Viewty: What can I say... the herald of next technology?
PART I: Viewty... The Phone
PART II: Viewty... The Camera
How best should I look at LG Viewty? As a connectivity-dependent mobile user as much as a serious photographer? Whatever it takes, expectations will be high, naturally.
I first savoured a pre-launch engineering unit a month ago, and wrote about it briefly on how it enticed me, superficially, as a 5-megapixel cameraphone with a real camera. Now it's time to take a deeper look, up-close and personal.
The KU990 Viewty review will come in two parts, the phone and the camera.
Viewty uses a F/2.8 lens certified by Schneider-Kreuznach of Germany
LG raised the stake, and conquered sizeable global market share when it started the Black Label series, namely LG Chocolate and LG Shine. It came in strongly through the design segment and apparently wowed the world over. LG Viewty is a slight departure from the Black Label series -- the third and final model will only be unveiled sometime next year -- as it chose to impress mobile users from the feature segment.
After two years of brisk LG marketing and interfacing with consumer insights, especially the European market, we are convinced that the Black Series has given this Korean handset maker a different launchpad for future releases. That is to look out for more Blue Ocean product concepts and market clusters.
'Fact-based, not just image-driven marketing'
The entry points for the Black Label series, as exemplified by the immensely successful Chocolate and Shine, can be rationalised as having encapsulated the ideas and technology innovations that dictate certain nuances: Stylish, premium-grade, fashionable, trendy and an appearance that is impressionist. They target the trend-setters.
Viewty, on the other hand, bets on the feature segment of a high-grade handset: It commands the nuances of adopters who are professional, fact-based in approach, particular about core benefits, expecting practicality but do not mind advanced technology. The target audience are the experts who want convincing features, for example, a cameraphone must have a real camera in it and nothing less.
I had the opportunity to talk with Mr Chang Ma (picture below), vice president for strategic planning for LG Mobile for all its global market groups, during the Asian Media launch in Macau recently.
Chang Ma... New starting point after the Black Label series
"We need to find a different starting point from the Black Series," he said. "In Viewty, we are looking at rational and fact-based strategies, rather than the image-driven marketing."
Let's put it this way. 3G is getting more pervasive with the 3.6Mbps HSDPA to boot, what shall we do if we really need to pay for a cameraphone? We demand for a better, or a real professional camera-in-the-phone that good pictures like a full-blown point-and-shoot, pump the pictures across MMS or upload to a blog, and shoot up MPEG4 videos onto YouTube with a hot button. Experts, and bloggers, would love it.
I reckon LG read the tea-leaves very well, that most people are not satisfied with camera functions and quality of the regular 2MP or 3MP cameraphones. Taking pictures must mean taking real pictures as good as a regular digital camera. For video recording, it must be good for playback on the TV screen. And since it;s the age of HSDPA, let;s link the 3.5G network with the Internet.
That's the concept for a modern phone. The bar has raised because consumer expectation has been raised.
The camera portion of Viewty scores many first-in-class features, but let's not forget that it is equally impressive on the phone itself.
![Nov23-Launch_16.19[03].jpg](http://www.jeffooi.com/2007Q4/Nov23-Launch_16.19%5B03%5D.jpg)
Viewty was launched in KL on November 23, ten days after the Asian debut in Macau.
It's also the first product launch for Mr TY Ko (second from left)
as the new MD for LG Electronics Malaysia
LensaPress photo by Jeff Ooi, using Viewty on manual focus, no flash
FORM FACTOR
Viewing the Viewty, you can't ignore the fact that, it is primarily a 3.5G phone, then comes the camera. So the form factor associated with the benchmark that the Black Label series initiated must radiate.
It's black, sleek and slim compared to the 5MP rivals available on the market, and it has a 3-inch LCD screen (Perfect for a camera, indeed).
The operating system and the user interface reminisce that of LG Shine, where the menu is clustered into four groupings, with intuitive expansion of sub-menus for each.
It's a full touch-screen handset, where scrolling of content and functions can be executed effortlessly with a stylus contained in a mascara-tube, a jog wheel (which acts up as a camera focus control and volume control for MP3 playback), or sheer sensor touch of the screen itself.
Buttons and controls are minimalistics with capabilities for multiple functions. The socket for battery charger acts as the interface for TV out and USB interface. The phone lock/unlock key acts as the trigger for Image Stabiliser during camera mode. A power on/off button acts as a quick key to end-call or abort any function in use. Then, there's a 3-lever slider for camera controls (stills, videos & playback), and an accept-call button and a cancel button. Minimalistic yet fully functional.
USER INTERFACE & FUNCTIONS
All the regular features of a modern phone are present, but, I must say again, the arrangement for the menus and sub-menus are intuitive and matches a person's reflex.
The first cluster deals with phone operation: Dialling, contacts management, call logs and messaging.
The font size for messaging and contacts looks like 11-point Arial on a regular computer monitor, so you don't have to strain the eyes. There is a 2-level contrast to adjust to illuminate the screen to your comfort. The handset carries a default memory for 500 contact entries, though I had hoped for more, like what Nokia N75 offers. However, the 128k USIM card that your celco isses may take in another 500 contact entries, and they both can be backed up on the external memory, which takes a maxim capacity of 2GB data.
The second cluster of main menue is basically devoted to multimedia functions, from camera to video to music, from music and video playlists to FM radio, voice recording and phone games. A muvee studio, a simple application that enables you perform some photo editing and create slide shows.
There is a data management selection under "My Stuff". This is where all taken images and videos are stored, and all flash content and documents are retrieved.
The third cluster is the set of menus for browser-based applications and personal digital assistance-related function, while the last cluster is catered to various utility settings.
Another thing that comes along with the Viewty OS and UI is the multi-tasking features, it gives you relative convenience despite the gamut of features packed into the phone. I somehow find another competitor's 5MP phone sluggish when multi-tasking is engaged.
POSITIVE USER EXPERIENCE
Down-sides are few. It would be perfect if there was WiFi capability, so that uploading videos to YouTube could be free from celco networks' data charges (but then, you have to contend with insecure connection in public WiFi cloud should password be transmitted in the process).
One major dissatisfaction, and this is my personal observation, is the tools packaged for the PC Suite. It doesn't work as seamlessly as it was intended for phone-to-PC transfers, and vice versa. The solution is to set the phone to "mass storage" mode, and file transfers via USB connection will be effortless.
I have more details on this user experience issue in Lemak Lemang, my other blog on CNet Asia.
Overall, the user experience was good. It does not forbid a person like me, who is so used to Sony Ericsson and S40/S60 OSes, to adapt to the new UI on Viewty. Its being intuitive has saved a lot of headache.
With the slim body packing a 5MP camera with stunning features and capabilities, which I will review separately in Part II, plus the 3-inch definitive LCD screen, Viewty sets the feature standards for what a cameraphone should be. Simplicity amidst a high level of sophistication.
The suggested retail price for Viewty is RM2,099.00. A Canon Selphy portable photo printer worth RM599.00 is bundled free during the promotion period, which ends on December 31, 2007.
PART I: Viewty... The Phone
PART II: Viewty... The Camera
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