The LG KG800 Chocolate phone hit the streets and has become a instant success (LG Chocolate Sells Half A Million In 4 Weeks) so we got our hands on one to review something a little bit different even though its not a 3G phone. Offering a sleek and sexy look that has made it a must have fashion accessory for many. The LG Chocolate phone is stunning with its glowing red touchpad, 128MB of internal memory, 1.3 megapixel camera and a MP3 player. Boasting tri-band GSM and GPRS support - all packed into a petite slider shell.
Check out latest prices in the USA here LG VX8500 Chocolate Phone
Or if your in the UK check here LG K800 Chocolate
First off people who are looking for a new phone must be aware that the LG Chocolate is made for and marketed too the fashion concious crowd rather than the technophiles who are on a constant hunt for the latest and greatest of multimedia functions. While offering a host of great features that we will outline below, it does not compete with other feature packed phones on offer today. This is clearly a phone that is designed to have and be seen with above all else. From when you first open the box and find the phone tucked away in a nifty pouch to when you first slide open the sleek front panel and your eyes are captured by the red display as it comes alive, it automatically makes you feel you have something special in your hands. Incidentaly in yet another display of decedance the name Chocolate apparently comes from the Korean market where the phone actually smells like chocolate.
The LG KG800 has a 262K color TFT display and is pretty decent but the resolution of 176 x 220 pixels falls short of other phones in its price range. With a screen size of 31 x 33 mm readability in bright conditions is very good however the display is not so easy viewing if you are looking at it from a wide viewing angle. Thus while the screen display is certainly not poor by any means, as mentioned before it does not compare to some of the other latest offerings out today.
The LG Chocolate supports the sending and receiving of SMS, EMS, MMS and email messages as per mobile phones of today. Overall the messaging system is really simply to use and has a few nice features to boot.
Email supports both POP3 and SMTP for sending/reciving emails, however those with file attachments it does impose harsh limits. The max size for one sent message is 300 KB including attachments, and the max size for one received message is 100 KB. Also emails you recive with more than 5 attachments only the first 5 of them will be received. You can set up 3 e-mail accounts and in each one you may save up to 50 messages (150 in total), however the Inbox you can store only up to 30 messages for each account. The other 20 slots are reserved for the Drafts and Outbox folders. Obviously not a phone to manage a busy email schedule on. EMS release 5 is supported, so the LG KG800 Chocolate is capable of sending color pictures, sounds, text styles amongst other things. A nice feature is that if you have started a message and for some reason you have to cancel it, the message is saved automatically as a draft and the next time you start a message the phone offers you the chance to continue it from where you left it last time or start a fresh.
The LG KG800 Chocolate lacks a memory card slot and playlist support which clearly indicates that this phone is by no means a music player/replacement. However as mentioned above it was never meant to be, this phone should be judged on its own merits and targetted market.
The MP3 player, camera software, and Photos album of the LG KG800 are kept in a Multimedia section which can be started with a quick press of the external camera/mp3 player shortcut key. The dedicated Photo album in addition to the file manager goes some way to make up for its average capabilities. Viewed as a picture gallery it allows for advancing to the next photo by pressing the navigation keys and supports thumbnail viewing, however Zooming is not available.
The MP3 player available in the LG Chocolate does not support playlists and it simply plays all files you have saved in the music folder. File formats supported are MP3, AAC, AAC+, AAC++, WMA, MP4 (audio), and WAV. AAC files tend to be smaller in size than MP3 which can help you extend the limited storage space. A major problem with the music playing is that it doesn't support ID3 tags and the tracks are simply arranged by the respective file names with no chance of ordering by either artist or song name.
The LG KG800 Chocolate has a 1.3 megapixel camera that offers resolutions up to 1280x960 pixels. The camera itself is slow and it takes over 10 seconds to turn on the camera and shoot at the max resolution.
There is a small flash light help in poor light. There is also a night mode which does very well and in comparison to night modes in other cameras produces relatively low photo noise. The camera has a 4x digital zoom although this is not available at max resolution. The camera offers such usual picture options such as resolution, brightness, white balance and some color effects like sepia, black & white, negative, etc. The overall picture quality is good as long as you are able to hold the phone perfectly still during capture. The camera is awfully slow there is a long delay from the press of the button and the capture of the photo. By the time you want to take a shot the scene has already changed when the actual images takes place. It is easy to be misled by the time it takes the camera to take a picture and thinking that it should have already taken the picture, you may end up with a image that is just a blur.
Overall the camera is not that great, user friendlyness and usability suffers from long shutter lag and a cropped image view finder that only shows part of the picture that the camera will capture.
LG KG800 Chocolate Advantages:
- Cool look and design.
LG KG800 Chocolate Disadvantages:
- No memory slot
- Slow camera
- No MP3 playlist and no ID3 tag support
In conclusion the LG KG800 Chocolate is an example of style over substance...surely a great phone to own and be seen with but dont expect a multimedia extravaganza. It does include the standard calander app, a Sudoku game, calculator etc but the music player and camera are sub par at best and it does not include an expandable memory slot.
LG KG800 Chocolate Specifications:
- Tri band GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900
- 95 x 48 x 15.2 mm
- Weight 83 g
- Display Type TFT, 256K colors
- Size 176 x 220 pixels, 31 x 39 mm
- Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3, AAC
- Memory Phonebook 1000 entries
- Call records 40 dialed, 40 received, 40 missed calls
- Card slot No
- - 128 MB shared memory
- Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
- HSCSD No
- EDGE No
- 3G No
- WLAN No
- Bluetooth Yes, v1.2
- Infrared port No
- USB Yes
- Stand-by Up to 200 h
- Talk time Up to 6 h
Check out latest prices in the USA here LG VX8500 Chocolate Phone
Or if your in the UK check here LG K800 Chocolate
