LG KE850 Prada

Author's product rating:   

Look & Feel	Excellent
Durability & Robustness	Strong
Battery standby time	Satisfactory
Value for money	Good
Range of features	Good selection

Advantages:	Looks, size, touchscreen
Disadvantages:	Price

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I'd been looking at phones for a while and I had my heart set on a smartphone, I really wanted the spv m700 but there weren't many on ye old ebay, then when my trusty old nokia started going tits up I couldn't be arsed waiting for one to come available. So reluctantly, I had to look for a different phone, that's when I came across the LG Prada. This definitely isn't a smartphone, but straight away I was charmed by it's good looks, and no other phone I looked at compared to it. However, there was no way I was paying £400 for a phone so when one came up for £250 on ebay, I had to give up my hard earned cash.

~~What's in the Box?~~

Prada have gone all out with the packaging, it's one of those ooooo moments.
It comes in a cube shaped leather effect navy box with 'PRADA' embossed in silver on the lid. Taking off the lid, the phone itself sits in a tray and the accessories are concealed underneath.
Contents:

• Leather Case
• Screen Cleaner
• Wall Charger
• USB Adapter
• HandsFree/Mp3 Control
• Prada Headphones
• 256MB micro SD card and adapter
• Software CD

The screen cleaner is a small piece of silky material like the type of cloth that comes with spectacles. It even comes presented in a little cute navy envelope and both the cloth and the envelope have the 'PRADA' name on them.

It includes a leather case with PRADA embossed. The case doesn't cover all of the phone, it stops just under the speaker and the branding 'Prada' on the phone can be seen. I suppose this is to make sure the speaker can be heard loud and clear when the phone is ringing. Although I don't really think they thought it through too much, because the camera isn't covered so it's at risk of being scratched. When I first got the case it was really stiff and I had trouble getting it on and off and it kept pulling the protective film off my phone so I suggest squeezing and stretching it before putting it on the phone so the leather can give a little.

~~The Phone~~

Spec:

LG KE850 PRADA

• Dimensions: 54mm x 99mm x 12mm
• 2 megapixel Camera
• MP3 Player
• FM Radio
• Triband technology

The phone looks really good, it's got a highly shiny black finish, with a silver band going round all the sides and silver buttons. It looks a lot bigger on your computer screen, so I was pleasantly surprised to find how slim it is. It only weighs 98grams, so it's also really light too.

The screen takes up pretty much all of the phone, measuring 3 inch leaving space for the speaker and 3 buttons at the bottom; 1 to answer calls and display last calls, a clear button, endcall/on/off button.

Then on the right side of the phone there is a lock button and a button to load the mp3/camera. On the leftside is the slot to attach the charger/headset/usb lead, which is concealed under a fragile plastic cover thing on a flimsy homemade hinge, which I'm sure I'll break soon. Also on the left side of the phone is the volume up/down keys which also double up as the camera zoom buttons. Then there is the profile button for silent/vibrate etc.

It came with a protective film on the front and back of the phone which I tried to keep on as long as I could…. It latest about a week, because I couldnt resist the black shininess of the phone oooo. The screen was also more reactive when this was removed.

Upon turning the phone on, the screen is black with the words Prada in white. The start up tone is pretty scary like something from a horror movie. The screen then fades to white and the phone loads. It takes about 15 seconds to switch on and configure the network, which I think is kinda slow.

On the main screen is a clock which can be moved around with a finger…. Very snazzy ;-)

If the clock is touched a picture of an alarm clock pops out of the side of it, which when pressed, allows you to set an alarm. You will then see that the alarm is set as there is a small picture of an alarm clock at the top of the screen. The snooze time is only 5 minute intervals compared to nokias 10 minutes.

There are four icons on the bottom of the screen. One is a picture of four dots which is to access the menu, the next is a picture of a phone which brings up the keypad, the next is a picture of an envelope which accesses all the message options, and the last is a picture of a phonebook which brings up the list of conacts.

The screen has a high resolution of 240 x 400 pixels, so the display is sharp, clear and pretty bright.

The screen is quite reactive most of this time. Definitely more so when the film was taken off. But I still find myself having to press the same thing twice.

It's easy to scroll through list menus as there is a scroll bar which is activated by the swipe of a finger.

~~Making a Call~~

The speaker isn't great, I had to turn it to the highest level or its really hard to hear… I had trouble hearing when on the bus, so god knows what it's gunna be like in a busy pub on a Friday night. The speaker phone is great though, its very loud.

As the keypad is on the touchscreen it isn't displayed when in a call, so if you need to enter a number while on the phone, the profile button on the left side of the phone can be pressed which brings up the keypad.

To bring up any other calling options such as speakerphone then the lock key is pressed.

There is also an option to record the call - both sides of the conversation, which I think is a pretty cool feature.

~~~Messaging~~~

Not impressed…not impressed at all. You'd have thought with the LG Prada having such a mint touch screen interface, it'd have a qwerty keyboard…. But no, the standard keypad is displayed with the 2 key for abc etc. Before I bought this, I read that it was hard to text using this phone, but it really isn't for me. It could be hard if you've got chunky fingers as it's quite easy to accidently hit the key above the one you wanted. Its just a simple case of hand eye coordination.

It has the option to use the T9 dictionary predictive text thing, which is handy… well it would be if I could find out how to change the word! it seems to presume I want to write might instead of night. If anyone knows how to do this, please let me know :-)

It also has multimedia messaging and emailing.

It allows you to get delivery reports when sending messages, but it won't let you delete all delivery reports at once like the trusty old nokia.

~~Themes~~

There are a few themes which can be selected, to determine the background colour of the phone, and icons etc.

• Prada theme - this is default theme in black and white
• Blue theme - this is just like the prada theme, but has a blue background and the icons are in colour
• Fish - There is a fish follows your finger on the screen
• Butterfly - a butterfly follows your finger on the screen

I have not yet found any themes available for download, but I'm sure there must be some out soon. I'll keep looking, but If you find any, let us know ;-)

~~Ring tones~~

The guys who chose the ringtones for this phone must either be trekkies or hard of hearing. There's only 4 default ringtones and they're all rubbish. Theres one sci-fi type tone and the others just sound like an annoying alarm clock. The good thing is though you can set your mp3s as ringtones so you don't have to put up with the crap default tones.

The volume of the ringtone can be set quite high. I don't have it on the highest level because it's too loud for me, however it's great if you're out and about because it can be easily heard from a handbag.

You can't change the message tone though, and there is only 4 to choose from, this is abit of a let down because none of them are anything special.

~~Profiles~~

Just like pretty much every phone there are different profiles that can be chosen and set to your needs depending where you are.

• Vibrate Mode
• Silent Mode
• General
• Outdoor
• Headset

The silent mode doesn't vibrate so you'll have to use the vibrate mode to make sure you don't miss any calls. Only telling you this because I had it on Silent when I first got it and missed loads of calls when it was in my pocket.

Also the headset ringtone is set to a rubbish default tone, which kindly went off when I was on a quiet bus, so I'd recommend you change this or set the volume low.

Also the alarm doesn't sound in silent mode which I think is pretty silly as some people turn their phone to silent at night, but still need an alarm to wake them.

~~Camera~~

The camera is a meer 2.0 megapixels…. But wait… don't go anywhere yet… it has a Schneider Kreuznach lens which Kodak also use in their cameras.

To access the settings of the camera, you must first touch the screen which will bring up different icons, so this can be quite fiddly.
The flash is absolutely crap, because…. It doesn't flash! It's one of them light things, that can either be turned on and off, which takes some fiddling about with as you have to go through the settings to do so.

The picture quality is great in the day for far away pictures, but is especially good up close. However as soon as it gets dark and the 'flash' is needed, long distance pictures are a defo no no.
The zoom is pointless, it's not even worth it, as moving your hand forward an inch gives the same results.

There is a 5 second delay from pressing the shutter button to taking the picture, so its definitely not for the photographers amongst us.

It also has a camcorder function to record videos. The video quality is pretty good, not at all bitty like I've seen on other camera phones.

~~MP3 Player~~

The mp3 player can be played through loud speaker which is pretty loud for a phone… infact it's louder than my laptop lol although I suppose that doesn't really take much beating. However when turned up to full volume it does tend to distort.

It can also be played through the head set which sounds pretty good quality, the bassy tones sound ok and not at all 'tinny'. It goes quite loud, but definitely nowhere near deafening loud. I suppose it also depends on the quality of the file.

I believe it also supports Bluetooth stereo headphones.

The mp3 player supports the following formats: MP3, AAC, WMA & Realaudio

The mp3 player has 2 different skins, the default one just has a play/pause button. There is also a white ipod style skin, but this one allows you to actually search through a song rather than just skipping to the next track.

You can see the time bar going across the screen like in most media players, but unfortunately it doesn't allow you to drag the bar across with your finger, instead you have to either hold the skip button on the remote control or press the skip button on the white skin.

For the first few weeks of having this phone I listened to the mp3 player and thought that I couldn't use other features like texting while it was on. However if the mp3 player/camera button is pressed once, the mp3 player runs in the background

~~FM Radio~~

It has an FM radio which sadly only works when the headset is plugged in, as it acts as an aerial. However, the radio can be turned to loud speaker.

It allows you to store your favourite radio stations in different channels, so you can easily bring them up without searching for them each time.

~~WAP~~

The wap is really quite poor for a phone of such good quality. It just your bog standard wap service which is found on older phones. You've have also thought that the links would be selected by pressing them on the touch screen, but this is not the case… There are arrow buttons on the screen to search through the links and a select button.
It loads pretty quick though.

I use bookmarks for horoscopes and the weather. My old phone used to allow me to load the page up to date. However the prada saves the page as it is, so it needs to be refreshed to keep it up to date.

~~Document Viewer~~

The phone comes with a handy document viewer which supports the following types of files:

Word - To allow you to view word documents
Excel - To allow to you to view your spreadsheets
Powerpoint - To allow you to view presentations
Adobe Acrobat - To allow you to view pdf documents

~~Battery Life~~

The battery on these phones are pretty weird, it only lasted a day when I first charged it, but after that it lasts a whole….. wait for it…. 2 days, 3 if I'm lucky and that's only when I've hardly used it. It'll definitely need charging every night if used loads.

At first, the battery level also seems to go up and down; one minute there's 3 bars, then 2, then 3 again. I'm not sure whether going into standby is having the same effect as when you turn your phone off and on again and the battery displays more bars than it has left? Unless im the lucky one to have a faulty battery?

After having this phone since May I don't have a problem with the battery, I guess at first I must have been paranoid that I just wasted my money on a faulty phone or now I have fallen in love with it and can't see it's faults?

Nice one LG! I think you should supply all us Prada owners with longlife batteries because it's a bloody joke if your scared to listen to your mp3s in case your battery goes. What if theres an emergency and I need to use my phone?

When the battery is low certain features become disabled such as the camera, watching videos, changing ringtones & mp3 player. The low battery sound is also very annoying, not so much the actual sound but the fact it goes off pretty much every 2 minutes! Then doesn't run out til the day after.

There is no silly sliding battery cover on this phone. The battery can be easily accessed, by simply pressing a button which releases the cover.

~~Memory~~

It has standard internal memory of a meer 8MB already installed, but hey hey hey, it also has a micro SD slot behind the battery. This is a pretty crappy place to locate the memory slot really, it would have been easier to have this on the side of the phone where is can be easily accessed.

It came with a 256MB micro SD card and an SD card adapter, so data can be easily transferred through any device with an SD card reader.

A small picture of an sd card can be seen at the top of the screen when a micro sd is fitted, so it's easy to tell if its been inserted without the need to take the battery out.

~~Software~~

It comes with a software CD to enable you to sync the phone with the computer.

I can't really comment on the sync software because I can't get it t work! It says its compatible with XP, but I'm running XP media centre edition, so maybe this is the problem?

Anyway, if it is compatible with your PC, it will enable you to save contacts from the phonebook, details from the calendar and memo notes.

It also has software to enable you to use the phone as a modem for your laptop while on the move, but I can't comment on this, because I haven't had the chance to use it yet.

~~Connecting with USB~~

Although I could not get the sync software to work on my computer, I could still transfer files by connection it to my laptop through USB. It's just a simple case of plug and play. The phone will become the next available drive letter, and the sd card is the letter after that. E.g in my case, my hard drives take up the C:/ and D:/ drive, my sd and memory card readers take up E:/ and F:/ drive, and my CD drive is G:/. So the next available drives would be H:/ & I:/
It's very easy to transfer files between the phone and the computer as it's just a case of dragging and dropping into the folders.

When connected to the computer, the phone cannot receive calls or messages. It charges through the computer when connected by USB lead, so there's no worrying about running out of battery while your in the middle of transferring songs or pictures.

~~ The Instruction manual~~

The manual is in English only.

It's pretty easy to follow. There is a contents section at the front.

It is recommended that the user guide is read before using the phone.

~~ Warranty ~~

As I bought this off ebay as an unwanted upgrade, I wont qualify for the warranty as its only available to the original purchaser. However if you are the first purchaser of this phone, then LG offer a 1 year warranty that the phone and all of the accessories will be free from defects in material and workmanship.

~~Games~~

It has 4 default games. All of which make use of the touch screen,

Halloween Fever - This game is similar to those games where you have to pop bubble when they are in a group of three or more, but instead of bubbles they use cartoon pictures of a pumpkin, mummy, skeleton, Frankenstein and vampire - the images are selected by pressing them on the touch screen, and as they are quite small, even my skinny fingers had trouble selecting them.

I'm not sure how many levels this has got because I've not yet completed it. I'm on level 45 which I have completed many times, but an error message appeared which stopped my game :-( I dunno what this is all about.

Photo Puzzle - This game starts with an image and breaks it up into squares, the squares then have to be rearranged to make up the picture. The number of squares increases which makes it slightly harder. But with only have about 4 different images the game is completed in one go.

Again, the touch screen is used to select the squares , which gets difficult to use when the number of squares increases and get smaller.

Virus - My fav game, although I've been stuck on the same level for ages. There are 'virus' bubble shaped objects that float around the screen and are 'popped' with the touch of a finger.

Pipe - You have a time limit to fit the different shaped pipes together so the water can flow from the tap at the top, to the drains below.

There are lots of levels which will keep you busy for a while, although I have completed it and its one of those games that I cant be arsed playing again.

You'd have thought prada would have supplied the phone with some decent games as none of these are anything special.

I have also searched for games on WAP but am yet unable to find any. Any advice would be great?

~~ Other Stuff~~

This phone has only froze on me once so far and this is when I first got it so it was possibly due to me getting over excited and pressing all the buttons at once.

Like other phones with LCD screens, it's hard to see the screen in bright daylight. It's especially hard with the prada as all the buttons and functions are on the screen!

The screen also gets dirty very easily with fingerprints. My foundation also sticks to the screen when making a call….nice lol The screen cleaner is really good at getting it back to its shiny self.

Although this phone has a touchscreen like a PDA, it doesn't need a stylus. Just the use of a finger is required, so if you don't have any fingers then I'm afraid this isn't for you.

Ive noticed the reception is slightly better than my old phone and ive had no problems with it yet.

~~Conclusion~~

So far, I've had no trouble with this phone, although I have yet to drop it (It must be due soon, so I'll let you know what happens), or get it wet.

If you're after a smartphone, then even tho it looks pretty smart, it certainly isn't a smartphone. I'm unsure why these keep being compared to the i-phone, because the touch screen is where the simarlarities end.

I would recommend this phone to someone who is looking for a phone that looks great.

Here is a breakdown of what I think of the different features (out of 5 *):
Looks: *****
Size/Weight: *****
Making/Receiving a Call: ****
Texting: ***
Camera: ***
MP3 Player: ***
Internal Phone memory: *

Although the mp3 player is adequate, I definitely wouldn't buy this phone if your after a music phone, mainly due to the battery life and internal storage ( although extra micro sd cards can be purchased.)

Even though you may think the phone is fragile and flimsy, It definitely feels solid enough for normal everyday use, although I wouldn't suggest keeping it in your back pocket.

I am personally really happy with this phone and would definitely recommend it.

If you haven't fallen asleep by now, thanks for reading :-)

I can't think of anything else right now, but if I do I'll update. Also, I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Lisa

*Update* I have figured out how to switch between words when using predictive texting! Touch the screen so the arrows switch from left+right to up+down, then press an arrow to scroll through the words... simple lol