LG GT505 Review

LG GT505 is another phone from the Korean electronic giants whose features can confuse you in to thinking whether the handset is a smartphone or just another mobile phone. It has various features like 5 megapixel camera with flash, Wi-Fi, GPS, an excellent music player, document viewer and many more, and all these at a very low price. This handset in fact, is not a smartphone but just has most of the smartphone features at a basic level. The inclusion of the high-end features at a low priced phone has made LG make compromises with the other basic features. Let’s see how this phone measures up.

Body Design
The LG GT505 bears a striking resemblance to the LG KP500 Cookie as both the phones are equipped with the same sized 3 inch display screens. It has a physical dimension of 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.46 inches and is a lightweight at around 3.5 ounces. The 3 inch display comes in the form of a TFT touchscreen which can display an image at a maximum resolution of 420 x 240 pixels with an output capacity of 262K colors. The size and the weight of the phone make it one of the most pocket–friendly phones in the market today. The view of the display can be changed from the regular portrait display to landscape view; thanks to the built-in accelerometer in the handset. Being a touchscreen phone, there are only three physical buttons in the front part of the phone. The menu key is surrounded by the call key and the end key on its left and right respectively. The left side of the phone is barren with just the microSD slot covered by a plastic flap located on the upper part of the left side whereas the right side of the phone plays host to the various buttons like camera shutter key, the lock/unlock key, the two volume rockers and the microUSB connector. Just to add, the volume rocker also works as the zoom in/zoom out button when the phone is in camera mode. There are no buttons or slots on the top of the phone as well as the bottom of the phone, although the bottom part has the tiny hole for the microphone. The 5 megapixel camera is on the back of the phone. There is also and LED flash just below the lens.

Multimedia
The phone comes with a 5 megapixel camera which is equipped with an in-built flash. This snapper can capture an image at a maximum resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels and the images are vibrant and sharp. The camera interface presents us with a number of features like white balance, effects, macro mode and scene presets.

You can also record videos with this 5 megapixel snapper, but the quality of the video is very poor compared to the still images. The video recorder can record videos at a maximum resolution of 320 x 240 pixels at 20fps. The recorded videos are mostly blurry pixels and lack detailing, and can only be used for the occasional MMS.

The integrated music player in the GT505 is great and deserves and applause. It has a stunning interface on top of an excellent audio delivery. You can sort music tracks according to artist, albums, genre or composer. The player supports album art and even comes with several pre-configured equalizers. Some of the equalizer settings include treble, club, bass, deep bass, 3-D sound etc. among others. Unfortunately, you cannot create or customized an equalizer setting of your own. The music player can play different audio formats ranging from MP3, WMA to AAC.

Compared to the music player, the video player does not live up to its mark. It only supports a limited number of formats. It is sad that the 3 inch display would have come to great use if it had the support for various video file formats instead of just MPEG4 and H.264 codecs.

The integrated FM radio is also an integral feature of the handset as it will provide you with non stop entertainment through music and other broadcast anytime anywhere.

Apart from these features, the phone has various other features like Wi-Fi, integrated GPS and a host of other applications. Internet connectivity is provided by Wi-Fi, HSDPA, EDGE or GPRS according to the network your phone is currently in.

Since there is Java support in the phone, you can download various applications like games and applications. The phone also has email support with which you can retrieve mails from your web mail with the help of POP and IMAP email attachment services.

The saddest part of this LG handset is that the phone does not come with the most popular Facebook, MySpace or Twitter widgets or applications. You can only access these social networking sites through its integrated WAP 2.0 browser.

The device also comes with an integrated document viewer with which you can view Microsoft excel, word and PowerPoint files. The downside is that you can only view them; but cannot edit them.

Memory
The phone comes with an internal memory of 60 MB which is sufficient for 1000 phone contact entries and a number of messages and ringtones. It has a microSD slot through which you can increase the memory size of the phone. The phone supports memory expansion up to 8GB.

Connectivity
The LG GT505 is a Wi-Fi enabled phone and provides you with fast data transfer with its 7.2 mbps HSDPA speed. It is a quad band GSM phone and supports GSM 850/900/1850/1900 bands for connectivity with the online world.

For local wireless connection, the handset is equipped with bluetooth version 2.0 technology with EDR. The EDR feature ensures quicker data transfers between the phone and other bluetooth enabled devices. The phone also has USB 2.0 which takes care of all the wired connections of the phone with other devices.

The phone does not have the standard 3.5 mm audio jack. Instead, the headphones should be connected to the microUSB port. Fortunately, the phone comes with a 3.5 mm adaptor.

Performance
The LG GT505 has a lot of features that makes it very close to a smart phone. The call quality of the phone is decent enough but sometime the voice on the other end gets a little too sharp, for which you have to turn down your volume. The camera takes high quality photos for a 5 megapixel lens although the same cannot be said for video recordings. The interface of the phone is attractive and intuitive. The device has even got high-end features like GPS with Wisepilot navigation and Wi-Fi connectivity with HSDPA 7.2 mbps. The music player is also one of the highlight of the phone with its exceptional audio delivery.

However, the GT505 gives you the very basic feature of a smartphone and cannot be said to be one. The phone suffers badly in terms of applications or its lack of support. It does not have any of the social networking applications like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. The video capture as well as playback is of very pure quality and can be deemed as unusable. Lastly, there is no 3.5 mm jack.

Verdict
Even after all is said too, the LG GT505 cannot be dismissed as another bad phone as it gives all the high end features at half the price of the other phones with the same features. So, if you want a phone that is loaded with Wi-Fi and GPS, yet at a very low price, this LG phone has been custom made for you.

The LG GT505 is available for $240.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3/5