Facebook currently has around 400 million registered members worldwide and has become the social networking site of choice for just about every internet user to wants to keep in touch with family and friends. Therefore it is unsurprising that mobile phones have not been long in catching up to the social networking craze and began to style their handsets and mobile functions accordingly. The newest offering from LG – the LG Town GT350 – is marketed at just that audience for it is essentially a social networking mobile phone. You can find out opinions on this new phone or leave your own in the LG Town GT350 reviews page.
The GT350 features a 3 inch touch screen with a slide out full QWERTY keyboard. Not only this, but it also features a social networking widget that shows a live feed from your social network of choice. So it is blatantly obvious that the LG Town GT350 is designed specifically for users of social networks that are almost addicted to staying up to date with the latest goings on and news within their friend circles. Perhaps this move into designing and marketing a mobile phone almost solely on the principle that it is used for, say, Facebook or Twitter, should not come as a shock. Over the last year the amount of people who access social networking sites from their mobile phones has doubled and it is almost inevitable that a mobile phone would come along that does not just provide the option of logging onto Facebook or Twitter but is actually designed for that very purpose.
However the LG Town GT350 is not just a 3 inch screen with an optional slide out QWERTY keyboard for it also provides the features that have become common, almost universal, in mobile phones over the last few years.
A big plus for the LG Town GT350 is its Wi-Fi capability. For a phone that is intended to be used predominately for the internet – in this case, keeping in touch with people – then the basic 3g offering that most phones provide would not have been sufficient; indeed the LG Town GT350 doesn’t even have 3g technology. So it is pleasing to see that the LG Town GT350 will have the capability to logon whenever there is a wireless connection present. Going back to the screen for a second and the LG Town GT350 will provide a 240 x 400 resolution which should be just enough for you to use Facebook et al with ease and simplicity.
The one thing that perhaps lets this model down is the camera. When it comes to taking pictures with mobiles, Sony Ericsson long ruled the roost by releasing phone after phone with 5.0 mega-pixel cameras and unfortunately the LG Town GT350 is some way off with only a 2.0 mega pixel camera. It is this aspect that is the most astonishing as social networking sites and in particular, Facebook, rely heavily on photographs. Without one your profile is considered dull and uninteresting hence why so many users have hundreds if not thousands of photographs linked either directly or indirectly to their profiles. You would have thought that a mobile phone that is specifically designed to be used for these very social networking websites would provide a decent enough camera to be able to upload images on the user’s profiles. The LG Town GT350 also provides video recording at 12fp.
Entertainment wise and the usual array of features are present. A simple music player that supports mp3 and AAC+ playback and an FM radio are both useful to an extent – for when we don’t have our iPods. But one must bear in mind that the LG Town GT350 was not designed as a ‘multimedia’ mobile phone like the Nokia N71 or any of the iPhone range. So it is very much a case of social networking and basic internet first, everything else second. The memory on the LG Town GT350 isn’t bad at all and a Micro SD memory card can expand the phones memory up to 8gb which is useful as the inbuilt memory only extends of 56 megabytes.
In terms of the battery you will get about 5 hours of talk time out of the LG Town GT350 and about 440 hours on standby. Although the fact that this phone is meant to be used for internet use and Wi-Fi might diminish its battery life slightly.
Overall the LG Town GT350 is an interesting little phone. On the one hand it is designed for a specific purpose and is unique in this regard. It is difficult to think of another phone that was created for the sole purpose – or nearly the sole purpose – of logging onto your social networking profile and interacting with your peers; and the LG Town GT350 certainly excels in this regard. However if you are looking for an all-in-one phone then look elsewhere. For a mobile that has the Facebook user in mind, its lack of a decent camera is astonishing as it is through pictures that a social networking profile becomes personal and individual. Even though the display is good so viewing other people’s photographs will be hassle free, actually taking and uploading your own through the LG Town GT350 is not really recommended.
However the LG Town GT350 does what it intends to do and that is provide a no frills inexpensive mobile phone. The pricing has not been released yet however it is expected to be relatively dirt cheap and one would expect so given its lack of features and, almost solitary, purpose. If you are perhaps a student that has too much of a social life to be focusing on the dizzying amount of features most phones carry these days and just need something to keep you in touch with your friends then they LG Town GT350 is most certainly for you and won’t impose too much of a financial restrain on your student loan. However if you are looking for a mobile that is rammed packed full of ability then look elsewhere.
The LG Town GT350 is available from July and we hope to see some very nice LG Town GT350 deals at that point.
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