LG KU990 Viewty Black review

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If there was an award for most ridiculous name for a mobile phone, then it would have to be something very special to rob the LG Viewty of the top spot, but stupid names aside, the Viewty should also be in the running for a few other gongs too, as LG have packed its sleek case full of the latest in mobile technology.

Comparisons with the LG Prada and of course, the iPhone, are inevitable thanks to the large touchscreen which dominates the front panel, but the Viewty is neither a fashion phone nor music-orientated model, it's instead a proper camera phone, and so fits happily into a currently unoccupied market niche. The camera is no afterthought either, it's clear from the design that the Viewty was always intended to be a camera first and phone second – just look at it from the side and back, you would be hard pressed to realise it's a phone at all!

With 5MP at your disposal, a 120fps-capable video recorder, autofocus and flash unit, the Viewty comes close to being a viable alternative to a regular digital camera, especially when you take into consideration the wealth of video editing features that are built-in too. It's simple to chop and change your films, add your own voiceovers or musical accompaniment, or insert scrolling text and effects! Depending on your service provider, the Viewty has the ability to upload your edited videos direct to websites such as youtube.com, allowing you to share your movies almost instantly.

The Viewty's desirability doesn't end at the camera either. It's a 3.5G mobile allowing you to take advantage of a 3.6Mbps HSDPA connection and video calling via the front mounted camera, it has an excellent media player which includes a DivX decoder so you can watch converted video files stored on the MicroSD card and, of course, there is that excellent touchscreen interface! Using the phone is a similar experience to using the LG Prada and although it lacks the Prada's designer polish, the Flash based software is still pleasurable to use, most notably in the response speeds. Improvements have been made too, such as the inclusion of a landscape-viewed, fullscreen QWERTY keyboard.

Size and weight haven't even suffered that much despite all these features, it is 112grams and 15mm thick, but battery life and the operating speed have. LG state a standby of 430 hours but tests have shown this to be optimistic and the software tends to creak along under pressure, especially when viewing a picture slideshow or heavy-duty video editing. There is also the odd inclusion of a stylus for the screen, but instead of slotting into the phone body when not in use, it hangs off a cord like a phone charm! Still, one can hardly complain when this amount of cutting-edge tech is included in a reasonably priced, fine looking handset can we?

For an independent review of this phone, check out Mobile-Phones-UK for their LG Viewty Review.

LG KU990 Viewty Black specs and features

• Tri-band
• 5 megapixel camera with Schneider-Kreuznach optics
• FM radio and MP3 player
• 100MB shared memory
• microSD Card Slot (TransFlash)
• 3 Inch Touch Sensitive Screen
• High Speed Video Recording at 120 FPS
• 3G, EDGE and GPRS technology
• WAP 2.0/xHTML
• Document viewer (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF)
• Dimensions: 103.5 x 54.4 x 14.8 mm
• Weight: 112 grams
• Standby Time: Up to 430hrs
• Talk Time: Up to 4hrs