LG announced the new its new touchscreen, 5.1 megapixel camera phone this week. Available in the UK from mid-October, we got our grubby mitts on one early.
The new touchscreen phone allows viewers to enjoy a wide variety of professional-level digital camera features in a single sleek handset. The LG Viewty is the first example of this new direction.
“The LG Viewty is a camera phone with unparalleled functions. This handset provides quality matching or exceeding that of conventional digital cameras,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, CEO of LG . “With some of our earlier handsets, LG emphasized great style. Now we are focused on functionality and features as well. ”
With the LG Viewty’s manual focus function, which no other camera phone provides, users can take more control over their pictures. In addition, the built-in image stabiliser helps record clearer images.
Users can personalise their unique pictures by “writing” on them digitally using the 3.0-inch LCD screen and attached stylus; they can also use the stylus and screen for working with the LG Viewty’s built-in digital editing software. And, when they’re done, pictures and video can be easily uploaded to the internet.
The phone also records video at up to 120 frames per second, the highest frame speed ever for a handset camera. This allows users to seamlessly watch DVD-like content, even in slow motion. It also features a quick search-enabled jog wheel, which helps users quickly raise or lower the volume during calls as well as easily zoom in or out when taking photos or video.
The LG Viewty’s highly advanced features even include the ability for users to create and edit their own video files right on the phone and then upload them direct to YouTube.com. The phone is also Google-friendly, with a fully-equipped package from the ubiquitous web portal for mobile internet users. Additionally, users can still enjoy terrific voice quality and high speed HSDPA connectivity at 3.6Mbps.
We couldn't find much wrong with this phone, essentially it's a 5 megapixel touchscreen camera with phone capabilities.
The zoom control was a bit annoying at first. Being a circular dial surrounding the lens, it meant that invariably most of our photos had big blurry fingers in them. However, it didn't take long to get used to, and there is an alternative slider on the touchscreen.
A major problem with touchscreen handsets is lack of tactile feedback, but LG have solved this with a sneaky little vibrate feature. Everytime you touch a button on the screen the handset vibrates. There's also options to beep at the same time, with varying degrees of volume, and strength of the vibrate. It works very well, and gives the impression you're actually pressing something.
We see this handset being a success with the Social Networking crowd, who will be able to upload videos direct to YouTube and take good quality pictures to post on their MySpace and Facebook accounts, as well as look cool with a sleek, black touchscreen device months before the iPhone hits these shores.
“The LG Viewty is a camera phone with unparalleled functions. This handset provides quality matching or exceeding that of conventional digital cameras,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, CEO of LG . “With some of our earlier handsets, LG emphasized great style. Now we are focused on functionality and features as well. ”
With the LG Viewty’s manual focus function, which no other camera phone provides, users can take more control over their pictures. In addition, the built-in image stabiliser helps record clearer images.
Users can personalise their unique pictures by “writing” on them digitally using the 3.0-inch LCD screen and attached stylus; they can also use the stylus and screen for working with the LG Viewty’s built-in digital editing software. And, when they’re done, pictures and video can be easily uploaded to the internet.
The phone also records video at up to 120 frames per second, the highest frame speed ever for a handset camera. This allows users to seamlessly watch DVD-like content, even in slow motion. It also features a quick search-enabled jog wheel, which helps users quickly raise or lower the volume during calls as well as easily zoom in or out when taking photos or video.
The LG Viewty’s highly advanced features even include the ability for users to create and edit their own video files right on the phone and then upload them direct to YouTube.com. The phone is also Google-friendly, with a fully-equipped package from the ubiquitous web portal for mobile internet users. Additionally, users can still enjoy terrific voice quality and high speed HSDPA connectivity at 3.6Mbps.
We couldn't find much wrong with this phone, essentially it's a 5 megapixel touchscreen camera with phone capabilities.
The zoom control was a bit annoying at first. Being a circular dial surrounding the lens, it meant that invariably most of our photos had big blurry fingers in them. However, it didn't take long to get used to, and there is an alternative slider on the touchscreen.
A major problem with touchscreen handsets is lack of tactile feedback, but LG have solved this with a sneaky little vibrate feature. Everytime you touch a button on the screen the handset vibrates. There's also options to beep at the same time, with varying degrees of volume, and strength of the vibrate. It works very well, and gives the impression you're actually pressing something.
We see this handset being a success with the Social Networking crowd, who will be able to upload videos direct to YouTube and take good quality pictures to post on their MySpace and Facebook accounts, as well as look cool with a sleek, black touchscreen device months before the iPhone hits these shores.