LG Viewty Smart | LG GC 900

LG Cell Phones are really taking over the touch screen market. And if you thought LG Arena was cool wit till you read about the new phone from LG, the LG Viewty 2 or Viewty Smart. This phone can be thought of as a an LG Arena with a much heavier camera and DiVX support or an LG Viewty with S-Class interface and and improved processor. Either way it is an improvement to two of the best touch screen phones produced by LG.

The LG Viewty Smart comes with the all new S-Class interface, the same interface that iphone users admired when it was first introduced in the LG Arena, you can read more about the S-Class interface in my LG Arena review. Looks wise there is very little resemblance between the LG GC 900 and the original LG Viewty but there are a lot of welcome additions to the LG GC 900 for example Wi-Fi has been added; something that was missed in the original Viewty. As of now the phone comes in a silver-black combo; the front of the phone is all black while the back is silver. However an all silver aluminum casing is expected to arrive soon.

Just like the original Viewty, the first impression anyone gets when they see this phone is that of a camera. And with an 8 Megapixel camera this device is more of a camera than a phone. But when one starts up the phone and uses the S-Class interface they think of it as a camera-phone on steroids

When it comes to memory the LG Viewty smart has an internal memory of 1.5 GB and can support a micro SD card upto 32 GB. The internal memory of the LG GC 900 is much lower than that of the Arena. One would expect a DiVX supported phone to have at least 8 GB of internal memory.

Some of the main features of the LG Viewty Smart are:

• 3″ 16M-color capacitive TFT touchscreen of WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels.
• S-Class Touch UI
• 3G with HSDPA (7.2 Mbps)
• Wi-Fi and GPS receiver with A-GPS
• 8 megapixel autofocus camera, Schneider-Kreuznach optics, LED flash
• Hot-swappable microSD card slot
• Accelerometer for screen auto rotate
• Multi-touch input
• DivX and XviD support
• Dolby for Mobile audio enhancement.

While some of its more noticable disadvantages are:

• Poor screen sunlight legibility
• Below average image quality
• No standard USB port and no inbuilt 3.5mm audio jack
• Records video in 3GP format
• Limited DivX/XviD video support
• All-plastic build

Design:

The first thing one notices aside from the massive 3 inch screen is the slim button that goes from one side of the phone to the other. This is a single button and is not divided into call, clear and end keys like the previous LG Viewty. Only the central part of the button can be pressed and is used as the back key. The call and end keys are part of the touch screen as it was in the Arena. Above the slim button we have the 3″ 16M-color capacitive touchscreen. The screen technology is TFT, however it would have been nice to see an AMOLED screen from LG. The screen is super responsive and as can be expected from the S-Class the user interface can be compared to the iphone.  The only problem with the screen is poor sunlight visibility, a problem shared by the Viewty 1 and the Arena. Above the screen is the ear piece and the the video call camera. We also have a light sensor there to control the screen brightness automatically.

On the right side of the phone we have the proprietary connectivity port, protected by a cover/cap.  This port is used for plugging in the charger, headset, data cable and TV-Out. The right side also hosts the volume rocker keys and the camera shutter key. On the left side of the phone we have the MicroSD card slot and the cube interface key, this key also launches the task manager if held for more than 2 seconds. The bottom part of the phone is completely plain hosting only the mouthpiece. The top of the phone hosts the on/off key which also doubles as a lock screen key. Sadly the LG Viewty smart has no 3.5 mm jack, however they do provide a 3.5mm socket that can be plugged into the connectivity port.

The back side of the phone hosts the 8 megapixel camera along with the power LED flash. The lens has no protection of any kind but it will still resist scratches since its lower than its surrounding body. The back of the phone, unlike the arena, is made of plastic and is painted silver so one does think that if/when the paint comes off the phone will lose most of its charm.

Camera:

The LG Viewty Smart comes with an 8 megapixel camera and has Schneider-Kreuznach optics, the camera can take photos at a maximum image resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels. It also supports manual as well as automatic focus. The camera has no lens cover to protect it from scratches. The camera is supported with an LED flash. Yet again i fail to understand why LG insists on using LED flashes in dedicated camera phones. I understand that the strobe flashes were problematic in the original Viewty but they could have at least added a xenon flash. Some of the more mentionable features of this camera are geotagging, face recognition and smile shot.

[smartads]The image quality of the 8 megapixel camera is a disappointment. It is not something one would expect of an 8 MP phone. The image quality may be equal to that of the original Viewty of not lower. The main problem with the images taken is noise. This may be the noisiest 8 MP camera yet. But dont get me wrong the camera is not worthless, the color and contrast are perfect and the results in daylight are excellent. Im just saying that when compared to other 8 mega pixel phones such as the Samsung phones this camera tends to produce more noisier pictures.

In terms of video recording the LG GC 900 can capture videos in D1 (720×480) resolution at 30 fps same as the Arena. The video recording quality is excellent, the level of detail is also very good. Even though the recorded videos are in .3GP format their quality can be compared to that of DiVX. Still it would have been better if this phone could record in DiVX like the original Viewty.  The camera also supports the cool 120 fps slow motion recording (This is not true 120 fps as in the viewty 1, the slow motion here is software emulated). The 120 fps videos are in the QVGA resolution.

The interface of the camera is excellent. its fun to use and with all those options gives the feel of a professional camera. You can experience the camera interface and the camera options from this LG Viewty Smart promo video:

Specifications:

Display: TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, 800 x 480 pixels, 3.0 inches.

Network: 2G Network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900. 3G Network: HSDPA 900 / 2100 .

Battery: Standard battery, Li-Ion 1000 mAh.

Size: 108.9 x 56.1 x 12.4 mm . Weight: 102 g.

Camera: 8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, Schneider-Kreuznach optics, auto/manual focus, LED flash; secondary VGA videocall camera.

Features: SMS (threaded view), EMS, MMS, Email, WAP 2.0/xHTML, pre-installed and downloadable Games, FM radio with RDS, GPS with A-GPS support; Google maps.

Connectivity: GPRS: Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 – 48 kbps, EDGE: Class 12, 3G: HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps,  Bluetooth: v2.0 with A2DP, USB: 2.0, WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11b/g

Memory: Internal Memory of 1.5GB, MicroSD card slot supporting up to 32 GB card.