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| 19 May 2006 10:58:31 am |
 LG KG800 slider aka Chocolate phone review |
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Straight out of A Space Odyssey, LGs new KG800 slider (aka Chocolate) is a black monolith of a slider with an unusually stylish exterior; Jorgen Sundgot finds out whether its beauty is merely skin deep.
Joining a crowded space, the fashionable LG KG800 slim phone has its work cut out for it. At 95 x 48 x 15.2 mm and 83 g, its slim, lightweight and undoubtedly one of the most stylish handsets weve ever reviewed - provided one favours minimalist designs, that is. In fact, its front half is completely flush; flick the handset open, and 9 touch-sensitive navigational controls are lit up in bright red. Not only rather cool, the setup works very well indeed, although it takes a little adjustment to avoid accidental presses from resting ones thumb on the surface.
Let me entertain you
Another aspect of the KG800 which lights up when opened is its bright and crisp medium-resolution display, which does a good job of conveying the colourful, pretty and mostly intuitive interface of the handset. This also works as the viewfinder for the integrated 1.3 Megapixel camera, which - with the exception of a slight blur and slow picture saving - does a decent job at taking pictures and recording short video clips. Its 128 MB of onboard memory will hold in excess of 700 highest-quality pictures, which should suffice for most shutterbugs.
The music player of the KG800, however, quickly runs out of space due to the handsets lack of memory expansion. Capable of storing only in the range of 40 MP3 files at best, out-of-box audio quality as delivered by the bundled handsfree kit is at best mediocre - as compared to a dedicated music phone, that is. Furthermore, the only functionality offered is a simple playlist and shuffle, and USB 1.1 is merely sufficient; basic sums it up.
Keep your eye on the basics
Speaking of basics, this is an area where LG should have paid more attention. Although the keypad of the KG800 is equipped with large, comfortable keys, they not only lack a backlight for use in the dark but also suffer from not being able to keep up with rapid-fire text input. Similarly, wireless reception doesnt quite compare to other slim phones, although voice quality in general and the handsets Bluetooth performance - including headset and laptop connectivity - are good. GPRS is the only option for data transfers, which means business users should look elsewhere.
Also present in the KG800 are the usual trappings such as SMS, EMS and MMS for messaging, along with a barebones e-mail client. A WAP 2.0 microbrowser makes for light surfing, while a 500-entry phone book joins a calendar and memo function in taking care of daily duties. Lastly, it should be mentioned that the battery life of the KG800 is unimpressive; talk time hovered in the 2 hour range, while standby time clocked in around 140 hours.
Price and availability
The LG KG800 will be available throughout Europe in May 2006, selling in the EUR 500 range.
Conclusion
With the KG800, LG clearly made the decision to keep specifications on the down low in order to bring forward a small, light and supremely stylish handset - although its price tag claims otherwise. Its feature set - including a mediocre camera and music player - compares reasonably well to other slim and fashion phones; its most aggravating fault is the lagging text input, which stands in contrast to its responsive touch-sensitive navigational controls. This is a handset for those who primarily call and text, and want to look good doing it.
Whats positive:
Superbly suave design; touch sensitive navigational controls; compact
Whats negative:
So-so battery life; lagging text input; lacks memory expansion |
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Posted By : Admin
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| 19 May 2006 10:54:38 am |
| Music lovers identify with Sony Ericsson |
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Sony Ericsson has strengthened its mobile Walkman brand with two new devices and the first model to feature song identification software.
The UMTS-enabled W850i arrives with TrackID, powered by Gracenote Mobiles MusicID application, which allows users to record a few seconds of a song and send it with one click to the Gracenote database for identification. Recording can be done via the microphone or directly from the built-in FM radio.
The phone is loaded with Walkman 2.0 software for music playback and management and comes with a 1GB memory stick expandable to 4GB. Its also configured to work with operator over the air music download services.
The second new device is the W710 Walkman. This ones aimed at the gym crowd, with a built-in motion sensor that measures running speed, distance, time or steps; its the first pedometer phone. The W710 comes supplied with a 512MB Memory Stick.
These announcements perpetuate an extraordinarily busy year for Sony Ericsson. The manufacturer has just revealed the Z710 and Z550 clamshell phones, which brings the total announced in Europe this year to 17. |
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| 10 May 2006 09:44:15 am |
| World Cup Mobile TV - will anyone be watching |
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Mobile phone TV (DMB) will be available at all twelve venues of the World Cup in Germany this summer, but whether any viewers will be tuning in is another matter.
Although major supplier Samsung Electronics earlier this year unveiled a terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting (T-DMB) phone, the first of its kind for commercial services in Europe, the Korean company decided to delay manufacturing and shipping while it awaited the outcome of a complicated license allocation process in Germany, which is still not completed, according to German news service Heise Online.
A Samsung spokesman told us the firm still expects to deliver on time, but couldnt comment on volumes.
Major DMB phone makers expect high seasonal demand for their handsets ahead of the worlds most popular soccer event, but there are only two months left, and not much is happening in terms of hardware announcements, at least not in Europe.
Dusseldorf-based company Mobiles Fernsehen Deutschland GmbH intends to use the World Cup to launch mobile TV in Germany. Viewers can watch the German channels ZDF, N24, MTV and a comedy and entertainment channel set up by German satellite broadcaster ProSieben. Debitel, the biggest German GSM service provider, has a similar offering. Viewers are expected to pay EUR 9.90 a month after the games are finished and mobile phone TV will be rolled out nationally in Germany.
Both companies still expect the handsets to be ready next month. According to Debitel CEO Paul Stodden LG, BenQ Siemens and Panasonic will all introduce DMB enabled phones, but he couldnt incidate when. |
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| 03 May 2006 07:46:45 am |
| Samsung D520 slimline slider to offer Bluetooth stereo audio |
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Samsung will this month offer its latest slimline slider phone to European consumers, pitching the 1.6cm-thick, "easy-to-grip" devices Bluetooth 1.2-based wireless stereo playback and 80MB of on-board music storage at "the modernist and music appreciator in you".
The SGH-D520 also sports a 126 x 220, 262,144-colour screen and a 1.3 megapixel digicam with flash. The phone has a tri-band (900/1800/1900MHz) GSM/GPRS receiver. The whole shebang weighs a mere 93g.
Samsung said it will ship the D520 in South-East Asia as well as Europe this month. |
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