Price Range: $386.10 to $458.44

The Ultra Slim Slider

The navigation zone is separated from the upper part of the front with a slightly protruding chrome line, which helps to open the phone. Instead of buttons or a color display, like in KF600, here we see a touch sensitive area with LEDs, where we have the soft keys, the green receiver, and the “Clear” button. There are no arrows and you’ll have to either run a finger in or just touch the area, pointing at the direction desired in order to scroll. This system is actually pretty convenient, but as any innovation, it takes time to get used to it. However, you can only go vertical/horizontal. There’s also an option for a vibration feedback (three levels) or a sound, to confirm commands, in case you have difficulties understanding when it happens.

The phone is done in slider form factor, is quite slim and looks rather attractive. The case is fully metalic, including the back lid. The design is very smart and compact; the memory card slot is positioned in the upper back of the phone, and the SIM slot is hidden right under the battery, in a small pull-out tray.Changing the SIM card is a pretty complicated process, so there’s even a 4-step instruction drawn right on the case above the tray of how to do it right.

It is quite obvious that sleek looks and youthful appeal are very high on the LG list of priorities recently. Just as we gave you the flamboyant LG KF600, LG KF510 makes us wonder how much sweeter Chocolate can get. Undoubtedly of the same bloodline, the two handsets take a different approach to full touch navigation with InteractPad and Touch Lighting. The rest of the ammo is basically the same. The really sleek metallic finish and bigger 2.2″ display (no InteractPad to shrink the screen) are the LG KF510 major assets. The ultra slim slider has the looks and handling to get us exited, so let’s get rolling.

The right side of the LG KF510 offers more than the left side, the unit features a USB port on the top right hand side, followed by a microSD card. Below the microSD card slot is the sliding end key, its a like odd to get use to, but in essence it works just like a standard end key button control. The new sliding end key serves all the purposes of a Red Receiver key, like exiting menus and powering the handset on and off. Finally below the end key is the units Music Player key which also acts at the devices camera key when held down.

Key Features:

Deeply Alluring Color Gradation

Tempered Glass

Real Metal Body

3MP Camera with Autofocus

MP3 Player and FM Radio

Specifications:

Type Slider

Vibration Yes

SIM toolkit Yes

GPRS Yes

Video MMS Yes

EMail Yes

Predictive text Yes

USB/PC sync Yes (2.0)/Yes

Scheduler/alarm Yes/Yes

Camera Yes (3.0MP, CMOS AF)

Internal memory 16MB

External memory Yes (Micro SD up to 4Gb)

MP3 Yes

Bluetooth Yes (2.0)

Price Range:

Fashionista’s Phone

The LG KP200 phone is a cheap low end clamshell phone. It does not belong to any of LG’s specialized brands like Chocolate or Shine, but it does sport the usual LG colors - grey and silver. The phone measures 86 X 45 X 20.1 mm and weighs at about 76 grams. Although the phone is of the low-end type, it does support features such as Java, an FM Radio, Photo album, Photo editor, and even Wallpapers; but of course, you couldn’t expect more from this low budget phone.

The phone comes with a large 3 Inch high colour screen which provides a high screen resolution of 240 x 400 pixels. The screen is an LCD TFT touch screen which comes with a touch screen menu interface which eliminates the users need for a keypad. The KE850 Prada runs on a Macromedia Flash user interface which is highly useable & effective.

The main attraction of the LG Prada is probably its enormous 3-inch diagonal touch display. The brilliant screen supports 256,000 colors that really show off the rich and colorful detail of the Prada’s gorgeous menu interface. You can adjust the brightness and backlight time, but not the font size. That sits just fine with us, however, as the default font is quite nice and large already. You also can choose from a variety of innovative themes that take advantage of the touch screen interface–one of our favorites has a moving fish on the home screen wallpaper that you can direct with your finger.

Specifications:

Network GSM
Form Factor BAR
Message Email
Pixel 2.0 MP
FM Radio yes
MP3 Player yes
Bluetooth yes
Ringtone 32ch
Memory Slot microSD
Standby time(h) 300
Java yes
Digital zoom yes
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
EDGE yes
USB yes
Touch Screen yes
Video Camera yes

Price Range:

Boasting a stunning black and silver finish, a smooth sliding action and luxurious to the touch, the U400 is something you won’t want to let go of. The U400 also features a Jog Wheel that lets you navigate through the handset with speed and ease as well as operate one of the handset’s coolest features, the DJ-ing mode.

The built in media player can play music in AMR, MP3, AAC, AAC+, ADPCM & WMA formats which provide the user with the highest quality performance. The user will find that all music controls are easily accessible & the jog wheel is the perfect DJ-ing tool for the scratching. The user can move the jog wheel freely to start scratching or simply press a number on the keypad to start playing a music sample. The user can create their own melodies with a choice of two modes, thirty one styles, ten instruments & five tempos. The LG U400 can play ringtones in imelody, emelody, MP3, AAC+, AAC LC, XMF, AMR NB & AMR WB formats. The user can stream music with the audio on demand streaming feature & enjoy streaming wirelessly using Bluetooth® technology. The user can connect the U400 to a pair of Bluetooth® stereo headphones & enjoy listening to their favourite tunes wirelessly.

One performance problem that sends our review scores south is when text entry suffers from lags. We are pleased to report that we were able to speed through text message composition with no problems on the U400, so those who like to type in a frenzy of flurried thumbs won’t suffer the frustrations of delays and errors. Transferring videos to a PC via Bluetooth was easily and quickly done. We also appreciated the phone’s support for the A2DP profile (which allows for streaming to Bluetooth stereo headphones), a feature common to Nokia’s upcoming music slider, the 5300.

Key Features:

Stylish design in two fantastic colours!
Multimedia handset
Get the information you need with the U300’s dual screens
MicroSD memory card slot
MSN Messenger
Tri-Band with USB charger
Video Telephony
Embedded Java technology

Specifications:

Network WCDMA
Form Factor SLIDER
Message Email
MP3 Player yes
Bluetooth yes
Ringtone 64ch
Internal Memory Less 8MB
Memory Slot microSD
Java yes
GPRS yes
EDGE yes
3G yes
USB yes
Color Black, Silver
Video Camera yes

Price Range:

Chocolate 3G with touch sensitive music controls

Using the design cues of the stylish icon, the LG Chocolate, comes the U830 clamshell 3G handset. Featuring a slender body, a luxurious black and silver glossy finish, a hidden exterior screen and hidden touch sensitive music controls the U380 is the handset for people who value style and require the latest features. Open the handset to reveal a large, well laid out keypad and a highly detailed colour screen.

The U830 is an HSDPA-enabled phone — our test sample was a 3 branded model — with two cameras — one internal VGA for video calling, and a higher quality 2-megapixel external camera for photographic use. The phone has 184MB of available memory for storage, which initially seems very generous, until you realize one of the key omissions on the U830 — there’s no external memory port whatsoever, so the 184MB you’ve got is all you’re going to get. The primary LCD is a 240 by 320-pixel, 262K TFT screen, while the smaller external screen is a 128 by 160-pixel, 65K TFT. A2DP Bluetooth is supported for those with stereo Bluetooth headphones.

A 2.0 megapixel camera is on board to capture life going by, and viewing your photos is a pleasure thanks to the 2.2″ QVGA TFT internal display. LG has included 185MB of on board memory, but this only goes a short way to alleviating the need for a memory card slot. The device is already being sold through network operator 3 in Italy, Hong Kong, and the UK, but so far no other markets have been announced.

The camera has also been hiked from 1.3 megapixels to a more respectable two and despite occasionally suffering from over exposure, the photo quality is decent enough.

Key Features:

Network WCDMA
Form Factor SHELL
Message Email
MP3 Player yes
Bluetooth yes
Ringtone 64ch
Internal Memory 128MB
Standby time(h) 180
Java yes
GPRS yes
3G yes
USB yes
Color Black
TV yes
Video Camera yes

Specifications:

Dual cameras
Dual colour screens
Wireless connectivity with Bluetooth
Multimedia at your fingertips
Video telephony
Flight mode
Maxisim
Email

Price Range: $589.99 - $659.99

The KG245 features an internal display of 262,000 colours (TFT) with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels.

65,000 colour OLED external display with a resolution of 96 x 64 pixels. This allows you to use your phone in most countries so you can take your KG245 with you on your travels.

The KG245 may be an entry level phone, but at first glance this isn’t really apparent. The phone sports a sleek two-tone colour scheme with an attractive gloss black front complemented by a brushed silver back. Weighing 83g and with a discreet clamshell design, the KG245 is also fairly light on the pocket. LG has included a good quality 262,000 colour internal screen which is beautifully crisp, though perhaps a tad small. A 65,000 colour external screen is also a welcome addition, particularly when using the camera with the phone’s lid closed. These factors all combine to give the look and feel of a more expensive handset.

The KG245’s camera only provides 640×480 resolution, so images are best displayed on the phone’s screen rather than printed out. Despite the resolution limitations, images are colourful and bright and look quite good. LG also include a ‘flash’ on the exterior of the phone, which is basically just a small, white LED. It’s surprisingly bright but not as effective as we’d like. It is also described by LG as a ‘torch’, but we think this is perhaps getting a little carried away.

Key Features:

Embedded Java technology
Speakerphone
WAP 2.0
MMS support
Integrated digital camera with built-in flash
Bluetooth technology
64 Polyphonic MIDI technology

Specifications:

Network GSM
Form Factor SHELL
Message MMS
MP3 Player yes
Bluetooth yes
Ringtone 64ch
Internal Memory 8MB
Standby time(h) 200
Java yes
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
Color Black