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The new LG KE500 is a clean, no frills phone with decent, although not outstanding, multimedia support. While it is absolutely not to be confused with the rest of the line, is still has nothing to be ashamed of: A 2 mega-pixel camera, a memory card slot and FM radio and a nifty sliding design. |
Things I like:
- 2 mega-pixel camera, with the he LED flash
- microSdD memory card slot
- fast menu navigation
- Music player and the FM radio
- Blue-tooth
- USB storage
- GPRS and EDGE
Things that disappointed me
- Poor display in sunlight
- can't hot-swap the memory card
- no email client
- no notification of missed calls
LG has always made design a priority; the LG KE500 is their effort to offer their design to a lower budget audience.
Lots of Silver
The LG500 is in an all silver body weighing in at 90g measuring 97 x 47 x 15 mm. With the exception of the metal frame surrounding the display, the front panel is rather subdued. One huge advantage is the fingerprint resistant plastic parts.
While there are no wow features on the handset construction, neither are there any huge disappointments. I did notice a slight wobble on the upper part when the case was open, but that is not likely to ruin your enjoyment or experience, The case slides open quite easily and it has a slight ridge at the top of the D-pad to push on.
With the exception of the typical keypad and the D-pad, most of the controls are on the side of the handset. The left side sports the volume rocker and the ubiquitous wrist strap eyelet and the right side has the shutter key and the power button. The KG800Chocolate was set up in a similar way. Above those is the universal port for the charger, headset and data cable. The top and bottom have no controls at all.
The rear of the phone is taken up by the battery, which actually is the back panel. There is a simple and easy release button. The battery is a typical Li-Ion with a capacity of 800 mAH, quoted at 200 hours, but 3 days is more realistic. The SIM card is located under the battery and to the right of the release key is the microSD card slot. Sadly, the only way you can get to it is to remove the battery, and no card is included with the handset.
The LG engineers did a good job with the D-pad. It is encircled in a blue back-lit circle, with soft-keys, the dial key and the correction C key at the side. They look touch sensitive, but they are just standard hardware keys. The poor location of the receiver key makes it almost impossible to use in navigation, so you end up using it only to end calls with.
The keypad is rather typical, but with the slight bulge to the individual keys, the are easy to navigate by touch , with typing being very comfortable. One annoying thing is that each time you press a key, it makes a click. The keypad does not lock automatically, but does when idle for a few minutes.
The user interface is simple and easy to master. In standby mode, there's an animated wallpaper to serve as background. The screen has the usual status information: time, date and function assigned to the soft keys. You can also set a text note to show on the screen.
To get to the main menu, you use the center key of the D-pad or by using the left context key. The right key will launch the phone-book. The main menu has 9 icons, which can be displayed in a circle or in a classic grid. The main menu is animated, with jiggling icons. The icons themselves area bit disappointing, with little color and are a bit dull looking.
The sub-menus are classic lists, scrolled with the up and down keys. Keypad shortcuts are enabled by browsing the menu. Throughout the menu you get white text and icons on a blue background. The menu is quick and intuitive, with response being very fast.
A quick access grid displays tips on the functions assigned to the keys; they are preset and cannot be modified. The only choice you get is whether to display the grid in standby or not. The left key on the D-pad gives you the ringing profiles, up will give you the message editor, down launches the phone-book and right will take you to your favorites, where you can store 12 functions you use often.
The Camera
The LG KE500 has a 2mega-pixel camera with an LED flash. The lens is on the back, hidden and protected when the phone is closed. Beside the lens is the flash and the self portrait mirror. The largest pictures available is 1600 x 1200 pixels.
The viewfinder does not take up the entire display - the settings are in tool-bar format at the bottom of the screen. The options for each feature are in a pop up menu, so you can set resolution and picture quality, turn flash on and off, set self timer, define saving preferences, use burst (multi shot), apply color effects, set white balance and choose shutter sound.There is also 4x digital zoom and exposure compensation. There is 55mb of available memory, or you can store the pictures on a memory card.
Honestly, the picture quality is about average, with good color rendering but there is a good bit of noise. The camera can also record video in 3GP format at a maximum resolution of 176 x 144 pixels. The only limit on recording length is the amount of available memory.
There is a My Stuff directory where the pictures are stored, along with the rest of the multimedia content. Files are stored by type and can be moved to user-added folders. Your images can be set as wallpaper, you can send them via Blue-tooth or MMS, copy or move them. The handset was very slow when browsing pictures.
Messaging
The phone-book will hold up to 1000 multi-entry contacts. Every contact can have up to 4 phone numbers,a picture and an email address assigned to it. You can arrange contacts in groups, and you can store memos and anniversary data as well. The phone-book has 3 options for viewing: Names only, Name and number and With picture. The contacts are searched by the gradual typing method.
You can use the loudspeaker to enable hands free calling, and you can record 30 seconds of audio from each call. The LG KE500 works in GSM networks at 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz. UMTS is not supported.
Blue-tooth texting
The LG KE500 does support multimedia and text messaging. No email client, despite what some LG web sites state. You get 7 lines for text messages. A standard T9 dictionary is there as well. There are counters to alert you of the number of characters left and the chunks a message will break down into.
You can put Images, sound, video, as well as contact and calendar entries in multimedia messages. MMS size is limited to 300KB. A preview allows you to control the message and its contents.
The LG KE500 supports sending text messages via Blue-tooth. Not all handsets support the TXT format. Blue-tooth messages do use the same editor as SMS but they have a dedicated in-box.
Be organized
The organizing capabilities of the LG KE500 are adequate, but not spectacular. The biggest feature in the tools menu is the calendar, with a default month view. there is but one type of event, but you can enable repeat and you can set custom alerts. There is a task or to-do function. You can assign priority and mark off items as they are done. The maximum number of To-dos and Memos stored is 50. Synchronization with Outlook is available.
There are 5 available alarm slots and each can be assigned a title, a repeat pattern and a custom alert. The alarms go off even if the phone is turned off. The FM radio can also be used as an alert. Other functions include stopwatch, calculator, unit converter and world clock. The voice recorder gives you half-minute voice memos.
Cool Headphones
Pressing the camera key will minimize the music player. The player supports MP3, WAV and AAC formats. Tracks are organized by name and you can make your own play lists. The player has 2 skins and has shuffle and repeat mode.
I was impressed by the headset that was included in the box. There was a 3.5mm jack adapter and the headset also has a mouthpiece and a pad for answering calls.I will say the headset was a bit uncomfortable and kept falling off my ears, but the 3.5mm jack adapter means you can use any headphones you want.
In addition to the standard music features, there is the FM radio. It allows you to store 12 stations in auto-scan. Also included is s simple video player, which supports 3GP and MPEG-4 formats.
EDGE connectivity
The phone uses both GPRS and EDGE, both class 10. If you roll that way, there is also CSD connectivity. When the phone is connected to the PC, you have two working modes: Phone mode and Mass Storage. Anytime the phone is connected, it is charging. PC sync software is included.
Browser nothing to write home about
The LG KE500 has an integrated WAP browser, which has bookmarks and the ability to disable images. It displays 12 lines of text when you are browsing, and when you close it, you get a count of the data transferred.
A decent, affordable phone.
Overall, the impression left by the LG KE500 is a positive one. It has discreet style and a reasonable multimedia capabilities. It balances function with afford ability. For the price, it has a lot to offer and there is every reason to think this will be a popular phone.
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