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Review LG-G7070

Live pictures

Package:

Handset
Charger
Manual
Strap
Headset
Data cable
Two batteries

The model G7070 is the second phone from LG with rotating upper panel, the first one was LG G7100. It is possible to predict that the basics was model LG G5400, well it was actually placed into another case and provided with camera. Comparing to current models from LG - G7070 is better in terms of plastic used in case, interface, but it has some inborn problems as well. On the whole the phone is the most interesting from the latest models from LG, let’s review it.

The plastic’s quality from which the case was made is amazingly nice, it does not look cheap like in case with G5500/G7050. The phone’s size is typical for LG phones (99x46x22 mm), it fits nicely into one’s palm and fits to men than women. The phone’s weight is 95 grams, it is typical for the targeted segment.

The rotating mechanism is located in leaf, you can open it in the common manner, and rotate the screen, or you can rotate the screen in order to make the internal one – be external. Since there is no external display – this function can be useful, but according to the survey – nobody is using it. The main reason is that you have to rotate the screen back to normal mode in order to answer the call. Due to this issue the rotating screen function remains fashion feature and has no useful value. In case with LG G7100 the appearance of rotating mechanism was caused by the presence of camera which was located on the phone’s side, you actually had to rotate the screen in order to see what’s going on etc. The geometrical thinking exercises were not in demand by the consumers that’s why in G7070 the camera and its mirror are located on the back side of the phone. Of course this is not the main reason why the camera is located there, we can say that the camera’s module became more miniature.

The internal screen’s resolution is 128x160 pixels, it can display up to 65000 colors (UFB). Whenever you are located indoors the picture looks nicely, but once you go outside the building – the picture will turn pale and the displayed information will turn fairly readable. Up to 7 text lines and up to 2 lines for service needs can be displayed at once. Once again I’d like to compare this phone with the very same LG G5500, which has really worse screen comparing to this one. At the same time the display’s quality is worse than the best manufacturers have to offer at today’s market, it is worse than any Samsung display (the modern day line-up, not the phones that were released two years ago).

The joined volume control button is located on the left side, meanwhile the soft-key dedicated to the camera is located on the right side. The headset connector is located in the upper part, the headset itself is shipped in every package. The LED location became a surprise – it is located in the bottom near the interface connector.

The keypad’s color is blue, it works nicely only on the central row of keys. The button’s size is nice, it is convenient to work with them. The soft-keys are located in the upper part, they are forming sort of 3 circles. The OK button is located in the center, meanwhile the four-positional navigational key is located in the next circle, the final circle consist of two soft-keys Call and End Call buttons and the C button. Such close location of the circles one to another could have been a disaster in case the phone’s size was smaller, but in case with G7070 it is okay, no accidental key-pressings occurred.

The phone is using Li-Ion battery with 720mAh capacity. According to the manufacturer it can work up to 200 hours in the stand by mode and up to 2.5 hours during the conversation. We were testing this phone in Moscow, our operator was MTS. The phone worked for 2 days with intensive usage (30 minutes of conversations, up to 30 minutes of other functions spent for daily). In case you use the phone less (15 minutes of talks, 20 minutes spent for other functions) it can work for 2.5 days, this is average performance and the most typical result. It takes slightly more than 1.5 hours for the battery to charge up.

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 customizable templates.

Work with MMS is standard, you can create several slides/pages, there are nicely-drawn templates as well.

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. We shall follow our nice tradition and start with the games installed in this phone, there are three of them and they are built on Java technology. You cannot delete preinstalled games, but this is not necessary. In game Multiply you have to sum up various falling blocks, sort of tetris. Space ball – amazingly nice edition of Snake, you have to eat definite balls in order to snake not to grow bigger, otherwise you will be unable to enter the next level. The last game is Submarine, you are in control of submarine, dodge various obstacles, there are a lot of them in the sea, which came as surprise for me.

The phone has Own Folder from now on, it stores all downloaded ring tones and pictures. They can be applied as wallpapers, ring tones at once. All downloaded files expect for applications are stored here.
The ring tone editor allows creating up to 10 files of your own taste, the compiled ring tones are polyphonic.

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.The total amount of memory is 1mb, it is spread dynamically among all applications. The download of new applications is possible with the help of CD which is shipped in every box, after installing the app you will be able to upload new stuff via Data Cable or IrDA. The overall amount of memory is very small, it will not be enough in order to store pictures or upload new apps, you will have to select one of these features. This is the phone’s weakest side.

Camera. The built-in camera allows taking pictures in the following resolutions 48x48 pixels (used only in phone book), 160x120, 320x240, 640x480 pixels. In all cases the format is JPEG, for all resolutions expect for the maximal one you can select the compression quality (high, average, low). For 640x480 the quality is always LOW.

While taking pictures the internal screen is playing the role of viewfinder. The toolbar is located on the left side, you can choose the main parameters with its help. Not all selected settings are saved for the next photo session, this is slight disadvantage, you have to setup everything from the beginning.

The pictures can be made in black & white mode, colorful or with Sepia effect. There are 5 settings for brightness level. The 2x digital zoom is present too.

After you took the picture you can edit it in the editor, for example – put the face of your friend into bodybuilder’s body or some handsome chick’s.

Impressions

The network reception quality is out of discussion, although sometimes you might hear the noise in the speaker. On the whole this is a typical LG phone, good analogue of LG G7100 without external display and flash for the camera.

The vibrating alert is strong, it is nicely felt. The volume of polyphonic ring tone (32-tone) is average or slightly more, it is not always felt on the street or inside the car whenever the window is opened.

The small memory amount is the weakest part of the phone, you cannot fully enjoy the process of taking pictures neither upload new applications inside the phone. For example – 20 pictures in highest resolution will occupy the phone’s memory completely. The other functions are working as they should, there are no problems with them. Only those who want to buy LG phone and does not care about whole load of other products on the market should buy this phone. Considering the phone’s price – 350 dollars, you can find similar models from Samsung and Motorola which will most likely offer more features and possibilities. But in any case this model remains one of the best from LG.

Ring tone samples (mp3, 365kb)

Eldar Murtazin ([email protected])
Translated by Alexander "Lexx" Zavoloka([email protected])

Published — 8 June 2004

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