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After the success of the KE850 Prada and KU990 Viewty, it's obvious that LG - users love their touch screen handsets with big displays and no keypads. The next offering was only a matter of time and last summer's announcement of the LG KS20 makes a respectable showing running on Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional.
The new KS20 obviously owes a great deal to the KE850 Prada, losing the Prada name but adding some Pocket PC features to the picture. The LG KS20 is a lightweight phone of compact dimensions and a huge 2.8" QVGA TFT display.
Cool features
* Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
* Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
* 2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash
* Stereo FM radio with RDS
* USB to 3.5mm jack adapter
* Compact dimensions
* 2.8" 65K color touchscreen TFT display of QVGA resolution
* HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps
* 400 MHz Qualcomm MSM7200 processor
* 128MB RAM and 256MB ROM, microSD expansion slot
Big Disappointments
* The joystick too short
* Proprietary LG USB connector
* Battery fixed to the rear panel
* Hard-to-use stylus
* No GPS
With the KS20 we see a custom LG implementation of the user interface. Also cool is the PSNote application. LG KS20 also brings with it two very amusing games and Google Maps.
The box it comes in
The LG KS20 box of brings has all the essentials - charger, manual and a CD with software and drivers. Also included is a USB cable and headphones with a remote control and 3.5mm jack.
The compact LG KS20 is among the smallest PocketPCs, measuring 99.8mm in height, 12.8mm in thickness and only 92.5 grams of weight. LG KS20 strives for a combination of functionality and hi-end design flair. The ergonomics are good and working with the handset was a pleasure.
The LG KS20 is powered by the 400 MHz Qualcomm MSM7200 processor, utilizing 128MB of RAM and 256MB of ROM. The resources proved enough to work fast with different applications and even watch XViD videos at near-VGA videos.
Design
The front of the phone is dominated by the 2.8" 262K-color touchscreen TFT display with QVGA (320x240 pixels) resolution. Over the display is the earpiece and to its right the secondary videocall camera is found. Next to it is the status LED, which comes to life when either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi is on or when charging battery.
Under the display is a thin bar hosting the Call and End keys, with the joystick in the center. The short joystick is very responsive and comfortable, but the metallic finish makes it a bit slippery - I would have preferred a rubber or plastic tip.
The universal connectivity port of the KS20 is located on the left. The protective cap neatly blends with the silver framing on the sides of the handset. The port is used for the charger, the data cable and headset (headset adapter). The external antenna connector is located there as well. The volume rocker is found dead center on the left side.
The right side of the phone houses the on/off key, the microSD slot beneath its plastic protector, and two shortcut keys, with icons indicating their default setting: internet browser and camera. The top side of the KS20 is bare and doesn't feature any control elements - the left corner is home to the ubiquitous wrist lanyard eyelet.
On the bottom side, the battery cover latch is the only element. Next to the battery cover release button is the tiny mouth piece and the left corner has the slot to tuck the telescopic stylus. Taking it out requires a bit of effort - the stylus jams when pulled out halfway. The back panel of LG KS20 is as sleek as the front. The camera lens is located in the top left corner with the LED flash beneath. They are placed on a stylish brushed metal plate.
The battery cover is removed upon a push of the release key. LG decided to integrate the battery in the removable cover. This means when the battery eventually needs replacing you'll have to pay for the stylish cover too.
The LGLP-GBKM Li-Ion battery has a capacity of 1050 mAh and is quoted at up to 270 hours of standby up to 3 hours of talk time. The SIM card bed is hidden in the upper half of the handset but the release mechanism makes handling the SIM card quite easy.
Display
LG KS20 has a large 2.8" 262K color touchscreen TFT display with QVGA (320x240 pixels) resolution.
65K seems a bit old school, right? Well, yes, but it's really not that bad. 262K colors is not a native thing to a 32-bit processor with 8KB data cache and 16 KB instruction cache. Those processors prefer either 65K colors or 16M colors. LG is claiming their KS20 has a 262K color display, but that's all it has - a display. Even if it's a 262K-capable, it's still fed only with the same 65K colors everybody is grumbling about.
In broad daylight the display remained visible with no negative impact on usability. When it comes to performance under direct sunlight, far better displays are by Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Under direct sunlight the display becomes noticeably dimmed.
In the dark the display performed very well and we were more than happy with the adjustable brightness levels that allowed for comfortable experience.
Comfort Dial
The Phone application has charge of all telephone-related features. It has virtual keys that allow easy one-hand operation. In the upper right corner of the virtual keypad is the Backspace key, under it is the Speed dial key. You hardly ever need to open your phonebook in order to dial a contact. Open the Phone app and use the built-in Smart Dial feature. After you've punched a few digits, it filters the available contacts by their numbers… and their names. It uses the letters assigned to each number key for that - but unlike a feature phone, it checks all the available combinations (much like T9 when writing).
When you power up the phone, the first thing you'll notice is the custom home screen add-on that comes pre-installed. It's a handy plug-in, offering access to most of the applications and phone options. The main disadvantage is the additional applications that you install will not feature in the LG interface menus and can be accessed via the standard WM interface only.
The home screen plug-in is displayed at the bottom of the screen and consists of 4 quick tabs: menu, phone, messaging, and the Vodafone tab (our test unit featured the Vodafone firmware version). The first tab launches a menu with a 5-tab navigation bar on the right. The five tabs are: (1) phone related applications and messaging, (2) Vodafone menu, (3) camera and multimedia, (4) office software and other tools and, finally, (5) settings and connectivity.
Windows Mobile offers themes but they only change the color scheme. You can change the wallpaper on the Home screen as well, but that's all you get. To get some more advanced customization you would need a third party application. Those kinds of applications eat up your RAM.
Calling People
The Windows Mobile OS has an unlimited contact list with many available fields for each entry.
One useful additional field to each contact is the "Last call" field. It displays the number and the time the particular contact was last called. A full log is displayed of calls to and from numbers belonging to this contact, as well as call duration and time of call.
Sending and receiving messages is done via the centralized Inbox with separate folders for SMS, MMS and email. SMS length is virtually unlimited, as is the memory available for received and sent messages. In the multimedia editor is the useful option to create multi-page messages containing more than one melody, image or text.
The Outlook Mobile email client supports multiple POP3 and IMAP accounts and has full support for sending and receiving attachments.
There are several text input methods with the LG KS20, the most useful and convenient being the virtual QWERTY keyboard. The keys are small enough to force the user to write with the stylus, but there are many free third party applications offering really large and convenient keyboards.
Managing your files
The KS20, file manager is the standard Windows Mobile variety. The file manager can create new folders, copy and move files, set tracks as ringtones or send files to other devices.
The Picture gallery of Windows Mobile is an application called Pictures&Videos. You can zoom in and out and preview them in landscape mode. The files are shown as either thumbnails or as a plain list. The Windows Mobile image gallery nowhere near perfect, even mid-range feature phones now have more advanced image galleries. It is easy to find yourself a nice gallery application though - the PocketPC platform is so expandable.
I installed a TCPMP player and the needed codecs to play DivX and XviD video files. With the 400 MHz Qualcomm MSM 7200 processor, playing movies at near-VGA resolution on the KS20 is impossible without the GDI mode of the player. The lack of a video driver for the embedded video chip in the MSM7200 chipset is a major problem. In this mode the dropped frames are considerably less and the film is at least watchable. It is best if you play PPC-optimized QVGA clips but who is going to spend the time to convert countless films to watch them on a phone?
2 megapixel is a surprise
It is well known that PocketPC are at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to camera performance. Apparently, not any more. The LG KS20 has a 2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash that takes clear, crisp and well balanced photos.
The camera menu is easy to operate with either stylus or joystick. White balance can be either automatic or custom set and you can apply several color effects (Black and White, Sepia, Negative) and use the special Burst mode with 1, 3, 6 or 9 shots with an average interval of 3 seconds in full resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels. The built-in flash can be always on, auto or switched off. Another important option is choosing between the main or the secondary camera to take photos.
The pictures taken with LG KS20 are nothing like you would expect; the are much better. Surprisingly crisp and detailed, they are noise-free with almost no sharpening artifacts. Color-rendering is very good, too. The camera can shoot from very close, near macro mode distance. The camera of LG KS20 is among the best 2 megapixel shooters I've tested so far and it beats any and all HTC offerings (both 2 and 3 megapixels).
Data transfers
PocketPCs are really about connectivity, both wired and wireless. The connectivity port allows seamless synchronization with MS Outlook. Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP) is available. There is no Infrared port, but you do have Wi-Fi. There are also HSDPA (3.6 Mbps) GPRS and EDGE, so you always have data options available.
KS20 has with the Internet Explorer Mobile web browser. You will probably want to replace it with another browser, but it does have several interesting view options. You can have it fit the text to the screen, show everything in one column or show the website as it is. Landscape mode and fullscreen mode are also available. It's no accident at all that HTC are shipping their devices with Opera Mobile preinstalled.
Office is here
Windows Mobile offers several time-management features, all syncable with MS Outlook. The Calendar is much better than the one used in Windows Mobile 5, now allowing searches for events to come. It offers the standard daily, weekly and monthly view and you can have the week start on either Monday or Sunday. The To-Do list lets you to add tasks and give them priority. The Notes also come in handy, as you can either type or directly write the text down on the screen.
The Alarm clock has three alarm slots. As a frequently used feature, Microsoft should have put more effort into making the alarm clock easily accessible instead of being buried deep in the Settings menu.
The Office Mobile features support for viewing and editing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.
Final Words
KS20 LG is tackling the Pocket PC niche with style. It's a compact and refined devicewith a big dose of style to stand out in the bunch of heavy-duty devices. Plus, it offers one of the best cameras in the Pocket PC segment. If you want a gadget with full connectivity and data options that turns heads and has WiFi and HSDPA, LG KS20 is an option worth considering if you're after a Pocket PC.
  
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