Lg Electronics is serious about touch-screen mobile phones. This was the first manufacturer to respond to the iPhone challenge (announced on 09.01.07) with LG Prada/KE850 (19.01.07) and then with other top-end phones like the Viewty and Armani Model from the same range. LG KS20 is an advanced and more mature handset then the first attempt to rush for exclusivity. The first confirmation that serves as an argument is the sizes that LG is proud of to deliver: 99.8 x 58 x 12.8 mm at only 92,5g of weight. The phone looks indeed very compact and it is smooth also. The material that helped to boost these characteristics is plastic, which was used most of the time in the production process. The silver line on the borders builds a classic equilibrium of style and also has the mission to compensate shocks and to house additional control buttons.
Design
The front cover is occupied by a 2.8” TFT display. It has a resolution of 240x320 pixels and a range of 256k colors. But because of the glossy finish of the entire surface of the phone, the display has a high reflecting level, which makes it difficult to read from under direct sunlight. In the dark the display is easy readable. Beneath it other control utilities are placed. Besides the answering keys, there is a joystick to help with the navigation. The speaker is situated above the display, where a small video-camera is also noticed. The left border is agglomerated with multiple dedicated buttons: the camera-key, a handy fast-access button, a MicroSD slot and power key, used to “lock/unlock” the display. The volume rocker is on the opposite side, where the headset/charger slot is present too.
The touch-screen experience
The phone is operating on Windows Mobile 6. The chipset that powers the entire house is a 400 MHz processor. Thanks to 128 MB RAM, the phone should be performing well even with applications that require fast technical resources. The home screen lists information of a general aspect, like the current time and date, scheduler entries, and events like missed calls or received messages. The bottom of the screen displays two shortcuts: the calendar and contacts. Above them four main categories can be accessed. The first button redirects you to the main menu; next to it is the button that calls the phone function. The following two are the messaging center and the operator menu buttons. The most intriguing utility among them is the messaging section. In order to write an e-mail or SMS – a full keyboard is displayed. By using the stylus that can be found in the left-bottom corner, the process seems to be very friendly. As an alternative to this, LG introduced the text-recognition facility. This means, that when you’re about to write down a text you can write directly on the display with your stylus, as you usually do in a regular journal. To make a call is simple, but what about searching the phone book from the same application? The good news is that LG implemented the T9 option here and you can input the name as you do when texting – the results that matches your searching criteria will then be displayed. The phone is able to process office documents like Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat.
Entertaiment
The rear part holds the 2MP camera. It is equipped with a flash LED button, but this does not remove the impression that 2MP leaves. However, if photos are taken outdoors, the final result is good. But we cannot say the same about the operating speed, which is low. The camera menu is simple. The most important settings can be accessed by checking the virtual buttons in the top left corner. Other adjustments are handled in the camera menu. To switch between the camera and the video mode there is a corresponding key next to the camera menu button. The video can be recorded maximum in the QVGA, and minimum in the SUB-QCIF resolution. Besides the FM Radio that is on board of KS20 there is Windows Media Player 10 for the stored files. It allows you to organize the music as you do on your PC. It also supports the most popular file formats. Movies can be played in the landscape mode form the MicroSD card or by streaming them directly on the handset. The phone is equipped with 3G and WiFi which makes it a pleasant experience.
