LG PRADA KE850:Sophistication made simple

Key Features:

* Exclusive design and slim form factor
* Full touch-based Flash user interface
* 3" TFT display with a WQVGA resolution (400 x 240 pixels)
* 2 megapixel camera with auto focus
* Shoots video in WQVGA resolution
* Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP stereo support
* microSD memory card slot
* Office documents viewer
* FM radio
* Standard 3.5 mm audio adapter

Main Disadvantages:

* No 3G or HSDPA support
* Unimpressive battery life
* Really basic web browser
* Fingerprint magnet

The LG Prada phone is truly unique and thus has no direct competitors. With its touch-based user interface it outranks all current fashion mobiles.

When it comes to product packaging LG already have a tradition of offering their products in high-quality retail packages that are visually attractive as the handsets themselves. The LG Prada phone makes no difference to that rule. The Prada phone retail box is a black cube and the contents are positioned on different levels inside the box.

The large touch screen display is the centerpiece in this work of technological art. It measures a good 3 inches in diagonal and supports up to 262K colors in a WQVGA (400 x 240 pixels) resolution. The original PRADA theme doesn't seem to take full advantage of the rich colors. But rest assured, there are full color interface themes, too. Above the display there is the PRADA insignia and the loudspeaker grill and below it are three control keys - the two receiver keys plus a Back key in the middle. This middle key is so small that it's hardly noticeable but proves rather comfortable in everyday use.

The battery cover is easily removed after you release it with the abovementioned release key. The LGIP-A750 Li-Ion battery with a capacity of 800 mAh is hidden below it. According to the manufacturer, the battery should sustain the handset for up to 300 hours in standby mode and up to 3 hours in constant talking. Now we weren't able to measure the battery life correctly since we used the handset heavily during our tests but under a moderate everyday usage you would probably need to charge the Prada phone every two days or so. The SIM card bed is located above the battery while the memory card slot is buried even deeper - being under the SIM card slot itself. You would have to take out the battery in order to take out the memory card which is a bit of a nuisance.

Samsung U700

The U700 is the latest in a long line of slim slider phones from Samsung that boast supermodel looks. But this handset has brains as well as beauty, thanks to support for the latest ultra-fast 3G standard.

Strengths
The first thing you notice about this handset is its brilliant display. Not only is it big, bright and colourful but it also has a crisp 240x320-pixel resolution that's ideal for viewing Web pages using the built-in browser.


In fact, access to the Web is one of the areas that this phone excels at. Sure, the large screen is a bonus in this regard but what's even better is the support for HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), the next generation 3G standard. It allows the handset to connect to the Web at speeds of up to 3.6Mbps, and certainly it felt blisteringly quick while we were browsing sites via the Vodafone Live service.

As this is a 3G handset it's also equipped with twin cameras for video calling. The one on the front is the usual low-resolution affair but once you open the smooth slide mechanism the rear mounted 3.2-megapixel snapper is revealed.

This has both a micro mirror for taking self portraits and also a flash for shooting in low light. The shots it takes are above average as the autofocus keeps everything nice and sharp and images have natural-looking colour. A slight bit of smearing in the detail means it's not going to replace a dedicated camera but it's still pretty impressive.

The handset's slim and light design means it feels comfortable to hold, and battery life isn't too bad either -- you'll get around five hours of talk time out of it.

Sony Ericsson P1i

The Sony Ericsson line of smart phones have long had a loyal fan following. The P990i was announced about a year before market availability, but when it did go on sale at the end of 2006, interest was still high because its features were still not outdated. Though it pushed the right buttons among the tech-geek crowd for its features, users were soon disappointed to find that there were quite a few bugs in its built-in software. A quick Internet search will bring up criticisms of the UIQ 3.0 implementation not only on the P990i, but also on the M600i and W950i.

While there have been firmware upgrades, users of those smart phones were recently up in arms because of talk suggesting that there would be no more development and bug fixes on UIQ 3.0. Shortly after, Sony Ericsson announced one more firmware release for the P990i and W950i devices in August, though none was promised for the M600i.

Reviewed here is the latest P1i, one that moves away from the form factor of the previous P-series devices significantly. It uses UIQ 3.1, which will enjoy the bulk of development efforts from firmware and software developers.

Design
The mobile phones in the P series have always been somewhat bulky. The last few models had flip-out keyboards, the last two of which, the P910i and P990i, had both a QWERTY and numeric keyboard each. That added to the size significantly, not to mention that the main chassis of the P series smart phones have traditionally been quite thick.

That has now changed with the P1i. Those familiar with Sony Ericsson's UIQ models will find that it looks more like the M600i than any P series device. This is thanks to its compact form factor as well as the exposed QWERTY/numeric keypad. Instead of a plasticky housing, the P1i has a matte metallic finish around the edges with a piano black gloss around the sides and front. The back, which is where the camera lens and battery cover are, has a different rubbery texture but is also in black.

Compared with the M600i, the P1i has a much more solid feel to it. This is not just because of the material used but also due to its heavier weight. The reduced size and weight compared with the P990i will surely appeal to some who stayed away from that model because of the form factor.

Sony Ericsson did not include a full QWERTY keyboard on the P1i, but instead put all the letters and numbers in 20 keys. Most of these keys rock left or right to serve as different letters. For example, the top left key is used for both the Q and W letters. Rocking it left will get you the former, while rocking right will type the latter. The center portion of the keypad has numbers in red laid out just like a regular numeric keypad for use in the phone application and when filling out fields where numbers should be entered.

While such a keyboard layout saves space, it takes some getting used to. Essentially, typing a letter becomes a two-step decision. First, you decide which button to land your finger on, then which direction to rock the thumb toward. You could just land your thumb on the side you want and press it immediately, but that means there is very little room for error when it comes to the position of the thumb tip, a real challenge for those with large fingers.

A scroll wheel is found on the left side of the device, meant for use with the left thumb. A back button below that makes it easy to get out of applications and menus. On the other side, there are shortcuts to the Web browser and camera application as well as a slot for the M2 memory expansion card. The single connector at the base of the P1i allows for charging and syncing, and lights up either green or red depending on the charging status of the battery, a helpful indicator to determine if it is time to disconnect after charging. As we have come to expect from Sony Ericsson's smart phones, an anorexic stylus can be removed from the top left-hand corner of the handset.

MOTOROLA RAZR MAXX V6

Design
Take a look at any phone from Motorola's RAZR line-up, from the original V3 to the garishly golden D&G model, and you'll see the basic design of the MAXX. More than two years since the RAZR form factor first appeared, Motorola is still clinging to the now iconic look, with just a few tweaks to the surfaces and specs.
As with the Samsung A701, many of the MAXX's noteworthy features come from the Telstra Next G network rather than the phone itself. Due to the higher downloads speeds possible on HSDPA, video has been given star billing, with Telstra offering news services and Foxtel on Next G handsets.

The music player can handle a variety of formats including MP3, WMA, WAV and AAC files, but you'll need to shell out for a microSD card if you want to build up a formidable playlist: the internal memory is 50MB.

Performance
Our MAXX suffered from a few inexplicable quirks -- occasionally it took the questionable initiative to turn itself off after being left alone for a few hours, and required a reboot. It also froze a couple of times during Web browsing.