OVERVIEW:

The brand new LG Viewty Smart LG GC900 Black, featuring a WVGA touchscreen with a resolution of 800 by 480 pixels, LG's new S-Class User Interface (see it in action here), and an 8-megapixel CMOS sensor with sensitivity up to ISO 1600.

The phone also supports European HSDPA support (7.2 Mbps), Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, A-GPS based geotagging, 1.5 GB internal memory (!) as well as an microSD memory slot supporting up to 32GB cards. The LG Viewty Smart succeeds the original LG Viewty, which according to LG sold over 6.5 million units.

The LG Viewty Smart (see gallery at the bottom) will offer a new Intelligent Shot Mode, courtesy of an improved image processor which analyzes the subject, background and lighting conditions and compares the data against seven pre-programmed scenarios to take better pictures. In a Canon point-and-shoot camera, you'll find an image processor that compares data against tens of thousands of optimal images, but we guess that's a key reason why camera phones are still far behind such cameras in most cases.

The LG Viewty Smart is also offering a maximum ISO setting of 1600, LED flash, Multi-Face Detection, as well as shooting modes such as Touch Shot, Art Shot, Beauty Shot, Panorama Shot and Continuous Shot. Moreover, the LG Viewty Smart boasts VGA recording capability.

The LG Viewty includes the new 3D S-Class UI which debuted on LG's Arena earlier this year. LG has tailored S-Class around the LG Viewty Smart's camera features with an on-screen dial for instantly switching shot modes and a thumbnail viewer that shows recently taken photos without having to switch to the photo gallery.

LG has also included an easier way to zoom in and out: Move your finger in a clockwise circle on the touchscreen to zoom in, as if turning the zoom ring on an SLR camera. Zoom out by moving the finger in the opposite direction. Zooming in and out is also possible with multi-touch pinching and stretching.

Despite all its features, the LG Viewty Smart measures only 12.4mm deep, making it the thinnest 8-megapixel camera phone at the time of writing. The LG Viewty Smart (LG GC900 Black) will be available through operators in Europe starting in May and then launch in other markets around the world later on.

SPECIFICATIONS:

General 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100
Size Dimensions 108.9 x 56.1 x 12.4 mm
Weight 102 g
Display Type TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 800 x 480 pixels, 3.0 inches
- S-Class Touch UI
- Multi-touch input method
- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
Sound Alert types Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3 ringtones
Speakerphone Yes
- Dolby Mobile sound enhancement
Memory Phonebook 1000 entries, Photocall
Call records 40 dialed, 40 received, 40 missed calls
Internal 1.5 GB
Card slot microSD (TransFlash), up to 32GB, buy memory
Data GPRS Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
HSCSD Yes
EDGE Class 12
3G HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
Infrared port No
USB Yes, v2.0
Camera Primary 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, Schneider-Kreuznach optics, auto/manual focus, power LED flash
Features Intelligent shot, geo-tagging, image stabilization, multi face detection (up to 3), smile detection, beauty shot, ISO 1600
Video Yes, 720x480@30fps, VGA@30fps, QVGA time-lapse and slow-mo video recording
Secondary Yes
Features Messaging SMS, MMS, Email
Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
Radio FM radio
Games 5 incl. motion-based + downloadable
GPS Yes, with A-GPS support; Google maps
Java Yes, MIDP 2.0
- TV-out
- MP3/AAC/AAC+/WMA player
- DivX/XviD/MPEG4 player
- Organizer
- Document viewer (DOC, XLS, PPT, PDF)
- Voice memo
- T9
Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion 1000 mAh
Stand-by Up to 330 h (2G) / Up to 350 h (3G)
Talk time Up to 5 h 30 min (2G) / Up to 4 h 40 min (3G)