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LG Viewty Smart GC900
The second incarnation of the 6.5 million best-selling LG Viewty is out now, and we are big fans! We think the LG GC900 Viewty Smart, or Viewty II as it is known could be a great iPhone alternative due to its good looks, high-res screen and multimedia capabilities. Incorporating all the best bits from the original Viewty mobile phone, LG have refined, enhanced and squeezed-in a wealth of new must have features making the LG Viewty Smart the touchscreen phone to be seen with. Look and FeelThe slim and elegantly curved case has a sleek black fascia complemented by a silver-coloured backing. Although lightweight and compact the Viewty Smart still feels sturdy and solid and sits comfortably in your hand - all important considerations when using a touchscreen phone for any period of time. The phone is 108.9 x 56.1 x 12.4mm and weighs 102g.
ScreenThe large 3inch WVGA screen is slighlty smaller than the iPhones 3.5inch display but what the Viewty Smart lacks in size it makes up for in resolution. Running at an amazing 800x480 resolution compared to the iPhone's 480x320 and supporting up to 16 million colours, watching videos on the Viewty Smart's higher resolution screen is simply jaw-dropping whilst photos appear almost larger than life. Navigation and InterfaceFirst seen on the LG Arena, the Viewty Smart's new and more responsive touchscreen is powered by an elegantly simple user interface which includes LG's revolutionary CUBE UI. By simply rotating the onscreen four sided cube the user is provided access to shortcut icons to their most often used phone features. Another subtle improvement is new multi-touch feature that allows the user to make multiple onscreen selections at the same time allowing for easier and more direct interaction with displayed content. The use of an accellerometer to change a phone's display from protrait to landscape is something iPhone users have enjoyed for a while, although the technology is commonplace these days and the Viewty Smart uses it to great effect. Apple may be renowned and lauded for their simple but powerful user interface design but with this second version of the Viewty, LG now has a user interface that can go toe-to-toe with the iPhone. CameraOne of the best reasons to buy the Viewty Smart is its awesome 8.0 megapixel camera. This is one of the best top-end cameras for a mobile phone that your money can currently buy and is a feature of the iPhone's newly upgraded to 3 megapixel camera that really lets it down. The quality of any camera isn't simply determined by the number its megapixels but by the quality of its optics. LG have included Schneider-Kreuznach optics for the Viewty Smart and these are at least equal to those found in most top range Nokia handsets and can even give the Carl Zeiss lenses found in Sony Ericsson Cybershot phones a run for their money! Camera features include a power LED flash, auto and manual focusing, face and smile recognition, image stabilisation plus support for photo geo-tagging. The camera's best feature however is the Intelligent Shot mode. This gizmo takes into account your current lighting conditions, calculates multiple ways of achieving the optimal photo whilst a graphic in the top left corner of the screen indicates which one the camera believes is the best one to use; so now there's no excuse for taking a duff photo!
Video RecordingStatic photos are only half the story. The Viewty Smart's video recording specs are just as impressive. Video capture is available up to a record 720 x 480 pixels at 30 fps (and up to 120 fps for super slow mo) complemented by a wealth of shooting modes including slow motion and QVGA time lapse. Finally, if for whatever reason the phone's huge screen just isn't big enough for you then the included TV Out can display captured videos and images on your TV screen at near DVD quality! MultimediaTo say that that LG Viewty Smart is a multimedia phone does it an injustice. It supports a plethora of well known music and video formats plus a few bleeding edge ones too that include MP3, AAC/AAC+ / E-AAC+ / AMR-NB/, WB/WB+ WMA/WMAPro, Ogg-Vorbis and AC3 MIDI audio and H.263, H264, MP4 WMV, ASF, AVI, DivX and Xvid video to name just a few. It's a safe bet that LG designed the Viewty Smart to be one of the premier multimedia touchscreen phones. Confirming this status, the GC900 is also one of the first phones to benefit from Dolby Mobile surround sound technology. Awesome! CommunicationsThe Viewty Smart is 3G network compatible and has built in Wi-Fi, HSDPA, full Bluetooth 2.1 and A2DP support. The usual support for SMS, EMS and MMS is present along with IMAP4, SMTP, POP3 email specifications plus the ability to view TXT, PDF, DOC, PPT, XLS documents. Storage and Battery LifeThe available user memory is a huge 1.5GB and the phone has a microSD card slot that will accept cards up to 32GB. That's plenty of storage capacity to save off a large photo and music collection or record the next Hollywood blockbuster! Battery capacity is typical for this type of phone although heavy usage of the multimedia features may require more frequent charging. Web Browser and OSThe Viewty Smart offers access to Google Mobile Service and uses the S-Class interface on top of LG's operating system. Conclusions...Overall, LG have successfully tweaked, enhanced and built upon the Viewty Smart's already impressive predecessor. With an improved camera, screen, user interface and memory plus the added bonus of WiFi and A-GPS, LG have managed to create a cutting edge touchscreen multimedia phone that just screams desirability and begs to be bought. If you're in the market for a sexy iPhone-esque multimedia phone that boasts amazing photo and video shooting capabilities but can't afford or don't want to re-mortgage your house for an iPhone then the Viewty Smart may be the phone for you!
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