Best Phone Blog

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.

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