LG KU990

LG mobiles hit the market a few years ago but they were not successful as they had their share of problems and consumers they time to build trust with a new handset manufacturer.All that is set of change with the introduction of the dashing LG KU990 Viewty, the 5.0 Megapixel camera phone from LG.The phone also boasts of VGA recording and QVGA recording at 120fps.Apart from that it also has loads of feature that will give serious competition to some of the Nokia heavyweights.

LG KU990 Viewty specifications:

• Dimensions : 103.5 x 54.4 x 14.8 mm
• Weight: 112g
• Display : 3″ with 240 x 400 resolution
• GPRS,EDGE
• 3G : HSDPA,3.6Mbps
• Bluetooth v1.2 with A2DP
• 5 MP camera with autofocus
• VGA recording at 30fps
• Approx Price : $550

Design and Display

The design of the phone is strikingly similar to the LG Prada and on the same lines as the iPhone.The large 3″ screen along with Flash UI will give iPhone a run for its money.The front panel has three keys only and rest is handled through the touchscreen which is very responsive.The three keys include Green,Red keys and the correction key.Secondary VGA camera is placed at top-right corner.The top and bottom parts are clean and no ports/keys can be found here.

The back panel holds the big 5.0 Megapixel camera based on Schneider-Kreuznach optics and having autofocus.The camera also has a jog wheel which can be used to control the digital zoom, a nice addition.The Viewty is powered by a 1000 mAh Li-ion battery,good enough to last 2 days with moderate to heavy usage.

The display is a stunning 3″ screen which accepts input not only through the stylus but also through your fingers or other metal keys etc.The clarity of the display is great and the brightness and saturation levels are good.The visibility under sunlight is good but certainly not at par with latest Nokia models which are exceptionally good.

User Interface and Browser

The user interface on the LG KU990 Viewty is Flash based.Though the phone is not a smartphone, LG has taken a few steps to fulfill the gap which includes the inbuilt task manager.The home screen features only the clock and the calendar but there is a shortcuts button which when tapped brings a set of customizable shortcuts.The bottom of the screen has four fixed shortcuts to main menu,Dial pad,messages and the Contacts.Tapping on the current profile brings up the profile manager.

The menu system has been subdivided by clubbing similar things together.This gives the main menu a clean look but does lose out on a bit of ease of use.The main menu has four icons ,first related to making calls/messages,second relates to entertainment,third one is for organizer and the four one contains all the settings options.A touch when accepted gives a gentle vibration which is a welcome move.

The phonebook has a capacity of 500 contacts and extensive details can be added for each contact. The phone features a QWERTY keyboard and when messaging the phone turns to landscape mode.The Viewty also features handwriting recognition.

The default browser on the phone is excellent and you won’t need to use a third party browser.The browser has tabbed browsing ,mini-map,landscape mode etc.The scrolling is not as smooth as you would expect.The browser delivers rich experience and handles sites well both in landscape and portrait mode.

Media Player and Camera

The music player is a much improved version found in the Prada.This one has track sorting according to artist, album, genre, playlist, recently played similar to what is found on Nokia phones.Surprisingly the player features no equaliser settings which might make few music lovers stay away from this phone.The player theme does nor change even on changing the interface theme which should have been the case.

The audio quality on the Viewty is very good.The handset scores well above expectations as it has been primarily advertised as a camera phone. The inbuilt memory of 100MB can be quite handy for storing a few tracks.Also you can transfer songs to the device using the USB mass storage mode.

The camera is the strong point of the phone and features one of the best 5.0 megapixel camera phones we have out there in the market.The big screen is a definite advantage when using as a viewfinder.A slider on the right side controls the various modes of the camera.Jog wheel as mentioned is used for controlling digital zoom.The shutter key is used for autofocusing and taking snaps.The strobe flash used on the phone is better than the LED flash but not as good as Xenon flash.

There are tons of settings to play around with in the camera.The camera has various preset modes which include landscape,party,beach,night,sport,portrait,high sensitive.Apart from that it has Panaroma mode and mode which does exactly what BestPic mode does in SE phones.Manual focus,white balance,color modes,ISO settings…you name it and you have it all.

The image quality is top class and will give entry level digicams a run for their money. The images are well lit and have apt levels of brightness and color saturation.The noise level does tend to rise in some snaps.The shot-to-shot time at 4 seconds is good though has scope for improvement.

The video recording is the best ever to be found in a camera phone.The QVGA recording at 120fps is not as you might perceive.The 120fps captured video is stores in 15fps making it a slow motion video.The VGA recording at 30fps is great and yields good results.The videos are stored in AVI format with DivX 5.0 encoding hence keeping a check on file size.No macro mode is present in video recording.

Pros:

• Big 3″display
• Light weight
• Excellent camera
• VGA recording
• TV-out support
• Nice UI
• Good sound quality

Cons:

• No hot swappable memory card
• Slow performer when memory card filled up
• No macro mode for video recording
• No Xenon flash

Final Thoughts

The LG KU990 Viewty sets new standards for upcoming 5.0 Megapixel camera phones.Although not a smartphone the Viewty does have a peppy and fun to use UI.The big display and its light weight is bound to make users think about buying this phone ahead of iPhone after seeing its camera performance.Though it would have been great if LG could have brought some more features like macro mode for video recording or xenon flash but even in its current avatar it is great.A must buy if you want a great multimedia phone!

Rating: 4.25/5