THE ALL NEW LG VIEWTY REVIEW!!!!

After launching a series of fashionable and feature-packed phones, LG’s latest offering is the KU990 Viewty. The touchscreen device has a power-packed camera and the strong feature set means that is not just another LG phone that will go unnoticed like the ill-fated Prada.

Features & Design

When it comes to looks, the Viewty is a show-stopper. The beautiful, black body has a 5 MP camera and on its front there is a 3-inch touchscreen that vibrates on touch and a VGA camera for video calling positioned just above it. The lack of a clutter of buttons enhances the minimalist, sleek design. The sides have a metallic coating which offsets the black body perfectly. The buttons for the camera, key lock or image stabilizer activation and a hardware switch to toggle between different camera modes. The back of the phone carries only the camera lens and the black battery cover. Sadly, there is no lens cover making the camera prone to dust. There is a hard wheel which doubles up as camera zoom or volume controls depending on the mode the phone is in. Its proprietary port is shared by a data cable, a charger and a headset. We wished there was a miniUSB port though. It has internal memory of 100MB and supports a microSD card, but the slot is inconveniently located under the battery.

The Viewty’s menu has fairly large icons which makes carrying out different functions comfortable. Bundled apps include Google and YouTube applications. The full-fledged browser let us view full-sized web pages and zoom into particular regions. There is also a Muvee editor and Picture editor. E-mail support includes IMAP4 and POP3 and attachment can go up to 400KB. On connectivity side, EDGE, 3G and HSDPA are supported. It’s disappointing to see no Wi-Fi present here though.

Performance

Expectations were high when we received the Viewty. A slight delay while navigating menus was noticed but the overall experience was satisfying. Visibility under the sunlight was not that great, but manageable if you shadowed the screen with your body or stood in the shade. Call management was easy and reception was clear and the other party did not have any problem hearing us. The loudspeaker could have been louder.

Messaging on the virtual Qwerty keypad was easier than any other text input methods on offer. Each letter was magnified the moment when used, and the vibrating feedback made things smoother. The handwriting recognition was not as good as the one on Windows based devices.

The 5MP camera with its Xenon flash lit up objects 4 to 5 feet away when shooting indoors and colors were reproduced well but with noticeable noise. The Nokia N95 produced better results on indoor shoots. Even under good lighting, the images were grainy and there was loss of detail. The macro shooting capability is commendable and close-ups were well-focused. The video capturing capability is noteworthy; it can capture in 640x480 pixels at 30 fps and 320x240 at 120 fps. The former looks good on a PC and can be posted on YouTube via the YouTube application. When fast moving objects are captured at 120 fps and the video is played back on a PC, it let us see what we missed out with our naked eye. This is truly unique and one useful feature. The Divx playback and audio playback are satisfactory for an imaging phone. But Divx’s latest version failed to play and we’d like to see Xvid support.

Verdict

The LG Viewty has raised the bar with its well designed, non-fussy touchscreen interface. Now if only it was cheaper. If you want a cheaper 5MP camera phone, the Sony Ericsson K850 is a good choice but it lacks the touchscreen interface.