LG Viewty Smile GT400 deals & review

It’s been a while since the Korean mobile phone maverick LG released a handset bearing the “Viewty” marque. LG, now considered the word’s number 5 mobile phone maker,  may be creating a family out of the Viewty line with the last GC900 Viewty Smart released in May last year and the first KU990 Viewty released three years back. 

There is now the LG Viewty GT400 that takes off from the cutting edge imaging tradition started with the first KU990 but is now positioned as an affordable upscale camera phone with the same 5-megapixel imaging features that are above average in its class to say the least. 

Though we see more handsets in the same class going the 8 to 12 megapixel resolution route, the new Viewty gets a stunning HD video recording that only a few handsets can muster at this time.

It should appeal to camera phone aficionados, especially the ladies as it comes in pink. Techno geeks are quick to expect its price race of about £100 SIM free and before taxes and subsidies which could easily undercut stand-alone digital camcorders like the Flip HD.

Specifications

Sporting a minimally designed touchscreen monoblock form, the GT400 comes as a tri band GSM (900/1800/1900) with class 10 GPRS/EDGE on the 2G network as well as a dual band UMTS (900/2100) on 3G with HSDPA data connectivity for broadband internet surfing, downloading and social networking which the model is able to do. There’s no WiFi but you get local data connectivity support from its Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0.

The LG Viewty GT400 comes with a 3-inch resistive touchscreen display that is now fairly common among touchscreen handsets of its size. The first Viewty was undoubtedly one of the first and best 5 megapixel camera phones in the market with its slow-motion video recording and the GT400 extends this tradition with a videocam that gets a 5-megapixel resolution with autofocus, LED flash, face/smile detection and a killer state-of-the-art feature which is 720p video recording.

Its multimedia functions comes with the usual LG media players for the popular audio and video file formats. It is also a socially aware handset that comes preloaded with the apps for one-touch access and updating of your favourite SNS like Facebook, Orkut and Twitter as well as media sharing sites like Flickr and YouTube. Its other features include memory expandability for up to 16GB using its microSD slot.