beat itself – just as in the LG KG800 Chocolate – just as opposite to the recently reviewed LG KE800 Chocolate Platinum. They all do suffer from a certain lag. It seems the mobile suffers serious performance issues when it comes to using, browsing or creating multimedia content.

Music player interface • dummy graphic music visualizations

If you receive a call while the MP3 player is playing the song gets stopped and when you end your call it doesn’t start automatically. Further on when you do start it manually, its starts playing the current track from the very beginning.

There are several equalizer presets that you can use in order to enhance the player sound and they do make a difference.

We didn’t have the LG retail headset at our disposal during the test but we were very pleased with the integrated loudspeaker. Given the right equalizer preset is chosen, you can hear lower frequencies better than usual for a mobile phone. To put it simply, it just has more bass. The volume levels are nice too. The LG KG920 is among the loudest mobiles we have laid our hands on recently.

Mega-exciting

Testing the 5 megapixel camera is what we all waited. Well it turned out that it has a nicely designed landscape menu interface with a good deal of customizable options. The pictures taken with it have a maximum resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels which is quite good for even A4 prints. We were very pleased with the quality of the samples we took. Its functionality is further enhanced by a strobe flash, which is way better than a LED flash, but weaker than a real xenon flash that for example Sony Ericsson K800 is equipped with.

One of the greatest problems that all LG phones we have tested seem to suffer from is the slowness of the camera application itself. Taking a picture with the LG KG920 takes more than 10 seconds in order to focus on the subject, take a shot at the maximum resolution and save it. Focusing and saving each takes around 4 seconds. That sort of a limitation really doesn’t leave you with a lot of opportunities to express your photographic imagination since you are bound to shooting only still subjects. There is a certain problem with the use of the camera shutter key. Sometimes you just press it and nothing happens. First we thought that it’s a hardware problem but it turned out to be a problem with the camera software itself. You just have to be more precise when pressing it. Turning on the camera shutter sound really helps a lot.

LG KG920 camera viewfinder

Various camera settings

As we already said the camera options are really rich. You may choose from several shooting modes such as Macro shot, Portrait, Landscape, Sports, and Dusk. The flash has a Red Eye mode while shooting can also be done with several color filters (Sepia, Negative, etc.) and in sequence shot of 3 pictures in a row if needed. The white balance has also 5 custom options besides the automatic one. The light metering can be done according to the central spot in the picture or taking into account the whole composition. ISO is adjustable too – you have the choice among the standard ISO 100, 200 and 400. The autofocus can also be set to a central point or to a multi-point evaluation.

Otherwise the picture quality is fine if you managed to hold the phone perfectly still during image capturing. As we already said, the camera is awfully slow. There is a delay between the press of the button and the actual capturing of the photo. That means that most of the time the composition you want to take a shot at has already changed when the actual photographing takes place. The auto focus suffers some issues and fails to deliver in low light environments and low contrast subjects. Generally, it is slower and more unreliable that the ones of Nokia N73 and Sony Ericsson K800. Macro shots turn out just great though.

If you want to know more about the picture quality of LG KG920 it’s best to check our photo shootout, where we compare the Korean 5 megapixel to the best 3 megapixel phones nowadays – Sony Ericsson K800 and Nokia N73.

LG KG920 sample photos, many more in the shootout

Besides the rule-it-all 5 megapixels the LG KG920 has also a nice equipped video camera which shoots video at 320 x 240 pixels resolution at the whopping 30 fps. That alone makes those home videos perfectly watchable and enjoyable. The output format is the usual .3gp. The menu of the video camera is pretty much the same as the one we already described for the still camera with few exceptions.

Various video settings

LG KG920 sample video

Plug in, log on

The LG KG920 features full USB support and the LG USB cable comes along in the retail box along with the phone itself. The great thing about the USB support of the phone is that when connected, the internal memory and the storage card memory appear in the Windows explorer as 2 removable drives just as your regular USB flash drive would. If you receive a call whilst in mass storage mode, the call will be rejected but after you disconnect the handset, you will see the information about the missed calls.

Once again, when saving content to the phone don’t create subfolders since those won’t be recognized and read by the phone file system. Interesting enough, the Photos folder is reserved for the pictures taken using the phone’s camera and the access to it should be used only to transfer the pictures taken from the phone to the PC.

If you need any other type of synchronization between the KG920 and the PC like for items such as the phonebook and the schedule you should use the dedicated LG software LGPCSync that comes on CD along with the phone.

As much as connectivity is concerned, the LG KG920 features 3-band GSM 900/1800/1900 and GPRS support for fast data transfers. There is no 3G or EDGE support.

It also features Bluetooth with the following profiles: Headset, Handsfree Kit, File Transfer, Image printing, Dial-up networking, Business card transfer, Browsing other devices, and Serial port profile.

The integrated WAP browser doesn’t have full HTML capabilities and managed to open only simple HTML pages such as Google. It’s a regular WAP browser used in older phones and its presence here made us scratch our heads. An expensive mobile such as the LG KG920 should have better browser anyways. Even the web browser of budget Sony Ericsson models can easily beat it.

The old school browser

In a timely manner

The Organizer menu features the Calendar and the text Memos items. The Calendar is pretty straightforward – it offers a monthly view for navigation among the dates. Once you find the date you need, simply enter it and add an event. The first day of the week according to the calendar is Sunday – something that’s not that common around whole Europe.

Adding a task to the calendar

The text Memos allow storing some notes. Each note can have maximum 80 characters.

Sample text memo – better not forget this one

The Tools menu also stores some useful applications, though they seem rather standard nowadays. There are the Alarm clock, the Calculator, the Unit converter, the World time clock, and the Voice recorder. The Alarms menu allows for the setting of 5 different alarms which could be repeated Mon-Fri, Mon-Sat or Everyday.

Alarm menu

The Calculator offers rich scientific functions which are pretty out of place having in mind the mediocre technical capabilities of the rest of the phone.

The overcomplicated calculator

The Unit Converter also has a nice list of units such as Currency, Area, Length, Weight, Temperature, Volume, Velocity, and Shoes & Clothes (both very interesting ones).

Unit converter application • converting shoes and clothes sizes

The Voice recorder application has a 20 seconds limitation and what is more the microphone is so insensitive that the application is nearly unusable unless directly spoken to.

The 20 sec voice recorder

Here we also find the setting for the Favorites menu which we spoke of earlier – the one with user-defined shortcuts which you invoke in standby by pressing the UP key on the touchpad.

A mind of logic

The phone we tested had two preinstalled games – the ZooZoo and Othello. Both are classic logic board games. If you are into games of logic, those would definitely seem as a pleasurable pastime.

ZooZoo & Othello games

Final words…

As we draw this review to an end it’s somewhat hard for us to rate the LG KG920. It seems as though that the drawbacks are far too serious to keep out of consideration – the slow camera and the slow image browsing being among the most serious ones. The lack of a proper web browser is really puzzling in these days of high-speed mobile data transfers, where web browsing has turned into a daily routine.

Anyways, when we put it straight – what type of person would buy this mobile? Well it seems like one that likes gadgets, a shutterbug that would like to have a high-quality digital camera always at hand. Well, the KG920 manages to deliver in that department since the pictures taken have a superb quality for a mobile phone. One can get used to the slow camera interface and the strange camera shutter key, no doubt about it. Once you manage to do that, you would most definitely be amazed how fun it could be to use the KG920 in your everyday life.

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_kg920-review-130p5.php