The LG KU990 Viewty is a true powerhouse packing a mass of high-tech goodies under its hood: the impressive 3" touchscreen display with 240 x 400 pixels resolution, the HSDPA 3.6 Mbps capability, the stereo Bluetooth and the highly intriguing 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, which is also capable of capturing video at 120 fps. Feature-packed and exquisite, the LG KU990 looks set on the fast track to success and we were more than happy to get our hands on it.
Design
The LG KU990 Viewty measures 103.5 x 54.4 x 14.8 mm, which makes it about the size of iPhone, Sony Ericsson P1 or even HTC Touch. It weighs 112 g, which is not really much considering its performance characteristics. Designwise, it's almost certain that people would inevitably compare it to the Prada phone by LG. They share the same form factor, large screen and Flash UI, but are still totally different and this time Prada has no involvement in the project.
The front panel of the handset features only three hardware keys - the green and red Send/End keys and the correction C key, which is used as either backspace or for going one level up in the interface menu. In the top right corner, the secondary VGA camera for video calls can be found. The left side of the Viewty hosts the charger/headset/data cable universal port (much like the ones used by Samsung). It's ingeniously hidden under a sliding cover.
The bottom and top parts of the headset host no controls. The only point of interest at the bottom is the microphone pinhole, while the top offers the back cover release button and the stylish hand or neck strap eyelet. The backside of the LG KU990 stunningly resembles the looks of a true digital camera. The 5 megapixel camera lens with Schneider-Kreuznach optics has a hardware jog wheel, that controls the digital zoom.
The left side of the KU990 is far more interesting in terms of controls, since it incorporates the camera shutter key, the hardware keylock button, which is otherwise used to take pictures with image stabilization, and - finally a hardware slider key, that changes camera modes between still camera, video camera and image gallery.
The backside of the LG KU990 stunningly resembles the looks of a true digital camera. The 5 megapixel camera lens with Schneider-Kreuznach optics has a hardware jog wheel, that controls the digital zoom. It can also be used for setting the exposure compensation and brightness, as well as for zooming on pictures in the gallery, on office documents and web pages, as well as for controlling the volume. Around the camera lens, which has no protective cover of any sort, you will find the strobe flash, the focus assist light and the loudspeaker.
Removing the back panel reveals the 1000mAh Li-Ion battery. The SIM card slot and the microSD memory card slot are accessible only after you've removed it. As to battery life, there are no official figures but our test revealed that under heavy duty usage, the handset will last no more that 2 days with a single charge. The relatively good news is that DivX playback doesn't exert any extra strain on the battery. For example, the battery lasted enough to allow us to use the phone moderately for one full day and watch a 2-hour DivX movie later on in the evening, before it went completely flat.
The LG KU990 is really easy to handle and the touch-centric form factor is of no hindrance to usability. It feels nice and comfortable to hold. Speaking of touch though, it has got to be noted that the KU990 Viewty has a different touch-sensitive display than the LG Prada phone. While the Prada screen only accepted commands when touched with a bare finger or through a thin cloth, here you can use your fingers, the enclosed stylus, a pen, or even your doorkeys (certainly not advisable!). The display deals well under bright sunlight, though no display by whatever manufacturer has so far managed to beat Nokia in this respect.
The LG KU990 Viewty comes with an original stylus dongle, that doesn't plug anywhere into the handset. It is attached to the handstrap eyelet instead. It's quite innovative and looks great, but we're not convinced that it's that convenient after all, to have your stylus dangle alongside the handset in everyday use.
Interface
The user interface of LG KU990 is based on Flash technology, much like the one in LG Prada. The KU990 is still not a smartphone or anything, but it has one huge difference in comparison to the Prada phone. It's that now we have ourselves a nifty little task manager, that works great and all open applications such as the phonebook, new message window, calendar, calculator, etc., are listed once you've launched them.
At the top of the standby screen there is info about the battery status, current profile and signal strength. The task manager icon is there too - right in the corner. A tap on the profiles icon brings out a popup with the available profiles. The main screen can visualize a floating clock as the Prada phone, but now you can opt for adding a calendar next to it, or even make them both disappear. A single tap on the clock brings out the Alarms flag which allows you to setup an alarm straight from the standby screen - comfortable enough, we would say. You can even set two time zones to display simultaneously on the screen.
At the bottom of the screen there is a navigation bar with shortcuts. Unfortunately, the available four shortcuts are not user configurable. The first shortcut takes you to the main menu, the second opens the Dial pad for you to type in a number, the third opens the messages submenu and the last one opens the Contacts list - no changes here as compared to the Prada phone.
As we mentioned, the four shortcuts in the bottom of the screen are not user-configurable, so a nice upgrade over the Prada phone is the new shortcuts grid that overlays the Home screen once you tap on the arrows you might have noticed on the previous Calendar screenshot. The shortcuts grid doesn't simply appear on the screen but slides in stylishly. Tap the right arrows and it goes away, and you are again left alone with the clock. Next to the small icon of the task manager in top right corner, you will see an icon of the currently active ringing profile. A press on it invokes the Profile menu, which offers extensive setup options for the available profiles. The user interface of KU990 retains the same menu system as the Prada phone - simple, yet impressively sophisticated. Ergonomics and user-friendliness are at their heights. LG have made a really nice job designing the user interface system.
The main menu consists of four submenus - they are displayed in a column on the right-hand side of the screen. They don't have names but the first one contains elements related to making calls and sending messages. The second one is the entertainment package, which houses the multimedia files, the camera, the FM radio, the games, the music player, the web browser, and two streaming video applications. The third submenu includes organizer applications such as the Calendar, the Calculator, the Unit converter, etc. And finally, the fourth item handles all the settings. By default, the user interface comes in the black and white theme, well-known from the LG Prada phone. There are two other UI themes that come in full color, with beautiful icons. One of them offers a fish swimming on your display (the Prada had that, too). You can change the wallpaper on the welcome screen if you wish.
An absolute must-have for every fully touch-based handset and a feature we missed in the Prada phone is some sort of feedback when the screen is pressed - something besides the touch tone and the touch animation. LG have taken care of it for us and the KU990 is haptics-enabled, which means that every press is accompanied by a gentle vibration, that let's you know your press has been accepted. Settings for it include a choice of three types of vibration plus 7 levels of vibration strength.
Camera
Putting aside for one minute the inclusion of 3G HSDPA and the phone’s fine internet browsing abilities, the LG Viewty’s obvious draw is almost certainly its 5.1 megapixel camera.
The lens is made by Schneider Kreuznach, a renowned manufacturer of photographic optics and ample proof that LG understands that the lens is paramount to a camera’s quality and ability; even more so than the number of megapixels on offer. In camera mode, the Viewty is designed to be held like a conventional camera, with the viewfinder showing a landscape view and the shutter key easily accessible by your right index finger. When in camera mode, you can bring up all the required camera settings and controls simply by tapping once on the screen with your fingertip or thumb. This gives you access to such staples as photo settings, zoom and flash.
You have two means of controlling the 16x digital zoom on the Viewty; unfortunately, both are a little fiddly. Option one is to use the virtual slide-control on the left of the touch-screen, which requires real thumb dexterity and caused us to drop the camera twice. Option two requires you to rotate the click-wheel positioned around the camera lens on the back of the Viewty. There are two problems with this second means of zooming: it feels clumsy and you’re highly likely to smear the lens with greasy fingerprints. Neither of which will enhance the quality of your photos.
However, for simply pointing and shooting photos on auto-focus, the Viewty feels great. It’s a well-balanced handset with a great viewfinder and the shutter button is in exactly the right place. Having a dedicated switch for accessing the video camera and video playback is also a nice touch and really sets the phone apart from other run-of-the-mill camera phones. On the back of the phone, you’ll find the camera’s flash and Schneider Kreuznach lens, which is surrounded by a jog-wheel which operates both the camera’s zoom and the ability to zoom in and out of webpages.
Handwriting Recognition
Handwriting recognition has been a staple on many PDAs for years and, while it’s novel to have, it’s a real ‘love it or hate it’ technology, depending on the handset’s recognition abilities. The Viewty encourages users to use the boxed stylus to personalise your photos by writing on them. We tried it and it works really well. Of course, the technology is better suited to scribbling a few words, not scrawling War and Peace. However, it’s a quirky extra we rather like.
Accessing the Internet
With mobile broadband (3G HSDPA) and a large display on offer, accessing the internet should be a real pleasure with the Viewty. While it looks the bee’s knees, there are some usability issues which are largely down to the touch-screen. When you access your internet homepage, you’ll notice a series of virtual internet control options that appear at the bottom of the touch-screen.
These are simple shortcuts, which enable you to add to favourites, zoom in and out of the page and alter the view between portrait and landscape. Whichever way you choose to view the pages, they look great. It’s when you come to browsing that you hit trouble. The Viewty is designed to be navigated with your fingertips or using the stylus. You can stroke the webpage up or down as if you are moving a piece of paper – just as you can with the HTC Touch. The functionality is erratic; sometimes the screen scrolls up and down, sometimes it doesn’t. The same applies to the scroller bars on the side and bottom of the phone.
The problem is, although the Viewty’s display is large by mobile standards, you can only ever see part of a page, which makes scrolling essential. And if the scrolling mechanism is erratic, you’ll simply stop browsing. This is a real problem. A side-mounted jog-dial might help, or simple navigation keys beneath the phone’s display. Similarly, the jog-wheel which controls the camera’s zoom can also be employed to zoom in and out of the internet pages and to control the volume of voice calls. A great idea in theory, but it doesn’t work that well in practice. It’s fiddly as both a camera and browser zoom, as well as a volume control.
Conclusion
Like many of this year’s most anticipated handsets, the LG Viewty KU990 has got loads going for it. It looks fabulous, the spec sheet is incredible and its 5.1-megapixel camera and 3G HSDPA capabilities ensure it has a place among the top echelon of phones.
Unfortunately, there are too many little niggles to make this a stone-cold classic and most relate to the touch-screen and the click-wheel zoom. Although this is much better and more responsive than any others we’ve used to date, we’re yet to be totally won over by touch-screen phones. In the Viewty’s case, though, it’s the touch-screen operation of the camera and web browser that lets it down.
