LG dLite Review
Introduction:
Just about everywhere you turn, the form factor of choice employed by the majority of handsets we see nowadays happen to be the slate form factor – especially more in the smartphone category where it's abundant. Then every once in a while we witness some kind of flip style handset crafted specially as an entry-level device, but on some rare occasions, we still see some that manages to push the envelope with their stylish looks. The LG dLite is yet another offering from the Korean manufacturer which will hopefully captivate customers with its extraordinary appeal that's not widely seen that often with flip phones.
The package contains:
Just about everywhere you turn, the form factor of choice employed by the majority of handsets we see nowadays happen to be the slate form factor – especially more in the smartphone category where it's abundant. Then every once in a while we witness some kind of flip style handset crafted specially as an entry-level device, but on some rare occasions, we still see some that manages to push the envelope with their stylish looks. The LG dLite is yet another offering from the Korean manufacturer which will hopefully captivate customers with its extraordinary appeal that's not widely seen that often with flip phones.
The package contains:
- LG dLite
- microUSB cable
- Wall charger
- Hands-free Headset
- Start Guide
Design:
When we first picked up this phone, we were somewhat surprised with its unnaturally large footprint as it feels rather too lengthy to hold comfortably in the hand. Constructed out of plastic, the bubble gum pink and white colors accent each other nicely, but will easily cause some heads to turn due to its striking colors. Despite feeling rather light weight (3.49 oz) thanks to the plastic build, we aren't too thrilled about its construction as the hinge used to open the handset felt loose and without much spring to it. However, the acrylic piece found near the earpiece is a nice touch as it illuminates in various color tones to provide a subtle ambiance feel to the handset. By far the biggest thing going for the dLite is its stylish looks which is something in a rarity itself when you take into consideration the lack of variety in this specific form factor.
You can compare the LG dLite with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.
Hiding underneath the pink surface of the outside portion of the dLite is a customizable LED matrix which generally displays the time while also playing some nifty looking animations for various notifications. It definitely adds to its appeal while working in conjunction with the edge-lit LED surface for some mesmerizing color shows. However, it lacks any external buttons, like music controls, which can come in handy for certain functions. Opening the handset, you're treated to a wide-screen format 2.8” display which has a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels with support for 262k colors – which happens to look exquisitely sharp with its pastel like color scheme.
To the left edge, you've got a skinny looking volume rocker which happens to have an acceptable response when pressed. Lacking a dedicated 3.5mm headset jack, you'll have to rely using the microUSB port found on the right side to connect the included stereo headphones, while at the same time, also being used to charge and connect to a computer. On the rear, you'll find the 2-megapixel all by itself while removing the back cover will present you access to the slot loading microSD card slot, battery, and SIM card slot.
Software/Features:
Another refreshing thing we noticed with the LG dLite was that it employs a straightforward interface that's littered with plenty of animations which gave it some personality. Although the main menu is displayed in a grid-like view, you can change pretty much everything about the interface as it boasts a handful of animated wallpapers, color themes, and secret lighting – the latter of which turns on the edge-lit LED surface so it can have that Knight Rider car look with the LEDs lighting up in various patterns. And to tell you the truth, we pretty much found ourselves getting adjusted very quickly with the simple looking interface.
Creating a new contact is no different from other devices as you'll be able to input specific pieces of information on top of traditional ones and personalize each with specific notifications with the secret lighting.
Following closely to other similar phones in the mix, typing messages is pretty much what you expect out of a keypad – while enabling predictive text can enhance the experience. Setting up email was also a breeze as it required just your email address and password for the most popular mail clients out there while others needed additional information – like server addresses to properly set up. There's even an element of social networking on the dLite with its Social Buzz app which aggregates feeds from Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook. There are also additional third party apps which can come in handy – these include TeleNav GPS Navigation, YouTube, Photobucket Mobile, and a boat load of demo games.
Multimedia:
Needless to say some would be quick to give the dLite a poor rating due to its less than commanding 2-megapixel shooter, but we were thoroughly taken back by some good looking images it captured. Although images did tend to have an overcast look to them, they were more than satisfactory with their decent detail. Naturally outdoor shots were much sharper looking than indoors with sketch lighting, as it presented slightly more fuzzy photos. And to top it off, the camera interface packs some much wanted options to cater to the needs of some novice photo enthusiasts.
Things aren't the same when it came down to shootingvideos on the dLite as it only captured them at a maximum resolution of 320x240 at a measly 14fps rate. Not only did they lack detail and pixelated looking, colors did not match up to our liking while a prominent jerkiness was present throughout playback – making the experience utterly disappointing.
LG dLite sample video at 320x240 pixels resolution.
Although it's a flip phone, it's really hard to fathom seeing any phone nowadays lacking a 3.5mm headset jack. Luckily LG decided to include a pair of stereo headphones with the packaging as the music player is one pretty looking one – especially for its caliber. The album cover dominates the interface by default with applicable information also displayed, but you can mix up the look of it by setting on the visualization to “real spectrum.” There are also some nice touches to it such as the external LED matrix lighting up to form various patterns and enabling specific equalizer settings to cater the genre of music you're playing. Sound from the speaker was pretty neutral as it lacked any vibrant tones, but when the dLite is closed shut, it disperses tunes a little bit better – but shallow sounding.
After loading a video encoded in MPEG-4 at 320x240 resolution, the phone had no trouble in playing it in either portrait or landscape – it's actually a nice touch when the phone automatically changes orientation; especially for a flip phone.
Regrettably, there is no included microSD card, but thankfully it has approximately 90MB of internal memory for all your content needs – that's unless you eat it all up. At that point, you can always supplement it with a microSD card.
Data/Connectivity:
Placing phone calls around the world won't pose any issues with this quad-band GSM handset (850/900/18000/1900 MHz). However, you'll only be treated to 3G speeds through T-Mobile's AWS band since it relies on dual-band UMTS (1700/2100 MHz) connectivity.
Quickly pressing the dedicated web browser button will get you right into surfing mode, but unfortunately the fun stops there as the overall experience is painstakingly dissatisfying. Loading our web site took well over 2 minutes, which was further supplemented with slow rendering of text and photos when you zoom in. You'll also have to do plenty of that just to properly view text which happen to look like a garbled mess from afar – which is safe to say made the entire experience nothing short of forgettable.
Another refreshing thing we noticed with the LG dLite was that it employs a straightforward interface that's littered with plenty of animations which gave it some personality. Although the main menu is displayed in a grid-like view, you can change pretty much everything about the interface as it boasts a handful of animated wallpapers, color themes, and secret lighting – the latter of which turns on the edge-lit LED surface so it can have that Knight Rider car look with the LEDs lighting up in various patterns. And to tell you the truth, we pretty much found ourselves getting adjusted very quickly with the simple looking interface.
Creating a new contact is no different from other devices as you'll be able to input specific pieces of information on top of traditional ones and personalize each with specific notifications with the secret lighting.
Following closely to other similar phones in the mix, typing messages is pretty much what you expect out of a keypad – while enabling predictive text can enhance the experience. Setting up email was also a breeze as it required just your email address and password for the most popular mail clients out there while others needed additional information – like server addresses to properly set up. There's even an element of social networking on the dLite with its Social Buzz app which aggregates feeds from Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook. There are also additional third party apps which can come in handy – these include TeleNav GPS Navigation, YouTube, Photobucket Mobile, and a boat load of demo games.
Multimedia:
Needless to say some would be quick to give the dLite a poor rating due to its less than commanding 2-megapixel shooter, but we were thoroughly taken back by some good looking images it captured. Although images did tend to have an overcast look to them, they were more than satisfactory with their decent detail. Naturally outdoor shots were much sharper looking than indoors with sketch lighting, as it presented slightly more fuzzy photos. And to top it off, the camera interface packs some much wanted options to cater to the needs of some novice photo enthusiasts.
Things aren't the same when it came down to shootingvideos on the dLite as it only captured them at a maximum resolution of 320x240 at a measly 14fps rate. Not only did they lack detail and pixelated looking, colors did not match up to our liking while a prominent jerkiness was present throughout playback – making the experience utterly disappointing.
LG dLite sample video at 320x240 pixels resolution.
Although it's a flip phone, it's really hard to fathom seeing any phone nowadays lacking a 3.5mm headset jack. Luckily LG decided to include a pair of stereo headphones with the packaging as the music player is one pretty looking one – especially for its caliber. The album cover dominates the interface by default with applicable information also displayed, but you can mix up the look of it by setting on the visualization to “real spectrum.” There are also some nice touches to it such as the external LED matrix lighting up to form various patterns and enabling specific equalizer settings to cater the genre of music you're playing. Sound from the speaker was pretty neutral as it lacked any vibrant tones, but when the dLite is closed shut, it disperses tunes a little bit better – but shallow sounding.
After loading a video encoded in MPEG-4 at 320x240 resolution, the phone had no trouble in playing it in either portrait or landscape – it's actually a nice touch when the phone automatically changes orientation; especially for a flip phone.
Regrettably, there is no included microSD card, but thankfully it has approximately 90MB of internal memory for all your content needs – that's unless you eat it all up. At that point, you can always supplement it with a microSD card.
Data/Connectivity:
Placing phone calls around the world won't pose any issues with this quad-band GSM handset (850/900/18000/1900 MHz). However, you'll only be treated to 3G speeds through T-Mobile's AWS band since it relies on dual-band UMTS (1700/2100 MHz) connectivity.
Quickly pressing the dedicated web browser button will get you right into surfing mode, but unfortunately the fun stops there as the overall experience is painstakingly dissatisfying. Loading our web site took well over 2 minutes, which was further supplemented with slow rendering of text and photos when you zoom in. You'll also have to do plenty of that just to properly view text which happen to look like a garbled mess from afar – which is safe to say made the entire experience nothing short of forgettable.
Without voice clarity on, our callers stated that we sounded muffled with sharp tones, however, the experience is completely the opposite when it's turned on with distinct and audible voices. On our end, voices were rather shallow which made it a little difficult to hear voices – plus there was a slight distortion which could be heard in the background. When using the speakerphone, voices did sound neutral and can be mostly attributed to the weak audio output by the speaker itself.
Signal strength seemed tolerable as it rarely fluctuated, but we did experience a couple of dropped calls in the same area during our testing in the greater Philadelphia area.
Battery life was more than impressive since we were able to place a call consecutively for 7 hours before the battery was completely depleted. The manufacturer has it rated for 6.1 hours of talk and 312 hours of standby time.
Conclusion:
When you first gaze upon the LG dLite, you'll probably be intrigued with its flamboyant colors, but it has this stylish aura surrounding it that makes it appealing. Unlike most flip style cell phones we are accustomed to seeing, the dLite undoubtedly can be placed close to the mid-range end with its eye catching LED colors illuminating the handset – which make it feel like some kind of tricked out sports car with neon lights all around. Additionally, the interface is also something different as it boasts a medley of personalization and animation to make the experience pleasurable to the eye. When using the handset strictly for phone functions, it's more than sufficient in meeting those goals, but falls flat in certain categories like web browsing and shooting videos. Overall, consumers who yearn for a different looking handset will definitely find it with the LG dLite as it considerably differentiates itself from others in its class – plus it's priced accordingly at $49.99 on-contract.
LG dLite Video Review:
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