LG KS20 review: Fashion Pocket PC

2 megapixel pleasant surprise

PocketPC are probably bottom of the ladder when it comes to camera performance. It's not about the megapixel count. It's just that their photos are really nothing to speak of.

Well, that's how it used to be. Get ready for the LG KS20 and its striking 2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash. A quick glimpse at the camera photos reveal clear, crisp and well balanced photos. But let's focus on the camera menus and settings first.

Camera menu

The camera menu is easy to operate with both the stylus and the joystick. White balance can be either automatic or custom set to daylight, cloudy, illuminate or indoors. You can apply several color effects (Black and White, Sepia, Negative) and use the special Burst mode with 1, 3, 6 or 9 shots with an average interval of 3 seconds in full resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels.

Some of the available camera options

The built-in flash can be always on, auto or switched off. Another important option is choosing between the main or the secondary camera to take photos.

A set of 19 preset frames can be used to make amusing collages. The only drawback is that resolution is limited to QVGA for this kind of images.

The images taken with LG KS20 are nothing like expected from a regular 2 megapixel snapper. They are surprisingly crisp and detailed and, in the same time, noise-free with almost no sharpening artifacts. Color-rendering is very good, too.

Sample pictures

The camera can also shoot from very close, near macro mode distance. Again, we are very delighted with the result. Generally, the camera of LG KS20 is among the best 2 megapixel shooters we've tested so far and it beats all HTC offerings (2 and 3 megapixels).

Close-ups

Indoor photos of the KS20 are also very good with nice colors, medium contrast and fine details, too. It is obvious that the noise and details logarithm of KS20 is at high level - otherwise the images wouldn't be so good.

Indoor shots

Starting with this review, we’ll be giving you a selection of pictures taken with the phone we’re testing down-sampled to 1024 x 768 with some basic editing applied.

You know, users are looking at those large multi-pixel shots on their PC screens and the faults of the images are right in their face. In reality most of the pictures taken with the handset will most likely be used for emailing and posting on the web, so the down-sampled selection we’re offering will give a better idea about what kind of performance to expect in the most common use of the camera on your mobile.

Camera images downscaled to 1024 x 768 pixels

The KS20 camera also captures video in 3gp format and QVGA resolution at 15fps, which is just passable. Videos are watchable but too choppy.

"... Get ready for the LG KS20 and its striking 2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash. A quick glimpse at the camera photos reveal clear, crisp and well balanced photos. The camera can also shoot from very close, near macro mode distance ..."

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Data transfers

Now, back to what PocketPCs are really about - connectivity, both wired and wireless. The LG KS20 has enough to offer in that department. The connectivity port allows seamless synchronization with MS Outlook. Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP) is also at hand. Speaking of wireless communication, we should mention there is no Infrared port, but you have Wi-Fi at your disposal. There are also HSDPA (3.6 Mbps) GPRS and EDGE, so you always have data options available.

KS20 comes with the Internet Explorer Mobile web browser. It falls behind most of the third-party browsers out there and a few PocketPC manufacturers even ship their devices with an alternative web browser preinstalled.

The Internet Explorer has several interesting view options. You can have it fit the text to the screen, show everything in one column or show the website as it is. Landscape mode and fullscreen mode are also available. Putting that aside, the Internet Explorer is at this point the most awkward option for mobile browsing. It's no accident at all that HTC are shipping their devices with Opera Mobile preinstalled.

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