MWC 2008: LG overview

LG managed to surprise us with almost a dozen of brand new handsets. While not all are high-end devices, each one has its own appeal, and we were eager to scour the LG booth for some quality time spent with them.

LG Booth at the Mobile World Congress 2008

But before we proceed with the handsets, a little timeout is due with an enigmatic timepiece by LG. They presented a behind-the-glass teaser of their soon-to-be LG Watch phone. The teaser gadget is locked up and off limits to us, but at least we snatched a few shots of it. For what we’ve seen (no touch), it’s got a Shine-like navigation scroller, media player, touch screen (we guess) and, well, analog-style clock. But enough clever talk, check out those shots.

LG watch phone teaser

LG KF700

Next we continued our booth tour with the spanking novelty LG KF700 or otherwise known as LG Virgo - a multimedia slider, which stands out with its multiple control-and-navigation methods. The handset puts together a 3" touchscreen display, slide-out standard keypad and the novel Shortcut Dial at the back, which somehow resembles the LG Viewty's Jog in its functionality.

LG KF700

LG KF700 sports a full featured Web browser integrating Google Search, Blogs, Gmail, Maps and Youtube. HSDPA enhances web browsing and makes video calls possible. Other goodies include an MP3 player, MPEG4 video player, 3 megapixel camera with autofocus and image stabilizer, Bluetooth and microSD memory expansion.

The tri-band slider offers a 3" 262K-color touchscreen display with a resolution of 240 x 480 pixels.

Here's a short video walkthrough of the LG KF700.

The thing we liked the best about it is that in terms of user interface speed and responsiveness it's way beyond what LG Viewty can offer. Otherwise the user interface is the same as the Viewty's but improved in graphically. The Home screen can now accomodate several widgets - beside Calendar and World clock, there is also a Notes application.

"...LG KF700 sports a full featured Web browser integrating Google Search, Blogs, Gmail, Maps and Youtube. HSDPA enhances web browsing and makes video calls possible. Other goodies include an MP3 player, MPEG4 video player, 3 megapixel camera with autofocus and image stabilizer, Bluetooth and microSD memory expansion..."

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We were dissapointed by the slider action - if you drag your finger downwards on the screen, the slider begins closing down, then when you let go, it goes back up and as a result all the downwards movements of your thumb along the screen create a jitter in the slider mechanism.

Another disappointing thing is the side scrollwheel. The user interface reacts so slowly to the scrolling that we would go as far as blacklisting the scrollwheel as a viable navigation solution.

The LG KF700 will start selling in Europe towards the end of 1Q 2008, before it gets available in other markets.