Ever since Sharp released the J-SH04 back in 2001, one of the most standard features that we desire on our mobiles phones is a camera. The J-SH04 was revolutionary in the sense that it propelled the idea that your mobile phone could perform several functions as opposed to just calling people – even SMS was still very much in its infancy back in 2001. So today we expect just about every phone to have some sort of camera built into it – whether this be the below average 2.0 mega pixel camera of the Samsung Galaxy 3 or the massive 8 mega pixel offering of the Samsung Innov8, the addition of a digital camera is now so commonplace that we, more often than not, forget its verse existence on our handset.
The LG Viewty Snap is certainly not different in the sense that it offers a digital camera however it is the quality that is perhaps surprising. Maybe it is the sceptic in us that has come to automatically dismiss most mobile phone camera these days as being of poor quality however the LG Viewty Snap features a very respectable 5.0 mega pixel camera with Optic-all zoom. Basically this means that you can zoom in without compromising the image quality; how many mobiles have you used the zoom feature on only to review the image later to find that it is incredibly blurred and distorted? Indeed, the camera on the LG Viewty Snap has Flash which is a huge step in the right direction considering the amount of mobiles that have no Flash feature at all. However, is the camera on the LG Viewty Snap it’s only desirable feature?
Well, no, to put it simply. The LG Viewty Snap has a very impressive mp3 player preinstalled and the 3.5 mm audio jack means that you can use your own headphones as opposed to having to make do with the generally below par ones that are usually provided with your phone. You can also expand the memory on the LG Viewty Snap to a very reasonable 16 GB – more than many mp3 players and on par with the new iPod Nano.
However it is with its connectivity options that the LG Viewty Snap is a letdown. 3G has been around for a while – since the early 2000s – and it is a major disappointment that it is not feature on this device. However, as mobile phone technology has progressed we have come to be more reliant on Wi-Fi to connect to the internet so is this the LG Viewty Snap saving grace? Sadly, it is not for the LG Viewty Snap does not feature Wi-Fi either which means should you want to connect to the internet you will have to do so via the fairly slow EDGE connection which means some pretty long – by modern standards – waiting times for pages to load and images to be displayed. The LG Viewty Snap is also trying to tap into the growing number of consumers who have started to use their mobile devices to check, update and modify their social networking profiles such as Facebook and Twitter. The LG Viewty Snap comes with a Facebook app preinstalled and it also has the handy feature of an automatic upload of your images to Facebook. So if you take a picture you can select to have that uploaded to your Facebook profile right away instead of having to connect through an app. However with only the EDGE connection to rely on it isn’t going to be particularly speedy.
It also has a fairly impressive touch screen. The screen itself is 3 inches and has a full onboard QWERTY keyboard for you to use which can become invaluable if you are continually typing long messages or emails. Although some have complained that the touch screen is sometimes a bit unresponsive and you have to hit the screen a few times for the phone to register your input we don’t expect this to be any sort of major flaw in the overall desirability mobile itself. Another disappointment with the LG Viewty Snap, although understandable with its EDGE connection, is that it doesn’t have any GPS.
As far as the battery is concerned you should get about 300 minutes – just over 4 hours – of talk time which is actually rather impressive on a mobile that is fast losing our interest after we found out that it doesn’t have either 3G or Wi-Fi.
For the price – it is retailing at under £100 on Pay As You Go in the UK – the LG Viewty Snap isn’t a particularly bad phone. The camera is really its main redeeming feature as it bucks the trend of the amount of so called high end mobile phones that have been released with below par and low quality mobile cameras and instead comes packed with a very impressive 5.0 mega pixel, Flash and ‘Optic-all’ digital camera to ensure that you can happily snap some worthwhile pictures while on the go. Obviously we are terribly disappointed that it won’t feature either 3G or Wi-Fi and – considering it offers some fairly decent social networking connectivity options (the ability to upload a newly taken image straight to your profile for one) we figured that a respectable way to connect to the World Wide Web would be included.
Aside from this, it is an average phone that is not marketed to be high end or of superior quality but is reasonably priced at the lower end of the market to those who want a stylish looking mobile with all the usual features – a camera, internet access, SMS, E-mail etc… However one can’t help but feel that many will opt for the Samsung Monte that, while it doesn’t have the high end camera, offers both 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity and looks remarkably similar for around about the same price.
The LG Viewty Snap is available now in the UK from around £90 on Pay As You Go and £10 a month with LG Viewty Snap deals. Have your own say on this camera phone on the LG Viewty Snap reviews page.
Tags: LG, LG-GM360, LG-GM360-Viewty-Snap, LG-Viewty, LG-Viewty-Snap