Gizmodo: viewty

LG Renoir Surfaces; Shows Off Touchscreen, 8MP Camera, Fingerprints

Jack Loftus — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 12:30:00 EDT

We brought you a shiny stock image of LG's Viewty successor, the Renoir, back in August, and today we're bringing you the requisite fingerprint-laden in the wild photos (with watermarks!). They give a more accurate depiction of this puppy's 8MP monster, complete with Schneider-Kreuznach certified optics, xenon flash and ISO up to 1600. There's a phone in there too, with quad-band GSM, a 3-inch touchscreen, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, and Wifi. The Renoir will be available sometime in October. Maybe they'll take that plastic band off the outside by then. [Toys and Gadgets via BGR]

LG's KC910 is the New Viewty, With 8-Megapixel Camera

Kit Eaton — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:34:00 EDT

Nearly two months ago we teased you with a mocking mock-up of LG's upcoming KC910 cellphone, but now over at Phone Arena there's a real image, and official specs. The KC910 is a successor to the Viewty and it's no image-slouch: there's an 8-megapixel cam in that shiny body with a xenon flash, Schneider-Kreuznach lens, and shooting up to ISO 1600. It also does VGA video at 30fps and can do high-speed 120fps filming, though this is at QVGA resolution. There's even GPS for geotagging your imagery and navigation.

The cellphone even has a set of auto-options you normally see on full digital cameras: with face detection, automatic blink-avoidance detection, smile detection and a digital image stabilization mode. Amazingly there's even a manual-focus option, which should please photography fans.

The phone portion of the gizmo is a quad-band GSM, with HSDPA up to 7.2 Mbps, and Bluetooth 2.0. The phone also has Wi-Fi connectivity, takes microSD cards for memory expansion up to 8GB and has a 3-inch 400 x 240 touchscreen. It's due to hit the streets in October. [Phone Arena]

LG KU990 Viewty Touchscreen Cellphone Can Now Record 640x480 DivX at 120FPS

Jason Chen — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:20:59 EST

Recording VGA-quality movies is nothing new, but DivX and LG just announced that the LG Viewty smartphone can now record VGA-quality movies at 120 frames per second with what looks like a software update (new ones will ship with it pre-loaded). Best of all, it records in the DivX format, which means you can watch it back on all kinds of DivX devices (your computer, various PMPs, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 for example). Besides recording at such a high rate, the phone can also take 5-megapixel stills, for the times when one picture says more than 120 of them. The Viewty is already available in Europe, and we got a hands-on with it last year. [Mobile Burn]

LG's Viewty (aka the KU990) is now available ...

AddyDugdale — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 07:58:39 EDT

LG's Viewty (aka the KU990) is now available in Europe, the same week that Samsung's G800 makes itself available over there. Let battle (of the 5-megapixel camera phones) commence.

Hands-on with the LG KU990 Smart Phone (Verdict: Definitely Not an iPhone Killer)

AddyDugdale — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 13:00:09 EDT

Here's the LG KU990 Viewty (will I ever get used to that name?) in the flesh at IFA. The camera may pack a 5 Megapixel camera punch but the phone itself leaves a lot to be desired, especially when compared to you know what. It's got some nice ideas, like the lens rim functioning as both a manual focus and a click wheel, but after playing with it, we have to say it looks incredibly badly executed.

You saw what Mark said about the click wheel/lens rim: it just doesn't feel right and it doesn't work as you would expect a click-wheel to work.

LG's PR told us that the phone was "almost perfect" and only a little bit of the design may change for the production. Not the click wheel, though. He said that the phone may be a little bit thinner. Another problem with the phone was the speed. Really slow and stuttering when you compare it to the smooth-as-a-hot-knife-through-butter iPhone user interface.

The touchscreen wasn't impressive either. While demonstrating the Graffiti-like writing recognition, we asked specifically if you needed a stylus or not. The answer: yes. Yet, it seemed like they were trying to make it look like an iPhone alternative by demonstrating writing with their finger. As you can see by LG hostess Scarlet von Hardenberg (yep, that was her name) trying to use her nail as a stylus in the gallery, the experience is not as nice as using an iPhone. In fact, it looked quite painful.

The interface looked confusing when doing many operations, and it clearly wasn't designed for touch-based operations with your fingers. Small interface elements, as you can see in the video, made it quite difficult to use.

Sadly, and even counting its 5-megapixel camera, the LG KU990 can't compare in speed, user interface and overall experience with the JesusPhone. We don't know about the price yet, though, but from here it doesn't look it's going to be a bargain.

In other words: we were hoping this phone to be a worthy competitor to the iPhone, and our impression has been a complete letdown.

Up Close and Personal Video of LG KU990 "Viewty"

Mark Wilson — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 12:49:14 EDT

Here's an extensive walk-through of LG's new KU990 Viewty. You can tell that this prototype is far from perfect as even our practiced demonstrator has issues once in a while. In my minute of allowed hands-on, I found that the back wheel doesn't spin, but snaps back into place after rotating about 30 degrees. It feels horrible. And the touch sensitivity is fairly crappy. Good on paper, bad in person.

Something funny: I asked if we could see the Viewty make a call and unintentionally stumped them.

According to CNET, the LG-U990 phone will ...

ybaranovsky — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:02:48 EDT

According to CNET, the LG-U990 phone will have the ability to upload videos directly to YouTube and allow YouTube videos to be viewed directly on the handset. Still no price but we're probably willing to kill for it. [Crave]