LG U8120 Review
First Impressions
The LG U8120 is the smallest and newest offering from '3'. My first impression was that it was a solid feeling handset and one, which I couldn't wait to start setting up and using. The overall impression of this handset is that it feels solid in your hand, and with a weight of 126gm and a size of 96*50*23 it's a solid compact little handset. However as with most clamshells it does tend to be a little top heavy while texting, but just to use for voice calls this phone is extremely comfortable to use. When taking pictures with the inbuilt camera, the camera is not on the top of the flip, but sits on the hinge housing so when using the camera the handset doesn't feel insecure.
Features
- 40-chord polyphonic ring tones which also support MP3, midi and AAC
- Mp3 player
- Stereo headset (included)
- 32 chord polyphonic ring tones
- Still and video camera
- 32mb onboard storage
- Clock, alarm and calendar
- Media player
- Avatar address book
- Voice recorder
- Unit converter
- Calculator
- World time clock
What's In The box
- Handset
- One battery
- One usb data cable
- One software disc
- Charger
- Instruction manual
Keypad
The keypad is easy to use, with keys of a nice size, which makes it easy to text and use in general. The keys are flush to the body of the phone and have a nice bright blue backlight. The keypad has a dedicated 3 button for access to the 3 service, and also unusually a dedicated back button, which a lot of the 3 don't have. There is a four way scroll button which has messages, contacts, settings and quick menu, and a dedicated contacts button and also a media buttons which opens up straight into the video and audio player and camera.
Menu Structure
One thing that can be said for the LG is the easy to use menu structure. Menu keys you have when you scroll are, messages, calling, multimedia, contacts, applications, browser, organiser, tools, and settings, all with sub menus off the main menu. The phone features a quick menu also which has listed, 3 services, my 3, tunes & pics, music, sport and then you also have five empty spaces to put your own shortcuts into. I have found the menus to be so easy you don't really need the book to navigate them.
The Camera
The LG features a 640*480 VGA camera, which is a swivel camera, which makes it a bit awkward at first to get the angle of the pictures correct, but after a short time it gets easier. The quality of the pictures I was a bit disappointed with compared to the NEC e313, as the LG pictures seemed to be not as clear and the colour wasn't true. The camera has five different image sizes, high, standard and low quality, a flash, multishot facility, a zoom, a brightness quality, delay timer, camera effects, which include normal, black & white, sepia and a night mode, you also have a choice of shutter sounds (6) and an image viewer. The video camera supports MPEG4 format, and the duration of videos range from MMS size to no limit. The video camera also has four modes, normal, black &white, sepia and night mode. The quality of the videos produced was pleasantly surprising, I found them to be very good quality.
The Display
The screen features a TFT screen with a display of 176*220 pixels, and 64k colours, which is very bright and clear and shows off colours in their natural hues. This handset comes with some preinstalled wallpapers but you can easily upload your own via email or the supplied usb cable. The screen settings consist of backlight, contrast, colour scheme, which gives you a choice of four colours, dialling font so you can change the size and colour of the font, clock display, menu style, screen theme, front screen colour and greeting message. The smaller screen which can be found on the front flip is a 96*64 pixel display, which can be customised to change colour depending on if you receive a text message, alarm call or phone call.
Browser
Like all 3 phones the browser on this handset is the standard 3 browser, giving you access to all 3's services. The dedicated triangle button connects you to the three portal from where you navigate the various categories. If there is no 3 signal present the only options are ring tunes & pics and email. The LG has a dedicated back button, which makes navigating the three portal easy. 3 only supports its own walled garden so for example if you want to navigate to a site outside this then you can't.
Battery Life & Signal Strength
This phone has a brilliant battery for a 3 phone, once I had charged it for an initial sixteen hours the battery lasted four full days despite being used for taking pictures and sending them via email (41) texting (32) voice talking (15.62) and as with all new phones setting up contacts, address books and calendar and just general setting up new phone things. Further charges take just two hours. The signal on this handset has remained on a constant 3 signal, with four bars showing, not once has it reverted to O2 or dropped a call so I am extremely pleased about that.
Media Transfer
There has been a lot of complaints that the included software doesn't detect the phone once set up, I however have had no problem with this, I installed the software, connected my phone and it worked first time, with no errors. Pictures can either be transferred via MMS, email, IR or with the supplied usb cable (the easiest and quickest method). Ring tunes and sound files for the mp3 player can also be transferred to the phone with the supplied cable in the same way. The included software is easy to set up and configure and more importantly the software seems solid, with no errors or conflictions so far.
Summary
I am very impressed with this phone, which is undoubtedly the best 3 phone on the market; the handset is solid as is the software inside the handset. I think this is a classy little phone with its silver casing and its snazzy front coloured display. Even on 3 pay the price has recently fallen and I think it represents great value for money. The 3 signal on this handset is far superior to the other 3 phones that I have owned. Its predecessor the LG U8110 was a top seller and with the addition of the extra memory this phone will I think become very popular and win 3 a lot of happy new subscribers. This phone is really easy to use, from texting to taking and sending picture it's a simple handset to operate. The call clarity is one of the things that struck me as being really good, and the battery life was another. All in all I would highly recommend this handset.
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