LG KF700 preview: First look

Camera not up to scratch

The LG KF700 packs a 3 megapixel autofocus camera and doesn't strive to be a dedicated cameraphone, so don't expect wonders. The maximum image resolution is 2048 x 1536 pixels. The camera is equipped with a regular LED flash, nothing impressive really. The camera is supposed to have digital image stabilizer as per the official specifications, however there was no trace of it in our test unit (it's a pre-release beta version).

Due to the unusual display ratio (1:2), the camera uses only the center of the display as a viewfinder. If you set its viewfinder mode to fullscreen, it crops the visible image and you don't get to see the whole composition.

A short press on the dedicated camera key starts the still image camera, while a press-and-hold activates the camcorder. It's not that convenient a solution - as you can frequently start the camera by accident (all it takes is a short press).

The camera interface has run-of-the-mill settings - nothing fancy here. There are now preset scenes or special shooting modes such as panorama. You can shoot in burst and you can use frames to spice up your portrait images.

Some of the still camera settings: flash control • ISO settings • viewfinder ratio

There are white balance presets (a useful feature when shooting indoors when most cameras fail to strike the right balance) and color effects (black and white, negative, sepia, sketch, solarize, emboss)

You can also manually adjust the ISO sensitivity (100-800). The LED flash is easy to control too and you can set it to permanently on to use it as video light. Unfortunately, in our unit the shutter sound couldn't be muted.

Here are some sample photos from the LG KF700 camera:

Here you can also find the same nice gallery that was used in LG Viewty.

The second gallery accessible only via the camera menu

The settings for the camcorder are pretty similar to those of the still image camera. The maximum video resolution is QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) at 15 fps. Videos are recorded in 3GP format only.

The camcorder viewfinder • some of the available settings

Check out the LG KF700 sample video and judge for yourselves.

Fluid web browsing

The LG KF700 features high-speed USB Mass Storage support. Much like the Viewty, when you connect the KF700 to a PC you only have the memory card appearing, and the internal memory is not accessible.

As far as network connectivity is concerned, the phone features tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support plus HSDPA 7.2Mbps. Bluetooth 1.2 is also a connectivity option with A2DP support for pairing with a stereo headset.

The LG KF700 has a nice web browser - it has the same features as the LG Viewty but with even better implementation. Naturally, you can browse web pages with or without the controls visible. Turning the screen to landscape makes browsing even more enjoyable. There is even a mini-map to help you find your way around elaborate web pages. You can also use the scroll wheel on the back to seamlessly zoom in and out on web pages.

And if all that is not enough, it supports tabbed browsing allowing you to open your links of interest in separate tabs, which can be closed independently later on.

Viewing GSMArena.com fullscreen in both portrait and landscape • the webpage mini-map is handy

Scrolling is fast enough and you can drag pages around with your finger much like you would on an iPhone. It feels natural and it has almost a fluid feeling to it. It definitely manages to surpass what Samsung offers in their full touch handsets.

The preinstalled Google package also enhances the web experience for the KF700 user. Much like the LG Viewty, it offers direct access to Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps, Blogger and the mobile version of YouTube.

The Google package expands the web functionality

Final words…

The LG KF700 is a charming device with a ton of features we've come to like in previous LG full touch handsets such as the Prada and the Viewty. Plus, and it does add some new ones of its own. While it doesn't strive to be a dedicated cameraphone, it's certainly not the "all looks, no brains" type like the LG Prada (which doesn't mean we don't like the Prada - it has its own place under the sun too).

As far as the highly promoted three input methods are concerned - touch screen, scroll wheel and keypad - we think the LG KF700 scroll wheel is rarely (if at all) needed and we could easily get by without it.

Well, we just can't wait to get our hands on a more mature version of the handset and see what it's capable of for real - and hopefully do a full-blown review.