Another flat, sleek smartphone invades the market. This time, it's the LG GT540 Optimus, which comes in black, white, pink and silver shades. As it quietly presents itself and produces only a minimal buzz, you can’t help but feel that LG might be thinking of testing the water for Android first before taking the full plunge with the launch of the GT540.
The official tagline for this phone from the LG website describes the phone as
“… a smart choice for the first-time smartphone users with access to the exciting world of Android apps without compromising on style as the handset boasts a distinctive design that is both sleek and soft and is available in black and silver….”
Definitely, the LG GT540 is not aiming at the top-end where Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and HTC are battling it out, but as its official tagline suggests, their target customers should be first-time smartphone users who do not need a top of the line Android phone for their daily usage.
Key features:
- Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G (with HSDPA) support
- 3" resistive touchscreen of HVGA resolution
- Android OS v1.6
- 3 megapixel autofocus camera
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and GPS receiver
- Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
- 150 MB internal memory
- Hot-swappable microSD card slot (supporting card with capacity of up to 16GB)
- Social networking service integration
- DivX/XviD video support
- Stereo FM radio with RDS
Main advantages:
- Attractive physical design and skins
- Plenty of shooting options for the camera
- Excellent options for connection with WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, quad-band GSM/EDGE, 3G, HSDPA and HSUPA.
- Good battery life
Main disadvantages:
- Android 1.6, thus unable to make use of newer Android features
- Poor readability under sunlight
- No Flash support for the web browser
- No flash for the 3 mega-pixel camera
- Resistive touch screen not as responsive as we would have liked
Summary
There is no doubting that the LG Optimus GT540 is attractive in pricing terms for new smartphone users, and LG has done a great job of making the phone looks attractive physically.
The resistive touchscreen lacks responsiveness at times though, and the 3” screen itself is quite small for media rich activity like Web browsing and checking of emails. Under sunlight, there is poor readability as well.
But battery life is good and for the price of SGD418 without a contract, it's a phone that might make inroads into the under-populated mid-range Android market with its relative value for money as compared to other smartphones.
The phone does not have a unique selling point, but its features fit together well enough, rivalling those of a higher end Android handset.
And, if you are a fan of Lee Min Ho, it might help that he is the spokesperson for the phone (in Singapore at least...).
To end the review, the official advertisement for the Optimus GT540. Enjoy!
