LG GD880 Mini preview: First look

Introduction

Designers must love working for the LG GD series. It’s the place to get some bizarre and exotic features – from transparent keypads to a wristwatch. The LG GD880 Mini is perhaps among the more mainstream options but it’s no less keen to impress. LG have been distilling the touch phone again and again and the Mini is their latest and seemingly most mature effort.

LG CEO says the Mini was designed in response to consumer requests. Reportedly, people wanted a phone that’s not too big, too expensive or too complicated. Well, ladies and gentlemen, here’s what you ordered, meet the Mini.

LG GD880 Mini official photos

You might be wondering what’s with the “Mini” moniker. In all honesty, the Mini is small compared to the LG BL40 New Chocolate but it’s not a tiny phone. For all we know, it’s neat and compact, a sophisticated and feature-rich LG Pop really.

The LG GD880 Mini distances itself from the current smartphone craze and sticks to LG own S-Class OS. Every element of the interface is carefully and artfully designed, with shading and gloss, with rich and vibrant colors that look great on the pixel-dense screen. The homescreen is trying to mimic the Android depth of field and the GD880 Mini features full multitasking.

LG GD880 Mini at a glance

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 1900/2100 MHz, EDGE class 10, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA 2 Mbps
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar
• Dimensions: 102 x 47.6 x 10.6 mm, 99 g
• Display: 3.2" TFT capacitive touchscreen with 16:9 aspect ratio and 480 x 854 pixels resolution, multitouch support, scratch-resistant glass surface
• Platform: Latest S-Class UI
• Memory: 330MB internal memory, hot-swappable microSD card slot
• Camera: 5-megapixels auto-focus camera with image stabilization, geotagging, face detection, Smile Shot, Beauty and Art shot, VGA video recording at 15 fps
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack
• Misc: Accelerometer for screen auto rotate, proximity sensor for screen auto-turn-off, ambient light sensor, full Flash support, FM radio with RDS, DivX/XviD support, Dolby mobile, pinch zooming in gallery and web browser, office document viewer, Facebook and Twitter integration
• Battery: 900 mAh battery

Alright then, it’s a complete feature set on the LG GD880 Mini. The best screen resolution around, DivX/XviD support and Dolby mobile make for a great multimedia experience, the web browser handles Flash and pinch-zooming and there’s a document viewer to top it off.

What we’ve got here is a nicely working LG Mini, but you should keep in mind it’s a pre-release sample we’re dealing with here so chances are the design and software may undergo some changes before final release.

LG GD880 Mini live shots

Now that we’ve taken that off our chest, flip to the next page for the scheduled hardware inspection of the LG GD880 Mini.