Having made a name for their fashionable handsets, the next generation of mobiles by LG tries to retain the "wow" factor while developing the functionality more and more at the same time.
The yet to be launched (in India) LG KE970 and KE770 surely have their appearances speak for themselves.
When you look either at Nokia 6300, N95, Samsung Metal series and LG Black Label phones, you realise that all of them are uber-stylish devices and competing to reach the same audience.
And by audience we mean people who are not that much into features, but are looking for a decent, reliable yet good-looking device.
The first thing that strikes you when you hold the LG KE970 is its gleam. Expected to retail at around Rs 15,000, KE970 is definitely more than just another candyfloss phone.
The handset's all-metal construction gives it a sturdy look. The cellphone features a roller scroll bar. Its microSD card slot can accommodate up to 2GB data, which means the user will get ample space to store his tunes and photos.
Like most mobile phones, KE970 is also equipped with a 2-megapixel digital auto focus camera that has Schneider-Kreuznach lens. This LG phone features a small flash that you can turn on or off. However, it is a pity that LG did not equip KE970 with an automatic flash.
Also, the camera suffers from shutter lag. The image capture button takes a while to start before the camera actually clicks the picture. Writing the picture onto the memory card of the camera also takes time, this can be annoying at times.
The web browser integrated in KE970 is on a par with web browsers used in most recent mobile phones, which is a big development for LG. However, it doesn't feature zoom and landscape mode.
KE970 looks great on paper as a multimedia device, though in reality it is crippled by the inability to play music in the background, something that is so common in most other brands. The phone also falls short on the talk time, the battery stretches up to 4.5 hours before being recharged again.
KE770 is a low-end model of KE970, designed as a candybar. Equipped with a display with lower resolution, when compared to KE970, it will retail at around Rs 9,000, competing directly with Nokia's 6300. The handset is extremely slim at 10mm (thickness) and weighs only 79 gm.
Fitted with a 2-megapixel camera, LED flash and digital zoom, it ensures that the user gets the shot right. There is a WAP 2.0 web browser that allows the user to connect to the web, but it supports very simple HTML sites like Google.
To be honest, the phone is best when used for minimal web browsing or quick WAP downloads. The phone comes with an internal memory of 70 MB. However, the user can expand it with the help a microSD memory card (to be purchased separately). The battery provides up to 200 hours of standby time.
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