Review LG C1100

LG tries to expand its model range, representing the same model in the various form - factor. This happened with C1100 too; the phone was first known as LG G1600. Despite their apparent similarity, models are based on various versions of the software, but we will discuss it later.

The clamshell form - factor is considered to be fashion solution till now, that is why the phones of such type cost more than their analogues in the traditional design. The manufacturer tried to give maximum of the fashion component to the model C1100. It is interesting that instead of the external display there is a mirror on the top panel. In the middle of it LED is situated. When somebody calls you, the indicator starts to blink green color. The minus of this mirror is rather obvious, it becomes soiled often and there are fingerprints on it. So you should clean the mirror almost every minute.

The phone lays well in the palm, its size is comfortable (82x43x22.5 mm), the same with its weight (85 grams). When opening and closing the phone it is possible to set a special tone. You can open the phone using only one hand owing to the hollows on the side surfaces. Hollows seem bigger than they are in reality. Such visual effect is reached due to the dark plastic. On the left-hand side there are two volume control keys and the headset connector. At the bottom there is an interface connector, and at the top panel a strap hole settles down.

The screen displays up to 65000 colors (UFB), its resolution is of 128х128 pixels that allows to show up to 5 text lines and 1 information bar. The quality of colors and brightness is average. This model can be compared with the phones by LG, but it is worse than last models by Siemens (for example, CF62, С65) and better, than phones by Motorola v180, v220. The difference is not so significant; basically we can tell that these models are similar by this feature. Unfortunately, LG can not boast with qualitative displays in the last models. In contrast to Samsung, LG does not have its own developments, which would be applied in the mobiles.

On the sun the screen fades strongly and only having found a corner of view it becomes possible to distinguish something.

The keypad is of the average size, buttons are rather comfortable and there are no claims to their work. The navigation key has the button “Menu” centered in it, which carries the function “ОК” at the same time. The backlight is dark blue, but only the right vertical line is well seen, the backlight is non-uniform.

The battery plays a role of the back panel (there is no backlash), it is Li-ion of 780mAh capacity. According to the manufacturer it is capable of providing up to 3,5 hours in the talking mode and up to 300 hours in the stand by mode. In case of Moscow MTS network the phone has worked 2,5 days in case of 30 minutes of talk and 15-20 minutes of using other functions. The time of the full charge of the phone is little bit more than 1.5 hours.

Menu

You can change profiles and call the most frequently used menu items with a help of navigation key (to press to the left or to the right). The main menu is presented as a list of items, which consists of several submenus. The menu orientation is the main difference with the G1600, another one is that a submenu functions are sorted differently. There is a shortcut number navigation.

Phonebook. Up to 200 entries can be saved in the phone memory. Up to 5 fields (4 phone numbers, one e-mail address) can be added to one entry, also you can select a caller group and an icon (pre-installed pictures, for example, faces of people, animals and so on). A selected picture and a name will be displayed while incoming call.

When entering information you should choose the main number and then you can enter other numbers step by step, but it is possible to skip them. Phone numbers from SIM-card and from phone’s memory can be displayed in the general list.

Totally there are 7 caller groups in the phone. You can assign a special ringing tone, color of backlighting and picture to each group (the other pictures set is used).

Messages. The phone supports EMS that allows attaching pictures and melodies to messages. This also allows sending concatenated messages (980 symbols). Several dictionaries (T9) are supported, including Russian. 11 changeable templates are provided.

The phone also supports MMS-messages. It’s possible to create several pages and attach several pictures.

All messages are stored in the memory of the device; SMS messages are saved at first on SIM-card, and only then in the phone’s memory.

Call lists. Here you can look dialed, missed and received calls. Each list contains 15 phone numbers; you can look time and date for separate calls. Identical ones are summarized.

The phone has unified call list, it contains last 20 records from all lists. Exactly this list is displayed when you press call key in the standby mode.

Profiles. You can adjust sound settings in the phone, for example, melody type, keypad tone and type of alarm. Everything is traditional.

Settings. Here the device’s settings are placed, for example, screen settings and ring tones.

Organizer. Up to 20 events can be saved in the memory of organizer. Date, time and reminder can be set for each of them. You also indicate whether you like these events to be repeated (every day, week, month, year). The calendar shows a month, dates with events are indicated by a color. A special symbol, which symbolizes type of event (meeting, reminder) is appeared in the end. The main shortcoming of this organizer is limited number of records.

Alarm-clocks. There are 5 alarm-clocks in the phone, each one can alert once, daily or weekly. Any user will be satisfied with these alarm-clocks.

Fun&Tools. First, few words about games. There are three pre-installed Java games in the phone. They are not removable. Multiply is a kind of tetrix, space ball is an interesting version of snake, your mission is to swallow balls of different colors in order not to allow snake to grow in size. The last game is Submarine; it is a submarine simulator, your mission is to overcome all obstacles in the sea that appeared to be numerous.

In My Folder you can store your own melodies and pictures. One can set them as ringtones or wallpapers. All downloaded files, except applications, are kept here.

Unit converter is quite convenient, the same is calculator concerned.

Besides, you can view world time for selected cities.

Also voice records are stored here, they can be renamed, heard, removed, all is usual. The voice memo does not work during the talk. The length of one record can last about19 seconds.

Internet. The phone supports GPRS (class 10), so, we recommend you to set Wap over GPRS, as it is cheaper. The phone supports wap-brower, version 2.0 (MIC 1.1.13). In contrast to G1600 the wap is completely functional.

Java. Totally up to 1 Mb of dynamical memory is available in the phone. You can download new applications if you use wap, but you’ll need special programs, suitable for LG phones. The model supports MIDP 2.0. The speed of performance is low (JBenchmark 1.0), The model loses practically all competitors by this feature.

Impressions

The phone does not have any problems with the reception quality; it provides steady reception in city. The volume of the 16-tones polyphonic ring is far from being average, it sounds well, but it is almost not heard (it is an affect of the clamshell form - factor). You can hardly hear it in the noisy room or in the street. The power of the vibrating alert is average.

Few models are represented in the same segment, as the given phone. Siemens CF62 , Motorola v180 are the most interesting. In contrast to LG C1100 these phones have the external screen that is doubtless advantage for phones of such form - factor. LG C1100 loses to these models by its features, thus it has the same price or even more. You can buy some models for 180-200 dollars with better design and functions. In my opinion, C1100 offers the improved features inside the LG model range, but it costs unfairly expensive.

Ringtone samples LG C1100 (mp3, 277 Kb)