LG U8120 (LG U8100)

Member Name: johnnyho

Product:	LG U8100
Date:	08/03/05 (1759 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Decently sized for a 3G handset, Comes with a USB cable, Camera

Disadvantages: Lack of Bluetooth, Not much really

I purchased this phone after waiting for the Sony Ericsson Z1010 for about a lifetime and heard that it will not be released. The reason for buying this phone was not because I wanted this handset, but because it was one of the best handsets on offer that was available on the '3' network. I wanted to use '3' as they have by far the best value for money tariffs out there (See my review on the '3' network).

In the box comes the handset and battery, a wall charger, a manual and several other '3' manuals and a USB cable for connection to your computer, with software on a CD. The box was quite small, but neatly packaged.

The handset itself is an averagely sized, ordinary looking phone. However, I was actually quite amazed by all the features. Having not used an LG phone before, I found the user interface was very easy to use, and easy to get used to. I even find it much better than most Motorola phones, which I still believe have the worst user interface/menu system.

The battery life is, I would say, is less than average, but good enough for a couple days of semi-intense use (a couple hours a day on the phone, and using the phone to take pictures, send/receive messages etc). One thing I like about the phone is that the internal screen is very nice. It is clear and has a good resolution, so looking at photo's etc is a pleasure. The phone also has many features:

Video calling - a gimmick really, but allows you to call and see others on their video phone. Very expensive though and doesn't work too well, as there is a huge lag. Also, video calls can only be made when you are in a 3G coverage area.

Camera/Video camera - The rotating camera takes pictures of up to VGA resolution (0.3 mega pixels, 640x480). However, the pictures are semi-decent, not as good as most say, Nokia phones, but decent enough for a phone. It also has a 'flash' which is a light on the phone which allows you to take pictures in the dark. It doesn't work well though, as the subject must be very close for it to be slightly effective. Video capture on the phone is also not very good, the picture is very jerky, and is at a very low resolution.

Media Player - Allows you to watch 3gp videos on your phone, listen to mp3's etc, which can be transferred from your computer via the provided USB cable.

Other features include MMS, vibration alert (but what kind of phone doesn't have this feature these days), calendar, world clock, which allows you to find out the time in many other countries (useful for travellers), memo and secret memo which can only be accessed if a PIN code is entered, calculator which includes more than your standard phone calculator including functions such as trigonometric functions (sin, cos, tan) logs and natural logs, exponentials etc, unit converter which allows many conversions for example Celsius to Fahrenheit, timers such as stopwatch, voice recording, java etc etc.

Another feature of the phone that I quite like is the ability to change the backlight colour of the front screen. It also can be changes for various things, such as if a message has arrived the light will be yellow, or if a call is coming in, it can be blue.

I have been happy using this phone, and memory space is sufficient, at around 32MB. One thing that I do not like is that there is too much '3' branding on the phone. There is a '3' logo on the front of the phone, and also shows the '3' logo whenever the phone is switched off or on. A major reason which may put some of you reading this off this phone is the lack of Bluetooth. Bluetooth allows you to send or receive files from or to other phones with Bluetooth, a wireless handsfree headset, or a computer with Bluetooth. However, as a USB cable is provided, I don't think it is too much of a big deal for me. Software for transferring files to and from computer are very easily installed, and quite easy to use. I think it is actually much better than Nokia's PC suite, which can be very 'intrusive'.

This phone has actually failed twice on me, but to be honest, I think that this might be a problem with the software that '3' have put on the phone. It has been repaired, and so far has been working well.

Overall, I think this is a decently sized handset with decent functionality. I would not however, say that it is the best phone in the world, nor the worst. Many things about this phone I really like, but some things really frustrate me. However, the price of this phone justifies my purchase.

Summary: