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Review GSM-handset LG KG920

Live photos of LG KG920>>>

This is World’s first review, where all photos were made by mobile handset LG SV550, analogue of GSM-model LG KG920.

A lot of constant mobile-review.com readers had a chance to look under the curtain and see what’s going on in Asian market nowadays, including Korea. To run a few steps forwards, I’ll give you a hint that in future our portal will review various mobile phones from around the globe, and since we have readers from every part of planet Earth, each visitor will find something to his own taste. Latest review of such kind was handset released only for Korean market – LG SV550.

When three whales meet

We shall not compare LG KG920 and LG SV550 in this article, we will try our best to explain what strategy is used by Korean manufacturer, by introducing amazingly expensive handset, and will its hopes prevail instead.

Even though we promised not to compare these handsets, we shall describe the way companies release their over-expensed handsets on the market:

Probably everyone knows American manufacturer Motorola. In the very beginning of RAZR V3’s sales its price went up to $1500. Of course the phone had its salt: slim case, metallic elements and great advertising campaign. A lot of celebrities were getting this model as present. See it for yourself the only possible way to promote this model via second and third hands is to say that this phone is used by greatest people this world has to offer. This influences young people, those who are passionate about pops, and on what’s trendy nowadays. Usually such clients don’t use even half of its handset’s abilities. In reality, people who can afford almost any handset, use completely different models: Siemens SL45, Nokia 8910, Sony Ericsson T68i.

After some time RAZR V3’s price went down to a limit which can be reached even by those who have minimal incomes, they have the chance to touch the dream for $250. Can you imagine how those who got their RAZR V3 not as present, but for their own money, more than 300 % more money to be precise, feel?

Situation with Nokia 8800 is slightly different. This phone also has metal elements, latest technologies, extended voice control features. This is definitely successful model, its popularity is proven by the fact that specially for ex-USSR market Nokia released black version of 8800. But have you seen a lot of people who are using accessories, that allow using all possibilities that these handsets have to offer? I for example often see people who are on their way to work, they use their Nokia N90 without headset. They just put this brick to their cheek and talk. It’s not only dangerous to speak like that when you are driving, it’s also inconvenient to hold a phone like that. Conclusion is simple: people in Russia and some other countries are not used to save money; they are used to show off their new toys in front of their friends, but they do not welcome you to their homes, since there’s nothing to show at all. But once they go out, they have a choice of golden or black Nokia 8800.

New model from LG also tries to become one of expensive phones, and if in case with Motorola RAZR this handset lost its value with time, this will not happen to LG’s beast. Besides five megapixel camera, LG KG920 has a lot of other expensive technologies like loop which allows rotating the phone without worrying that one day it will break, QVGA-display. All these features are packed inside one slim case, and results in high price.

The looks

After leaving Korean market and entering those new ones, model LG SV550 remained almost the same. Only changes concern bottom side, from where synchronization port, charger, and IrDA port were removed. Besides these changes, back side of the phone has been modified as well. From now on battery takes less space on back panel, but it steps out above the surface Battery’s capacity has changed together with design, it’s 820 mA/h now. The phone can work up to two days in case you take a lot of photos with stroboscopic flash until 128mb of space on memory card become full. In case you make about 10 (in average) shots per day and speak for around 30 minutes, as well as send and receive some SMS/MMS, handset will work for three-four days instead. Bottom side of the phone can be rotated by 180% relatively to upper one. On one side you can see soft key as well as keypad and navigation key made in shape of square with rounded edges, and confirmation button implemented in the center, and on the other you can see camera’s lens with stroboscopic flash and LED backlight. There are only two handsets in the world that have same case type: LG SV550 (LP, KL) and Nokia 3250. When you rotate bottom part of the phone, image on the display will be inverted.

Dimensions – 108.6x50.5x18.4 mm, weight is around – 140 grams. Rotating mechanism does not have backlash and safely fixed in extreme positions. Materials from which the case is made are top notch. Plastic reminds of one used in Sharp V902SH. After one and a half months of using this handset, it had no scratches or abrasions, that’s why we can say that even if you use this handset for a longer period of time, it will not disappoint you with abrasion edges. Metal plates are decorating display from the outside, as well as keypad. Besides this phone has another metal part, which is located nearby hole for the strap - shutter button. This button’s keystroke is relatively smooth, and sometimes focusing is not that noticeable. Those who will have problems with operating this button should try enabling shutter sound.

On the opposite sides there are not buttons, only sockets. Most likely this was due to fact that this is the only side where it’s convenient to put the phone to for shots made with timer. You can see jack for stereo headset on the top, this handset has switch for 3.5mm headphones. Remote control’s design allows connecting all types of headphones, unlike those with chamfered corners. Slightly lower you will find standard for all LG phones interface connector, in which you should either plug the charger or USB-cable. In the very bottom we can see slot for external miniSD card. All slots are covered with plastic stubs, which fit the case tightly.

Front panel is the most expressive one. The first thing you pay your attention to is the display which fully matches physical specifications of top-models by LG, which are sold in Russia. 262k colors, 2 inches, 32x40mm; resolution is the only difference – 240x320 pixels. Display does not turn pale when encounters direct sunlight, information remains readable at any angle, unlike other handsets where colors get inverted.

There are four buttons on the left of the display – launch of mp3 player, flash mode switch, calendar launcher and timer. Two upper keys are used for zoom. You can see soft-keys under the display, from left to right: call and dialed numbers button, menu button, save, search in phone book and the last but not the least, end call button which can be used for getting into stand by mode as well. Slightly lower you can see keypad which is slightly moved to the left, meanwhile on the right there’s navigation key with backlight leds around. Navigation key is made in style so that you would think that it is made of metal. In reality this is plastic with added corrugation in shape of concentric circles. You can see C button right under it. Backlight is equally spread, its color is amber. Keystroke is small. They are not always comfortable to operate with, and those who love typing long messages will find it almost unusable. It will take time to get used to, but perhaps you will end up pressing digits with your nail. There are no such problems with navigation key, it reminds of one used in LG M6100, where edges are slightly above the level, and finger perfectly fits inside.

Speaker for conversations is located in the upper part of handset, microphone is located on the other. Speaker for loudspeaker mode and ring tone playback, as well as listening to player is located on backside. You can see microphone that is used for recording sound when you record video nearby. Thanks to such location of second speaker, as well as its size, ring tone will always be heard, in any conditions, even when the phone is in internal pocket of your jacket.

Menu

Menu consists of 12 2D icons, just like in Ì4410, Ð7200. With help of key sequences you can move around the menu. When cursor is on one of the icons, it gets highlighted by big transparent light-brown square. Menu is cyclic. You can move from first item to last one with horizontal leans of cursor. If you press up or down, cursor will scroll only between four vertical icons, 2, 5, 8, 0 for example.

First menu item is called “Games and Apps”. Phone has two preinstalled games - ZooZoo and Othello. First game is similar to Bubble Puzzle, where you have to throw balls of same color into one place, so that they disappear, but here you are tossing animals instead. Othello is more complicated. According to game rules, player has to put his chip into empty field, so that between it and other chip there would be only one or several enemy’s chips. Then he has the right to rotate that chip (or several of them), and it becomes his property. One who has more chips wins.

Also all games and applications based on JAVA MIDP 2.0 platform are stored in this section. You can also create custom directories, which might be useful for those who like neat and tidiness, including their own phones.

This model does not support minimized Java applications. This means that you will not be able to have JIMM running and use other functions at same time.

Performance

Ðåçóëüòàòû JBenchmark2: 40
Ðåçóëüòàòû JBenchmark: 485
Details:
Image manipulation: 28
Text: 42
Sprites: 71
3D Transform: 20
User interface: 56
JBenchmark version: 2.1.1
Screen (canvas)
Width: 240
Height: 286
Color Screen: true
Number of colors: 65536
JPEG support: true
Transparency (Alpha level): 2
Double buffer: false
Total memory: 2097120
Free memory: 998560
Microedition Configuration: CLDC-1.1
Microedition Profiles: MIDP-2.0
Microedition Platform: Jbed
Microedition Encoding: ISO-8859-1
Microedition Locale: en-GB
Details:
Text: 122
2D Shapes: 96
3D Shaper: 100
Fill rate: 44
Animation: 123

“Contacts” is second menu item. You can store names in phone’s memory or in SIM-card, or by your own desire every time when this operation is performed. Select what you like more: seeing only name, name and phone number, name with photo – the way list will be presented. Contacts can be moved, copied or deleted at once to and from SIM-card. Phone book has capacity for 1000 entries. Main difference from older models – is number of symbols for name. From now on you can enter up to 40 symbols in cyrilics and latin. Each entry can have up to 4 phone numbers (mobile, home, work, fax), e-mail address (up to 39 symbols), it can also be assigned to one of 8 groups (they can be renamed, have custom ring tone and icon), have its custom photo or image. You cannot set custom ring tone though. This phone supports quick dial, they are bind to 8 keys.

Next menu item is “Organizer”. It includes Calendar and Notes. By default calendar opens in monthly view. You can see any date you like, see today’s plans and set any of preinstalled or uploaded play tones in mp3, aac or wma format to alert you when needed. One calendar cell memory can have the following information: start time for event (all day or certain interval); text note (up to 20 symbols); alarm (in time, 15 or 30 minutes, 1 hour/day, 3 days, 1 week before); reoccurrence (single time, daily, week days, weekends, monthly, annually); time when event ends, which can also be set to infinite amount of time. There can be up to 20 entries stored simultaneously. Notes have few changes too. From now on you can enter up to 50 notes, and each can be up to 80 symbols long, no matter what language you are writing it.

Fourth item is “Multimedia”, which can also be accessed by pressing Shutter button.

This is the place where you can start working with camera from. From here you can: access Camera, Video Camera, make a Frame Shot, use Voice Recorder, listen to mp3 player, go to Photo or Video Albums, and access Settings as well.

Dictaphone can store up to 20 entries with 20 seconds of length for each. You cannot use Dictaphone during phone calls.

Mp3 player is no different from what we’ve seen in Ì4410, Ì6100, Ð7200. You cannot listen to music in minimized mode. The first model that is positioned as music solution is LG KE600. It supports Bluetooth stereo headphones and minimized work of mp3 player.

While looking at playlist, you can select the song you like and move on to listening it, or delete it, or delete everything, or send it via Bluetooth.

Player’s description:

Control keys:

Navigation key pressed Up – switch of equalizer, there are 6 of them in total: Normal, Pop, Jazz, Country, Dance, 3D;
Navigation key pressed Left/Right (hold) – rewind, ff;
Navigation key pressed Left/Right (double press) – switch to next/previous song;
Left soft-key – options menu;
Right soft-key – mute;
Volume control buttons on left side of phone – volume control.

When you access Options menu you can see playlist, area repeat, set this song as ring tone, and access settings. Meanwhile in Settings menu you can see three items: playback mode (play all, repeat all, play one), enable Shuffle (enabled/disabled), and check for Visual effect (Light, Bounce).

Most interesting one from my point of view is – Area repeat funciton. You should enter options menu when song is in playback mode and access this function, after it gets enabled you will see that instead of Mute button you have A->B menu. First you have to setup starting point for your record, press this button once, and to finish press it again. As result you will have yourself a new tune. It will be cyclically repeated from start to end. In order to get back to standard playback mode, you will have to press this button for 3rd time.

Photo

Camera settings are no different from ones in LG SV550. But subjectively quality of photos made with LG KG920 is slightly better than in Korean twin brother.

The device features the maximum resolution of 2592 õ 1944 pixels for pictures and 320 õ 240 pixels for video-clips. Size of photos taken in 5 mpix resolution varies from 200 Kb (normal quality) to 2 Mb (best quality). It would seem nearly impossible for a picture of this resolution to have such small size, but it's so. Certainly not all pictures even of normal quality can be this modest in terms of size – it all depends on a number of factors. And the first of them is picture processing algorithm – it handles equal fragments of the whole picture in order to even them out, though it impacts on quality, but it's still acceptable. The second factor is scene saturation – if you're about to take a picture of a white sheet of paper with a small inscription on it, the camera will sort out what it should focus on and will reflect in detail exactly the text, rather than the blank sheet.

So, let's start anew. There are two ways of preparing for shooting. First one is plain and simple – just release the shutter and the camera will automatically start up, under condition the keyboard is not locked. The other one is to execute the corresponding application for the menu. These two methods take a while.When you have the camera on, you will spot that the viewfinder features icons along the edges, which inform you about the applied setting. Many will relish the fact that the all settings of the camera are held out. Some paparazzo are fond of jumping at the chance, however handsets don't let them take a fast picture. Here they will face a completely different approach, though that is still far away from digital cameras. Over the already mentioned delay, one should add 2-3 second more, depending on the scene, which will be required for focusing, whereupon a user can trigger off the camera. On the whole in order to take a picture using the maximum resolution, you will need from 8 to 10 seconds and after this the camera will be ready for the next one. On the other hand pictures with the lowest resolution require only 3-4 seconds to be taken.

The aforesaid time is given with taking into account the phone automatically saves all taken photos. They can be viewed by pressing the middle soft-key and deleted afterwards, if the picture doesn't meet your requirements. The handset provides the function of either signing a picture or leaving the default title (year, month, date and number) before saving it. The camera spends so much time on processing the picture before triggering off, rather then after – you can check it out yourself, when shooting in a dark room – at the moment when the device starts focusing, the viewfinder covers with noise, but as soon as the object is focused, the picture on the display becomes smooth with gradient color.

The above-mentioned actions relate to automatic settings of the camera. Now let's set a closer eye on what we need to adjust in order to take pictures in macro or panoramic mode. There two settings menus available. The former one is called up by pressing the right soft-key and the latter one – by pressing it for the second time. For those, who are at least a bit familiar with digital cameras and their interface, these settings will look well-known. Interface is identical to Korean model. But operation time is slightly bigger, you can see some freezings while browsing menu. The people, who have bought this handset to kill two birds with one stone in order to get a good digital camera with communicational functions, will have to put some efforts in getting familiarized with all the setting and capabilities of the device, especially if they would like to know what options adjust what.

I suggest you taking a look yourself at the options which will not only let you take a picture in maximum resolution, but also receive the quality comparable with 200$-digital cameras.

Interface

Reflection of indicators on the display can be turned after by pressing the accept key.

If you want to make some adjustments to your camera, here is the list of options at your disposal:

Shooting mode

  • Auto
  • Macro
  • Portrait
  • Landscape
  • Sport
  • Sunset / sunrise
  • Manual (we'll get back to this later)

Flash

  • Turned off
  • Turned on
  • Auto
  • Red Eyes protection

Filter

  • Turned off
  • Black-and-white photo
  • Sepia
  • N egative

Continuous Shooting

  • 1, 3, 6 (only for VGA-resolution) frames

Timer

  • Turned off
  • 3, 4, 10, 15 seconds

Resolution

  • 2592õ1944;
  • 2048õ1536;
  • 1600õ1200;
  • 1280õ960;
  • 640õ480;
  • 320õ240 (MMS).

Quality

  • Normal
  • Fine
  • Finest

Now let's put things right. Shooting mode allows choosing optimal settings for white balance, exposure and angle. Digital cameras feature these settings behind Scene tab . White balance makes all colors reflect in the natural way and in most cases depends on external illumination type. Auto focus allows making the picture clear-cut not only in the centre, but in various points at once. No doubt, this camera can't stand against functionality of expensive digital cameras, where you're at liberty to choose focusing point yourself, though it should be remembered that not all DC have these settings. Flash helps you take a good and smooth picture even when lacking illumination. There are a number of options regarding this function: Auto – when checked this item, the flash will trigger only in case the scene requires additional lighting. On – if you think that without flash the picture will be too dark. When you have Red Eye Protection setting turned on, the flash (don't mix it up with focusing highlight) will light for a shot period of time at first and then flare up. And the last mode on the agenda is Always On flash. The continuous shooting mode comes in handy when you need to take a series of similar pictures. When set up for maximum resolution, the camera can take up to three photos at a time – you can get six pictures only using 640x480. The timer delays camera's triggering mode for a certain time span. This is essential when taking a group photo – first of all you focus the camera, push the trigger up to the stop and then run (or walk, depending on the selected mode) to the other people.

The settings, that haven't been described so far, are the simplest ones. I suppose I can just list them to you, since there is nothing to explain.

In order to call up the second menu, press the right soft-key for the second time in a row.

White balance

  • Auto
  • I ncandescent lamp
  • F luorescent lamp
  • Sunlight
  • Cloudy
  • Shade

Metering

  • All
  • Centre

ISO

  • Auto
  • ISO 100
  • ISO 200
  • ISO 400

Auto focus

  • Centre
  • Multi

Date stamp

  • On / Off

All shots are saved on memory card. In case it is not inserted, you will see a warning. Camera will not work as long as you don’t have memory card inside. Once memory card is inserted and you have connected handset to PC, you will see following folders: Images, Music, Others, Photos, Sounds, Videos. In first folder all graphical files are stored, in second – music files. Others stores any extension files. All files can be transferred via Bluetooth. Photos and clips made with this phone go to corresponding folders. Sounds director y is used for polyphonic ring tones. You can use Slide Show mode for your convenience. Frame rate interval is 2 seconds for each shot. Album has only 1 mode for viewing images – 2x2 matrix. It takes around 10 seconds to update this matrix. Photos can be zoomed in and zoomed out, in order to do that – press middle soft-key or accept key. You can press Zoom In button up to 104 times, which will equal 1:1 picture ratio. You can see icon in bottom side of screen that tells you where this image is stored (internal or external memory).

 

  (+) óâåëè÷èòü, 2592x1944, JPEG

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LG KG920 SE K750i

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Video

You can switch the camera to video recording mode either through the main menu, if the camera is already turned on, or by pressing the left soft-hey.

Many people expected that GSM version will have same possibilities for video recording, speaking of their resolution to be precise. But a disappointment awaits them. LG KG920 allows recording clips only in 3GP format and 320x240 pixel resolution with 30 fps

Settings video

Filter

  • Turned Off
  • Black-and-white
  • Sepia
  • Negative

Resolution

  • 320õ240 (QVGA);
  • 176õ144 (QCIF).

Quality

  • Normal
  • Fine
  • Finest

Use

  • For save
  • For send

Sound

  • Turned Off
  • Normal

The second menu

White balance

  • Auto
  • I ncandescent lamp
  • F luorescent lamp
  • Sunlight
  • Cloudy
  • Shade

Metering

  • All
  • Centre

In order to begin recording you need to trigger the button up to the stop. Unfortunately focusing function is not provided in this model. Secondary pressure results in end of video recording. The shot clip can be watched, renamed or deleted right away.

Similarly to the photo mode, you can adjust lighting level by pressing the navigating key horizontally – though while taking photos, you can change this parameter only before triggering off the camera, and in the video mode you are able to adjust this setting on air. By using the middle soft-key, you can access to the videos list – you can choose any clip and watch it.

Videos. Clips taken with this mobile phone are stored in this menu item. You will see a list of available files with their extension being mentioned. Bottom line is used for showing information about number of clips, and # of highlighted one, as well as its size. In order to quickly access the clip itself, you can press the accept key (ok). Clips with 240x320 pixel resolution are automatically displayed in fullscreen mode (landscape view), meanwhile smaller clips (176x144 pixels) are shown only in horizontal position (portrait view). You can either: Play, Send via Bluetooth, Rename, Delete, Delete all clips. See details. Phone supports two file types: 3GP and MP4.

Control keys:

  • Pause/Play – middle soft-key or accept key
  • Playback repeat – left soft-key
  • Left deviation of the joystick – rewind forward
  • Down deviation of the joystick - exit
  • Right deviation of the joystick – rewind backward
  • Accept key - stop

Once you press Pause button, display’s backlight stays on. In case you have an incoming call and you’re watching video at that time, you will have to start video playback from the start once you finish.

Video clip samples, compare LG KG920 and Sharp V902SH:

Sample 1 LG (3GP, 1.52 Mb)

Sample 1 Sahrp (avi, 744 Kb)

Sample 2 LG (3GP, 1.14 Mb)

Sample 2 Sahrp (avi, 544 Kb)

Sample 3 LG (3GP, 1.08 Mb)

Sample 3 Sahrp (avi, 544 Kb)

Sample 4 LG (3GP, 1.05 Mb)

Sample 4 Sahrp (avi, 510 Kb)

Album

You can perform following operations with each photo: View, Slide-Show, Set as Wallpaper, Send via MMS/eMail/Bluetooth (depending on the size), Rename, Delete, Delete All, See Details.

Each image can be seen with 1:1 zoom ratio. For this you have to use middle soft-key, once you press it – picture gets zoomed a little.

Settings. Settings for photos – Auto Save (enabled/disabled), Delete All photos, Shutter Sound (enabled – 4 tunes to choose from, or disabled).

Settings for video clips – auto save (enabled/disabled), Delete All Clips

“Messages”. This handset supports SMS, EMS, MMS, eMail, voice mail, service messages, templates, predictive T9 text input with possibility of adding new words. Operating built-in e-mail client brings no problems at all. You can send one mail to up to 6 recipients. E-mail’s size must not exceed 2000 symbols no matter what language it is written in, or 100kb. You can attach a photo, an image, sound, voice memo (up to 5), text files from external memory and contacts. Phone can receive e-mails up to 300kb in size, but saves only recognized file types, same goes for sending. Let’s hope that in future firmware versions this will be fixed. As for MMS, you can send same things as in case with email, but there can’t be more than 1 photo in each slide. Size of outgoing MMS cannot exceed 100kb.

Sixth menu item is called “My Stuff”. All files stored on phone’s memory are located here in this directory. Access to memory card is performed via separate menu item. In each sub-menu you can move/copy files from phone’s memory into memory card and vice versa, but they will be moved/copied into folder with same title.

Seventh item is “Display”. Here you can set Wallpaper, Stand by text, Network name, backlight time and brightness. At minimal backlight level you save up to 15% of battery’s life. Possibility to setup brightness level in automatic mode, for example, when camera gets activated came as surprise, a pleasant one. For example, you have minimal backlight level, but right before you activate camera, backlight goes to maximal level automatically, so that you would not be forced to stare into viewfinder in order to see at least anything, as well as seeing same type of photo like when you do that on your PC.

Profiles are 8th menu item. There are 5 standard profiles, each of them can be separately setup. Settings include: Ring tone type – tone, vibra, tone and vibra, tone after vibra, silent mode; Ring tone itself – choose one of 22 preinstalled ring tones and midi-, mp3-, wma-, aac- files; Volume – 5 settings; SMS type – single tone, periodic, signal and vibra, vibra, silent; SMS-tone – one of 4 preset tones; Keypad tones – one of 4 preset tones; Keyboard volume – 5 settings; Volume of sound effects – five settings; Volume of phone’s turn on / turn off ring tones – 5 settings.

"Accessories" – 9th menu item. First sub menu is Favorites. Here you can setup shortcuts that you can access from stand by mode. There can be up to 9 shortcuts. Alarm clock – five separate alarms. For each you can select repeat type: none, from Monday to Friday, from Monday to Saturday. Daily and select one of 22 preinstalled ring tones. You cannot select mp3 as alarm clock tone.

As for Bluetooth settings, here you can either make device visible for all, or not, change its name. No problems were encountered during our review. Transfer speed is 11.5kb/s, this means that it will take around 3 minutes to transfer 2mb file. We used Dell Axim X50v pocket pc in order to determine speed.

Bluetooth v. 1.2. Supported profiles:

  • Headset;
  • Handsfree kit;
  • File tranfer;
  • Image printing;
  • Dial-up networking;
  • Business card transfer;
  • Browsing other device;
  • Serial Port Profile.

Modem activation and removable disk options were moved to separate menu item. In order to use the phone as external storage – you will need a USB 2.0 cable and this item being enabled. Transfer interface is USB 2.0 You should activate modem in order to edit phonebook, install new applications and use the phone as GPRS modem.

Calculator that can count cos/sin/tan/log/ln/exp/sqrt is present on board.

Unit converter, here you can covert various units: currencies, Sufrace, Length, Weight, Temperature, Volume, Velocity, Shoes, etc.

World Time – here you can see what time it is now in any country of the world. And in the very end – operator’s menu, where you can see available information about weather, currency etc.

10th item is dedicated to “Borwser”. There’s nothing special or interesting about it. Built-in browser v2.0 which supports constant GPRS connection, even in case of incoming SMS or phone call. Another improvement – all CSD, GPRS and MMS settings are already in the phone. Unlike other manufacturers, LG is not placing them altogether. For example, when using Kyivstar, you will see only settings for this operator.

“Call Lists”. Here you can see all call lists, with 20 entries in each, or all together. You can also see data volumes and GPRS info.

And the last, twelfth to be precise, menu item goes by the name of “Settings” and covers time and date settings, language selections (of 9 available), call setup (divert, answer mode, barring, minute beeps and auto redial, good for 10 attempts), security settings, which store variety of codes and passwords somewhat related to handset’s operation; network settings are also all there enabling you to select network and band manually; other functions provided here include GRPS, details on internal (8 Ìá, text messages – 150, MMS – 100, Dictaphone, images, sounds, games and applications, eMail) and external (can be formatted) storages.

Impressions

The sounding of 64 tone polyphony is just enough to be heard well, and various tunes make the experience even more favorable. Lack of function to assign personal ring tones is frustrating, yet may be made up with group settings. Vibration alarm is average when talking about its power, anyway, it could be a little bit more intensive, so that while walking in earphones, it would be felt well.

The display incorporated into the handset finds no match among those LG branded gadgets being on sale in CIS and Europe and shows off sizable viewing angles. Nevertheless the screen fades a little in the sun, but information remains readable, provided that you don’t shoot while having the display turned at an angle towards the sun.

In light of the facts it’s a candybar-shaped phone with a QVGA display and the best camera available, the K920 flaunts moderate dimensions. However its weight spec could be a little smaller, even though it doesn’t appear to be critical, women are more likely to find the handset too heavy.

The receiving part has proved to be fine as well, this holds true for hearing voice coming from the speakerphone – basically it is more than enough for noisy environment, yet turns out to be over the limit when in quiet rooms. At any rate, the volume grades from 0 to 10, thus you can easily pick the most suitable level.

Connectivity found on the phone includes almost all possible formats, with the exclusion of Infrared and Wi-Fi. Maximum size of a single MMS is 100 Kb, while an eMail’s one equals 300 Kb. Well-implemented Bluetooth services and memory cards capabilities deserve a warm note. Transfer rate of an image 1,7 Mb in size from the internal storage of DELL Axim X50v to the K920’s internal memory is 11,5 Mb/s. The received file may be moved or copied to the internal memory (8 Mb) and vice versa. Therefore, the drawback of many handsets lacking internal storage space does not concern the LG’s device. Tunes can be also taken from the external memory, at that they will be played without any delays. Talking of other incoming call related functions, the image, bound up with a contact, if there is any, is takes up not the entire screen, but only 1/6 part of it. An image that will be later on assigned to an entry may be taken only from the phonebook menu with the capability of using the flash module.

But the success of a device is determined by its popularity, which, in its turn, depends on advertising company, as well as its price. On the other hand, a lot of users would like to obtain such a gadget, but yet again, the company doesn’t feature any handsets in the high price-bracket, which are backed up with some extraordinary capabilities, in the given case – a marvelous camera module. Another factor, strongly affecting prestige of the handset is its price, which won’t be going down much over this year.

On the whole, the product is targeted at “advanced” youth, in other words people who are not capable to earn their living, but have lots of spare money. Nonetheless people under 40, who tend to go out a lot will find this device appealing owing to it being a great replacement for a digital camera this summer.

The camera’s specs provided in the handset will probably remain unbeaten until this year’s winter – but before that, LG KG920 will stay on top.

Alexandr Ivanik ([email protected])
Translated by Oleg Kononosov ([email protected])

Published — 16 May 2006

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