LG KF750 Secret review: No secret, all guts

Sweet 5 megapixel

LG KF750 Secret flaunts a 5 megapixel camera with auto focus. It also sports face detection, AF assist light and LED flash.

The camera user interface uses the same black and white color scheme as the one found on the LG KU990 Viewty. The features included are also quite similar but organized differently. The lack of touchscreen functionality in the camera interface leaves you with the touch pad as the only option for getting around. As a whole, we are pleased with the interface, never mind a few minor flaws here and there.

There are 7 different scene modes for shooting with the LG KF750 Secret: Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Night, Beach, Sports, and Party. In addition it offers the exciting ISO 800 we first saw on the Viewty. Have in mind though, that photos produced at this sensitivity aren't really usable

Camera user interface

The commendable quality of the sample pictures made with the Secret inspired us to run an impromptu shootout with the LG Viewty. We hoped the comparison was to help us judge the picture quality of the Secret more precisely.

If you have been keeping track you would know that we really like the photos produced by the Viewty. However, all of them had two major problems - the general red tint and the purple fringing in high-contrast areas. Seeing the photos made with the Secret we are more than pleased to conclude that both problems are completely eliminated, for which LG get a well deserved pat on the back.

There are still some issues concerning the photo quality of the KF750. The first thing we noticed is that although the color rendering is good, saturation is too high. This means that even dull scenes can produce punchy photos, but color rendering problems are likely with lively colorful scenes.

It is also obvious that LG have used a very aggressive noise reduction technique with the Secret. The new processing produces photos with much less noise, but eradicates all fine detail from the photos. For example - you have virtually no chance of making a good photo of sand or foliage with the LG KF750 Secret.

A really interesting thing we noticed about KF750 is that it is has very little highlights clipping. The handset would normally choose to underexpose a picture with extreme contrast rather than lose the highlights. This is really good news if you plan to edit your pictures later on a PC, because more information is preserved.

Here are the samples from the shootout between the LG KF750 Secret and the LG KU990 Viewty that we conducted. On each row the photo on the left is produced by the LG KF750 Secret's camera, while the one on the right is made with the LG KU990 Viewty.

LG KF750 Secret • LG KU990 Viewty

LG KF750 Secret • LG KU990 Viewty

LG KF750 Secret • LG KU990 Viewty

LG KF750 Secret • LG KU990 Viewty

LG KF750 Secret • LG KU990 Viewty

LG KF750 Secret • LG KU990 Viewty

This crop clearly shows that the annoying purple fringing is completely eradicated from the Secret's photos

Two things become obvious here: The more precise red color of the Secret and the aggresive noise reduction technique that has resulted in less detail in the foliage

As a whole, LG KF750 Secret produces great photo results. Putting such a capable camera module in such a thin and compact device is a commendable effort. The Secret is close enough to some of the best 5 megapixel cameraphones out there and that should really count for something.

LG KF750 Secret sample camera photos

Video recording in the spotlight

It is quite clear that the Secret is keen on video. Like the LG KU990 Viewty it can manage VGA videos at 30 fps and slow-motion QVGA at the sweet 120 fps. The Secret even takes that extra step by adding Fast videos. Those are actually the well-known time-lapse movies - seen in many digicams - but this is the first time we find them on a mobile handset. The best part is that all the video files are encoded as DivX AVI files.

What we are not sure about is why LG decided to limit the Fast video resolution to QVGA only. Taking those time-lapse videos requires less powerful hardware than even the regular 30 fps ones. The simple math suggests the handset needs to capture 8 times less information than when shooting a normal video clip. Therefore we doubt it the Secret will have any hardware trouble recording at least VGA videos (we are even thinking HD).

Still those videos are primarily meant for fun and maybe LG decided that QVGA is enough for the purpose. Well one thing is for sure - they take far less space this way, but giving people the right to choose seems the better solution to us.

Check out the video samples we made in the different modes. Maybe it's about time you got rid of your old camcorder?

LG KF750 Secret video sample at VGA resolution

LG KF750 Secret fast video sample 1

LG KF750 Secret fast video sample 2

You can also check out our LG KF750 Secret preview for a few more fast motion videos.

LG KF750 Secret slow motion video sample

Unfortunately our beta unit of LG KF750 Secret has some kind of problem with the slow motion videos, causing some irritating interruptions. However, this problem is sure to be solved in the retail version of the handset. If you want to see what the slow motion videos look like you can go and check our LG KU990 Viewty slow motion video samples here.