Pros Stylish design. Xenon flash-toting 8MP camera and sizeable 3in touchscreen.
3D S-Class interface
Cons That nameEver since its Prada phone shouted ‘first!’ by beating Apple’s iPhone to the shelves in April 2007, LG hasn’t been able to stop churning out touch-phones. A sequel to the Prada arrived last year, closely followed by the 8MP Renoir and its best effort yet, the KM900 Arena.
Now it’s the turn of the Viewty – a moniker we’d hoped LG had consigned to the knackers yard – to get a sequel. Dubbed the Viewty Smart, it promises to combine the photographic talents of the Renoir with LG’s intuitive 3D ‘S-Class’ interface.
Touchy-feely interface
This menu system, first seen on the Arena, is a welcome change from its predecessor’s erratic UI. While it doesn’t mean multi-touch capabilities, it does offer lots of customisation, widgets and slightly superfluous ‘cube transitions’ on the 3in screen.
But the Viewty Smart’s main draw is undoubtedly its photographic prowess. While the Arena sported only a 5MP camera, it has an 8MP sensor with a bevy of handy shooting aides, including Intelligent Shot Mode, panaroma stitching and up to 1600 ISO for low light.
Better connected
It’s not just the Viewty Smart’s camera that’s been given a boost. The original Viewty was sadly deficient in the Wi-Fi department, but its successor comes well connected with Wi-Fi, HSDPA and GPS for geo-tagging your snaps.
It also ups the video stakes with the ability to record at 720x480 resolution, which can all be stored on its 1.5GB internal memory (expandable to 32GB via the microSD slot).
This is all pretty impressive considering the Viewty Smart has slimmed down from 14.8mm to just 12.4mm thick. While it’s not clear whether Orange will be getting LG’s latest an exclusive, it is slated for a July launch, so look out for a hands-on video and full review very soon.
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