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Jakarta Post

LG's secret, a secret no more

The KT610 is a 3

Zatni Arbi (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, August 4, 2008

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LG's secret, a secret no more

The KT610 is a 3.5G Symbian smartphone that is soon to be introduced in the Indonesian market. With looks similar to the Nokia Communicator, it touts a bright and sharp display, and a QWERTY keypad in a compact size. (JP/Zatni Arbi)

One of the products highlighted during this year's CommunicAsia in Singapore was the "Secret" from LG Mobile -- a cell phone in the fashion category that boasted brawn over brain.

At a glance, its appearance is not much different to that of its predecessors in LG's Black Label Series. Upon closer inspection though, some great improvements can be seen.

For starters, the touch-sensitive screen uses tempered glass, which increases the phone's sturdiness. (Other touch screens use a plastic surface.) You have to press your fingertip a bit harder to select items on the touch display: In a way, it helps prevent accidental dialing when the cell phone is pressed against other objects inside your pocket or bag.

It also has all the impressive capabilities of the Viewty's 5 megapixel camera, such as the 120-frames-per-second video recording.

All the capabilities are packed into a thinner carbon fiber housing: And unlike many of the company's midrange offerings, the Secret is a slider. Also, if you send a lot of text messages, the keypad is still much more user-friendly than the touch screen.

It also has a built-in accelerometer. Functioning as a motion sensor, it automatically shifts the screen orientation from portrait to landscape as it is rotated. The accelerometer is also used in one of the games: To catch a virtual fish -- much like fishing in the real world -- you have to swing the cell phone up and down quite fast. Just be careful not to let it slip from your palm, though.

There is a set of icons that can be touched to start, pause and stop music playback, take pictures or display photos, play M-Toy, select a radio station, etc. But, the Media Touch button on the right side must be pressed first. (When I took it through its paces, its music reproduction was fairly satisfying, and the voice was pretty clear.)

Why is it called "Secret"? According to John Halim, LG Indonesia's product marketing manager, this cell phone has a lot of hidden features. Gadget lovers will enjoy hours of discovering those secrets on their own.

Interestingly, while it still has yet to be officially launched in Indonesia, the Secret, which is also known as the KF750, is already on the market here -- although in a limited volume. If you're lucky, you can snap one up for a little over Rp 4 million.

The second model, which may be launched soon, is the KF600. The designers focused on user interface when working on this cell phone. The result is quite impressive: Another slider cell phone, this model boasts two LCD screens. The lower screen, which LG calls the InteractPad, shows the menu buttons that change depending on what you are doing. This user interface is meant to make it as easy as possible for a new user to access the features. LG has made considerable strides in this direction.

As the "F" in the model name indicates, this is another fashion mobile phone from LG.

However, if you are looking for a smartphone, then you should wait for the LG KT610 -- a clamshell phone with a QWERTY keypad, much like the trendsetting Nokia Communicators. The KT610 is a 3.5G mobile phone with a Symbian 60 operating system.

The only thing I found missing in these three new models was the lens cover. It was added in later production runs of the Viewty, but not in any of these three. Still, the return of the keypad may demonstrate that the company does listen to the wishes of its sms-crazy customers.

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