LG Viewty reviewed
Sexy, isn't she?
(Credit: CNET UK)It's an accepted (albeit begrudgingly) fact at Crave that our fellow Cravers in Singapore and the United Kingdom get all the flashy cell phones before we do. The iPhone was an exception to this rule and we couldn't help but tease our colleagues that finally, we were getting something first.
Unfortunately, after our brief moment in the sun things got back to normal quickly. The most recent example is the LG KU990 Viewty. No, we don't get the name either, but in a world of Fuziqs, Marbls, and Upstages, we've come to expect wacky handset names. In any case, CNET UK's Andrew Lim has finished his review of the Viewty after first telling us about the 5-megapixel camera phone last month.
It's a camera! It's a phone! No, it's a camera phone!
(Credit: CNET UK)The Viewty, aka the YouTube phone, earned an "excellent" rating of 8.2 out of 10. Lim praised the phone's touch-screen interface, fantastic camera, HSDPA (3.5G) support, and its ability to upload videos straight to YouTube. He wasn't fond of its lack of Wi-Fi and a camera-lens cover, and he said the camera-mode switch is a little tough to move. But on the whole he called it "one of LG's best phones yet." If that's not a solid endorsement, I don't know what is.
Kent German is a senior editor for cell phone reviews at CNET. When he's not testing the newest handsets on the market, he's blogging about cell phone news for Crave. In his On Call column, he answers reader questions and gives his take on the rapidly changing mobile industry. E-mail Kent. 
The camera has frozen up more times than I can count - since I bought it roughly a week ago, requiring removal of the back cover and battery, which - if you read the LG user's guide - may actually damage the phone. There's no other way to get around it. The red 'call end' key doesn't do it, the power off switch is frozen as well. The only thing that you can do is to take off the back cover, remove the battery, then reinsert the battery and restart it.
I've had a Nokia N73 for just about a year now, and it has NEVER frozen up to the point where I had to remove the battery and restart it. Not one time in almost a year.
Shame on LG for not finding and correcting this bug. It's the MAIN REASON why somebody would buy this model in the first place. Yes, the camera takes good pics - it SHOULD take good pic at $600, but what the hell good is it, if it freezes up 10 times a day? Taking out the battery is a royal pain in the ass, and makes you look like a dick when people are watching.
Second major point - although the touch-screen looks GREAT, scrolling up and down through the menus is a real chore, and, at best, hit or miss. You can get it to scroll up and down, sure - but it's not an exact science and causes frustration. You hope and pray that it will stop scrolling where you want it to, but it rarely does. They should have included a manual navigation key or toggle switch of some kind. Bad move by LG Engineers. To retain beauty of form, they sacrificed functionality - and it was a MAJOR sacrifice, in my opinion.
Another annoyance is the lack of a lens cover. I thought this would be a minor irritation that I could learn to live with, but I find myself constantly putting my fingers and hands onto the lens itself. Smudge marks and dust and dirt accumulate quickly. Whoever within LG decided that a high quality 5MP lens would NOT need any lens protection should be moved at once to a position more suitable to his or her abilities - sweeping floors and emptying trash bins comes to mind. A simple pop on / pop off plastic cover would have been sufficient.
Where do companies find engineers and marketing people like this? Isn't there a screening process of some kind, a minimal IQ requirement, the ability to think logically and make recommendations to product managers, etc. Apparently not.
Doesn't anybody speak up at weekly meetings and say, wait a minute, this is a high-end 5 megapixel Schneider-Kreuznach lens, shouldn't we provide some kind of cover for it? Every KU 990 Viewty review I have read over the past 2 months - every single one - mentions and laments the lack of a lens cover. Why do companies insist on ignoring their customers? Do they think we won't notice?
Finally, a note of caution about LG Mobile in Bangkok. A few days after buying the Viewty, I tried to buy a replacement battery, as the battery drains quickly due to the large 240 X 400 screen. I spent an entire day walking around MBK (the largest mobile parts market in Thailand) looking for a replacement battery. Some of the dealers actually laughed when I said I needed a Viewty battery.
I then went to the authorized LG Service Center on Sukhumvit Road 26, and to my utter amazement, the manager on duty said 'new model, no have battery'. This is totally unacceptable. Unbelievable to say the least.
They called me later in the day and offered to 'special order' a battery for me. Since when the fu*k are batteries a special order part? What kind of company puts a $600 mobile phone on the market and doesn't supply spare batteries for it?
I suggest all LG manager-trainees be required to walk into a Nokia shop as part of their training. There, they will see a nice assortment of leather covers, replacement batteries, bluetooth devices, adaptors, memory cards, etc.
I sent several e-mails to LG but they just referred me to another web address. After a week of waiting for a serious reply, I gave up. I now have a very sexy $600 mobile phone with a camera that freezes up 10 times a day and dead battery with no available replacements.
CONCLUSION
Stay away from the LG KU 990 Viewty. I should have listened to my friends and not ventured away from Nokia in the first place. Lesson learned. Luckily I still have my N73, which I will keep - until it or I die.
If you know anybody looking for a new Viewty, I'll sell it for half price, that's 8,500 Baht. You can call me in Bangkok at 086 985 5920 or 087 338 5670 - it comes with the original box, user's manual, CD, etc.
Kind regards,
Kent F. Kruhoeffer
1 May 2008
This is a follow-up post to my original comments which are now on page 2 of this thread.
When I wrote the original review, I was clearly not happy at having wasted an entire day off searching for a battery. Since then, I have cooled down and taken other people's advice to heart.
I've been 'practicing' with it for half an hour every night before going to bed. The result? I'm now scrolling up and down web pages with almost acceptable accuracy.
Batteries have also magically appeared on certain store shelves here in Bangkok, which leads me to believe that somebody at LG read my post. Score 1 for the internet.
In most areas, the phone is truly excellent, and I'm afraid that point was overshadowed by my negativity regarding the 'no battery in stock' drama.
As one of the more recent posters mentioned, it is fast - really fast. I have also tested bluetooth transfers, USB photo uploads, the MP3 player, the web browser (full screen surfing in landscape mode is totally cool) and have recently downloaded lots of wallpapers.
Speaking of wallpaper, I now have a page on Mobilepark.eu with a selection of wallpapers that fit the Viewty's 240 X 400 screen. They are completely free. You simply enter the wallpaper's wap download code, and download the wallpaper directly to your phone. Here is the link to the main page:
http://www.mobilepark.eu/wallpapers/240x400/?user=Kentk9
And here is a link to the mobile download page:
http://wap.mobilepark.eu
Once you figure out it's little secrets, the LG Viewty really is an amazing piece of 20th Century ingenuity. To bring this long-winded review to a proper end, I would say this, "The more you use it, the better it gets."
Yours truly,
Kent F. Kruhoeffer
I read oyur comments with lots of interest. Thanks for your comments. They have enlightened me. I intend to buy a KU 990, with the lens cover. I think it is called the KU 990R, which means it is revised with lens cover and some new features.
I like to find out from you how the long the battery lasts per charge, and does taking video drains off the battery power? Can you give me some details?
You mentioned that the camera freezes 10 times a day. Is this still true after you tried out for awhile?
Thanks in advance, and hope to hear comments from others too.
N.G.
- by sharandom January 11, 2009 9:06 PM PST
- Can you get a new case with a new screen with it?
- Reply to this comment
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(7 Comments)Or can you fix a really scratched screen??