I decided to treat myself to a brand new pay as you go mobile phone and I knew what I wanted and I knew that it was going to be on the orange network. The phone I am talking about is LG Viewty. The search began for the best possible price. I decided against getting the phone from Ebay as I wanted a brand new one which was boxed and never been open before.
So why this model
I chose this model purely because another family member has it and is always saying how good the phone is. I had borrowed it for a few days to see how good it really was and to be honest it's a phone that makes you go wow really! This little beauty is outstanding. Other reasons I chose this phone is that it is available on orange network which meant I could keep my own number too. Now the search began........
Where and how much
= I bought mines from great universal online, only because I was emailed a £10 off voucher and I also went through Quidco and got 6% cash back Phone is £219.00 - £10.00 - take in to account 6% cash back which is £12.78 = £196.22
Available from many other outlets including:
Orange online - £219.00 + £10.00 compulsory top up Ebay - Varying from £189.00 - £263.00 brand new *Unlocked I have also seen this phone in Argos, Tesco, Curry's and Comet for anything from £219 - £259
I would strongly recommend anyone who is considering buy this item to search for the
lowest price and then use any of the many cash back sites to obtain a cheaper item.
When I bought mines from Great Universal online, I paid by debit card and was able to choose what date suited me for delivery. The item was delivered to me on that day and I would have no problem recommending them.
What's in the box
The actual box itself is very stylish, slide the box out of its sleeve to be greeted by an even more stylish box which has a picture of the phone on it. Opening the box and you have pop up 3d picture of the phone. Then you're in to the goodies. All neatly packed in their individual boxes and wrapped very well. Now it's time to have a quick run through the goodies,
Standard UK wall charger - USB cable - Stylus - Headset - Screen protector-
Full comprehensive instruction booklet - CD rom for pc -
The phone
First words that jump to mind are large screen, stylish, elegant and funky looking.
Mostly black in colour with the orange logo near the bottom of the screen and the LG logo at the top. The large LCD screen is protected with screen covers which are provided; this stops the phone screen from getting scratched. The phone has 6 buttons that are visible which I still find amazing that you can have so little on display but have so many features.
Buttons that are visible - Call (green handset) - End (Red handset) - Back button - Slider which allows you to choose camera or video - Picture capture button and Lock/unlock button.
On the top left hand side under the little shutter you will find the point for charging your phone, connecting in too the PC or using your headset. I think this is great that one port does all things and the fact that the shutter hides it is brilliant.
Specifications - Band Tri-band Weight 112 g Size (mm) 104 x 54 x 15 Talk time (up to) 3 hr Standby time (up to) 300 hr Charge time (up to) 2 hr This is a very stylish phone - in my eyes there is very little room for improvement other than the fact they could have included a better place to store the stylus as presently it just hangs loose like a spare part.
Using it for the first time
When you take the phone out of the box, place your sim card in and switch it on you will have a few options depending if you use a brand new or used sim card. If it's a used one then you will have the option to copy all numbers from the sim card to phone and if it's a brand new one it will take you straight in to the set up screen. Whilst you read the comprehensive user guide just make sure you have the phone on charge or you will be very disappointed. Realistically it takes approximately 30mins to read the user guide and update the phone to your required settings. One thing that is very important when you're setting your phone up is the accuracy of the stylus pointer, so take your time to go through the setup process and remember to press save. If you're wondering why this part is so important, if you do not do this then your LCD touch screen maybe difficult to use. I would strongly recommend that you place the phone on charge until it is fully charged the first time and then just use it until the battery dies and full recharge again. It takes a few full charges before the battery last any length of time. The battery takes approximately 2/3 hours to charge fully when using the mains charger, if you use the usb cable it takes much longer.
Features
This phone has many features which I will cover in great details and others I will just list for you.
Making and receiving call's - so far to date I am very happy with the quality of the phone, however people who call me on the mobile have noticed that they can hear back ground noise very clearly... Now this can be good if you want them to hear that, but it can also be a pain too.
Texting - Something that I do too much of, I can send easily over 2000 text messages in one month and one thing I like about this phone is the input method. You can chose to either use Tap or predictive which has an extensive variety of words and it's very easy to add new words too. Now when you're creating your message you can use your stylus to tap the screen and create the message using the normal looking buttons, this phone also has a qwerty keyboard (virtual) which is brilliant and also has letter recognition too. So there are many ways you can write your message.
Phone lock - as this phone has a touch screen it's very important that you lock the phone when not in use, pressing the dedicated button once on the side of the phone will lock the phone and stop any little accidents - ie calling your friends at silly o clock. It's very easy to unlock too, just press and hold the button and it will unlock.
Camera/Video - another huge reason why I bought this phone, it has a 5million pixel camera which has a flash too. It's so like using a normal digital camera. The quality is simply amazing and is far better than any phone I have ever had. You would honestly think you where using a normal digital camera. It has a two camera one on the front and one on the back too making it very easy to capture that picture. You have options to edit the picture once taken too. The video clips are also fantastic to. I have taken pictures in very dark areas and have to say I am delighted with the quality.
Bluetooth - I would never get a phone without blue tooth as I require it to use my hand free which is fitted in my car. The Bluetooth on this particular phone is very easy to activate and it's also very easy for you to pair up phones. Which means when you send items to the same phone again it just a case of selecting that from the list without searching.
Radio - simply plug in your hands free kit in to your phone and you now have a fully operational radio which will pick up any radio in the local area. I used mines once to test it and I was amazed that the quality was just like I get in my hifi in the house. It's very easy to store your favourite stations.
Ringtones - you have the standard pathetic ringtones on the phone which you can select, or you can add the latest song to your phone. I don't see the point have a brand new state of the art phone and then have a stupid ring ring tone.... Please add the latest song to your phone. This phone also has a good music player so when you play your songs back its cd quality. In addition to the above the phone also has Internet access, Organiser, alarm, Memo, Voice recorder, Flight Mode and many more features that you would find on a modern phone.
Overall
I am delighted with this phone, it's a decent looking phone with many added extra and a superb camera and video. The touch screen is almost always very accurate and I think it's a phone that has been so easy to get familiar with. The software you get with the phone is very easy to install and simple instructions allow you to upload video and pictures to your pc. I would not have any problems recommending the phone to anyone. I would have been happier if LG had provided more than one protective sheet for the screen. More information is available on LG website
I have since bought additional memory from Ebay for £4.95 and I bought a rubber case for 99p too.
Can't think of any question after reading all that, thorough to say the least. Like the inclusion of cashback details to, very useful.
dingledot 04.01.2009 15:47
good review but you overdid it on the technical information front. It would have perhaps been easier and quiker to heave read through the manual - not enough info on your PERSONAL experiences
Jun 16th, 2008
exceptional by (33%):
very helpful by (67%):
