Best Phone Blog

Like dogs, certain phones suit certain people. Some people like, want and thoroughly deserve those little bag-sized yappy rat dogs that inspire in others (like, say, us) nothing more than a desire to strap on a pair of stomping boots and get dirty in rat-dog guts.

Now, don’t get us wrong, the LG BL40 Chocolate is not going to be attracting the kind of terrible attention that certain tiny dogs attract round these parts as they ride around in the expensive leather bags of ladies made of plastic and perfume. But we do think the BL40 is going to find its way into, well, lots of perfumed and expensive bags. Because more than its a touch-screen-phone, more than it’s a smart-phone, more than it’s a widescreen-phone. We certainly don’t think there’s going to be many, say, white van men flocking over these LG BL40 Chocolate deals, or these LG BL40 Chocolate deals.

It’s actually got a lot going for it, lots that’s practical, useful, up-to-date, even pretty special. The 21:9 panoramic ratio screen, for example, is an absolute winner, letting you take in the full width of web pages as you search the web. But we just have a sneaking suspicion that the kind of pages these things will be surfing probably won’t be youtube or The Sun’s online version. More likely Vogue and those sites that sell really expensive leather handbags.

Like those kind of sites? Then have a little look at this LG BL40 review. Or at this hurt-your-eyes-swanky video. Don’t say we didn’t warn you…

The phrase mutton dressed as lamb springs to mind when we look at the LG GW300. Because, as you’ll hopefully agree, it looks like a pretty decent smartphone. What with it’s curvy Blackberry style, that solid looking QWERTY keyboard, that nice 2.4” screen. But the truth is, this is just about as basic a phone as you could possibly buy (when it’s released later this year that is). There’s no Wifi, no GPS. You won’t find 3G even. And it hasn’t even heard of accelerometers.

The only thing of any interest then is that keyboard and, unsurprisingly, the price, which is going to be very low indeed. Which, according to GSM Arena and others, means that this is very firmly a phone directed towards da yoof. And then when you hear that this thing comes installed with various gadgets that let you update your Facebook or Twitter very quickly indeed, you let out a big aaahhhhh, and either stop reading, because you are not a yoof, or get very excited, because you are a yoof. So… still here? Then hello to you little yoof… shld we spk 2 u in ur own lngwj?

Actually, let’s not, it hurts our eyes. And our principles. Let’s just point you towards this LG GW300 review instead. Because it says more about the LG GW300 than we can find the energy to. Now what time is Grumpy Old Men on tonight…?

The Germans have brought us many a comedy moment in the past, as we all know. But best amongst all their comedy gold mines is their language. Because who else, when looking for a description of songs that stick in your head annoyingly when you hear them played, would call that phenomenon an ohrwurm, or ear-worm. Genius. Which is why, when we heard that the newly announced LG Louvre was coming equipped with a Schneider Kreuznach lens to go with its beastly big 12 megapixels, we thought we’d phone up our German friend to ask what that meant, expecting the answer to be something along the lines (said with a guttural laugh) “a-ha-ha-ha, that means it is a sneaky-cracking lens, meaning it will break all your hearts with how good it is, a-ha-ha-ha.”

However, all Hans did was explain to us that Schneider Kreuznach is the abbreviated name of the company Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH, which is sometimes also simply referred to as Schneider and that they are a manufacturer of industrial and photographic optics… And then we realised he semed to just be reading off Wikipedia so we hung up.

But the point, we realised, was still an important one, because it seems the LG Louvre GC990 is going to be a cameraphone that packs not just an obscene number of megapixels, but also a lens that should at least mostly be able to cope with them and produce some pretty decent pictures. Hurrah for German stereotypes about quality engineering! Hurrah for cameraphones! Hurrah for LG mobile phones! Hurrah for… erm… this LG Louvre review!

The LG GT505 is a cracking, mid-range phone featuring a 3″ full touchscreen, GPS, technolgy for emails and social networking, Wi-Fi, HSDPA 3.6, 3G, voice activation and a spankingly good 5-megapixel camera with loads of other things that do a fine job too.

However, the LG GT500 is also a cracking, mid-range phone featuring a 3″ full touchscreen, GPS, technolgy for emails and social… you get the idea. So, save our fingers. If you want to know about the LG GT505, skip down a few posts and read what we had to say about the GT500. Or read this LG GT505 review here which shock horror is almost identical to a review we saw recently about the GT500 too.

Life is too short. And we’re too lazy. So go on, skip down a few posts to reveal all the GT505 secrets you could ever hope to reveal. And we’ll be in the pub when you’re done.

The LG GW520 has a number of features that, combined with its impressively low price – are going to make a whole bunch of people very happy indeed. Most important here is the ‘push’ services that the phone offers. Instead of emails and social networking updates sitting passively ‘out there’ on the internet until you remember to go and check them, push works by pinging the messages directly to your phone via its pretty rapid internet connection. That means you don’t need to worry about logging in and checking, the phone does the work for you.

Also of interest is the LiveSquare feature. This enables you to see those contacts you talk to most appear as little animated character on the homescreen. A fun way to enable quick, easy access to those people closest to you.

The large, slide-out QWERTY keyboard of the GW520 will also be a huge draw for those who find themselves texting and writing emails all day long. With a really satisfying click to the keys, we’re confident this keyboard pad will not only feel comfortable, but will also stand up to even the most rigorous users demands. The camera might not be the best at 3 megapixels, the screen’s not huge (but is more than adequate), and it might not look like the best phone in the world, but we think the LG GW520 is going to make more than a few customers very happy indeed. If not for the decent range of networking services it offers, then definitely for the money it will save them along the way. For more details, check out this LG GW520 review here.

There are some things that just aren’t destined for stardom. But sometimes, we reckon, that just doesn’t matter. The LG GT500 Puccini – released imminently, on T-Mobile only – is one of those things. It’s mostly functional, sometimes impressive, as this handy long list, complete with technical judgements by our good selves, proves:

• 3.0″ 400 x 240 pixel touchscreen – Mneh!
• EDGE technology for faster internet speeds – Kinda cool
• Integrated GPS receiver – cool, but more or less standard these days
• Bluetooth and USB – Mneh!
• Comprehensive email support – Mneh!
• 5MP camera with auto-focus, image stabilization, geotagging and face recognition – actually pretty cool
• Video recording – Mneh!
• 107 x 56 x 12 mm – So-so
• 86 grams – Oohh, quite light
• Internal memory: 60MB, expandable with a MicroSD card – Mneh!
• Talk time: up to 200 minutes – So-so
• Stand by time: up to 350 hours – So-so

So. Lots of Mneh’s, so-so’s and only a few cool’s for the LG GT500 Puccini. But, so what, chances are the GT500 Puccini is going to be available a not too shabby price at all. So go on, celebrate the Mneh! Check out a LG Puccini review here for ever so slightly more technical details.

LG really doesn’t have a big reputation of rolling out the most tech – savvy phones, but one thing that they surely are good at is creating phones that are meant to bring out the ‘wow’ in you. This is precisely the biggest reason why there always seems to be a big crowd at its booth every MWC.

The LG GD900 Crystal is precisely one such phone. Though it isn’t exactly ‘earth-shattering’, LG did have a really cool handset that really took our breath away. LG always manages to turn heads with the design of their phones, and the LG GD900 Crystal sure does take it to a whole new level.

As you may have seen in the picture, the LG GD900 Crystal is a slider which has a totally transparent keypad. Yep, you didn’t read wrong. You can see the palm of your hand when you have it in your hand. When you open it, the keypad shows off a ‘cool glow which reflects the phone’s polished and sleek silver body’.
The keypad is really awesome, and I sure did want to kill the people manning the LG booth for keeping it locked inside a showcase, thereby preventing us from ‘staining’ the phone. LG have also promised a bluetooth headset which will incorporate a similar design!

As more and more manufacturers tend to load the phones with unbelievable features, most manufacturers tend to ignore the fact that ‘fashion’ phones still have a big fan following. It’s generally the case that the simple but beautiful phone that wins in the end.
LG hasn’t given out any specifications about the phone, but they’ve announced a release date of somewhere during the 3rd quarter of this year.

To get more details on the phone, see the official press release.

If you are looking for network specific deals, follow the links below:

Samsung GD900 Crystal on Orange
Samsung GD900 Crystal on O2
Samsung GD900 Crystal on T-Mobile
Samsung GD900 Crystal on Vodafone
Samsung GD900 Crystal on 3 Mobile
Samsung GD900 Crystal on Virgin

Without much fanfare, LG announced, at the MWC, only their 4th Symbian S60 phone. The LG KT770 runs on the 3rd edition of the S60 platform and comes in a slider with a keypad. The press release given by LG claims that it has a 5MPIX camera, HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity, a 2.8’ touchscreen and a thickness of about 16mm.

We don’t really have a lot of information with regard to the LG KT770 as they didn’t really decide to give much details.

One of LG’s biggest announcements, which was also one of the more significant news with regard to mobile platforms, was the announcement of their strategic relationship with Microsoft, which involved using their WinMo platform in 50 devices over the next 3 – 4 years. Both LG and Microsoft will be involved in joint R&D with regard to creating new apps, devices and services.

With this announcement, it’s quite debatable, the fact that they used the Symbian platform for this phone, though it may be part of a plan to keep their options with regard to other platforms (Android & Symbian) open.

The announcement of this phone effectively means that 4 of the ‘Big 5’ have unveiled phones which are running on the Symbian OS @ the MWC. From this, it is quite clear that the situation isn’t as clear as their joint statement suggests, with SE’s platform being a ‘concept’, LG’s ‘open platform’ stance slowly shifting to WinMo and Samsung dividing their attention with a number of platforms. Regardless of this, it does show a strong support for Symbian and gives the S60 platform quite some momentum.

LG’s previous Symbian – powered devices include the KT615, KT610 and the KS20. They’ve been released only for certain markets and haven’t had very big sales, so LG will be hoping that the KT770 will be successful.

For network specific deals, follow the links below:

LG KT770 on Orange
LG KT770 on O2
LG KT770 on T-Mobile
LG KT770 on Vodafone
LG KT770 on 3 Mobile
LG KT770 on Virgin

Just as Mr. Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s birth anniversary came (25th of February, 1841), LG came up with an upgrade of the Renoir phone, which has also been studded the not-too-impressive name of KC910i Renoir. It isn’t much of a big secret to say that a Renoir will increase in value as time goes.

It is important to keep in mind that, though the black LG KC910i Renoir isn’t really a new model, but just a ‘facial’ upgrade of the KC910, and both of the models will be up for sale simultaneously.

Though the official name for the new one is KC910, the MWC booth showed it as KC910i, so we’ll stick to this name to avoid confusion.

The biggest difference, obviously, is that the LG KC910i Renoir is fully black. It also doesn’t have the mechanical camera lens cover. When holding it, it seems to be a bit thicker,. This might be the reason why the camera lens doesn’t seem to be sticking out as much as before.

The lens cover is the only difference as far as the imaging part of the phone is concerned. The imaging interface has taken a complete turnaround with a very novel look. It’s really new and improved and takes care of a little annoyances in the LG KC910 – it doesn’t crop anything out of the picture you capture, so what you seen in the frame is what you capture.

Just a quick recap on the Renoir’s features: it is a full-touchscreen with an 8MPIX autofocus camera with xenon flash. Video-capturing goes @ 30 FPS upto 120 FPS. DivX/XviD support comes out-of-the-box, and the phone accepts 16GB microSD cards as well. TV-out functionality as well as a document viewer is available. On top of this, HSDPA, Wi-Fi and GPS are included for connectivity as well.

For network specific deals, follow the links below:
LG KC910i Renoir on Orange
LG KC910i Renoir on O2
LG KC910i Renoir on T-Mobile
LG KC910i Renoir on Vodafone
LG KC910i Renoir on 3 Mobile
LG KC910i Renoir on Virgin