Review LG G7100

The phone is produced in several colors. Now it is known that there will be phone of silver, red and blue colors. The handset is large, it doesn’t relate to the phones of small dimensions, so we could consider it as a “men’s phone”. We can’t recommend it to ladies. Real dimensions of the phone are 92õ50õ24 mm (106mm with antenna), according to the manufacturer the dimensions are a little bit different: 89õ46õ24 mm. Weight of the phone is not large, only 99 g. It is almost not felt in hands, especially if to take into account its size.

External screen in the stand-by mode looks and serves as a mirror. We do not think that this function is so necessary for men. Mirror surface quickly becomes dirty and it is one of the disadvantages of such kind of surfaces. The second shortcoming is that OLED-screen is located under this mirror cover and the picture is not bright even inside. Type of the screen is equal to the one which was in G7030, it supports up to 256 colors. In sunny days the information is almost not visible and you need to find a special angle to read or see something. Time and service information are displayed on the screen in the standby mode. Pressing of side keys allows viewing the current date and the second pressure - animated picture. There are several pre-installed animated pictures in the phone. You could view them in the stand-by mode just for entertainment. The set of pictures is smaller than in LG G7030. Among menu settings you can adjust font color of the external screen, time of picture displaying, two types of brightness (muted and bright). The brightest backlight is set by default, it is one of the most comfortable ones, though often it is not enough.

Volume key is placed on the left-hand side; a special key for a digital camera is located on the right-hand side. IrDA is situated here too.

The camera is built-in the hinge of the phone, you can see a lens and a special flash-window. This construction is controversial, because the camera is located in unusual way, across the phone, we do not get used to hold so the handset.

Rotated technology of the top cover should be helpful. It allows putting the screen in the most convenient way and using the camera without any difficulties. Open the cover, than rotate it toward yourself. It is the first mode of camera, you can easily photo yourself, just pressing side key and confirming the operation by OK, than again it is necessary to press side key. It sounds complicated, but it is really so. Holding special key you can switch to photo mode.

External part is rotated anticlockwise too. You can locate display to take pictures of the world. Angle, under which external display is located, is not very comfortable, if to take into account that picture from the camera is transformed according to its position. An attempt to make the screen vertical failed, as the picture became not so accurate. It was not easy to adjust the screen to make shoots even after several days of using the handset. Later we’ll tell about camera capabilities more elaborately, now few words about construction.

External part of the clamshell can be easily transformed in the internal one. There is no sense to do it when external screen is available.

The phone has a reliable construction, there is no backlash, you should make slight effort to open the phone as external cover with two screens is rather heavy. Opening angle is about 20 degrees.

A special hole for strap is located on the top side, system connector is placed on the bottom side of the handset.

Internal screen has a resolution of 128x160 pixels and could display up to 65000 colors (UFB). The picture looks not bad inside, but it is almost not clear in a sunny day. Up to 7 text lines and 2 service lines are contained on the screen.

Digital keypad has a blue backlighting, central row has the brightest one. Size of some keys is nice and it is very pleasant to press them. Functional keys are located in the top part in three circles. OK key is in the center, 4-directional navigation key is from the outside, 2 soft keys, send key and reject key and C key are in the outer circle. Close location of control keys would’ve been inconvenient on the smaller phone, but there are no problems in this case.

Lithium-ion battery of 720 mAh capacity is applied in the phone. According to the manufacturer it could provide up to 200 hours of stand-by time and up to 2.5 hours of talk time. In reality (MNS network) the phone operated about 2 days in case of active usage (30 minutes of talking, up to 30 minutes of using other applications). In case of not so active usage the phone could operate about 3 days (15 minutes of talking and 20 minutes of using other applications). It is an average result, most typical for the phone of this class. Time of full re-charging is about 1.5 hour. The battery is not flush with the phone surface, it’s projecting from the phone case. The second battery is included in the phone case, their features are the same.

Menu

Main menu is presented as a list of items with animated icons. There is a shortcut number navigation in the menu. Let’s describe all phone features. Traditionally predictive text input (eZi) is available. When you do not use this function, each time inputting text each you should turn it off, besides creating new message you should change menu language if you need.

For the first time a favorite list appeared in this phone, where you could add necessary functions. This menu item can be called by pressing down a navigation key.

Phonebook. Up to 200 entries could be stored in the phone memory. Up to 3 phone numbers, e-mail can be added to one name. It is also possible to choose a caller group. Phone number for highlighted name is displayed in the total list by default. Using across arrows you can view other information too. Phone numbers from both phone and SIM-card memory are displayed in the total list. There is a search by first letter or full name.

If you assigned a picture to a name, you could see it in the list too. Photos (48õ48 pixels) could be added to special names. Images of larger resolution are not visible in the list, one can’t select them. Unfortunately pictures of available resolution are badly recognized, and there is no sense to associate them with entries.

One can select icon or ringtone for a caller group. It’s possible to adjust speed dialing (keys 2-9). Notify that a phone number showul present in the phonebook to add it to speed dialing list. One can choose any phone number type.

Voice tags can be added up to 10 phone numbers. The recognition operates quite well. If you decide to add two equal voice tags, the phone warns you about it.

Messages. The phone supports not only SMS-messages but EMS-as well. There are pre-default messages and up to 10 changeable templates. These functions are standard to all modern phones from LG.

The handset also supports MMS-messages, including multi-page ones with several attached pictures.

Call log. Up to 20 last dialed, 20 missed and 20received calls are stored here. One can view date and time of each call. It is also possible to view such information as transferred data (GPRS), calls counter and calls duration.

Camera. Integrated camera allows to receive images of several resolutions: 48x48 (used only in the phonebook), 160õ120, 320õ240, 640õ480 pixels. All files are of JPEG format, one can select also quality - low, middle, high. Images, which have resolution of 640õ480 pixels, always have low quality.

Internal screen serves as viewfinder in the shooting mode. Tools panel is on the left hand side, it allows to choose the main shooting parameters. For example, it’s convenient to do with a help of side volume key. Unfortunately, not all selected settings are remained till the next shooting, but it’s not a big shortcoming.

There is no sense to repeat that the construction and camera location do not allow using it comfortably. One can make black-and –white, color photos or photos with Sepia effect. There are 5 levels of lighting, besides it is possible to switch on built-in flash. In our opinion, this flash is effective when the distances are not long and not in darkness. Otherwise, the camera operates not well as products of other manufacturers.

You can rotate a picture on the screen at the angle 90, 180, 270 degrees, it depends on how you hold a phone. 2-x zoom is available.

It is possible to apply one of the per-installed frames: put face of the friend to the body of a pretty women or bodybuilder.

On the whole the quality of photos is not bad, but one should use MMS to transfer them on PC. In spite of a possibility to attach several slides, the phone allows to send only one of them at once.

Thumbnails mode is available in the phone, if you select one small picture you can make it full screen.

These photos one can use as wallpapers on the internal screen. Quailyt of the photos on PC is nor bad, nor good. If to compare them with the pictures taken by cameras of other manufacturers, LG introduces one of the best cameras, but nevertheless, the quality is not sufficient on PC.

Examples of photos:

Resolution 640õ480
Resolution 640õ480, effect Sepia
Resolution 320õ240, low quality
Resolution 320õ240, high quality
Resolution 160õ120, average quality, Sepia

Profiles. There are several profiles in the phone. It is possible to adjust different options for each of them, for example, set a special ringtone, vibrating alert, SMS-tone and so on. There are several models of incoming alert: first vibrating alert, than a melody; mixed mode and etc.

Settings. The first menu item is alarm clock. It could ring once, daily, weekly or monthly. Among other interesting settings we can mention a possibility to choose wallpaper for internal screen and adjust settings of the external screen. Other things are standard.

Organiser. It is possible to view the current month. Events are inputted fro each day, one can select signal reminder and type its of repeating. Event are not divided in groups. Only up to 20 records could be stored in the organizer. It was really surprising, taking into account dynamical memory.

Fun&Tools. Firstly, few words about games. There are three pre-installed Java games in the phone. One can’t delete them, but it is not necessary. Multiply is a kind of Tetris. Space Ball is a wonderful version of Snake, where your mission is to eat color balls not allow snake to grow. The last game is Submarine. You should control submarine and avoid different obstacles in the sea.

 àïïàðàòå ïîÿâèëàñü Ñâîÿ ïàïêà, â íåé õðàíÿòñÿ çàãðóæåííûå ìåëîäèè è êàðòèíêè. È òå, è äðóãèå ñðàçó æå ìîæíî óñòàíîâèòü â êà÷åñòâå ìåëîäèè âûçîâà èëè îáîåâ ýêðàíà.  ýòó ïàïêó ïîïàäàþò âñå çàãðóæåííûå ôàéëû, êðîìå ïðèëîæåíèé.

Musical editor allows to create up to 10 polyphonic melodies.

Unit converter and calculator are rather convenient.

Finally, it is possible to view world time for selected cities.

All voice memo records are stored here too. One can listen to them and delete. The voice memo function is available during the talk.

Internet. The phone supports GPRS (class 10), so, we recommend to setup wap with GPRS, its cheaper. Wap-browser has 1.2.1 version. It is possible to use IrDA to transmit data, it is the main difference from previous models (except LG G5400).

Java. Total memory of the phone is 1.3 Mb, it can be share between all applications. One can download new application only using wap-technology with e help of special software suitable for LG phones. Unfortunately it is not widely spread now. Up to 10 games are available on CD, one can download them without problems. Limit of application is 60 Kb, otherwise it doesn’t run.

Synchronization with PC. Data adapter is included in the standard delivery kit, it is possible to connect it to COM port. Apart from data synchronization there is IrDA. All settings are simple, there are no problems with synchronization. One can find a large set of melodies, pictures in the stand-by mode.

There is a possibility to synchronise the phone with PC (phonebook, organiser). Synchronization with MS Outlook is also available.

Impressions

Reception quality is not bad, though sometimes there is noise in loudspeaker. It is a typical phone from LG, the main peculiarity of it is integrated digital camera. The phone is based on the same platform as LG G5400. Realization of the phonebook, MMS, Java support and other features, dynamical memory, in particular, are good arguments to prove it.

Nice functionality became not so nice when you remember the dimensions of the phone, they are too large. A solution to make external screen like a mirror is rather controversial, even ambiguous, mostly senseless. The design will satisfy not all needs, according to the poll only 20% of participants liked it.

The integrated camera is not well-spaced, it is not very convenient to use it. Quality of photos is not bad.

Vibrating alert is strong and well-felt. Volume of the polyphonic ringtone is average, sometimes it is not heard at noisy street or in the car with an open window.

Today LG G7100 is a top model. The main differences from LG G5400 are integrated camera and rotated screen. LG G7100 is a top model in the line for today. The main difference from LG G5400 us integrated camera and rotated screen. The camera enriches the phone by new feature; rotated screen doesn’t play any role because the handset is equipped with external display. All advantages are crossed by not ergonomic construction, and low fashion features. Taking into account that the phone cost about 460 USD, we think that this phone won’t be actively sold and later it would be decrease in sales.