The gallery shows off pictures and videos in a sort of angled widescreen format if you turn the phone on its side, which looks mighty nice, as does its playback for the most part. It can handle DivX, Xvid, MP4, WMV, H.263 and H.264 video formats as well as MP3, AMR, AAC, AAC+, WAV and WMA audio files.
LG's first Android: a bit underpowered but socially acceptable
We still like the Android music player with its big buttons and intuitive menu, and the way you can press and hold an artist's name to initiate a search for additional content by them on the web or YouTube. It's starting to seem awfully familiar now though and could benefit from a bit of a restyling – a graphic equaliser you could access directly from each track would be nice. The sound through the supplied headphones is a little on the muddy side and lacking in clarity, though thankfully it's easy to rectify this with a decent set of headphones plugged into the 3.5mm jack socket.
LG's rather lovely FM radio with its touchy feely tuning dial and half a dozen presets is present and correct and extra features include a basic version of QuickOffice which allows you to view but not create documents, and the Moxier suite of syncing, calendar, contacts and mailing apps.
Call quality was surprisingly poor, due for the most part to the speaker. If you crank it up full – and you'll need to, unless you have cat-like hearing powers – voices invariably sound a little muddied and there's a harshness to the tone that we haven't heard on a quality phone for a while. Battery life was pretty decent overall, and it delivered just a little under two full days of fairly intensive use, even with Wi-Fi switched on for most of that time.
Verdict
The LG GW620’s accessible price means that this may prove to be the first move into the wonderful world of smartphones for many and, as such, it's has most of the features we'd expect, even if not all of them work as well as we'd expect. The keyboard is a gem, easy to use and jam packed with keys, and the social networking elements are better than many, but the resistive screen can be irritatingly insensitive and the processor can be annoyingly slow. ®
More Android Smartphone Reviews...
Nexus One |
Motorola Milestone |
Samsung Galaxy Portal |
Acer A1 Liquid |
LG InTouch Max GW620
COMMENTS
Nice phone
Come on that touch screen is not that bad, can't see much difference from this to other touch screen phones, but you make it as if it's the worst ever.
The size of phone easily fits into your hand, size somewhat similar to older phones not like the iPhones and Nexuses slates of today, and it doesn't feel to heavy either.
The back of phone is a very smooth leather(?) and feels great to the touch and would have grip to a desk. And the keyboard is the best since HTC Touch Pro - that is nuff said.
well quite
And in the same manner, I'm sure an LED can output far more light in a short burst than it could cope with continuiously.
letters
It's very simple - when a new technique is applied to an existing technology a new name must be found. If a new name is not available then the name of the technique or material must be used instead. Bathtubs, for example, were first made of tin but are often made of plastic these days. So, if you have a tin bath it's a bath but if you have plastic it's not a bath. Houses either have bathrooms or plasticrooms depending on the material used for the main item within the room.
Plastic bath = plastic
Tin bath = bath
Simples.
This "phone" does not excite me. I'd prefer that they were honest and called it what it really is - plastic encased circuitry and chips. Without even a hint of Bakelite, it cannot be called a phone.
Troll because "I refer the reader to the post made some moments ago"
Works for me
I've had this for a while and as my first smartphone I am very pleased with it.
Although I'm sure the comments complaining that it's only Android 1.5 are valid, but for someone's first experience, don't make any difference.
The camera (and LED Flash) is very good for what I want i.e. in the pub etc and if I want anything better I would take my dedicated compact.
So, the only complaint above that I would agree with is that, yes, the home button is too sensitive and easy to brush accidentally, but you do get used to and avoid it after a while.
For anyone wanting a cheap route into the world of Android I would recommend this phone!
Re: "LED flash"
"LED Flash = LED
Flash = Flash
Not complicated, is it?"
Weeeeeeellll... being that my phone has an LED on the front used as a notification light for texts/emails/alerts etc but no camera flash at all of any description, and my wife's phone has a xenon flash... yes it is complicated.
If the review just said the phone has an LED, there'd be no indication that the LED was intended for taking pictures with the camera. If it just said it had a flash, how would I know whether it was a xenon or an LED designed to momentarily switch on and off (i.e. flash in the literal English sense of the word) in sync with the camera to illuminate the picture?
What's NOT complicated is simplifying matters by referring to them as an LED flash and a xenon flash. They both flash.
Unless of course you want to uncomplicate matters further by redefining the meaning of the word flash, but that's your call.
