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Review GSM phone LG L1100Standard kit:
 For a long time LG tried to follow general tendencies of the mobile phone market and offered solutions intended for a wide range of consumers. The majority of its middle and high-class models was not popular because they were inferior to the rivals either in price or in functionality. The company has tried to reconsider its strategy starting from 2004 and in particular the names and abbreviations of the product lines have been changed. Model L 1100 became the first representative of the L-line. In Cannes the company representatives told it was the most technologically developed line, the best from the best by LG. In the reality the L-line is more a niche solution intended for small groups of consumers. This is a deliberate refusal in favour of stable but low sales.  In case of L1100 the company took an old well-known platform as a base, put it in the clamshell form-factor and gave it an unusual design. In fact the thing that really deserves attention in the model is the design and it is a bit unordinary. The device has characteristic for its class dimensions and weight and an uncommon form of a nut. It is comfortable to hold in the hand but its appearance is not flashy. Just to compare, in its time such model as LG510 attracted great interest of the customers and this interest is absent in case of L1100. The interchange of dark gray with steel gleam of plastic and classic silver does not make the device look bright but impart some nobility. On the outer panel it is possible to see a monochrome display with the resolution of 98 x 64 pixels and it is capable of showing up to two text lines and has a blue backlighting. The display may be activated from the standby mode by pressing volume adjustment buttons on the side surface. There is an IrDA gap on the right-side surface (cut in its capabilities), a connector for a handsfree headset is on the opposite side (the headset is included into a standard kit). An interface connector and a service indicator may be seen on the bottom part of the phone and this disposition is quite unordinary.  There is a mirror and a VGA-camera on the front panel and a button to control the camera is on the right surface.  Having opened the phone you'll see an inner 65K TFT display. Its resolution is 128 x 160 pixels and that allows to show up to 7 text lines and one service line. This model has rather a qualitative screen that is comparable with similar ones by other manufacturers. It is inferior to the best screens in nothing and iformation may be read from it quite well in the sun.   A navi button is large and may be positioned in four directions. In general a keypad is comfortable, digital keys are large and well distanced. The backlighting is blue and the characters may be seen well not in all the conditions.  The battery is Li-Ion, 950 mAh and also serves as a back side, there are no any backlashes. According to the manufacturer it works for 250 hours in the standby mode and up to 3.5 hours in the talk mode. We tested the device in Moscow and it worked for about 3 days in case of 50 minutes of talk time and 30 minutes of using other functions. The resulting time is characteristic for this class phones. Full charging takes about 2 hours.  MenuThe main menu is represented by three rows of icons different from those in previous models, this is a renewed style of the menu (the same may be seen in F2100, G5600). The pictures are qualitative, look well and that makes the phone pleasant to use. Submenus look like lists and the items that may not be disposed on the screen are scrolled automatically in a horizontal line. There is a fast navigation with the help of digital series. There are also navigational links with the most frequently used functions (profiles, messages). 
 Phone book. There is a possibility to save up to 255 names in internal memory, up to 5 fields for a name (3 numbers, one e-mail address and a note). Also you may choose a users' group and an icon. The icons are preset pictures of people's faces and animals. During the call a chosen picture will be displayed besides a name on the screen. There is a possibility to assign a photo to a name but it should be saved in a minimal size first. 
 
 
 When entering your data you'll have to choose the main number and only then add others one after another, by the way, some of them may be missed. The total list may contain both numbers from SIM-card memory and from the internal one. Also an assigned picture may be displayed opposite to a name. There are 7 users' groups and it is possible to set a personal melody and a picture for each one (that is another set of pictures). Messages. There is a support for EMS that allows to attach melodies, pictures to messages, format text and send concatenated messages. The phone supports predictive text input T9 (a possibility to add your words into the dictionary). There are several dictionaries for different languages and up to 6 editable templates. 
 
 The device supports MMS and the company made it possible to format several pages, insert several pictures instead of one. All the messages are stored in the internal memory, first SIM-card memory is filled with SMS and only then the internal one is used. In general it is comfortable to work with messages, the device is up-to-date. Call lists. Here one may view standard lists of outgoing, incoming and missed calls. Each one contains 10 numbers, for some entries date and time of the call are specified. Similar numbers are summed up but not displayed in order. There is a general call list, 20 last entries from all the lists are summed up there. And this list is displayed when pressing the Call button from the standby mode. Profiles. All the sounds may be adjusted from here, from a call signal to a key press sound and alert type. Everything is traditional. Settings. Phone settings such as the screen, call signals and what is the main alarm clocks are adjusted from this menu. There are 5 of them in the phone and each may be set for once, everyday and every week. The presence of such a number of alarm clocks will satisfy even the most demanding user.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
There is a possibility to choose a colour scheme of the menu and wall papers also (4 pictures). 
 
Organizer. It is possible to save up to 20 events in the organizer and a date and time for the alert are set. You also may set it recurrent (every day, week, month, year). Calendar displays the whole month, the dates with set events are distinguished with another colour and a sign indicating the type of the event (meeting or a memo) appears in the bottom. The main minus of the organizer is a limited number of entries.  
Tools. Here is a standard calculator, a unit converter, world time function and a dictaphone (works only in the standby mode with up to 19 seconds for a record). A total memory status may be viewed from this menu. 
 
 It is possible to upload not more than 20 pictures, 30 melodies and images about 400 KB in size. 350 KB of memory are intended for the camera. 
 Downloads. Downloaded images, melodies and programs are stored in separate folders. All the folders in a new phone are empty. Service. The device supports GPRS class 10 that is why I'd recommend to adjust wap-browser using batch communications, that will be cheaper. The only thing to add is that the wap-browser is 2.0 version. The thing that disappointed is the absence of history, it is often necessary to enter the same address again. Downloading melodies and pictures makes no troubles and the same for applications. Camera. An integrated camera allows to take photos with several resolutions, they are 48x48 pixels (used only in the phone book), 160x120, 320x240, 640x480 pixels. File format is JPG, it is possible to choose a compression level and quality (high, medium, low) for all the resolutions except the maximum one. The quality for 640x480 is only low.  The screen serves as a viewfinder in the shooting mode. There is a tool panel on the left and there you may choose the main parameters for shooting, it is particularly comfortable to do that using a side button for volume level adjustment. Not all the chosen settings are saved till the next shooting, one has to adjust them again and it is a slight disadvantage. 
The photos may be black and white, colour and also Sepia effect may be applied. There are 5 light levels and x4 zoom. One of the preset frames may be used when shooting, that is, for instance, combining a friend's face with a body of a pretty girl or a body-builder. In general the photos are not bad. And by the way there is a possibility to view photos as icons and having chosen one you may see it in a full screen size. 
The taken photos may be used as wallpapers for the internal screen. The quality of the photos on the screen of a PC is not so bad but also not very good. If to compare with similar products by other manufacturers the camera by LG is average in characteristics. Samples of photos: The resolution of 640x480 Synchronization with PC. Besides synchronization via a cable that is not included into the package the manufacturer provided a wireless one via IrDA. The settings are rather trivial and everything works without troubles. There is a wide range of melodies, pictures for the screen in the standby mode (wallpapers) besides Java programs on the disk.   There is a possibility to synchronize phone book and organizer entries with a PC, there is synchronization with MS Outlook. Productivity We measured the productivity with JBenchmark 1 (only JAVA MIDP 1.0 is supported). The total mark for the phone is 421 that is extremely low if to compare with any rival phone (from 1500 and more). Java is really slow in the phone and the size of free memory doesn't make for great operating speed. The same problems may be seen in other phones by the company. ImpressionsThe model rouses no cavils as for the quality of the connection, the device works well. The volume of the 40-tones polyphonic alert is high and the device may be heard in the street quite clrearly. As for the melody, the device is not as good as 32-tones models by LG, call signal sounds louder but ruder. The appraisal is subjective and the difference may be noticed when the two devices are compared. The power of the vibrating alert is medium and there are no any peculiarities. 
 
  The model has problems from the beginning and in particular the main one is small memory size. For the majority of users 350 KB is not just little for photos but extremely little. The presence of the camera and the necessity of it are prejudiced by the memory size. The phone rouses no any interest with the price of 300 USD. As a manager of one of the retail networks noted, none of the customers had asked about the model in two weeks' time and even had not even wanted to hold it. Active advertising campaign may provide single sales but it is not possible to expect any considerable demand. The model was losing from the beginning and it is impossible make it attractive. Good screen, pleasant polyphony (subjectively worse than in G5600) may be referred to pluses. And unfortunately, these are all the advantages of the model. Ringtone samples (mp3, 273 KB) Search for today prices for LG L1100>>> Discuss the phone in the forum>>> We are grateful to Alt Telecom for the provided phone. Eldar Murtazin ([email protected])
Published — 10 October 2004 Have something to add?! Write us... [email protected]
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