3GSM 2007 On-site Coverage

LG cooperated with Prada in order to bring to market their high-end designer’s Prada phone. The Prada is one of those "touch-screen only operated" phones and will be a competitor to the iPhone, Samsung F700 and other similar devices. Its advantage is the Prada name, the Schneider Kreuznach lens and the unique (for now) touch-only UI.

The LG Prada has glossy black finish similar to the one of the Chocolate and KRZR from Motorola, and easily captures fingerprints. So easily, that the phone was cleaned almost all the time by the Prada girls on the LG’s booth.

The interface meets the expectation of the stylish exterior and is black and white with white icons and white text on black background. The interface becomes colorful only when you open an image or video, or turn the camera on and use it as a viewfinder. Different color themes though are also available for people who are not attracted to the lack of colors in the menus.

The virtual buttons on the screen must be pushed with full finger only, because the display will not detect a push by a pencil or something else, just as the touch keys of the Chocolate. Typing a message is done via a virtual keypad (numeric, not QWERTY) in combination with T9 system, which gives very phone-like experience. During our testing, we got acquainted with the UI and typing very fast. The Phone-Dialer buttons are very large, as almost the entire screen is used by the virtual keyboard, which makes dialing very easy. The Phonebook and Messaging keys are slightly smaller as more information must be displayed, but still very adequate in size. We would have really liked it, if LG had developed a key-press feedback system, similar to the slight vibration on every key-press on the U300. Despite that, we found the text input to be easy, but not as fast as regular keypad.

In stand-by mode, the screen shows an analog clock, which position can be changed via dragging it on the screen. A row of four icons, which act as shortcuts to the most used functions, such as Menu, Messaging, Calling and Phonebook are displayed on the bottom of the screen. When inside a Menu, the bottom shows only tree buttons, which are the Options, central OK and right Back.



The whole menu system is divided in 4 screens, each of which has a maximum of 2 rows of 4 icons each. The main screens are the Calling, Multimedia, Calendar&Calculator and the Settings. To switch between them, a row of four icons is positioned on the left of the screen.

The segment of luxury phone really needed more contenders. By launching the Prada and Shine lines, LG broadens the choice for people with discriminating palate. We do not feel the Prada will be in direct competition with the iPhone, and not even the Samsung F700. The Apple creation is youth oriented, for people who seek the different experience, not exactly the luxury feel of the Prada. Looking at the F700 specification, you notice it is completely different category as well with full QWERTY keyboard, HSDPA, 5-mega pixel camera with interface very similar to the one of Prada. The device target audience is not the fashion cautious user, who wants more basic functionality, but the high-tech seeking users, who still care a lot for the luxury feel. Comparing the specs, F700 just kills the iPhone and the Prada. Which one you choose, depends on personal preferences.
LG Prada Video

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The Shine phones come as the successors of the Chocolate – the Black Label Series of LG. They’ve already are available in Korea as CDMA versions, but the GSM world phones now become available in Europe as well. The Shine removes the touch-sensitive keys of the Chocolate and replaces the glossy-black surface with stainless steel and high-class metal feel. When the phone is in standby, its display conceals and becomes a mirror which sadly gets dirty fast and should be cleaned often.

LG KE970 Shine is the slider phone, which is the high-end model of the line. It is almost entirely made of stainless steel, which taken in hand gives extremely solid feel. Slim device, the Shine feels nicely in the hand both opened and closed.

As we said, it removes the touch buttons from the Chocolate. But it adds another interesting navigation key – a 2-way scroller. It is a small tube that you rotate to move up and down. The two ends of the scroller can as well be pushed and act as left and right. In addition, there are two soft-keys.

The call-management keys together with the Clear key and the numeric keypad are on the bottom slider – open the phone (the sliding mechanism is good) and you will find them. This top line of keys is harder to access because your finger will touch the upper slider, but the other keys are OK. Unfortunately they are all flush and without any tactile feedback, and very hard to push, so messaging is not the easiest thing to do. The blue backlight adds for the classy look of the phone, but in our opinion white would be nicer.

On the right side are total of four keys, which are too close to each other to be easily found and pushed. Only the camera key which is on the bottom can be felt as it is raised, you should look at the other to use them.

The Interface of the Shine reminds the one of the Chocolate, but this one as a list and not as a grid. Its easy to navigate through it, but may experience problems with the scroll and actually miss the option you want which should go away after a few days of use. In the sub-menus, you can push the left and right end of the scroller to move to the previous and next sub-menu, which are indicated as TABs as it is in the Chocolate.

Overall, the Shine does well what it is supposed to which is to catch attention. It has very eye-catching design with solid construction and feel and unlike the Chocolate, it is almost unique. The Chocolate glossy-black surface is present in many other phones – the KRZR, the Pearl, and the new F700 and more, while the only other similar all stainless steel device is the Nokia 8800.

When we add a good feature-set which includes quad-band GSM/EDGE, 2-megapixel camera with Schneider Kreuznach lens, QVGA display and memory slot, the Shine is definitely a good choice for people who are attracted by its look.

The HSDPA version of the Shine will have model number KU970 and will be available in April 07, with MSRP of EU600. The candy-bar version, KE770 will as become available in April.

LG Shine Video

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LG Shine (candybar)

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LG Shine (clamshell)