The Viewty beauty

It’s a touch-phone with style, it’s a camera phone with a flash, it’s a 3G phone with HSDPA, it’s a video camera with action options. All these features are built into one of the best phones yet from LG, the KU 990, or Viewty. STEVEN AMBROSE takes it through its paces.

LG have recently been pushing the envelope in touch-screen mobile phones, making a splash with their first attempt, the exclusive and well-regarded Prada phone. The newly released KU 990 - or Viewty - builds on this platform and tries to be real competition in the touch-screen phone market (read “iPhone competitor”). After spending some time with this phone, both in South Africa and in the USA, I can safely say that this is one of LG’s best phones yet.


The LG KU990 is also LG’s latest camera phone and it is packed with all the latest tech goodies, from full quad-band 3G HSDPA to a built-in 5 Megapixel camera complete with digital image stabilisation and a Xenon flash. Xenon is much better than the average cell phone LED Flash, as its light output is much closer to normal sunlight. The LG also has high-speed, 120 frames per second video recording – one of the first examples of video on a phone that can capture fast-moving action scenes like the kids having fun. The phone also includes a full MP3 Player and a YouTube upload and viewing utility, which works well over 3G, but watch the cost!


The main feature of the phone is the very good 40mm by 66mm touch screen. The only mechanical keys, located on the bottom edge, are the end, send, and cancel keys. The LG is a sleek, good-looking, light and surprisingly well-built phone. It does not feel inexpensive and, despite its weight, feels solid.


How does it fare on the Gadget Five Question User Test? We took it for a ride:

1. Is it ready to use?

Unpacking the LG KU 990 from its well-made box and slipping in your SIM raises no challenges. The entire interface of the phone's software features finger-friendly icons and an attractive layout. Many reviewers have said they found it difficult to tap the small icons, but I didn’t have any problems with them, and I don’t have the smallest fingers around

The large touch-screen cleverly vibrates when you touch it, giving excellent feedback when you have touched the screen. The interface is fast and fairly responsive. I did, however, feel that it was not as good as the current leader in this area, the Apple iPhone.

Dialling and messaging is straightforward via a numeric or alphabetic keypad that works identically to a standard mobile phone keypad, minus the mechanical keys, and is aided by the vibrating feedback feature. The messaging interface also allows for handwriting input, but I found that slower than tapping the virtual keypad. The Sony Ericsson letter recognition system and the speed with which it recognises writing is still the leader in this regard.

The 5 Megapixel camera is very capable and of a similar quality to the Nokia N95's camera. You can adjust the size of images, picture quality, ISO and white balance, among other things.

The digital stabilisation feature reduces blur but don't expect the same level of quality as optical stabilisation.

An optical image stabilizer is a mechanism used in cameras that stabilizes the recorded image by varying the physical optical path to the sensor. Digital image stabilization shifts the electronic image of the frame or video, enough to counteract the motion. It uses pixels outside the border of the visible frame to provide a buffer for the motion.

The KU 990's proprietary Web browser is one of the best browsers I have tried on a mobile phone. Similar to the iPhone's browser, you can view full-sized Web pages at a reduced size and then zoom in on the sections you want to see properly. The inclusion of Wi-Fi would have made this feature even more useful and convenient.

All the standard phone functions worked well. I did, however, find that it took some time to become used to the mechanical back or cancel key on the bottom of the phone, instead of some form of touch screen back button. Once this was mastered, the phone was relatively simple to use.

2. Is it easy to use?

The touch-screen with its Haptic or vibration feedback makes this phone relatively intuitive. The bottom icon-based menu allows direct access to setup functions, phone book, and other key functions of the phone. I found that the camera selection button on the top edge of the phone was a curious throwback to mechanical phones: to change from single shot to movie mode, you have to slide this mechanical switch. All the phone functions, including the surprisingly cool photo viewing application, performed well.

The KU 990 comes with a photo viewer that can display pictures as if they were thrown on a table, letting you flick through them with your finger, or you can just use the standard mode that lines them all up. Other features include an attractive calendar, a fun 3D shoot 'em up game, speakerphone mode and a music player that supports MP3, AAC, WMA, WMV and AMR formats. The music player works well and lets you sort through artists and album art, similar to the functionality most standalone MP3 players.

3. Does it deliver on its promise?

In isolation, this phone would have made a huge impact on the standard keypad based phones out there. It is smooth, slick, good-looking in a minimalist way, and has cutting edge features and technologies. The camera virtually makes a separate camera unnecessary; the MP3 player, with the ability to expand memory using the Micro SD slot, is very good; and the other useful functions make this a great phone in every way. It does deliver on its promise; most people will find the phone easy to use and really functional. The only caveat I have is that there is plenty competition out there and the interface may not suite everybody.

4. Is it innovative?

Once again, in isolation, this phone is a huge step for LG, It is intuitive, the Haptic feedback touch screen and its interface is excellent and makes this a really cool alternative to your normal flip or candy bar phone. It is fast and has all the features that any user may want. The competition from the iPhone, the Nokia N95, and Samsung G600, as well as some of the latest phones released at the recent World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, makes the competition really stiff. The phone is innovative, but in the world of fast-moving mobile phone technology, does not set any new benchmarks for the industry.

5. Is it value for money?

This phone is now available from all the networks on reasonable packages and represents good value. The average street price of the phone of around R4900 is excellent value, taking into account the cool factor and the level of technology built into this phone.

In Summary

There is no doubt that touch is becoming the new way to interface with all your gadgets. The LG KU 990 does a very good job in this regard, and is without doubt the best phone LG has made to date. The ease of use, the smooth form factor, and the functionality, make this a formidable contender in the top-end phone space. I really enjoyed my time with this phone, and found it to be an excellent work companion and really good phone. The camera was very good and the quality of the interface made it easy to use. My advice is: try it; you may find your lust for the legally unavailable iPhone will be sated.

Steven Ambrose