LG Viewty Review

Introduction:

The Viewty is LG’s flagship model, targeted as an all-in-one multimedia phone, stressing on the advanced camera features, camcorder and video playback options. It isn’t a direct rival of any device, but tries to target a consumers group as large as possible. It comes with the touch-screen and key-less navigation, similar to the iPhone but has a 5-megapixel camera with Xenon flash, which puts it next to the N95, K850 and other camera-dedicated phones. It isn’t a smartphone but comes with a bag full of surprises, including manual focus, 120fps video capture and DivX playback.


LG Viewty comes in a very well looking box, reminding us of the high class of the phone itself. All accessories are inside, including stereo headset (adapter and headphones), USB cable, charger, manuals, CD with software, and small Stylus. The latter can be attached to the phone in its hole for cord, and is retractable stylus with a cap. However, considering the finger-friendly interface, most will not use it.

Design:



You can compare the LG Viewty to many other phones, using PhoneArena's Visual Size Compare tool.

The first thing most will notice is the huge 3-inch widescreen with 240x400 pixels resolution and up to 262’144 colors. While it is very bright and with a very good image, we would have liked to see a sensor for controlling its brightness level, to help reducing the battery consumption. It is touch sensitive and can be pressed with any object, not only with finger as in phones like the Prada or the Armani. The sensitivity is ok but scrolling needs some getting used to – you don’t have to just sweep your finger but do as if you grab the screen and then move it up or down.

On the front there are only three hardware keys, as in the Prada and Voyager phones: Send, Clear and End. They are in the same glossy black and while inactive merge with the front panel, but when the display is operational they are illuminated in respectively green, white and red.

The other buttons are situated on the right side of the device, reminding us of the camera functionality of the phone. Here you will find a three-position switch for the camera functions (camera/camcorder/playback), anti-shake/locking key and the camera shutter/shortcut button. They feel and press just right and it will be rare to have any problems with them. As in the K850, the large number of camera-dedicated keys aims to achieve a camera-like experience when taking pictures.


The design of the back side also imitates a camera, with the large circular bump around the lens on the right and the Xenon flash just above it. The bump around the lens is actually slidable and acts as a scrolling wheel – to navigate through the menus and zoom in the camera interface. If the manual focus is selected, it will be used to adjust the focusing distance.

Interface:

LG Viewty’s software is identical to the one of the Prada phone in some aspects, but there also are a significant amount of changes. Many things are improved to match the increased functionality yet the good look of the menus remains.

The home screen is almost empty by default. There is a line with service information on the top and in the bottom are four shortcuts: Menu, Dialing pad, Messaging and Phonebook. An option in the menu allows you to put a Clock, Calendar or both in the center of the screen. Tap anywhere in the empty space, and two animated arrows (left and right) will appear above the shortcuts; touch one of them and a menu with 9 more shortcuts will appear.

The main menu is in four tabs (Phone functions, Multimedia, Organizer, Settings). Everything is arranged logically here, and even first-time users will easily find what they need. The icons’ appearance is animated, but not slow. They look well (at least in the three preloaded themes) and one can easily get an idea of their purpose (even without reading the label below) unlike the Croix interface of Samsung. The menu system is not only modern and looks good, but is also pleasure to use.

When we did our preview of the prototype, we noted that the Black themeis almost 100% copy of the Prada phone, with the background of theicons being only slightly green. This has changed in the final versionwe have here, and all icons in this B&W theme are with a new, soliddesign. Compared to the prototype, here we also see a slightrearrangement of the fields.


Viewty has four predefined profiles and three for user customization. All they can be changed, allowing for different ringing types and tones, as well as vibration (haptic feedback) types (3) and level (up to 7).

Phonebook:

The contacts system is very good, which has really left some positive feelings in us. The names are displayed, filtered by their first letter (A-D, E-H, I-L, etc), in order to avoid lots of scrolling. The symbols are large, and we only wish the caller ID image was displayed when the contact is selected. By selecting the Lupa in the upper right corner, searching can be performed, by any word of the name.

Adding a contact offers you fields for names, up to five numbers (no matter their type), two emails and a full address. Of course each phonebook entry can have a personal image and ringtone, as well as being added to a group.

Dialer:

Input of a number that is not in your phonebook is just as simple as in other phones. Open the dialpad (one of the shortcuts on the homescreen) and press the large numeric keys. Unfortunately, results matching the number do not show up automatically, but in the options “Search contact” you will open a menu where you can search by phone number.

Organizer:

The third tab in the main menu houses all the organizer tools. Total of five alarms can be added, each with a separate time, recurrence options, name and tone. A few clicks are required to add an event (Appointment, Anniversary, or Birthday) to the calendar. Optional fields include subject/name, location, alarm and recurrence options. You are also able to search for text in the events added. Tasks can be added with three priority levels, while memos are just plain notes without any options. There also are a simple calculator, a world clock and a currency converter.



The voice recorder can be set without limitation (depending only on the memory availabe) but it is usable only when you hold the phone at very small distance from your mouth. Don’t expect it to replace a stand-alone dictaphone.

The phone lacks real File Manager, which allows you to preview all files stored in the integrated memory or the card. It is replaced with the more typical for non-smart phones, browser that filters the files by their type (Pictures, Audio, Video, Applications, Documents, Flash, Others). Every time any of the filters is selected, it searches the available content, which takes some time to load.

Viewty has 100MB of internal memory, but it can be expanded up to 2GB with a microSD card,. It is strange that in such high-class phone, there is no support for microSD HC (high capacity), which allows for bigger cards (4, 8, 16, 32GB). Another inconvenience is that the card slot is accessible only after the battery is removed, which is definitely not the easiest task.

Messaging:

When creating a new text message you’ll have four options for text input: on-screen keypad, on-screen QWERTY keyboard, and handwriting recognition in a box or on the whole screen. The QWERTY keyboard is in landscape mode and is similar to the iPhone’s; the letters enlarge once they are pressed, but as they are situated on the whole width, the keyboard is bigger than in the Apple’s phone. Although not as fast as hardware QWERTY, it is convenient to use and was our preferred method for text input. The system tried to predict our words, but we would prefer to trade this feature for spelling-check, once the writing language is chosen. The on-screen keypad is similar to a standard one, but is absolutely flat (still it is on the screen), and its buttons are bigger than the QWERTY’s since they are less. The handwriting recognition is what its name says it is, and it performs pretty well!




If you include multimedia content such as a picture or tone, the message will turn from an ordinary SMS to a MMS.

Email IMAP4/POP3 client is also present, but the phone lacks any mailbox configuration wizard , which is rather mediocre. All settings must be entered manually, being neither fast, nor a pleasant procedure.

Connectivity:

One of the greatest drawbacks of the Viewty is its limited connectivity, which means it is not fully usable in the US. It is tri-band GSM/EDGE with single-band (2100MHz) UMTS/HSDPA 3.6MBps, making it suitable only for the European market.

The full HTML internet browser is definitely among the good ones on the market. Even heavy pages such as phonearena.com are not a problem, it visualizes them correctly. There are options for fullscreen, landscape or portrait orientation and for zooming out (so the whole page is visible) and then zooming in a particular part of the page, similar to the iPhone’s Safari. What we dislike is the way one moves through the page: although we are already used to operating the phone, scrolling in any direction works but is far from the iPhone, which is much more adequate.



Unfortunately, it cannot play embedded Flash objects, unlike the N95 8GB with its latest firmware. Considering the hardware of the Viewty, this shouldn’t be a problem.

Locally the Viewty connects either through Bluetooth (most commonly used for other portable devices and accessories) or through USB (for connection with computer). It lacks Infrared (used in older or low-class phones) or WiFi, which allows connecting to wireless LAN networks. However, we are disappointed that in the end of 2007, LG has implemented a slow Bluetooth module in its high-end model. Instead of Bluetooth 2.0 it has 1.2, and transferring large files to it is pretty slow. For our test we sent 3300kb video file from Nokia N82, and it required 90 seconds (37KBps), which is much slower than other phones we tested: Eten X800, 73 seconds (45KBps) and Nokia E51, 43 seconds (78KBps). At least the phone has the profiles required for Stereo Audio distribution over Bluetooth.

In the small CD from the box, come LG PC Suite and DivX (Player and Converter), to put any video you have in suitable format to the phone. They are separate applications and can be installed on their own. The Suite has an easy to use wizard for connecting the phone (either through Bluetooth or USB) and our only complaint is that in order to “detect” the Viewty, it must be in such USB mode (it is selected in the Settings menu), instead of Mass storage mode, which is used for direct access to the memory card.

The program allows for direct access to the Contacts, Messages and the Content (both the internal and card memory), as well as automatic backup or synchronization with MS Outlook.

Camera:

The camera starts for 3-4 seconds after its shortcut is held, which is normal when compared to the other 5-megapixel cameraphones. Times for focusing (3 seconds) and saving (5 seconds) are also typical for this class devices. The landscape-oriented viewfinder occupies the whole 3-inch display, with small indicators over the top and icons with transparent background in the left and right side. They provide fast access to flash options, scene modes, compensation, shooting mode, digital zoom and settings. The setting are visualized in a large grid of icons, with list with options. Thanks to the touch navigation, it is relatively easy to switch any of the settings. However, there are a few very unpleasant problems: 1) if you want to change two settings at the same time (for example the resolution and the quality (compression) you cannot do it; you must change the first, select save, then go back, change the second and save again. 2) the second problem is worse: when you choose any shooting mode but Normal (Continuous shot, Panorama, Frame Shot) or to use the secondary camera, the camera resolution decreases to the minimum possible for this mode. When you go back to Normal shot mode, the phone doesn’t restore the full resolution you’ve chosen before (for example 5-megapixels) and it is something you may not even notice, because the monochrome icons are not really the easiest to understand.


As we've stated in many of our reviews, the most important about the camera is its image quality. Megapixels show just the resolution, or how big the image would be. Options like color modes and frames are rarely used, without any useful effect. But image quality is important. Unfortunately, although LG touts the lens as “5 Mega Pixel camera certified by Schneider-Kreuznach for clear shots”, the Viewty disappointed us. Even during the day, the details are covered by noise, the colors are artificial and unsaturated, and problems such as purple fringing occur often. While the images are not bad for a phone, when put next to five other 5-megapixel phones, the Viewty ranks last. When shooting night scenes (of illuminated objects), things were better and Viewty took the second place, but unfortunately those pictures are rarely taken. Most important is the performance when using the flash - here the Viewty disappointed us significantly once again. We expected much from it, coming with Xenon flash, but this didn't help at all. At both close and larger indoor distance, its flash was times weaker than those of the N82 and K850, which respectively scored the first two places. The sad thing is that it was weaker than even G600 and N95 8GB, which use LED (strong when compared to the average) for illumination. Fans of macro shots won't be amazed either- the results without flash are mediocre, but if one has to be used, the close-up object is so strongly illuminated, that the image appears completely white.




The results are much better when it comes to video capturing. To turn the camcorder on, the mode switch must be moved to the middle position. There are a few options for resolution, with the largest being (VGA) 640x480 pixels and its wide variant 640x384, optimized for fullscreen previewing on the phone. Unfortunately here also as in the camera mode, if you switch to the front-facing camera or turn the 120fps mode on, the resolution will decrease, and once you go back to the main camera (or turn the 120fps mode off) you will have to manually set to a higher one.

The image quality is excellent, outperforming Nokia's phones (N82, N95 (8GB), N93(i)) with much better compression and detail, thanks to the DivX encoding. The sound is also a step better, but still not as good as we would like to. The main drawback of the camcorder is that it cannot focus to objects nearby, but otherwise it could replace the one of a pocket camera. LG Viewty sample video.

The 120 fps mode sounds as nonsense, as 24 frames per seconds are enough for smooth video playback. Still, it doesn't really play 120 frames, but records them and after that plays at slow motion, increasing the video length. This is suitable for capturing of fast-moving objects, and could be used for a fun effect, but that's all. LG Viewty sample video at 120fps.

Move the switch to the third position, and the phone goes into playback mode, sorting the images and videos in two rows with 4 on each. If you prefer more “modern” look with one covering part of the other, choose the Random ordering on the bottom but it doesn’t offer anything more than look. When you click on any of the objects, it allows you to view information about it: date added, name, size and resolution. From here the objects can be previewed in fullscreen mode, with an option to switch to the previous or next without going back.

One of the Viewty key features is the straight-out-of-the-box DivX support, which is also used for the camcorder clips. DivX is known for its ability to compress the video files, decreasing the size (MB) but keeping relatively high quality. This means that thanks to it, higher quality video clips can be viewed on the phone. It is true, it is not just a an advertising trick. Even low-resolution clip such as one with 320 pixels width, stretched in fullscreen (440 pixels), looks better than what you would get with 320-pixels wide MPEG4/H.263 video on phone with QVGA (320x240 pixels) display. The compression level is so much better that only once the artifacts disappear, you understand how well the DivX video looks compared to the one most people are used to see on phones.

Strangely, our Viewty didn't play all files. It didn't have problem with some (640x480, 30fps, high bitrate, DivX 5) but others (even with lower quality) returned error, saying the file was not supported. We are still waiting for an answer from LG, to see what the real limitations are.

Unfortunately, XviD (the free alternative of the DivX) is not supported. We see no reason for this software limitation, as the hardware is capable of playing it back. In the My Files menu, even a frame of such videos would appear as a thumbnail, just as with the supported ones.

Of course a phone cannot go without a decent music player also. Although this one is not the best we’ve seen, it still does a decent job. The filtering menu doesn’t have a modern look, but it offers a decent set of options: recently played, artists, albums, genres, shuffle tracks. Once a song starts playing, the interface has large fields for the track information, but the Album Cover image is smaller than we would have liked. The player can be minimized to continue working in the background, while other applications are used.

You will be disappointed if you want to use the phone as a portable jukebox: it has only one speaker (on the back) and it is not among the strong ones. If it noisy, you may even not hear the ringtone. While it is pointless to use it for music playback, it is not great for videos either.

The headphones from the box or Stereo Bluetooth headset should be used for personal listening to music. However, they are also not among the best ones we’ve seen in a phone set, sound OK but weak. As they are of two parts (adapter and headphones) you can attach any using 3.5mm jack, for higher quality and volume.

The wired headphones must be plugged-in in order to turn the FM radio on. They act as the antenna but unlike most other phones, the Viewty doesn’t allow to transmit the sound to the loudspeaker. Total of 12 stations can be saved but without an option for names.


Software:

The Viewty comes with preloaded with an application called “Muvee studio”, which is used for creating of video slideshows. You must choose the movie style (transitions type) which determines the maximum number of pictures you can include, then load the images and create a movie (with music) out of them. While not being of an upmost importance, this program allows to easily combine (directly on the phone) a few images into a short video clip (320x240 pixels) that is suitable for uploading in sites such as YouTube. Muvee studio sample video.



Coming preloaded with Picsel file Viewer, the phone can open Word, Excel, PowerPoint (variants of Office 2007 are not supported) and PDF documents, but has a basic functionality for previewing only, instead of for advanced usage. Large Excel file opened and visualized very well (once zoomed) but the options for choosing Sheets (in multi-sheet files) or for searching are lacking, which makes the phone unsuitable for work. Our large (1.2MB) PDF file didn’t load at all, without any error.


Our Viewty (Vodafone variant) is preloaded with three games, but all of them are demos. However, others can be added with no problem, as the phone uses 240x320 pixels for the game itself and in the rest 240x120 pixels visualizes buttons that are otherwise hardware on the standard phones: 4-way navigation, two soft keys and an OK button.

Performance:

Although the menu animations take some time, the menus still load with decent speed and the Viewty is not among the slow phones. However, there will be some waiting when the phone has to read larger information, such as video or music lists. We would have preferred to see some caching of information, that requires manual refreshing, in order to save some waiting, so the phone would act faster in the everyday usage.

We are left with mixed feelings about the sound quality of the Viewty. No matter how feature rich a phone is, it must have good sound during a call, in order to rate well. While the sound strength is very good in both directions, it is not so about the quality. In the earpiece, you’ll hear the voices very sharp, rather monotonous and slightly muffled, which isn’t pleasant for longer conversations. The good news is it is better on the other side, where the voices are very well reproduced and sound realistic and clean.

Conclusion:

So, let’s sum the things up: the Viewty looks well, has all that a modern “touch-phone” needs, form-factor – large, high-quality touch display, decent dimensions, and an eye-catching interface. On the other hand, it offers plenty of multimedia features, such as 5-megapixel camera with the best video camcorder found on a phone and DivX playback, which allows watching of high-quality videos. While there are some drawbacks, we think it is an excellent (multimedia) phone.