LG PRADA KE850 Phone Review

The launch of phones like LG Chocolate and Motorola KRZR in 2006 seemed to give rise to a new trend of fashion phones which, although made by different manufacturers, had one common feature that set them apart from all other phones, namely, the shiny glossy material they were made of. This material is nothing like the RAZR-type metal structures, but it nevertheless looks just as upmarket and stylish.

This look has been developed for some time and we have seen this finish even in the RIM BlackBerry smartphones (initially Pearl, and later 8800), considered until recently to be conservative, which again shows how universal it can be. However, when all these phones started to look alike, the designers had to think of something new, to upgrade their previous best ideas. Maybe inspired by the fantasy movies, the creators have decided to use touch-sensitive screens, mostly for the vision and the feeling you get when you touch the flat display, rather than for the convenience of using many functions. It feels somehow natural to press on the things you want to activate. So you get a stylish shiny black phone with a minimum number of keys and a considerably big touch-sensitive screen: the same strategy has been used by Apple in their iPhone; Samsung F700 is also of a similar kind.

The difference between the above two phones and LG KE850 PRADA is that the latter phone is under the brand that even the Devil himself uses. This means an enhanced fashion appeal, generated not only by the phone’s look, but also by the customers’ brand loyalty, target group identity, etc....

In order to live up to its classiness, the phone comes in a nice-looking box, naturally pitch black. In it we find the complete set, including:

• Remote control with Headphones
• USB cable
• Charger
• Leather case
  
• CD with software
• Manual
  

The leather case covers the display, but comes short of the whole phone: its upper part remains uncovered, so that the phone sports the PRADA logo even when it is placed in its case.

The earphones consist of two parts: a wire remote control with a 3.5 mm stereo jack and earphones with the same jack, which are plugged into it. These earphones can easily be replaced by others, since 3.5 mm is the standard, used for all earphones.

PhoneArena's LG PRADA Video Review:

What can be said about the appearance of the Prada phone is “style and sheer style”. This is not the smallest phone, but it is slim and is conveniently handled and conveniently carried in the pocket. When you hold it in your hand, when you use it or talk on it, you stand out in the crowd immediately. It is different from anything else that is currently on the market. The only thing that does not appeal to us is the battery lid. The small play, although typical for most phones, is illogical for this one.

Model	Dimension (Inches)	Dimension (MM)	Weight (OZ)	Weight (Gramms)
LG PRADA	3.9" x 2.1" x 0.47"	99 x 54 x 12	3,0	85
Apple iPhone	4.5" x 2.4" x 0.5"	115 x 61 x 11.6	4,8	135
Samsung SGH-F700	4.1" x 2.0" x 0.6"	104 x 50 x 16.4	?	?
Motorola RAZR V3	3.9" x 2.08" x 0.5"	98 x 53 x 13.9	3,4	95

Made entirely of plastic, this phone is much lighter than the iPhone, as well as smaller in volume. Samsung’s F700 is much bigger, but it makes up with its QWERTY keyboard and its 5-megapixel camera. The Prada phone is so small, it’s even smaller than the original RAZR when closed!

As was already mentioned, the main feature of the Prada phone is its display, representing its face and used to control the device. It is 2.95 inches and its resolution is 240х400 pixels. The resolution is different form the standard 240х320 resolution, because the phone is higher (or broader, if you turn it round) and therefore the ratio between its sides is changed: it is close to 16:9. It is touch-sensitive, so that it allows you to control the phone and to do all necessary operations, but it is only sensitive when touched by hand. Just like LG Chocolate’s touch-sensitive control buttons, it is activated by the electricity running on your skin and it does not react when touched with something else (whether a pen, pointer, etc.). Naturally, the whole software is adjusted so that it is conveniently pressed with your finger. It is sensitive and it reacts quickly, which is a good improvement, compared to the keyboards using that technology (the above-mentioned Chocolate), where pressing with your fingers does not always do the job. After you’ve used this display for a few days, you get accustomed to it and you can write on it (using the screen keyboard) just as fast as if you were using a normal keyboard. However, the inconvenience is that there is no tactile response here: you press on the smooth glass, which does not move at all. Samsung uses vibration instead of the tactile feedback for their keyboards, which is a clever solution.

What is strange is that it is sensitive even when touched through a light fabric or even through the case from the kit! This means that you could easily activate it when you carry it in your pocket and therefore you should always carry the phone ‘locked’.

The display’s resolution is big enough for its physical size with small pixels, resulting in detailed images. The colors are saturated and realistic, the contrast is good. Our only criticism concerns the brightness, which, even when it is at 100%, is still mediocre, compared to most high-end contemporary phones. If you choose the black-and-white Prada theme, you’ll have difficulties reading the display in direct light. The black color turns into a mirror and you do not see anything. You’ll be more successful with the colorful themes, but even then you can't tell that the screen is too bright.

There are three buttons under the display: answer/reject and Clear. The first two are necessary, because, during conversation the display is not sensitive (otherwise it would reacted by the touch of your face) and therefore, you should be able to end the call without having to ‘unlock’ the phone, which is done by an especially dedicated side button. However, we do not see any point in the Clear button, which in all cases dubs the software button. Maybe the idea is to ensure more convenient use, but for us this does not make sense.




On the left-hand side are the volume rocker and the profile shortcut, as well as the slot for the charger/sub cable, covered with a protective cover. To the right are the button, locking the display and the mp3/camera shortcut. The two sides, the upper and the lower part and the three front buttons are made in metallic glassy color, very contrasting on the black surface. The side buttons are felt weakly and are easily pressed. Of all the keys, only the answer/reject keys are backlit in red.



You will find the camera module on the back panel, with the same contrasting silvery finish. We find this to be the only ugly feature of the Prada phone! It looks like a patch on the left-hand side (not even in the center, to make it more symmetrical). There is also a small ‘mirror’ here, the camera lens and the LED flash. Underneath it says that this is a 2.0 megapixels camera, using Schenider Kreuznach lens.



In the lower part the LG logo is positioned, but is not as visible as the PRADA logo, located in the upper part of the front panel. The phone is advertised as a „PRADA Phone”, rather than as “LG PRADA”.

The fact that the microSD cards slot is located under the battery lid, next to the sim cards slot, is not very pleasing. You have to remove the battery itself, in order to reach it, which makes replacing the memory cards inconvenient.

LG PRADA Interface

Interface:

Just like its design, the phone’s interface is in the PRADA style: very simple, just in black and white without any other colors. When the phone was first promoted, some people even thought that its display was not full-color. However, this is just a theme and the phone features three more themes, rendering it a different aspect with colorful backgrounds and icons. For us, these do not look as elegant on the phone as the black and white theme. They are not so stylish, but they are more fun.

The Home Screen displays system information, a big clock showing the date and four shortcuts in the back: to Menu, Dialing Screen, Messages and Phonebook. An interesting interaction happens when you ‘get’ the clock and ‘push’ it with your finger, so that it moves. If you touch it, you activate the alarm setting, but you have to go to its menu, in order to use its options.

Two of the themes add, respectively, a butterfly and a fish to the home screen; they move on the screen in the direction that you’re pointing.

The main menu is rather interesting: in is divided into four categories, located as tabs to the right: phone, multimedia, organizer and settings. In each tab you find big, round, easy-to press icons, displaying texts about their functions. It is easy to make out the menu, which is logically arranged. The sub-menus are visualized as a list, sometimes you have to scroll to them. You can ‘get it and move it’ or to press on another position, so that it moves.

Phonebook:

The phonebook can memorize up to 1000 contacts on the phone’s memory. The contacts are visualized in a vertical list, showing 4 contacts at a time and the phone number of the selected one. We do not like the big title „Contacts” on the top of the screen, as well as the system information. If those were missing, 2 more contacts could have been visualized (50% more!). If you have more contacts on your list, you’ll have to scroll a lot. What can help you here is the searcher, which we do not like, because it can only look up a contact by the first word and not by the second (surname).

When adding contacts, you can memorize up to 4 phone numbers, email and memo, to allocate a personalized ring tone and picture and to include the contact in a group. There are 6 groups, which can be renamed and personalized with icons and a common ring tone.

Organizer:

You’ll find the complete organizer of the PRADA phone in the third tab of the main menu. Arranged there are the different options, sporting a nice-looking interface, completely merging with the menus, irrespective of which of the four topics you’re in.

The alarm can be set to go off 0/10/20/30/60 minutes earlier than the set time, which can be on a particular date or Mon-Fri/Mon-Sat/Everyday. Its ring tone is easily changed, and so is the text that shows when it goes off. The problem is that there is just one alarm and you cannot use a few alarms to go off at different times.

The Calculator will offer you a convenient interface with fairly large letters, but you can also access scientific options, where you can calculate degrees, Cos/Sin, etc., if you have to. To convert measurement units, you can use the converter.

The World Clock uses the world map, but, unlike most other phones, it does not open it before you, but shows you a 3D model of the planet that you can turn round with your fingers, in order to select a continent and a specific location on it. This is definitely not the most convenient navigation and we miss the possibility to search by name; it is nevertheless a very beautiful feature, fully in the style of this phone.

The Calendar can be viewed for a particular month and the big figures help you to see clearly which date is marked with a note and which date is selected. You can add a Schedule for each date for a particular period of time or for the whole day, by posting a note, setting the alarm (with seven options) and the possibility for repetition (Daily/Weekday/ Weekend/ Weekly/Monthly/Annually).

You can use Memos for notes that you do not want to attach to a particular date.

You also have a voice recorder, which records from the phone’s mike without limitation I the duration of the recording.



Messaging:

The Messages menu, featuring the text, multimedia and email messages, is in the main menu. The problem is that these are not combined and therefore there are separate icons for each option, which overburdens the menu.

You can adjust your phone, so that you can check your email, but you have to do that manually and the phone will not do it for you. Both POP3 and IMAP are supported, so that you have a freedom of choice.

Unfortunately, Instant Messenger is not maintained directly from the phone, but you can add it as a 3rd party application.

Connectivity:

The Prada phone is a three-band (900/1800/1900MHz) GSM/EDGE phone, which limits its use in America to zones with coverage in the 1900-MHz band. The support of EDGE allows speeds up to 384kbps, which is much faster than GPRS, but slower than the third-generation UMTS. The unavailability of 3G does not allow you to conduct video calls from your trendy phone.

Locally the PRADA is connected, using the Bluetooth technology. The latest 2.0 protocol version is maintained and we are glad that we find here also the A2DP and AVRCP multimedia profiles for stereo music, enabling you to listen to music on wireless devices, using the same technology.

The computer connection is done via the cable, included in the set. You should choose from the phone’s menu the mode to be activated upon connecting to a computer: the mass storage mode, allowing you to transfer files in both directions (at about 550 KBps) like a local device, or the Data Storage mode, enabling you to synchronize your phone with your computer. In the latter mode, using the software from the disc, included in the set, we transferred 129 contacts from a computer to the phone for just 2 minutes 10 seconds. Using the software, you can synchronize also Schedules from the calendar and Memos. What we found inconvenient was that the synchronization is not actually with the Outlook, but with the program in which you import the information from the Outlook (in our case, we imported contacts). Next time you add new contacts from your phone to you computer, they’ll be saved in that program and not with the other Outlook contacts. This is inconvenient, in case you’re using it as a main computer organizer and you want to synchronize it with other devices.

Internet:

The internet browser of the PRADA is a mediocre WAP2.0 one. It opens standard HTML pages, but renders them in order to fit on the phone's screen, changing the way the originally look. It doesn't offer a "desktop view" option, and cannot be compared to the browsers of smartphones using Symbian or Windows Mobile or with some good phone browsers like the one of new Motorola phones. A disadvantage that makes itself apparent when viewing large WebPages is also the speed of EDGE, which would have been much faster with UMTS or WiFi, neither of which is unfortunately maintained here.

Camera interface

Camera:

LG PRADA is equipped with a 2-megapixel autofocus camera with a flash and lens under the branding of Schneider Kreuznach, which is used in Samsung’s digital cameras, but only in the LG phones.

The camera’s horizontal interface starts in about 3 seconds and then you can take pictures. Your viewfinder is the whole screen and only a small part of its left part is taken up by icons, informing you of the settings. Press anywhere on the screen and you’ll be able to change the settings after selecting the icon with the cogged wheel that says Settings.

There are quite a few settings and their significance is implied in the black-and-white icons, which are rather abstract, so that you’ll have to select them one by one to read about their functions.

An object can be focused in 4 seconds, then taking the picture and saving it takes 5 more seconds, which makes 9 seconds between two frames, which is rather slow. Unfortunately, the quality of the pictures, which is rather disappointing, does not make up for this slowness. For its two megapixels the camera shows a mediocre resolution and the small details are almost not visible even when the pictures have been taken in bright light. When viewed at 100%, the pictures appear smeared by the noise-reduction system. Other shortcomings are the unrealistic, unsaturated colors, which make the pictures look grey and monotonous. A lot of noise is generated when taking pictures in poor light; in darker rooms, when you have to rely on the flash, it lets you down.




The Camcorder allows you to video with a maximum resolution of 400х240 (that of the display); you can also choose QVGA (320x240), CIF (352x288), QCIF and 128x96. The duration is limited by the available memory.

Viewing pictures/video files is done in My Stuff menu. The pictures are seen as miniatures, which you can easily enlarge and view on a full screen. In this mode ‘buttons’ for previous/next pictures and for returning to viewing non-full screen show on the screen when you press on it. You can also view as a slide show.

Music Player:

The music player is equipped with two colorful skins: black and white, with an option for Shuffle&Repeat. The Interface has big buttons and shows the file name and the author’s name, as well as the settings. A bid disadvantage is that you cannot ‘minimize’ it and let it work on the background, while you’re doing something else with the phone. This is rather surprising for us, since nowadays much simpler phones can do that. Other non-available options in this phone, are sorting by author/album/genre, arranging in playlists and equalizers.

The sound through the loudspeaker is not particularly loud and its quality is mediocre. To listen to your music, we recommend that you use either wireless earphones, which is more convenient, or the wire earphones that come with the set. Since they are actually a wire remote control with a 3.5 mm jack, you can connect any standard earphones to the PRADA phone. The ones from the set are black ‘plugs’, bearing the PRADA logo; they are not especially convenient, but their sound and the strength are good. They reproduce he low frequencies poorly, but they do better than most of their competition. Using the 3.5 mm jack, you can connect also very good headphones, which we definitely like.


You have in addition an FM RADIO with a memory for 12 stations. The lacking option for automatic search of just one station is an inconvenience: you have to do that search for all stations or you have to do it manually. You can also listen through the loudspeaker, but even then the headphones have to be plugged in, so that they can serve as an antenna.

Software:

LG Prada is not a smartphone, it works with standard LG software, created especially for this phone. Its in-built memory is only 16 MB, and can be increased by a few GBs, with the help of a microSD card. There are four preloaded games, but others can be added, using JAVA. The four games that come with the phone are very well developed and, being from different genres, they are sure to appeal to everyone. The supplementary application must have been created especially for this phone or for some similar device, because the standard hardware keyboard that all other phones use to navigate in the applications is missing here.

Surprisingly for a phone, which is not a smartphone, the PRADA can open MS office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint), as well as PDF files, thus covering the most common types of documents.


Performance:

On the whole, the Prada reacts rather quickly and you do not have to wait for long to load the menus. The menus take a comparatively short time to open and the lag is fully acceptable. 

Although it is a jewel, LG PRADA is above all a phone and as such it performs brilliantly. The sound in both directions is loud, clear and realistic. Tuned on to a maximum, the sound is so strong that, if you’re holding the phone correctly, you’ll want to turn it down. There is no problem hearing in a noisy ambient.

We were, however, disappointed by the signal strength, which does not live up to the good sound. During our underground test, the PRADA phone performed poorly and got just 3/10 points, compared to the competition. You are likely to have problems in places with poor coverage, which other phones do not experience.

Conclusion:

The Prada phone is a new-generation jewel.  Although it is not one of the posh models, using rare metals and precious stones, it is a status symbol for people who want a really good-looking exclusive phone.  Developing the designer language of the Chocolate phone on a new level, LG PRADA is the first of a new class of fashion phones and sets a benchmark for the other manufacturers. Extremely elegant both in its look and its software, the phone does not offer any special functionality, but nevertheless has good enough capabilities for its small size. When you add the perfect sound during conversation, you figure out that LG PRADA has more advantages than disadvantages. If the price is not an issue for you and you are looking for a phone with an exquisite look, rather than the enhanced functionality of a multimedia device like N95 or of a mobile computer like a PocketPC, then this is a good phone for you. It has its competition in the face of the more conservative Nokia 8800 Sirocco, which has replaced the trendy touch-sensitive screen with a hardware keyboard and metal slider. Other phones with a big sensor screen and just a few buttons are expected to come out in the future: iPhone and Samsung F700, but for the time being PRADA does not have any competition in this market segment.