Review LG G5400

LG G5400, live pictures

Phones from LG, which have G index, became available in the beginning 2003. Generally they were renewed versions of existed models, which support GPRS. To indicate this function, index G was added. In near future most of new models of this class will appear, soon LG G5400 will be available on the shelves of the shops.

This model is very important for LG, as for the first time the phone made by this company has a dynamical memory, Java applications and MMS support. The company decided to create a functional middle class phone, which is based on previous developments. The case type wasn’t changed. It is classical clamshell phone; Japanese influence can be noticed in its design features, for example, phone shape and vertical external display. Only 1 text line can be displayed on this screen (16x96 pixels), but it supports up to 7 colors of backlighting. They can be used for incoming calls or work just in the standby mode. In this case the screen serves as service indicator, the picture blinks. It is not common solution. You can change information on the external screen with a help of volume side key, which is placed on the left hand side of the phone. Time can be changed to date, also you can change colors of the screen pressing this key.

One more key is placed on the left-hand side of the phone. It is necessary to record voice tags. Unfortunately, it operates only when the phone is open and only in standby mode. You can’t record a talk. In general, one record can’t exceed 20 seconds, but number of records is limited only by total memory pool.

IR-port is situated on the right-hand side, it can be used to switch to PC , it is also necessary if you like to use the phone as a modem. Later the manufacturer promises to add synchronization via IrDA, but this function won’t be available in the first lots.

A system connector is placed on the bottom of the phone, a portable handsfree connector is positioned on the top.

This phone has dimensions, typical to dual-band (GSM 900/1800) phones of this class (86х46х22 mm). The weight of the phone is 85 grams, it is neither light, nor heavy.

When you open a phone, you’ll pay attention to the internal screen, it is the best one among other phones of this manufacturer, it is comparable to phones from Samsung. This phone is equipped with UFB color display, which has a resolution of 128x160 pixels. It allows to show up to 7 text lines and tips to the soft keys use. The picture is vivid, colors are bright. On the contrast to STN matrixes, the information is quite visible under the sun. You can use both statistic and animated pictures as wallpapers. There is a set of pre-default pictures, but there are only few of them on the phone. First time, it won’t be possible to download new pictures from PC, because cable is not named among accessories. You can download new pictures with a help of wap-browser, but you should find respective sites to do it.

Keypad is made of plastic. All keys are well-spaced and comfortable to press. You can find two soft-keys under the screen and one 4-directional navigation key. The keypad has a blue backlighting.

A lithium-ion battery of 760 mAh capacity is applied to the phone. According to the manufacturer, it provides up to 230 hours of standby time and up to 3 hours of talk time. In reality it operated about 2.5 days in case of 20 minutes of talking and 40 minutes of using other applications. Time of full re-charging is about 2 hours.

Menu

At first sight interface didn’t change greatly, but it is not so. Like in previous models, 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 menus, which consists of several submenus. The main menu was increased, eighth menu item – Java applications was added. There is a shortcut number navigation.

You can notice changes when enter the menus, which contain settings. Line with tips is displayed in the left corner of the screen, but you can switch it off.

The other innovation is new keys tones. The phone doesn’t play back usual sound, but pronounce title of pressed key. This function is useful for people with poor eyesight, or those who prefer dialing a phone number at random. But it is better to do it in quiet conditions.

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 you input your information you should select a main phone number and then add other phone number types. You can miss some of them. Phone numbers from both SIM-card memory and phone memory can be displayed in the list.

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

Up to 10 voice tags can be added to phone numbers in the phonebook. Voice recognition works correctly. If you try to record the same tags, the phone warns you about it.

Messages. The phone supports EMS standard, what allows to send pictures, melodies, format text and send concatenated messages (up to 980 characters). The other difference is that the phone has T9 as a predictive text input, not eZi Text. Several vocabularies for several languages are available. There are up to 11 changeable templates.

A new feature – MMS messages support is also appeared in this phone. It is possible to format several pages and attach several pictures simultaneously.

All messages are saved in the phone memory, first SIM-card memory is filled, then phone memory is used. On the whole, it is comfortable to work with these messages.

Calls Lists. One can view standard lists of missed, dialed and received calls. Each list unites 10 phone numbers, date and time is indicated for certain records. Equal phone numbers are summarized, they are not placed in order.

It’s pleasant that there is a combined list of 20 last records in the phone, it is displayed when you press a send key in the standby mode.

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

Settings. Phone settings, for example, display settings and sound settings are placed here. 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.

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.

Fun&Tools. First, few words about games. There are three pre-installed Java games in the phone. They are not removable, but as for me, it is not necessary. Multiply is a kind of tetrix, space ball is an interesting version of snake, your mission is to swallow balls in special 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.

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.

Musical editor allows to create up to 10 polyphonic melodies, depending on your taste.

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

Besides, you can view world time for selected cities.

All voice records are stored here too, you can rename, play back and delete them. All capabilities are standard.

Internet. The phone supports GPRS (class 10), so, we recommend you to set wap over GPRS, it’s cheaper. The phone supports wap-brower in version 1.2.1.

Java. Totally up to 1.3 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 and they are not available now. On the other hand, the handset supports MIDP 1.0, these applications will work here, but phone’s capabilities can be only partly used.

One application can’t exceed 60 Kb, otherwise, it won’t run. We can’t test work of Java, as applications for LG do not exist today. LG G5400 is a first phone, which supports this funciton.

Impressions

Reception quality is not bad, only in weak zones one can have problems typical to phones from LG. The phone can’t select the base station and it restarts. Volume of the loudspeaker is sufficient to hear a person on the other side of the line even in noisy conditions.

Vibrating alert is average, but volume of the ringer is loud. This phone supports 32 polyphonic ringing tones, the sound is muting compared to LG’s phones which have 16-tones polyphionic ringers. But the ringtones are more melodious. I downloaded several favourite melodies to the phone and they sounded great.

You can also set any of your voice memo records as a ringing tone. It is a virtue of this model. Besides, the phone has an improved interface and nicer pre-installed pictures. In our opinion, it is the best phone from LG for today.

LG G5400 will be available in the beginning of May, first price will be 300-350 USD, but soon it falls down to 280-300. It is an interesting phone in response to features, but in my opinion it has a controversial design. If you like it, you can think about purchasing this handset.

Different ringing tones of LG G5400, which you can listen to