My All Singing All Dancing Number! (LG U880)

Member Name: Princess Leb

Product:	LG U880
Date:	09/03/06 (1708 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sleek, lightweight, packed with easy to use features.

Disadvantages: Have to pay for games. Fragile application slots.

It had been a long long time since I had a new mobile phone – far too long. Over the years I’ve been a bit of a charity case when it came to products of the telecommunicative nature and have just put up with hand me down’s! However, carrying a brick around with you all day - when your bag has already got the kitchen sink in it – can become a bit tiresome! So I thought I’d push the boat out and get myself a brand new shiny phone.

To be honest I didn’t really look at a lot of different phones before choosing this one, infact I looked at just one other which was just so ugly only it’s mother could love it! So the U880 came up trumps.

The phone is available in 3 colours – black, silver and pink. I didn’t get a choice in the colour as my phone came free with my new contract with 3 (see below) but I have got the black version and it looks great – super sleek and modern.
It’s a flip phone and measures about 3 ¾ inches long, just under 2 inches wide and less than ¾ inch in depth when closed.

Looking at the phone when closed you have a camera lens in the centre at the top. The camera is 1.3 mega pixels and the lens can be swivelled back and forth so you can take pictures either of yourself or, for the less vain, whatever is in front of you! This swivel lens was one of the main selling points for me – I’m easily pleased!

In the centre at the front of the phone you have small screen (just under 1inch square) with the LG logo beneath it. You can adapt the standard ‘3’ logo so the screen has a stored photo of your own on it. The screen can also be set to show the date and time if you wish and also shows you the standard battery life symbol and the signal strength, whether you are in a 3G Video networking area and plenty more if necessary.

The U880 can also be used as an MP3 player – with 80 mb of memory although you can buy a memory card for under £20 if you wish to add to this - and underneath the front screen you have the controls for this very facility which I find very useful as you don’t have to flip open your phone to actually play your stored music and the controls are extremely simple to use. You also have a handy volume button on one side of the handset.

Finally, at the bottom you have the silver ‘3’ logo.

On flipping the phone open you have a large clear screen on the top half which, as with the outer screen you can save a background image of one of your stored photos on to, and you have the handset at the bottom. It took me a while to get used to the handset as it is completely flat and I have been used to raised buttons on my previous phones. However, the flatness adds to the super sleekness of the U880. On one side you have a slot for your headset and on the other the charger/usb slot. Both of these having discreet black covers. Now, while the handset itself feels quite robust, these covers do seem quite fragile. Infact, on first opening the charger slot, I thought I had broken my precious new toy but I have opened and shut it quite frequently and it seems fine – time will tell!

Using the handset and navigating the menus couldn’t be easier. In the past the best mobiles I have had with regards to ease of use have always been Nokias but my new LG is definitely on a par with these.
You have your ‘soft keys’ on the top left and right, although they aren’t actually soft incase you were wondering! These navigate you to ‘My stuff’ and ‘Planet 3’.
‘My stuff’ takes you to a menu which includes: images, videos, sounds, Applications, Bluetooth files, memory card file and play lists.
In the centre you’ve got a silver OK key (all other keys are black) and surrounding these you have quick access keys to: Quick Menu, Messages, Contacts and Sounds. The location of these keys is great as you don’t have to scroll through menus to get to these options.
You also got a ‘back’ key which does what it says on the tin! And a ‘C’ button which allows you to delete text in your text/e-mail messages. This also acts as your speaker phone button.
As well as your boring old green ‘send’ and red ‘end’ keys to make and finish calls, the U880 has a fancy video calling button which is lots of fun if you know somebody else with a 3 handset. I get to enjoy this facility as my boyfriend also has a ‘3’ mobile. I get 25 free minutes of video calls per month which may not seem generous but for me it is more than adequate and makes it more of a treat when you do actually use it.
Another special key is the ‘triangle’ key which takes you through to 3’s homepage - ‘Today on 3’ - which is like a mini magazine allowing you to browse for free and then pay for information on football results (yawn) and your favourite soaps or to get your horoscopes sent to your phone or news headlines. This is a key I won’t be pressing very often!
The last important key is the MENU key which leads you to a grid, picture format list of the following: screen, profiles, settings, browser, messages, my stuff, multimedia, contacts, applications, organiser, tools and calling. *Warning* I’m going to now give a brief insight into each of these options so skip this part if you wish or pick and choose the section(s) you feel are relevant to you!

*Screen* This allows you to edit the front and/or main screen wallpaper or to switch them off completely. You can also select whether you want the date and/or time displayed on the front screen.

*Profiles* Here you can activate your handset to silent or vibrate only or use a customised ring tone. All very straightforward really.

*Settings* You can adjust the basic settings of your mobile i.e., change the date and time, lock your keypad, set the language etc.

*Browser* This takes you to the aforementioned ‘Today on 3’ and allows you to access any bookmarked web pages.

*Messages* This obviously allows you to send either a text message, multimedia message or an e-mail (you can set up your on 3 e-mail address) although you’ve got the quick access key on the handset anyway which makes it a lot erm, quicker!

*My stuff* As mentioned above, this takes you to your menu for access to your saved images, videos, sounds and playlists.

*Multimedia* This takes you to a menu for your video camera, camera and voice recorder. However you have a quick access button to both camera options on one side of the handset. The camera is 1.3 mega pixels and although there are higher spec camera phones on the market, I find this works well. It’s simple to use and although it doesn’t have a flash it has a setting where by you can adjust it for night time so if you’re in fairly dark surroundings you can set it to suit. You can also take pictures in black and white, sepia and a scary ‘negative’ format. Another fun feature is one where you can add a border to the photo or even a silly hat or pig’s ears! One thing I discovered while writing this is that you don’t have to have the phone flipped open to take a picture. You simply push and hold the camera button on the side and click away (I proceeded to take lots of unflattering photo’s of myself at this point!) I haven’t used the video camera much but it seems to only be able to record 25 seconds at a time.

*Contacts* Again you already have a quick access button if you simply want to select a contact to either call or message but taking this route allows you to, among other things, add a new contact, set speed dials, split numbers in to groups and has the service dial numbers for ‘3’ and directory enquiries or emergency services – however I feel obligated to advise you that it is a whole lot quicker to dial 999 in cases of emergency!
Adding a contact is very easy and apart from the obvious name and number you can also add (among other things) 2 extra numbers, an e-mail address, select a group i.e., family, friends, colleagues etc, add an image from your stored photos so that you can actually see who is calling you and you can also assign a ringtune to that person either from the usual sounds or from your mp3 tunes!

*Applications* This is where you will find your games and any other applications you may wish to add. You can also download games onto your phone from this menu. There is one downside with this. The games aren’t free! The two that are already listed are Jumbo Rumble and ZUMA. If you try to access them you are advised that it costs 50 pence for 3 days worth of gaming! I didn’t feel it necessary to try these out for review purposes afterall, you don’t buy a mobile just to play games – so I’ll put my 50 pence towards chocolate if that’s ok!

*Organiser* The organiser menu, as with all other menus is laid out in a very straightforward format. You have a calendar which you can easily add events to any selected dates and set alarms for these dates. You also have separate To do, Memo, Secret memo (which you need to set up a password for), Date finder and a Dateulator – at the moment I’m not 100% sure what this is. It doesn’t actually explain it in the manual but it appears to be another type of memo/to-do type thingy!

*Tools* Here you can access your quick menu (not sure why you’d do it this way – kind of defeats the object of it being a quick menu!) You also have your alarm clock, calculator, unit converter and a world time section which brings up a funky little map and allows you to set the date and time according to where you are in the world.

And for those who are still reading, finally we have:

*Calling* From this menu you can change the settings of your video calls, for example if you want to change the picture size or position or if you’re having a bad hair day and don’t want the other person to see you then this is the place to do it! You can also view your call history and call costs and duration and can also activate or deactivate your call diverts (listing video and voice calling separately), call barring and call waiting.

The U880 also comes with a charger and a headset which allows you to listen to your music and also to operate your phone ‘hands free’. You also get easy to install software which consists of the LG Desktop which allows you to transfer all of your contacts and To do lists and memos on to your computer. Then there’s the LG media player which allows you to play music and videos not only from files on your phone but from your computer too. This is a very basic media player compared to say Windows media or ITunes but it works. Finally you’ve got LG Phone Manager which, again, can store your contacts list from your phone and also any text or e-mail messages you may want to transfer. It is here that you can plug in the provided USB cable and have fun transferring your music on to your mobile and saving your photos and videos to you computer. This is all plainly laid out and easy to use even for a technophobe like me!

Moving on to the all important cost of the phone. Well, mine came free with a new contract. I was already on a pay as you go scheme with Orange and had begun to spend between £25-£30 per month on calls. I wanted a contract that would cost me no more than £25 a month and the salesman advised me of the 3 offer of half price line rental for the first six months. They do a standard £25 per month contract which therefore meant paying £12.50 for six months. However to get a new handset meant going onto the £35.00 scheme (£17.50 for six months) with the option of downgrading to the £25 tariff after the six months is up. Bargain!

Overview

This LG U880 is a delight to use. It looks the part but more importantly it does the job. Apart from the above mentioned downsides of the application slots and the non gratis games it is absolutely perfect. I have found the sound quality to be clear (although I guess your location and signal strength have something to do with that!) and the extra functions such as the camera and mp3 player are an added, high quality bonus. The battery seems to last quite well to. I only have to charge it every 2-3 days and that’s with having it switched on 24 hours a day.

I would highly recommend U880 to anyone looking for a new mobile phone. Especially those who, like me, have been used to Nokia phones and is a bit apprehensive at switching to another make. It’s extremely user friendly and lots of fun to have a play with – the novelty still hasn’t worn off for me!

For more technical information visit: www.lge.com

Thanks for reading.

Summary: LG's new sleek multipurpose mobile phone.

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