LG GC900 Viewty Smart preview: First look

LG GC900 Viewty Smart (sometimes also called Viewty 2) is making a run for it as the next LG flagship. What can we say, when you're blue-blooded, some things come au naturel - the snappy and quite thumbable S-Class UI, the 8 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and GPS all hide behind a 3-inch touchscreen lodged into a body that's only 12.4mm thick. We don't know about you, but by our books all that gadgetness calls for a proper inspection.

As rumors have it, the LG Viewty Smart is set to start its European tour as early as May or June, despite the fact that it has only been officially announced two weeks ago. Well, it's true, LG did tease us with a prototype back at the MWC 2009 in February, but it's only now that we get to hold it in our hands and see it in good working order. And pleased we are...

LG Viewty Smart official photos

LG GC900 Viewty Smart at a glance

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, EDGE class 12
• Dimensions: 108.9 x 56.1 x 12.4 mm, 102 g
• Display: 3" 16M-color capacitive touchscreen TFT of WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels)
• Memory: 1.5GB flash storage, microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
• User interface: S-Class Touch UI
• Still camera: 8 megapixel autofocus camera, Schneider-Kreuznach optics, LED flash, manual focus, geo-tagging, image stabilization, multi face detection (up to 3), smile detection
• Video recording: 720x480@30fps, VGA@30fps, QVGA time-lapse and slow-mo video recording
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, Wi-Fi, TV-out, USB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS
• Misc: Accelerometer for screen auto rotate, Multi-touch input, DivX/XviD support, Dolby for Mobile audio enhancement, FM radio, office document viewer
• Battery: Li-Ion 1000 mAh
• Retail price: N/A

The LG GC900 Viewty Smart unit we received is still a pre-production one, but well functioning one - we've seen enough to tell. But still, we don't deem it ready for a full review, so instead we've prepared the following quick preview to give you some live scoop of what the Viewty 2 is all about.

LG GC900 Viewty Smart at ours

Unfortunately, the Viewty Smart name is a bit misleading. The Viewty 2 is a smart handset indeed but only design-wise. From the inside, it's not a smartphone or anything, no matter how much we would have liked that. Instead it's a regular full touch feature phone, but one with a really polished UI and top-notch imaging capabilities.

LG Viewty Smart finally in our hands

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's get back to the Smart side of things and check LG GC900 Viewty Smart on the inside. Hit the jump for our scoop on its design and ergonomics.