LG KU990 Viewty

LG's mission to build phones that stand out from the crowd has been something of a mixed success to date, but with the KU990 Viewty they may just have cracked it. This is a true convergence device that shoehorns a 5-megapixel camera into a phone that also boasts a huge 3-inch touchscreen and just about every other multimedia application you could imagine.

By Ted Gibbons / Tuesday, May 27 2008

Viewty rather clumsily stands for View the Next Technology, but that really is what you get with the KU990. As you can see from the image, the back side of the Viewty actually looks more like a camera than it does a phone. And not only is the camera 5-megapixels, but it also has a xenon flash, automatic and manual focus, image stabilisation for the shaky of hand, and a top ISO rating of 800 so you can happily snap away in dimly lit pubs and clubs. Once you’ve taken your pics there’s a swag of editing tools you can use to have some fun with them, and you can even upload them directly to a MySpace page, or elsewhere on the web.

But the Viewty’s camera isn’t done there. It’s also able to shoot in video mode, including at a staggering 120 frames per second. What’s cool about this is that videos shot at the high frame rate play back in slow motion. Yes, it’s a gimmick but it’s a good one, especially for fast action sequences, and you can upload the results straight to YouTube using the Muvee editing application.

In operation, I found the camera to be a pleasure to use. You’ve got a giant 3-inch screen to frame your shot, and a simple slider button to choose between still, video and playback modes. The shutter button is also handily placed and shutter lag is not too bad in well lit environments. In the dark, and with the ISO pumped up to 800, the Viewty will get its shot but not if your subject is on the move. On the whole, especially at the top 5-megapixel resolution, images were sharp and well saturated.

100MB of onboard storage is provided for your files, and you can also use microSD cards up to 2GB – annoyingly, these cards have to be inserted under the battery.

Moving away from the camera, the Viewty is also cutting edge with its 3-inch touchscreen and just three physical buttons – call, end and ‘back’ – on the front face. Unfortunately, these are three important buttons and their positioning right at the bottom edge of the device makes them very uncomfortable to use for one-handed operation.

In contrast, the generous proportions of the touchscreen mean that the graphic interface for controls like the numeric keypad and QWERTY keyboard are nice and big. You can successfully use fingers just as well as the provided stylus, and haptic feedback, whereby the phone vibrates at the touch of a button, inspires confidence that you’ve hit your mark. For messaging, I also appreciated the option of being able to call up either a multi-tap keyboard in portrait orientation, or a full QWERTY keyboard in landscape. Handwriting recognition is also very good.

The Viewty’s menu system uses a good system of graphic icons and the hierarchy of screens is nicely logical. There is also provision for some gestural controls, a la the iPhone, but I found these to be rather haphazard and difficult to execute successfully. I also wasn’t keen on using the zoom ring around the camera lens on the back of the phone to scroll through txt messages or my contacts list.

I must also have a little moan here about the stylus being housed separately in something akin to a lipstick holder and attached by a string. Things dangling off cellphones are strictly for teenage girls.

As a phone the Viewty works very well. Voice calls are loud and clear and network reception is decent.
One last trick the Viewty has up its sleeve is DivX video playback and a provided DivX encoder. There’s even a TV-out docking station you can buy separately.