LG GC900 Viewty Smart review
Verdict:
Despite the disappointing camera, the Viewty has good basic apps, plenty of storage, long battery life and a great screen for watching movies.
Review Date: 16 Nov 2009
Price when reviewed: £328
Supplier: http://www.superetrader.co.uk
Our Rating
User Rating
LG's Viewty Smart follows on from the popular Viewty, with an 8-megapixel camera and a high-resolution 800x480 touchscreen.
It uses the same underlying interface as LG's GT505, but with four main screens that you can personalise with apps, widgets, contacts and photos. A button on the left side shrinks these screens to a cube for faster switching, as scrolling through them by swiping your finger across the screen is hit and miss.
There aren't many installed apps, so you'll probably want to find some more. There are websites that specialise in Java apps, and most social networking sites have their own mobile version. We successfully downloaded and installed a Facebook app from www.getjar.com, and the process was relatively painless.
We loved the Viewty Smart's high-resolution screen, which was bright and vibrant. Its touch sensitivity wasn't perfect, but was better than that of other phones we've tested. Scrolling through Google Maps was quick and smooth, for example. Support for DivX movies and the inclusion of Dolby Mobile make it ideal for watching movies. The only downside is the proprietary headphone/charging socket, but LG provides a 3.5mm adaptor with remote control.
Despite its 8-megapixel sensor, the camera is a disappointment. Colours were unnatural, and there was more noise in our low-light test than on cameras with 2-megapixel sensors. Fine detail was lost in dark areas, and JPEG compression artefacts were evident. On the plus side, its battery life in our light-use tests was the best in the group at well over 40 hours.
You can add email accounts from webmail services or Exchange, but you can't synchronise your contacts and calendar automatically with online services, which makes the Viewty Smart seem less smart than the competition. It's still a good-looking phone with great multimedia capabilities, and a much better-value Java phone than the GT505, but Samsung's J??©t is a better buy.
Author: Barry de la Rosa
User Reviews
Independent customer reviews from Reevoo.com
LG GC900 Viewty Smart scored:
8.0 out of 10
The 2 most helpful reviews based on 51 reviews:
Art, Stansted
6- Good Points
- The picture quality on this mobile is absolutely fantastic. Images are sharp and the video capture and image are probably the best I have seen from any mobile. I would say it takes better images than my digital camera and is by far easier to use.
- Bad Points
- I have experienced some problems with the phone locking or freezing after taking camera/video footage. I couldn't navigate out of the camera mode by pushing any other buttons. The only way to sort out the problem (I found) was to remove the battery and allow the phone to reset itself.
Chris Bailey, Surrey
9- Good Points
- Ths phone is awesome considering the size and weight. It totally acheives all my requirements and expectations. Looks good, feels good in the hand, and the vibra response when using the touch screen gives the confidence of correct press. The camera is outstanding quality, especially the video. the frame rate on the video is amazing and the clarity is superb especially when you zoom in during playback. The UI is easy to navigate and has a great feel to it especially when using the 3D cube.
- Bad Points
- The negative point of this phone comes from when you are in a call, especially to a call center where by they require you to use your touch tone phone to make a menu selection (i.e key 1). During the call when you need to call up the dialpad, it takes time to appear on screen, and when it does appear sometimes you do not always press the numbers enough to register your selection. The biggest flaw with this is the the "end call" button on the screen is directly behind the dialpad when it appears on the screen so if you are not quick eneough to make your selection you can end up pressing "end call" button instead... Not amusing! Also the negative point at the moment is the fact that it is a new product and the software has some bugs in it. Hopefully these will disappear as time goes on.
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