Archive for the 'LG' Category
Introducing the LG Voyager in the market proved that the best features can be merged into a single unit. Also known as the LG Voyager VX10000, this smartphone even offers additional multimedia features such as mobile TV and a huge touch screen, earning its prestige being LG’s rival to the iPhone. While the two units’ features are almost in comparison, the Voyager even fared higher with its inclusion of 3G, MMS, stereo Bluetooth and GPS, which the iPhone lack.
Just like the iPhone, the LG Voyager threw away the keypad and incorporated a touch screen. The phone that measures 4.64 x 2.12 x 0.71 inches and weighs 4.69 ounces is bulky and may feel a little bit uncomfortable if kept in the pants’ pocket. Nevertheless, the Voyager will always be lined up among the league of most stylish smartphones.
LG Voyager’s touch screen measures 2.81 inches, supporting 262K colors at a resolution of 400 x 240 pixels. The screen can display sharp texts and vibrant and colorful graphics and animations.
It shows the date, time, and signal strength and battery life in standby mode. It works as a viewfinder in camera mode. The touch screen is easy to use and can access the phone’s different features. Voyager’s screen can be manipulated by tapping or by holding the finger to the screen and moving it around, reminiscent to dragging a mouse in a computer. This action is good for scrolling long articles and web pages. However, the touch screen doesn’t support handwriting recognition, and typing be done with the internal full QWERTY keyboard
Clear key and Talk key are the only navigation controls in front of the Voyager. The left spine of the phone includes the volume rocker, camera shutter and display lock. The right spine includes the microSD card and headset jack. The bottom of the phone includes the charger port and antenna, while the back side is where the camera lens is located. On the other hand, the internal part of the Voyager brings users to an impressive array of mobile aesthetics. It showcases a big screen, sharing the same size of the external screen, between speakers. The screen, however, does not offer touch screen features.
There is also a truckload of features in the Voyager. Phone features include a 1,000-contact phone book, vibrate mode, SMS and MMS, a calendar, an alarm clock, a world clock, a stopwatch, a notepad, a tip calculator, and a voice memo recorder.
Connectivity features include USB mass storage, instant messaging, integrated 3G, Bluetooth 1.2 for headsets, dial-up networking, file transfer, object push, and A2DP stereo sound. The only disappointment of the Voyager is that it lacks Wi-Fi. The 2.0 megapixel camera may appear to be a disappointment for camera phone aficionados, but it remains commendable to some and may appear to be a very minor misdemeanor.
The inclusion of 3G makes another feature of the Voyager at its best: the music player and the Mobile TV. The Mobile TV brings users to a wide variety of channels including CBS Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, Fox Mobile, MTV, NBC 2Go, NBC News 2Go, and Nickelodeon. However, users are required to pay a monthly fee to acquire such services.
Voyager offers 180MB of internal memory, quite big as compared to other smartphones, although it’s always advisable for users to expand their memory up to 8GB with the microSD card.
Continuing the LG phone craze is the LG Venus VX8800. The LG Venus is a beautiful phone that showcases innovation in design, featuring a touch-screen dual screen, 2-megapixel camera and a lot more. Additionally, this smartphone is relatively cheaper as compared to other units in the market.
LG Venus is a sleek, slender phone measures 4.0 x 2.0 x 0.62 inches, offering comfort to users through its curved corners and leather covering on the back. LG Venus is easily comparable to the LG Prada, with the emergence of at first glance a 3-inch display, which is actually two separate screens: a regular QVGA display on top and a touch screen on bottom. The top primary display measures 2 inches and displays 262K colors. Texts and images are displayed brightly and legibly.
The lower screen measures 1.5 inches and serves as a navigation interface, displaying touch-sensitive navigation controls according to applications such as the menu button that offers shortcuts to message, calls and contacts, music player, camera and more.
Although the new navigation technique is an innovation on its own, a number of critiques have questioned its usability concerning the sensitivity of the touch screen, the use of the unlock button, among others. A number keypad, which includes Send, Clear and End/Power buttons, can be revealed by slide opening the LG Venus handset. The alternating colored-keys are well-spaced which made pressing easier. The left side of the LG Venus is where the volume control, voice recorder button, headset and charger jacks while the right side is where the microSD card slot, music player key and a camera key. The camera lens is on the back side.
While LG Venus’ design has enamored a number of users, the phone’s list of features is truly lovable as well. Among the phone capabilities include a 1,000-entry contacts list, vibrate mode, speakerphone, SMS, MMS, alarm clock, notepad, voice recorder and a lot more. The list of connectivity options showcases USB, e-mail, web browser, stereo Bluetooth. It also comes with 3G and built-in GPS.
An important multimedia feature that will never be absent in the Venus is the music player. The player has a simplistic and nice interface with easy-to-use controls. Users can easily sort songs according to artist, genre ot album and they can also create their own playlist which can be controlled via the shuffle and repeat options. Multitasking is also an important feature of the music player, allowing the player to continue even while doing other tasks such as text messaging and web browsing. Supported formats are MP3, WMA, AAC, and AAC+. With an internal memory of 64MB, users can add up an additional 8GB with the microSD card.
The camera phone can take pictures in four resolutions and offers settings for brightness and night mode. It also takes videos in two resolutions with editing options, although 30 seconds is only allowed for video recording. While the camera can take commendable pictures, the video is shaky, blurry clips. Such mediocrity aside, the LG Venus remains a beautiful slider phone.
When LG released the first Rumor in the last half of 2007, it has offered a very good messaging device with its roomy QWERTY keyboard and other respectable features. History seems to repeat itself with the LG Rumor2, which has promised to add more to the previous unit’s greatness.
Just like the original Rumor, the successor is a very easy-to-use phone, still offering a spacious keyboard, intuitive messaging application, superb call quality. While this is supposed to be the best chance to improve the 1.3MP camera, LG decided to retain the feature, which is a little disappointing. The only add-on is a noteworthy feature, an access to Outlook and Lotus Notes corporate e-mail. Does this make the LG Rumor2 a new phone? Yes, in a technical sense, but essentially, it’s jus a mere improvement.
Rumor2 gets the design tracks of its predecessors, and try to place them side-by-side and it’s hard to find the difference. They share a candy bar shape accented with smooth line and rounded corners. Sliding the front face to the left will expose the keyboard.
Rumor2′s distinctions to the Rumor are its basic black color, glossy skin, bigger dimensions (4.4 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches) and more weight (4.2 ounces). The display experiences an improvement, with higher resolution (240 x 320 pixels), brighter and more vibrant colors, sharp graphics and navigable menus. Font size and backlighting time are modifiable. The display also shows photo caller ID.
A sad thing happens to the redesigning of the navigation array, which replaced Rumor’s circular toggle, opting for a square one. It feels more cramped, affecting the controls surrounding it. The numeric keypad, on the other hand, is easy to use and there are no problems during dialing. Texting is definitely not an issue, thanks to the raised and backlit QWERTY keyboard. Other controls and ports in the Rumor2 are a volume rocker, camera shutter, microSD card slot and headset jack.
Basic features in the LG Rumor2 include text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calendar, a calculator, a voice recorder, voice dialing, wireless phone book backup, a unit converter, and a notepad. It also has PC syncing, USB mass storage, a memory card manager, GPS, stereo Bluetooth, and instant messaging.
The major delight on the LG Rumor2 is its support for Microsoft server and Lotus Notes which allows you to receive work e-mail right on the phone just like as POP3 accounts. Basically, this phone is perfect for the corporate world.
LG Rumor is praiseworthy on the design school, trimming down the interface complexity of usual smartphones into a more user-friendly hype, with the approximation of the QWERTY keyboard and navigation controls as important improvements. Another cool add-on with LG Rumor is the accessibility to social networking sites such as Facebook, which we can lead to thinking: probably the reason why the unit was named like LG Rumor.
One thing about the LG Rumor is that it’s bulky, having a dimension of 4.3 x 2 x 0.7 inches and weight of 4.13 ounces. It may fit in the pants pocket but it could be uncomfortable for users. The reason for such bulk is an innovative slide-out QWERTY keyboard which can be revealed by sliding the phones front face to the left lengthwise. This will automatically shift the screen orientation from portrait to landscape. The phone looks sophisticated with such style, with its curved corners and clean lines bring comfort to the hands.
Just like other LG phones, LG Rumor’s display is quite disappointing with a size of 2 inches at a 176×220 pixel resolution. The colors aren’t bright, with images appearing to be washed out especially on direct sunlight.
This misdemeanor proved to be much exhausted with the absence of brightness and contrast adjustments. LG Rumor consists of five-way navigation toggle which also acts as shortcut keys (new text message, music player, My Content folder and calendar). There is also a dedicated speakerphone key located in two sides. The left side of LG Rumor is where the volume rocker and dedicated camera key are located and the right side is where the headset jack and microSD card slot. The back side gives space for the camera lens.
Multimedia features in Rumor is commendable despite the absence of the EV-Do and Sprint Power Vision. Rumor’s standard music player can create playlists and put it into shuffle and repeat mode. Downloading songs from PC to the Rumor is only possible using the Sprint’s Music Manager Software via the microSD card. Rumor also includes a 1.3-megapixel camera which can take pictures in three resolutions (1280×960, 640×480, and 320×240), three quality settings, and four color tones. It can also record videos. The problem with the camera is that the image and video qualities aren’t really that impressive.
Basic features like phonebooks and support for text and multimedia messaging. Productivity tools include alarm clock, calculator, currency and unit converter, notepad, stopwatch, and voice recorder. Connectivity options in Rumor are stereo Bluetooth, a wireless Web browser, e-mail, instant messaging (supports AOL, Windows Live, and Yahoo) and GPS navigation via Sprint Navigator. Of course, it boasts the inclusion of an application called the Social Zone, which provides users the access to social networking sites like Facebook, Vox, LiveJournal and Xanga.
LG’s second Prada phone, the KF900, is a SIM-free touch-screen gadget that will invade the wallet of fashion savants out there. It has resemblance with the first Prada phone, with the Prada brand lettered atop the screen with a short silver bar beneath it on the black front casing. This bar houses the Call, Clear and End buttons, wherein the latter also acts as on/off switch.
The LG Prada II sports a 3.0-inch screen with 240 x 400 pixels, just like original Prada. The keyboard separated the resemblance of the two, wherein the Prada II has a slide-out keyboard design. This feature added some bulk, with the dimensions pushed to 104.5mm x 54mm x 16.8mm and weight to 130 grams.
The keys are well-spaced and raised that make an enjoyable texting experience. Sliding the keyboard automatically puts the screen into wide format and reveals a carousel menu of functions.User interface is an enhanced original Prada, and is reminiscent of the Cookie and Renoir. The main menu system is composed of Communicate, Entertainment, Utilities and Settings, which are all located on the right side of the screen.
Each group has eight options ranged on the touchscreen and they are very easy to navigate with. The main screen is multi-layered, showcasing a row of four shortcut buttons to number dialing, contacts, messaging and the main menu. Info and shortcuts to music player, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi can be accessed by tapping the status bar. The touch mechanism is very iPhone-like, supporting finger-panning and pinch-to-zoom for web browsing and image viewing.
LG Prada II’s built-in internal memory is a disappointing 60 MB, and the microSD is has support only for 1GB cards. The good news is, it is SDHC compatible which supports a 16GB card, but you must suspend excitement again as the LG’s specs only have 8GB limit.
This quad-band GSM handset has HSDPA which can shoot up to 7.2Mbps, an enhancement to the previous model’s tri-band GSM capability. It also sports a front camera for two way-video calling and a Wi-Fi but no GPS. It includes a 5-megapixel Schneider Kreuznach with flash, autofocus and macro mode and a panorama mode. It also manages 720 x 480 pixels video capture. Battery life equals three hours of talk time and 400 hours on standby.
Other interesting applications include Muvee Studio for image editing, built-in games that support the accelerometer, alarms, to do list manager, memo maker, voice recorder, calculator, converter and stopwatch.
Users who are thinking that the LG Voyager is the “it” thing in the line of LG phones should consider checking out LG enV2. Referred as the true successor to the LG enV franchise, the enV2 is almost identical with the enV as far as features are concerned, but it has been praised for sporting a sleeker and slimmer design. While others have found the LG Voyager as a good unit on its own, some would prefer to check the enV2 first.
The enV2 is a candy bar headset sporting a dimension of 4 x 2.13 x 0.65 inches and weight of 4.23 ounces, 40 percent thinner and 30 percent lighter than its enV predecessor. The phone can be stored in the pocket of the pants comfortably, and can be gripped easily. The comfort is attributed to the soft touch surface on the phone’s back and its flat front surface. It also boasts a chic design, with a keypad configuration that makes enV2 look like a calculator.
The problem with the miniaturization of the enV2 is that the screen is compromised, measuring 1.45 inches only with a resolution of 164 x 64 inches, although it runs in 262,000 colors.
This sacrifice gave room to a roomy keypad, which sounds to be an acceptable excuse. The display allows viewing of date, time, battery life, signal strength and photo caller ID. It also acts as a camera viewfinder. Below the screen is the keypad, with keys divided by curved delineations.
Env2′s navigation array is composed of a Clear Key, music player key, an up and down navigation toggle, the middle OK key, and the Send and End/Power keys. A dedicated camera key and volume rocker are located on the left spine and a microSD card slot and headset jack on the right side. The 2-Megapixel camera is located on the backside. The phone can also be flipped open up to 180 degrees to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard plus an internal display which measures 2.4 inches diagonally, and a The QVGA display supports 262,000 colors and resolution of 320×240 pixels.
As mentioned earlier, the enV2 shows to be an aesthetic upgrade, but not on the features side as it only mimicked what’s available with the enV. Basic features include a 1,000-entry phone book, vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, voice commands and dialing, a speakerphone, instant messaging, a calendar, an alarm clock, a world clock, a notepad, a tip calculator, and a voice-memo recorder.
Connectivity options with the the enV2 include e-mail support, web browser, USB and a text-to-speech feature, access to Web e-mail like Yahoo and Gmail, text-to-speech feature and a line of Bluetooth profiles (hands-free, dial-up networking, A2DP or stereo, phone-book access, basic printing, basic imaging, file transfer and a lot more).
Multimedia capabilities of enV2 includes the EV-DO support that gives full access to Verizon’s range of 3G services like V Cast Video and V Cast Music. It includes a music player that support MP3, WMA and AAC files.
From mobile phone and electronics manufacturer LG Electronics comes LG enV, the company’s first foray into smartphones. The phone was initially designed and advertised as a long-awaited successor to the brand’s successful The V by LG. As such, LG enV is equally fun and functional at the same time.
Physically, LG enV is stylish and can never be left out by the current array of fashionable smartphones in the market. The design is simply exquisite. You may not readily notice it but the mobile phone is equipped with an internal antenna that makes signal reception strong and ideal. Each phone weighs about 4.60 ounces, which is rather light in comparison to competitors. LG enV stands 4.64 inches in height, 2.08 inches wide and 0.78 of an inch in dept.
The smartphone comes in a slide-out QWERTY keypad that enables easier and more convenient access to various calling, features and messaging applications. The screen is outstanding with internal LCD that has 262K color at 240 x 320 pixels, supporting 11 lines.
The more visible external LCD has a 65K color capacity, with 128 x 160 pixels, supporting 8 lines of text.
LG enV uses the standard CDMA technology, making it universally useful almost anywhere in the world where there are appropriate and supporting carriers. Bluetooth capability is superb, making the smartphone accessible and compatible with other devices that support hands-free file transfer. The connectivity feature also supports a serial port, facilitates the functioning of an audio/ video remote control, connects with the printer and acts as a human interface equipment.
LG admits that the best features so far identified with the smartphone are the mobile entertainment characteristics. First, the gadget’s Wireless Sync application facilitates a proprietary e-mail solution if provided by a mobile carrier. This feature enable users to synchronize the phone with an office of home personal computer so there would be instant access to e-mail, contact, calendar and task information.
A 2-megapixel camera is auto-focus at the same time, complete with a flash and a camcorder capability. Protective camera lens cover is integrated to provide protection and added stylishness to the device. The embedded video player supports 3GP, MP4, WMV and 3G2 formats. The videos can even be set as wallpaper. You can actually record a video lasting up to an hour.
As for music features, LG enV has a V CAST Music download feature that allows users to download songs and transfer the files onto a removable memory card, which is expandable to accommodate more songs. The music player has audio effects that are customizable, using interface player themes supporting WMA and mp3 formats.
LG enV uses 950 mAh lithium-polymer standard battery. As such, the phone is able to provide a standby time of, brace yourself, 19 days and 4 hours. The battery will support a continuous call usage time of up to 4 hours and 30 minutes.
Call this the touch screen gadget of the masses as this is probably the cheapest of its kind in the market to date. Sporting a fancy interface, the LG Cookie KP500 promises more than well, fanciness, but a phone that meets into any lifestyle’s needs and caprices
In the design arena, the LG marks a high-five. It has a understated but smart-looking slim, matte black casing with a large touchscreen and 3-megapixel camera on the back. The non-glass touchscreen is a little disappointment though as it stepped out of the norm but the resistive technology, which requires its users to apply more pressure in every press, is more responsive yet little slower for testing and dialing.
Comparison with the iPhone 3G should stop at this point, especially with design, as the LG Cookie sports three mechanical buttons underneath the screen compared to the iPhone’s one. These buttons are comprised of a send key, an end-call key and an application shortcut key. It also includes a stylus tucked inside the bottom right panel, best for touch-haters. This provides more accurate drawing and hand-writing recognition.
On the top-right side is where the microSD slot resides, that’s if you need extra memory, which might surely require you for your music needs. Being the cheap iPhone counterpart, groundbreaking features do not storm the LG Cookie. There’s no 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS, so much for your connectivity bulk. However this doesn’t mean that LG Cookie is a heap of metallic trash.
Going back to the interface, it offers an easy-to-use homescreen with widgets that includes a calendar, a clock, different shortcuts to your pictures and music player. You can even move them widgets according to the most used one. The finger-friendly icons menu is similar to Viewty or Renoir’s, but just like them scrolling is a little painful and annoying. Texting and dialing numbers via the QWERTY keypad layout is the best way to input messages, aside from the handwriting recognition, which is a little frustrating at first usages.
The 3-megapixel camera produces commendable still shots and videos for MMS and social networking, but the absence of LED photo light and flash makes this thing very limited. The misdemeanors of the camera must be separated from the photo viewer, which in the contrary, a favorable feature. Skim through your photos effortlessly with a flick of a finger and feel free to add minor edits, texts and funny effects.
Of course, you can make phone calls with this one. But if you want to transform this into a mini netshop, then you have to think twice because the Web browser is a disappointing thing. Imagine being depressed during the WAP days. I know you don’t want to be chased by nightmares. Overall, this phone remains a good choice for people who demand aesthetics more than the actual performance. Well, this isn’t as expensive as the iPhone, but its form factor will surely turn casual users’ heads.
LG is the new Nokia, or at least keeping up with Nokia in terms of introducing new mobile phones in the market. After the release of its Prada II and KC780 welcomes the LG Arena KM900, another of those touch-screen handsets, but it features a 3D user interface which has never existed in other mobile phones. LG’s latest also plays DiVx and Xvid videos to be catered by the 8GB built-in memory that can be expanded through the SDHC-compatible microSD card slot.
Measuring at 105.9mm x 55.3mm x 11.95mm thick and weighing at 105 grams, the LG Arena is a good-sized phone although it is too light that some may suspect that it is a cheaper handset (which is actually in the contrary). There are almost no side buttons except for the camera button and a volume rocker and the on/off switch on top. A sliding cover protects the power connector, which is also keeps the phone from absorbing dust. There is also a 3.5mm headset connector on the top edge. The LG Arena gives a kick-off design with mercury grey titanium backplate and a silver outer frame and black inner frame. It also features a fingermark magnet glass covering, but adds extra durability to the phone.
Generally, the Arena almost has the same look and feel compared to most full-face touchscreens (read: iTouch). It features a 3-inch screen with 480 x 800 pixels. Call and End/back buttons and a button that calls up the 3D user interface are beneath it.
Talking of 3D, this is the biggest buzz on this LG gadget, which is a victim of high expectations. Press the center button and a cube pops up in the middle of the screen that represents four home screens: shortcuts screen for the nine most used apps, a multimedia screen, a contacts screen and a customizable widgets screen. Tap a screen and it animates up into a full screen. A word like “3D” is a little heavy sounding feature in that LG’s attempt to showcase through a meager flicking cube is a little disappointing and anti-climactic.
Type texts and dial numbers using either the QWERTY keypad (in landscape) the mobile phone layout in portrait mode. Using the QWERTY is a little struggle. It also included an accelerometer for automatically changing the view according the way you hold the phone.
Connectivity options are promising for the Arena. It has 3G with HSDPA to 7.2Mbps. It has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS as well. The camera in front is designed for two-way video calling. Browsing on the large screen is easy with full page rendering, finger panning and pinch zooming possible. It is also equipped with TV-out capability.
Other impressive features in the Arena are music playback from Dolby Mobile, 5MP camera and software like Google Maps, G-mail, YouTube and Blogger, LG’s M-Toy tool, Movie Maker, alarms, a calendar, memo pad, stopwatch, voice recorder, calculator, world clock and unit converter.
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