This phone is a very attractive and slim, handset with a large colour touchscreen that reminds the IPhone. But, unlike many fashion phones on the market, it comes with a decent feature set. This is one of the most attractive handsets available. The LG Prada looks and feels as though it goes in a glass case on display in a trendy flat, rather than stuffed in a bag or pocket. You will definitely be noticed when you use it. For a touchscreen handset, the mobile isn't that big, evaluate a relatively pocket-friendly 54mm wide by 99mm tall by 12mm deep, it feels very light, too. It's large enough to give comfortably with one hand and it's fairly easy to tap the touchscreen with your finger. The first thing you'll note when you turn it on is a distinctive start up sound that was, according to LG, created by Prada and sounds like something from one of the Saw horror movies - some might want to turn this off straight away. When it stops screeching at you, you'll notice that the user interface looks hot, with nice icons, and you can customize it to suit your desire. The touch screen is large, bright and more responsive than those found on touchscreen phones I've previously tried. It works very well when you just need to tap an icon or dial a number, but as with some touchscreen phones, there isn't any tactile feedback when you're texting. This means that you're not always sure if you've pressed the right key or if the screen has registered your tap, which gets baffling.
The other problem that a touchscreen phone brings is that it can get scratched rather easily and unless you keep it in its leather pouch or get some silicon cover it will get scratched pretty fast. It also collects a great deal of dirt when you hold it against your ear to make a call, making it look dirty.
There's a video player that supports MPEG-4 and H.263 formats, an FM radio and a music player that endures MP3 and ACC files, among others. The music player feels vaguely like Apple's iTunes and lets you line up the play mode to repeat and shuffle tracks. One flaw is that there's no built-in 3.5mm jack to let you plug in a pair of standard headphones. Unusually, there's a document viewer that works with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Acrobat files. Files are reformatted to fit the width of the screen, so there's no need to scroll sideways to read the text. It works, but the small screen means you won't be using it to read War and Peace on the train.
A noteworthy but rather gimmicky feature is the world clock, which reminds me of Google Earth, in as much as it displays a globe you can then zoom in on. It looks good on the Prada's screen.
Ultimately, for such a big screened handset, you might assume that it would be great for browsing the Web, but the browser isn't very good, text pops up in the wrong set and pictures can look mashed. An additional issue is that there's no 3G or WiFi connectivity, so it makes a while for pages to download. A real shame to be honest.
The battery life was pretty good, as long as you don't use the mobile intensively it can last for about two days. Greater use should be for about 8 hours or so. The camera is also a letdown; this low quality camera for such a model really brings it down.
Good:
+ Attractive design
+ Large colour screen
+ Attractive user interface
+ World clock
+ FM radio
Bad:
- Texting can be awkward
- Glossy surfaces attract fingerprints and face grease
Grade: 3.5/5
To compare and shop for the LG KE850 Prada visit the following link:
