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Blog Entry: Upper crust: LG "cannot compete" in the low end market

LG has announced that they'll turn up their efforts to market high end phones in emerging markets this year, and that they're all but giving up on the lower end of the handset marketplace.  Korea Times reported the story along with the news that the electronics giant launched the Venus-like KF600 handset in Brazil and China. ``We cannot compete with such industry leaders as Nokia and Samsung Electronics with low-priced phones. We have...

LG KE970-Shine in-depth review - Introduction & Design

LG's KE970 "Shine" is one of the most gorgeous mobile phones - nay, one of the most gorgeous handheld objects - I've ever come across. I drooled over it at CES in Vegas this past January, and again at CTIA in Orlando in March. I tend to favor a combination of features and style in my gadgets, but from the moment I first saw Shine's TFT display emerge from beneath it's mirrored front panel, I was in love. It almost didn't matter what Shine...

LG KE970-Shine in-depth review - Features

Shine boasts a solid feature set, and being an unlocked/unbranded handset, it ships without any "carrier deck" items (Cingular Music, Sprint TV, Verizon VCast, etc.).  This is either a good or bad thing, depending on your perspective.  From my point of view, it makes for a clean look and feel without a bunch of unwanted carrier logos.  Most WAP-based carrier services can still be accessed by setting up browser bookmarks. ...

LG KE970-Shine in-depth review - Display & Audio

I found the display - both its mirror front and its functionality - to be one of Shine's highlights.   A 2.2" TFT panel, the display renders 262,000 colors across a 240x320 (QVGA) resolution.  While this isn't the brightest screen you'll find on a mobile phone, and it does suffer somewhat in direct sunlight, I found Shine's display to be amongst the most pleasing I've laid my eyes upon in awhile.   It could well be...

LG KE970-Shine in-depth review - Messaging, Internet, & Connectivity

Shine supports SMS and MMS messaging as well integrated POP3 and IMAP4 email.  Messaging support is more robust than usually found on a standard phone, but not quite as advanced as what smartphone users are used to.  I was able to send and receive text and photo messages with no problems, and also quickly configured the handset to access my personal email accounts over GPRS/EDGE data connections.  The style-conscious professional...

LG KE970-Shine in-depth review - Conclusion

Sometimes it's fun to go for style over substance.  LG's KE970 Shine cell phone comes very close to flawlessly bridging the style/substance divide; close enough for most users who fall in love with its dashing good looks, but not close enough for some.  Shine's gorgeous brushed metal housing and mirror finish display are backed by a good feature set, 2 mp camera. and generally well designed user interface and applications.  The...