LG KU990 “Viewty” Review

The Viewty is similar to the iPhone in its look and feel. It is a touchscreen phone with an animated menu system which gives an immersed and enjoyable user experience.

The Viewty uses subtle vibration feedback to confirm when you’ve pressed a button, and you’ll very quickly get used to the concept. The touchscreen technology now seems to be mature enough to enter the mainstream. If you’re a fast texter you might find that the touchscreen slows you down a little, but the sheer pleasure of using the on-screen menus more than compensates for this. T9 predictive text is supported too. A stylus pen is provided if you find the interface too slow using your finger. The Viewty also supports handwriting recognition, so you should be able to find an input method that you’re comfortable with.

Apart from the user interface, the Viewty has several pleasures waiting to be discovered. The camera is LG’s best yet, rated at 5 megapixels with a high quality Schneider-Kreuznach lens, autofocus and a SmartLight feature that makes after-dark photographs considerably clearer. You can also vary the ISO setting to ISO 800 for improved brightness in low light. In common with many digital cameras, the Viewty’s camera incorporates an Image Stabiliser function for minimising camera shake. The Viewty can’t match the best camera phones from Nokia or Sony Ericsson, but it definitely ranks in the top 10 of current camera phones. As well as a top notch still camera, the Viewty’s video camera is also something special. It films at high resolution (320 x 240 pixels QVGA) and at very high frame rates – up to 120 frames per second, which enables special effects such as slow motion filming. There are built-in picture-editing and video-editing tools to make the most of these cameras. In addition, a second front-facing camera enables 3G video calls.

The Viewty’s music player is nice and easy to use and can handle virtually every music format: MP3/AAC/AAC+/AAC++/WMA. There’s also an FM radio built in. Stereo headphones are supplied in the box, and you can use optional mono or stereo Bluetooth headphones if you prefer. The Viewty’s memory is very generous, with 90 Mbytes of internal memory and up to 2 Gbytes of additional memory (microSD memory card).

The Viewty is 3.5G, i.e. it supports extra fast 3G connections using HSDPA which enables download speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps. Bluetooth and USB connectivity are available, and a USB cable is supplied in the box. The Viewty supports web browsing and email, and there’s a useful document viewer that can handle all common file formats (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF).

One of the most interesting facts about this phone is that it is relatively easy to unlock, upgrade firmware and modify theme files. Using the correct tools it is possible to clone the look of the iPhone or the look of the Apple Dock on a Mac for example. The theme files which control the look of the interface are based on flash and actionscript. Tutorials on how to program your own themes will be online next week.

Further Reading

LG KU990 “Viewty” Specifications
http://www.sentire.co.uk/hardware/phones/lg/ku990/lg-ku990-viewty-specifications.html

Official Sentire LG KU990 “Viewty” Section

http://www.sentire.co.uk/hardware/phones/lg/ku990/lg-ku990-“viewty”.html

References

Mobile Phones UK LG Viewty KU990 Review
http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/lg-viewty-ku990.htm