| LG KG810 |
| General |
| Network | Gsm 900 / Gsm 1800 / Gsm 1900 |
| Announced | 2006, May |
| Status | Available |
| Size |
| Dimensions | 92 X 47 X 14.9 Mm |
| Weight | 83 G |
| Display |
| Type | Tft, 256k Colors |
| Size | 176 X 220 Pixels, 31 X 39 Mm |
| | - Second External Tft Display, 65k Colors (96 X 96 Pixels)
- Touch-sensitive Navigation Keys With Backlights
- Downloadable Wallpapers |
| Ringtones |
| Type | Polyphonic (64 Channels), Mp3, Aac |
| Customization | Download |
| Vibration | Yes |
| Memory |
| Phonebook | 1000 Entries |
| Call Records | 40 Dialed, 40 Received, 40 Missed Calls |
| Card Slot | No |
| | - 128 Mb Shared Memory |
| Data |
| Gprs | Class 10 (4+1/3+2 Slots), 32 - 48 Kbps |
| Hscsd | No |
| Edge | No |
| 3g | No |
| Wlan | No |
| Bluetooth | Yes, V1.2 |
| Infrared Port | No |
| Usb | Yes |
| Features |
| Messaging | Sms, Ems, Mms, Email |
| Browser | Wap 2.0/xhtml |
| Games | 2 Embedded + Download, |
| Colors | Black |
| Camera | 1.3 Mp, 1280 X 960 Pixels, Video(qcif), Flash |
| | - Java Midp 2.0
- Mp3/aac/mpeg4 Player
- Fm Radio
- T9
- Organiser |
| Battery |
| | Standard Battery, Li-ion 700 Mah |
| Stand-by | Up To 200 H |
|
LG - KG810LG KG810 Chocolate Folder
Introduction
Riding on the success of its KG800 Chocolate slider phone, the LG KG810 is a clamshell version of the hugely popular series. With features similar to its slider cousin, the KG810 also has three heat sensitive buttons on the front that control music playback. It comes with 128MB of on board memory, a 1.3-megapixel camera, is tri band GSM (900/1800/1900MHz) compatible, and features GPRS connectivity.
Physical Aspects
The KG810 features the same glossy finish found on the KG800, which may look stylish but will also attract smudges and fingerprints very easily. The flip is also lined with chrome, making it easy to scratch, and again prove a fingerprint magnet. However, the KG810 is solidly built, and in my hand it feels really sleek and slim, and the glossy finish gives it a touch of class. The battery is attached directly to the back of the device and did not exhibit any creaks or squeaks. The fit and finish was perfect on our review unit.
On the front of the phone, the external display is wedged in between the camera lens and the three heat sensitive buttons. It took me a while before I figured out how to use these hidden keys - little did I know that I had to press the volume key twice to unlock them before use. None of this was mentioned in the manual, and even the phone did not prompt me to unlock the keys. LG should take note of this and at least include the instructions in the manual. The buttons were generally accurate, but there were times when they couldn't register my presses. These buttons glow red like the ones on the KG800.
To the right side of the phone you find the dedicated camera key along with the universal connector, which is used to connect your charger and your headset. The volume keys can be found on the left side of the phone. There is nothing on top of the phone and the back houses only the battery and its release button.
Flip open the phone and you will be greeted with a white backlit keypad. The keys are flat but fortunately big enough to allow comfortable and speedy typing. LG has coated the keys in alternating glossy and matte black in a chessboard pattern, allowing you to better differentiate between them. The 5-way navigational d-pad is flanked by the left and right soft keys, as well as the dedicated MP3 and camera keys. The call and end keys flank the clear key just below the d-pad. Overall, the keypad worked well and I have no complaints here.
Overall, the KG810 is a solid phone. Measuring just 92mm x 47mm x 14.6mm (3.62" x 1.85" x 0.57") and weighing a mere 82g (2.89oz), this clamshell will definitely be a hit among fans of the Chocolate series of phones. The glossy finish is a bit of a hassle though, as users will have to take extra care of their phone to prevent scratches, and constant cleaning of the exterior is a must if you like your phones smudge and fingerprint free.
Multimedia
The 262k display on the KG810 has a resolution of 176x220 pixels. It is adequately bright and readable under sunlight. The external screen is a 96x96 pixel 65k display, which helps to inform you of battery and signal status, missed calls and messages, and also displays song names when playing music.
The LG KG810's 1.3 megapixel camera is capable of capturing images in five different resolutions - 96x96, 220x176, 320x240, 640x480, and 1280x960. The KG810 provides quite an impressive range of settings for you to tweak with; brightness can be adjusted to one of five settings, white balance can be set to auto, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent, or daylight, and a 4x digital zoom is provided. Additional effects such as sepia, black and white, and negative are also available. Similar to the recently reviewed KG320, the camera takes around three seconds to activate, and the shutter lag is a terrible three seconds as well, which completely destroys any notion of using the camera as a way to capture candid moments.
I wasn't impressed at all with the quality of the photos taken by the KG810. Everything looked out of focus and pictures appeared to be smudged all over. It is only good for taking the odd shot in bright light, and without a macro mode, the camera is pretty much worthless when it comes to taking close-ups.
The KG810 is also capable of recording video clips in four different lengths (1, 5, 30, or 90 minutes) or be set to record until the handset is out of memory. Similar to the photo mode, users can tweak brightness, white balance, and play with special effects when in video mode.
LG has built MP3 playback functionality into the KG810, and equipped it with 128MB of onboard memory, which should be enough for around 20 songs. However, most phones top this off with an expandable memory card slot, but the KG810 misses out. The limited amount of on-board memory is just not enough for a phone meant for playing music and capturing pictures. The MP3 player application that comes with the phone is pretty much the same as the one found on the KG800 Chocolate phone. It still doesn't support playlists or ID3 tags, and worst of all, the music player can't work in the background, so you are unable to use other phone functions while listening to music. However, you can set it to continue playing even when the flip is closed, and this is when the touch sensitive buttons come in handy, enabling you to control music playback with ease. However, once I had used the touch sensitive keys and the backlight had gone out, I was unable to activate the touch keys again. This proved to be a nuisance and I ended up having to flip open the phone again to control the music application. Basic equalizer settings are available to the user in the application, and two player skins are provided to jazz up the music experience. Listening with the provided ear buds, the KG810 sounded pretty good, but was lacking in the bass department. Even in loudspeaker mode, the KG810 produced pretty good sounds.
LG should seriously consider equipping its phones with memory card slots. Built-in memory is yesterday's technology, and 128MB of memory just doesn't cut it anymore. USB 1.1 Mass Storage support is included, though this has a very slow transfer rate and it was quite a hassle to connect the phone to my PC. It took several tries before my PC would recognize it as a Mass Storage device.
User Interface
The KG810's UI is the same as that found on the KG800. This means the same quirks are present, such as Contacts being listed under the Organizer submenu and the clear key bringing you back a menu level instead of deleting an entry, duplicating the function of the right soft key when in submenus. The menu items are listed in a 3x3 grid of icons and the keypad is linked to each of these items.
In standby mode, the left and right soft keys will launch the main menu and Contacts application respectively. Unfortunately, you cannot personalize these two soft keys to any other shortcuts. The directions of the d-pad are used to launch various applications, but are unfortunately also non-customizable. This is definitely something that LG should look into, as personalization of softkeys and buttons is vital to improve user friendliness of a UI.
Theme support in the KG810 allows you to change backgrounds and colour schemes for the phone. The phone comes with two color schemes - black and silver. It's pretty disappointing that the phone does not have proper theme support and the icons of the menu are not animated. Worst of all, you can't install new themes or color schemes. You would expect things like this to come standard on a phone nowadays, especially a flagship model like this.
Phone Functionality
The KG810 had no problem at all in terms of reception. I experienced no dropped calls and audio quality over the earpiece was crisp and clear. The KG810 worked well in both the GSM 900 and 1800MHz bands.
There are seven profiles, out of which three are completely customizable. The two fixed profiles are vibrate only and silent. The other two profiles that can only be activated by attaching an accessory are Car and Headset. The customizable ones are where you can set different ringtones, incoming ringtone volume, different message alerts, message alert volume, different key tones, keypad volume, turn on or off warning tones, and also set vibration alert on or off. However, there are no timed profiles available, and you cannot add on additional profiles. There is an Offline profile that will allow you to use the KG810's multimedia functions in areas where wireless use is prohibited.
The phone can hold up to 1000 contacts in its internal memory. Speed dialing can be implemented by first assigning a number button to a contact, then simply pressing and holding the number button from the stand by screen. Unfortunately, voice dial and voice command are not supported, which is simply unacceptable in 2006.
Battery life was average, with the KG810 lasting just 3 days with average use. Unlike the KG800, the KG810 does not come bundled with a higher capacity battery. Heavy users of the phone might have to recharge it every night.
Connectivity
Setting up the KG810 for GPRS connectivity was a breeze, and within seconds I was online with the phone. The included browser supports WAP 2.0 compliant pages, but with the low resolution screen, browsing is quite limited, and you will probably do best to stick to your carrier's portal.
There is no Infrared port on the KG810, but the Bluetooth system works well, though it can be a little slow. Users can transfer pictures, MP3 files, ringtones, and videos to and from the handset, but I would have appreciated it more if there was a choice to select multiple files and send them all instead of going through them one by one. Pairing the KG810 with my Motorola H3 Bluetooth headset was easy and the range was fair, achieving about five meters between the headset and phone before the sound started distorting. Other than that, the Bluetooth system worked as expected, and users also have the choice of using a USB cable to transfer their files.
Messaging
The SMS and MMS system worked well, however it was not fast enough to keep up with my typing. The KG810 is equipped with T9, and new words can be added to supplement the internal dictionary. Punctuation is handled with the 1 key, case and input modes with the # key, word alternatives with the d-pad, and spaces inputted using the 0 key. As with the KG800, there are no email capabilities at all in the KG810. This isn't surprising, as the KG810 was made for fashion, not business. This might pose a problem for style conscious business users, who will find that this phone just doesn't cut it.
Applications
Just like the KG800 Chocolate phone, the KG810 only comes with the most essential PIM functions such as a memo pad, voice memo recorder, and calendar. You may choose to switch between weekly or monthly views for the calendar, and you can synchronize all PIM applications with your computer. Other programs included are an alarm clock (with up to five alarms), world timer, calculator, and unit converter.
Java MIDP 2.0 is supported, and the KG810 comes equipped with two games - Sudoku and Zoo Zoo Club. Sudoku is the popular number puzzle game, whereas Zoo Zoo Club is a puzzle game where you have to match three or more animals together to eliminate them within a time limit, similar with the Zookeeper game found on the Nintendo DS.
Conclusion
The LG KG810 is a real looker. With its slim profile and sleek curves, the KG810 is definitely for those who like the Chocolate series but prefer a clamshell to a slider form factor. However, with a poor UI, below average camera, and an extremely buggy touchpad, the KG810 barely gets a Recommended rating. Those on the lookout for fashionable clamshell phones might do better with the Motorola KRZR or Sony Ericsson's Z610i, both of which have better feature sets and more intuitive user interfaces. However, if you really love the looks of the KG810 and can live with its quirks, go get one. |
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