The LG Viewty

How does it look?

It’s a touch screen phone, all black, of course. Unfortunately it’s got the disadvantage, like all touch screens, of being prone to scratches and smudges. So, we’d recommend you give Apple the iPhone-related finger and buy an iPod sock for it.

One thing it doesn’t have is a cover for the camera. It’s all well and good to have a touch screen, which is prone to marking and fingerprints but LG could easily have incorporated something to protect the lens. It’s a decent camera and it would be a shame for it to be rendered useless because of a scratch on the lens.

Size-wise, you’re looking at W x H x D dimensions of 55 x 104 x 17 mm and a respectable weight of 112g. Not too shabby.

What does it do?

Aside from the impressive, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and Xenon flash, the Viewty got a whole ream of other features worth mentioning. Although, as you’ve probably guessed, the name isn’t among them… What’s with that, anyway?

The touchscreen can be set to vibrate when you touch it. This seems a little excessive to us but a lot of reviewers have found it to be useful. Texting or dialling is done the same as on any other phone but has an added tablet-like feature which allows you to handwrite your message onto the screen rather than type it.

Unfortunately there’s no Wi-Fi but there is Bluetooth and 3G. Not to mention the Viewty comes with HSDPA, which means you can browse the web with ease (pages should load at 1.8Mbps). It’s got an MP3 player that supports five formats (MP3, AAC, WMA, WMV, AMR) and an FM radio.

One of the things we liked is that the camera has the ability to shoot video at 120 frames a second so anything you tape can be watched in slow motion afterwards. You can also upload the videos to YouTube from the phone. The phones browser lets you Viewty (we did it, we had to at some point) the webpage in small and then you zoom in on the parts you’re interested in.

The battery life is good, 434 hours in standby and over 350 minutes of talktime. It’s a good camera-phone but it’s not much else. There are a few extra bits and bobs but as a phone, it’s not amazing.

Who’s it for?

This is a phone for someone who likes their web-browsing and likes to take photos. It’s an odd combination to have on a phone, which leaves us a little bewildered as to whom LG were trying to target with this phone. This is a phone for anyone or no one really. . .