LG KU990 Viewty review
December 7th, 2007
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LG Viewty reviewty.
A phone with a quality digital camera or a digital camera with a phone?
INTRODUCTION
Well for the first time in probably 5 years – I’ve not used a smartphone for a week. The LG Viewty, and its other brother the Prada phone thing have interested me for a while, so when Matt rather randomly asked me to review LG’s latest and greatest I was more than happy to.

Lets get one thing out of the way first off: This is not an iPhone beater. As long as you don’t expect it to be – you’ll be fine.
It’s very much a “chav-phone”, and it will sell by the bucket load regardless of this, or any other review. It’s a bit of a looker really as well – surprising considering the huge touch screen.
What’s in the Box?
A decent package, which looks expensive and well thought out. I especially liked the named boxes within the main package, which make it clear which lead is from where. Especially useful when sending review devices back!

For the full low-down have a look at Matt's unboxing video.
LG Viewty Specification:
GENERAL
At 103.5 x 54.4 x 14.8mm it is larger than the older Prada phone, but not by much. The extra space I guess its to do with a pretty special 5mp camera included in a still small form factor. It is most definitely not too big though – fits nicely in the pocket, and although it’s slightly heavy – it's not a problem.
Lets take a look around the device then, and on the front, as you might have guessed – a dominant 3 inch touch screen running at 240 x 400. The screen seems to be high quality – and sometimes you could also be fooled into thinking some of the displayed buttons are hardware based!
While the standard earpiece and forward facing camera are found at the top of the screen, a single row of three buttons is all we find at the bottom. They are the rather common(!) call and end keys, sandwiching the ‘back’ button in the middle.

Moving to the right hand side, we see the two position camera button – auto-focus, take photo, and a 3 position sliding switch, allowing the user to select between photos, videos, and playback/review. In between these, is the unlock/lock push button. Slightly concerned about this really – although I had no problems, I think the chances of accidently unlocking the device in your pocket could be quite high.

On the opposite left side, all we find is the headset/data/charger socket, behind a sliding cover. This is most definitely not a standard socket I’ve seen – although I’m not sure if it's an LG standard – maybe someone in the know could comment about this?

On the top of the device – just the battery compartment release. There is no fixed power button on the device – it shares this function with the call end key. Just like old times!

Finally on the bottom.... well there is no bottom. There is no flat edge – it just flows round from the hardware buttons on the front, to the LG logo on the camera front.

Just a quick note on the reverse of the phone – it’s been designed to look exactly like a digital camera – and they have done an unbelievable job in achieving that aim. You really would not be able to tell that it isn’t a digital camera from the front.

I guess that I should also mention the strange stylus that's included. Unlike most other devices I've come across, that would have the stylus slide into a slot in the phone itself, LG have elected to include a stylus that dangles from a string. It's like a cross between a phone-charm and a lipstick. I think this will be something that the ladies may like but that the guys will leave in the box!

SOFTWARE
Interesting section this. Obviously at Tracy and Matt, we tend to stick to a semi-rigid template for out review to aid comparisons. But how do you review software on a non-smartphone?
The OS is usable. It's certainly not going to win any awards – despite being skinable, and certainly not letting the side down too much. As it is a touch screen, you are without doubt going to compare it to the iPhone. As I said earlier – it's not an iPhone beater, but then it isn’t £270 on an 18 month contract. Having said that, it does have 3G and a half decent camera – so specs wise, the Viewty isn't bad at all in comparison.
The touch screen UI is nice, but even when doing simple scrolling – its very apparently that this isn’t exactly a speed machine. Remember the lovely scrolling interface on the iPhone? Well its not really like that – think scrolling in XP without your graphics card driver installed. It's usuable, but hard work at times.
Unfortunately the speed issues don’t end there – and the camera functions also suffer. It isn’t the fastest to take photos, but it does OK. Certainly suitable for camera phone use, if not as a replacement for your digital camera. The main problem is looking through and reviewing old snaps. I don’t know if the 5mp size of the photos, coupled with the low spec CPU is the problem – but I suspect it probably is. It's torturous trying to skim through photos – with each one taking up to 15 seconds to display.
The rest of the O/S is pretty straightforward, and works rather well. Messaging is a breeze – even compared to the iPhone - with both an onscreen T9 board and full keyboard present. There is handwriting recognition, but somehow LG have managed to make it even worse than that built into Windows Mobile.

Highlights:
Ease of use: I like smartphones, but it was nice to go back to a phone that just works. No silly bugs, no silly keypresses required, overly complicated menus etc – just a decent easy to use phone.
On-screen T9/vibrating touch screen: It really works. The screen is great – and I assume a high quality touch sensor too – very accurate, very ease to tap out a message – and the vibrating response to a press really does work, and help to improve typing speed – at least for me
Battery life: It doesn’t appear to go down. I’ve been needing a phone on me a lot this week – so have been charging it regularly – but I’ve never seen it go beyond three-quarters full.
3g: It’s great to see 3g making it to almost all areas and markets of the mobile phone industry now. Personally, I think any phone without 3g should be taken off the shelves immediately, but equally LG deserve praise for including it.
Lowlights:
Poor PC Software – LG Suite. Stay away from it at all costs. Save photos to the storage card and use mass storage mode instead!
Speed: Low spec compared to the iPhone I suspect, and it does at times suffer from it. I’m being picky in most cases, but the camera and picture review functions are a real let down.
REVIEW
Anyway, back to the review. On startup I was very surprised (And a little confused to be honest), to find it had auto-selected Orange settings for me – despite no user input. The device was supplied direct from LG, so I suspect it may have auto-created these itself, finding the network from the SIM card. Odd that it didn’t bother to tell me, but a nice feature anyway.
With this all setup, I had a bit of a play with the web browser (web, rather than wap), and the finger scrolling is especially useful, if a little hard to master.
A major problem I have these days, having used Windows Mobile devices for so long, is message storage space. I’ve never deleted a text message or email from my WM phones – unless I’m hard resetting. Unfortunately like all non-smartphones, the LG only has so much room reserved for messages – regardless of microSD card installed. This is a pain in the bum LG!

I should also note that LG maintain that a Youtube client will be installed on the final version, which will allow both download and upload of videos. Unfortunately it wasn’t available on this review unit.
I hope this addition will be couple with an upgrade of the camera applications and tool as well. The options are endless – and its all very, very impressive in such a small, cheaper unit. It’s just way too slow. Hopefully this might be improved in the official released units – because the options available to edit photos and video – on the device – are some of the best I’ve used.
To review this device though, I have to look at the day to day use of it. I have been lucky enough to have used the Viewty for quite a while, and I’m really impressed with the simple usability and stability of it. From the simple, if scary, unlock button to the onscreen qwerty keyboard in landscape mode.
One other thing that bugs me about many devices at the moment, the LG Viewty included, is that they seem to come with their own proprietary connectors for headphones, chargers and data cables. I find this frustrating that each time you buy a new phone you have to buy new chargers etc. or you have to buy adapters in order to use any headphones other than the ones supplied. On the plus side there is a nice sliding cover over the connector which will help to prevent dust getting in there but is it too much to ask for a standard headphone socket and mini USB connector?

One little titbit to end with, that I found while using the camera on the Viewty – the rocker switch around the camera lens, used to digitally zoom in and out when taking photos – is also an up/down rocker key throughout the entire O/S. Not ideally positioned – but sometimes useful when trying to move to a set position in a text! Another hardly-advertised feature is the support for divx movies. This coupled with the microSD slot makes the Viewty a small portable media player. Not bad for what isn’t exactly an expensive phone.

CONCLUSION
I really didn’t expect to get along with this. The idea of a touch screen being the only input method was not something I fancied trying. Equally, I didn’t really fancy dropping my ultra smart TyTN for a ‘normal’ phone either.
It did take a while for me to come around to the ideas behind the Viewty – but now as of Monday, with the device going back tomorrow, I’m almost sad to see it go. Its not smart, and in many ways is very limited compared to the phones I’m used to. But it just works. The touchscreen input – just works, the navigation – just works. It doesn’t do anything particularly special, but everything I really need it to do – it does.
I think I like a non-smartphone.
Review by: Mark
[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, LG, Viewty, KU990, camera phone]
Comments, Pingbacks:
i was wondering if there's a text editor in this baby. qwerty keyboard seems joy to use.
oh well, it's a non-smartphone.
but, i might as well give it a go. :)
Does anyone know why, when i send an SMS that is longer than 2 full messages the phone converts it into an MMS!!! Its costing me everytime!!
GRRRR
I've spent loads on this review if this is the case :(
there is an option in the text messages section to toggle exactly the problem you are having. you can disable it so it only sends it in text format.. not to sure why people would want to convert it into MMS but im sure LG have a reason.
Sean
1, lack of customization such as been able to arrange menu orders to suit the most accessed things.
2, the software to link to the PC is totally awful its buggy its slow its something i would expect from the first ever phone with usb compatibility.
when you view your pictures saved on the cam you have to click them one by one to get a preview and must do this before dragging and dropping to an location on your pc.
it wouldn't be so bad if you could just browse the phone like any other device with storage and use windows explorer to do your work.
all this rave on about the camera,, yeah its good for a phone but the pic quality aint all that.
and where is this so called " upload direct to youtube" i was hearing about prior to buying the phone..
there also seems to be a huge lack of after sales support on this phone..
there is more on sites like this than on the actual LG site..
you have to use the crappy software provided.
and once connected click on the contents button.
when its loaded up there will be a videos folder and your file should be in there, unless you are saving to the external memory ( aka memory stick ) then it will be elsewhere.
after spending some time here
http://www.ku990.co.uk/
i have learnt a lot...
@sean, turn your handsets usb settings to mass storage device.. and now it can be viewed and used as an external device like a hard drive.. so draggin and dropping using windows explorer means no more using the software supplied
And then i saw "chav phone" hmm i doubt this you actually think those idiots can afford this ? and anyway you know what chavs are like i.e. not intelligent which i would say is more likely to make them opt for a Iphone on contract.
Thanks for your comments.
and its free under contract. brilliant. like others i'm having niggly problems with the UI, keyboard etc, but nothing so terrible to make me return the phone. i'd be more bothered if i had to pay money, but for free, its great.
i have a problem using the LG PC Suite. After i achieve my phone sms to PC storage, all the sms achieved to PC memory has been disappeared after next connection with the LG PC Suite.
does anyone have the same problem as i do? i cant make it fixed, even reinstall the software for serveral times and install with 3 different PCs.
Thanks
si
Many thanks.
I'll be using it for camera and music player
So what would you recommend?
Cheers
I gave up my smart tytn (T-mobile MDA Vario) and have no regrets.
As for the long texts you need to go: messaging>settings>text message>send long text as and pick multiple sms.
I think it beats the iPhone for us upnorth (with no wifi hot spots but plenty of 3g and some hsdpa)remember the iPhone doesn't have 3g.
I think chavs in our area would have the n95 over this because they think the touch is 'nerdy'.
I love it!, takes a bit of getting used to and once you delete the software and just use the mass storage, its ace.
Andy
I am planning on getting it on 3 too
But why did you say you removed the software?
Also what do you mean by mass storage?
Also do the fingers get in the way when zooming in?
Does the stylus get annoying when you carry it?
Finally does it really take up to 15 secs to load a pic?
I haven't bothered with the stylus because it looks like a lipstick, once you get used to the touch screen it works really well with your finger.
This phone is a lot faster than my previous mda vario, speed wise I thik its very good.
After being with three for 3 days now, I wouldn't choose any other network, i've had 02 and t-mobile and three are by far the best.
I did expect the zooming/lense to be a problem but it isn't, it's actually a very good design and you hold it just like a normal camera and using the camera funtions is very easy. Whether its dark or light it takes pictures that are as good as my dedicated 4mp samsung digital camera.
'Bored' is absolutely right.
Theres a knack to the scrolling and some of the features but after only 3 days, I'm used to it and it is brilliant.
You would have to pay me to swap this for the iPhone (I love my iPod classic) I've tried the iPhone, the K850i andn this is the leader - I love it!!!
I hope I haven't just banged on about how much I love the Viewty compared to any other phone and three compared to any other network and actually given you some useful advice!
Andy
Looking to get a Viewty just after crimbo. Heard some bad reports about the LG Chocolate so the LG thing is kinda off putting. However i do think some so far make the phone look quite good!
At the min ive got a k800i and i after nearly 18 months with this and a year with the k750i its time for a change.
Overall how you recommend it, and whats this about usb mass storage.
Thanks in advance
I am going to get the Viewty after all.
I just don't understand the mass-storage idea
Am I able to remove the software then bring it back later?
Is their any way the Viewty can send longer texts than 2 pagers? please help i would be very greatful.
Thankyou
Maybe I am just used to Sony...?
The most annoying thing however is the Lg PCsuite software which is useless. Doesn't recognise own its own usb connection unless running software and then pluging in phone. It then drops the connection completey. Bluetooth connection eventually worked but is hit and miss! You can change the phone to be a mass storage USB drive which shows on windows but only the external memory card. Cheers.
Is this the way you meant or is there a different way im unaware of?
Thanks for your help so far. :)
i wish i didnt buy the phone........sorry to say that this will be the last time i buy LG phone.......probably gonna change it to something else.....
Theres only one thing im not happy with... and call me stupid for not realising an obvious thing, but is there a way to delete all the messages? I previously had Sony K810i, was a wizz to manage, but deleteing 170+ messages individually is a pain in the you know where!
Overall, a cracking phone!
at first i thought that the phone is having problem....therefore i change the phone with a new one on the second day........still the problem persist...even change the battery......
today gonna get n95 8 gb..........which is 3 times better than lg phone.....
When I heard about the LG KU990, Viewty. I had to take out an additional 18 month contract to get one, ( Mad, I know! ). I've now been using it for over 5 weeks, and love this handset. For any-one who's never used a touchscreen phone before, it's going to feel a bit weird. Getting used to it, but you will. In summary, I think this is without a doubt the best LG phone I,ve used, I like the menu's, camera, video and overall look of the phone. Cheers.
No one will probably read this, but just a warning to anyone who wants this crap thing...
A few things that annoyed me about this phone:
1 - Camera quality - Poor quality...takes ages to take a
pic...cannot use in the dark (unless you want a s**t photo)...my 3.2mp camera phone works better.
2 - Battery life – I’ll keep this comment short, just like the life of the batt…
3 – It sends any SMS over 2 messages long as an MMS...even if you change the settings for it not to do this…it still does!
4 - The stupid lipstick stylus...why?!
5 - The general way the phone works...my Sony-Ericsson P800 (which is 4 years old) is more user friendly. Writing a message with this phone is a pain and time consuming.
6 - The 'un-lock' button...it’s in a stupid place, I take the phone out of my pocket/case and its in camera mode...maybe this is the cause of problem 1…
7 - Tried to be too fancy with the packaging...leave it to apple!
Buy a Sony-Ericsson (the best mobile phone manufacturer if you ask me) or a Nokia. The current range may not look great, but you don’t really care after a month anyway!
I have been researching touch phones online for some months now as I can't go and try them out real time. I have now centered my focus on the KU990 and it seems to have been well reviewed in general despite a few problems with the photo storage and text message length for which there seem to be fixes for.
Would any users of the phone like to say if they think the fonts on the screen are easily seen and if the touch screen is forgiving or requires much precision?
I look forward to hearing from you all!
Libby
1) The comera is as good in the dark as in the light. If you go onto the flash
settings in the top right hand corner of camera screen and switch it to Auto then it takes good quality pictures in the dark, they are when viewed on the computer.
2)The battery life is compleatly the same as all other phones. It's just the initial charge. I am 15 and i wanted to play with this phone straight away like everone else, if you jsut leave it on charge for 12 or so hours, the battery only needs charging once every 2 - 3 days depending on how much you use it for calls.
3)If you change the settings to send long sms messages as "multiple SMS" they do send as multiple sms.
4)I like the stylus better in a "lipstick" form. If the stylus is stored in the phone,
if it gets lost you have a hole in your phone.
5)The phone with its QWERTY keyboard is easier and LESS time consuming than a normal
phone, you can also change it to an ordanariy keypad if you wish. I agree though, if
you are walking it is harder to text.
6)The lock button is in one of the best places it could be. any un-lock button is going
to be a poin when you take it out of your pocket.
7)Its Packaging! does it really matter?
You wont be able to put this phone down. I have found little flaws so far Love it!
suit like me, if you go to phone settings - connectivity - USB connection Then select
Mass Storage, when you come to plug your phone into your computer, senect "open as fils"
and it is as easy as dragging ad dropping files on or off your phone.
In reply to chris.b.
My phone was the same. What i found is that you have to charge the battery up fully (over night) and then let it run down so it turns its self off. You need to do this about 6 or 7 times before your phone will hold its full charge.
Hope this has helped
I am thinking of either getting the Lg Ku990 Viewty or the Sony Ericsson K850i. I like the Ku990 Viewty more because of the touchscreen feature and the 120fps video recording. All of my previous phones have been Sony Ericsson- Am I making a mistake by buying the Lg Viewty? I definitly want one of these two phones.
Also- is what people are saying true about the software- is it really bad- and also is the phone really slow?
Someone please write an answer to this because I really want to know.
I had a sony errcson W850i before my LG Viewty, and i can safely say it is one of the best phones i have ever had. You should get it in my opinion. If you are unsure in some Carphone wearhouses, there are Lg viewty phones up and running for you to try.
The software is bad, but useable. If however you find it is not, it is easy to switch your phone to a USB mass storage device and then you can just drag and drop things in or out of the phone memory.
The phone is no as slow as people believe. You can navigate fluently around the menus and there is little to no wait, but again you can go to a carphone warehouse and try this phone out, but trust me you will be amazed :]
Hope i have helped :)
that it kept freezing wen i went onto certain functions ie music and pictures, it would just freeze then restart since going
back to orange they exchanged it for another one and have
had no problems what so evere, i love the phone so easy to
use and dont get bored of the design.
Navigation about the screen is great no slowness whatsoever. No more using a Dpad to move around, one touch and your there (unless its taking you to a further menu). The internet is a joy to use thanks to the browser, large screen and touch controls and hedspa.
Battery life is surprisingly good (especially on standby mode) if you dont use it much 4-5 days id say, though it takes a few charge discharge cycles to get full capacity. Intensive use will require a charge every day or two.
But the bad is its awful camera, especially in low light condition (i.e indoors) and its difficulty in focusing. Most indoor photos look very blurry from its bad focusing and very high levels of noise. Also the so called zenon flash is weaker than my N73 (which by the way takes far superior pics)
If you dont believe me check phonearenas comparison.
Texting is also a joy to use when in full qwerty mode, the haptic feekback is a great idea, thou its a shame its not avalilable in all modes.
Overall apart from the bad camrea I really love this phone.If your thinking of buying this phone just be warned about the crappy camrea.
I would definatly go for the Viewty. Before mine, i had the Sony Ericcson W850i and i am so glad that i chose the LG viewty. It is not as slow as people make out. You can navigate through the menus with little to no wait which is supprising because of the masive touch screen!
The software is bad, but useable. The best thing to do is to make your phone into a "mass storage device" this is easy to do. Then it is as simple as dragging and dropping.
Also, in some carphone wearhouses, you can try out the viewty if you are unsure.
Hope this helps!
:]
BAD DESIGN!
How do i turn the 3G off on this phone ? i cant find the setting
cheers for reading and bye all
damien
ireland
I would suggest u try one out @ ur local phone shop who will let u have a play with one is the best idea! I checked out the various settings & in Profiles it enables u to set various ones... I found that if u set it to Black it creates a Black profile throughout the menus which includes white txt...which may b a suitable enviroment for u to comfortably use. Also the touch screen is easy to navigate. All in all I found this phone xcellent all round...I haven't xperienced any probs with it at all!...try it for ur self....hope this helps... :)
lol....jus press the red phone symbol!!....:)
i have a lg viewty which is good but when sending picture messages the recipient never gets them as say they are too large how do i resize the pic before sending
thanks
overall ok and like it.
But the software is appalling.
Deleting text messages is a problem.
Editing long SMS is difficult (as in going back and checking for predictive typos).
Camear is poor in the dark.
Battery life ok, but battery warning suddenly appears. And then you only have about 1 hour of normal use.
Scrolling in some modes (editing) can be tedious.
I use FMA, but not yet scripted properly.
Then today i had to call orange about my account, i was asked to select options 1-4, i had to unlocked the phone to display the keypad and each time i had to make a selection i had to unlock the phone. this became annoying espectially when by the time i inputed the number it was not recognised because i took too long.
To top this they then automatedly asked for my password which is letter form and this is not displayed on the keypad.
Of coarse got cut off because i could not give my password.
However I was prepared when i redialed, the next time i used my old mobile!!!
typical bloke i havent read the instructions. I want to put certain people into groups. For some reason all my contacts are in one group and i cant or it wont let me move them around.
And battery life is simple.
If you first get the phone and it has charge in it, leave it on and let it drain,
The cells in the battery have a memory, without sounding geeky, im not let it drain and give it a full charge, let it drain again till the phone cant switch on, let it do that a few times then you should see a dramtical improvement. The battery on my phone had about half full... why im not sure!
Any Help Would be Dandy...
Cheers Smick.........
Just got the LG Viewty phone after reading lots of reviews online including this one (good review by the way) and must say I love it, really easy to use, the only grip I have so far though which I hope can be easily fixed is that I'm finding hard to scroll up and down the menu screens using the scroll bar on the right, basically they don't move at all, took me about half hour to move one of them the other day, I know I can use the wheely thing on the back but surely you are supposed to use your finger or have I just got it wrong.
Any help appreciated.
Steve
Basically hold your thumb down on any part till it vibrates and then move up or down, feel so silly now by trying to move the blue scroll bar he he
I also agree that i think it beats the iPhone.
I adore this phone, only thing is uploading stuff from phone to the computer and i cant say i have tried that hard yet at it . But hopefuly it wil work
Ive already uploaded every photo from my phone to my computer and i am now uploading songs to my phone, its perfect.
If its working slow for you im guessing its your computer..
when im on a call the keyboard locks, does anyyone know how to disable this feature?
Easy! Had this phone since November and I love it!
love the phone to cant go wrong really
Please let me know Candan@seznam.cz
Overall I like the phone. It really is the poor mans iphone but if you consider it in its own right there is nothing wrong here at all.
I have written a full review on my blog page at...
http://www.neilsmithdesigns.co.uk/
Neil Smith Designs
Viewty Review
Thanks
Neil
Is there a function so I can only manually administer the lock button?
Thanks
regarding the 2sms/mms thing, mine is fine, it just sends multiple sms's. Im with Orange so i dont know if they've just modified it or what.
I asked earlier in the thread how to change the keypad lock feature, ive since found this myself anyway.
love the phone and the camera is brilliant, thinking of even selling my seperate digi camera now becasue this one , although a lower megapixel does all i need.
I did exactly the same thing phoning orange! and was baffled too when it came to inputting the 1st and 3rd letters of my password!

