russian

Phone Search:

RSS

Samsung Galaxy Note. First Look

Today, large companies, especially corporate giants like Samsung, do not surprise users with extraordinary products...

First look. Sony ST21i Tapioca Microsoft Windows Phone 7: Reasons for Failure First Look at Samsung Galaxy S3 as a 2012 Flagship

Reviews Editorials

Mobile Phones Editorials MP3 Forum

Review GSM phone LG C1400

LG C1400. Live pictures

Standard kit:

Handset
Charger for fast charging
Strap
Headset
Manual

LG did not release many new devices based on principally new platforms for the last year. And the same may be told about С1400 that is a restyling of well-known G5400. The differences are in a simpler body design and another positioning of the phone. And in all the rest that is the same model with the same characteristics.

The design is maximum plain and that is a typical clamshell. That's possible to say LG has created a design of a medium Korean device without any peculiarities. The device has a bit more size than others in its class (86x46x22 mm) but quite acceptable. The weight is just typical (85 grams).

The external screen has a light blue backlighting that is not very bright. The resolution is 96x64 pixels and allows showing one text and up to two service lines.

There is a service indicator under the external screen, it's bright and has several backlighting colors. The way it blinks in the standby mode may irritate and that's why it's better to turn off.

An IrDA gap is on the right-side surface and here it serves for connecting to a PC and using the device as a modem. A coupled volume button may be seen on a left-side surface, a headset connector is a bit higher and it's closed with a shutter.

There is a standard interface connector on the bottom end of the device and a strap hole on the upper one.
The keypad is made of plastic; the keys are well-distanced and comfortable in size. Two soft keys and a four-positional navi button may be seen under the screen. The key backlighting is blue.

A 760 mAh Li-Ion battery is used in the phone. According to the manufacturer it is capable of working about 230 hours in the standby mode and up to 3 hours in the talk mode. In Moscow the phone worked for 2.5 days in case of 20 minutes of talks and up to 40 minutes of using other functions. Full charging takes about 2 hours.

Phone book. 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, and 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.

There is a support for MMS and LG made it possible to format several pages and attach several pictures simultaneously.

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

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 Tetris, 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 is equipped with a wap-brower 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. The limitation is 60 KB in size otherwise the application won't run.

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 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 polyphonic ringers. But the ringtones are more melodious.

As you might understand the similarity of LG G5400 and C1400 is not accidental and that is the same device in different bodies. As for me, buying the elder model makes more sense since it's equipped with an external screen with 7 various backlighting colors and the quality of the used materials is much higher (plastic, edging). The attempt to prolong the life circle of the model by releasing it in another body in a year is not as nice and successful, the device will become a niche product and not very demanded. The phone won't be popular with the price of 200 USD and having no camera and poor functionality. Motorola v180 and Siemens CF62 may be bought in this category. For the moment LG C1400 is not competitive.

We are grateful to Alt Telecom for the provided phone.

Eldar Murtazin ([email protected])
Translated by Maria Mitina ([email protected])

Published (Russian version) — 3 August 2004
Published (English version) — 5 January 2005

Have something to add?! Write us... [email protected]

News:

[ 31-07 16:21 ]Sir Jony Ive: Apple Isn't In It For The Money

[ 31-07 13:34 ]Video: Nokia Designer Interviews

[ 31-07 13:10 ]RIM To Layoff 3,000 More Employees

[ 30-07 20:59 ]Video: iPhone 5 Housing Shown Off

[ 30-07 19:12 ]Android Fortunes Decline In U.S.

[ 25-07 16:18 ]Why Apple Is Suing Samsung?

[ 25-07 15:53 ]A Few Choice Quotes About Apple ... By Samsung