LG P7200 review

Features
The P7200's most notable feature is its 180 degree swivel screen that lets you use the phone like a digital camera. You have the choice of using the internal or external screen as a viewfinder, and once you turn the internal screen around it will automatically put the phone in camera mode. We found that using the external screen as a viewfinder made taking photos faster. It would be nice to have the same speed whilst using the better internal display.

The 2-megapixel camera is impressive, featuring autofocus and flash, but suffers from an extremely slow interface. The autofocus takes around 3 seconds to calibrate, so it doesn't cope well with moving objects. There is also a shutter lag of around 4 seconds and processing the photos takes about 5 seconds. Altogether, it takes around 12 seconds to take a photo, which is slow if you want to take a few quick snaps. However, we liked the ability to adjust the white balance and the multi-shot mode, which lets you take nine pictures in quick succession.

The MP3 player is not the loudest you'll ever hear but it does have some good features. You can set the equaliser to a range of presets, put your music on shuffle and even have different visual effects while playing your music. Luckily this phone does have an expandable TransFlash memory expansion slot, so you can carry around over 1GB worth of music, videos or pictures.

Overall this phone has equivalent features to many of its competitors. It features tri-band connectivity, Bluetooth, speakerphone, GPRS and WAP browser, voice recorder, polyphonic/MP3 ringtones, java games, alarm clock, world time, calculator, unit converter, calendar and can send and receive SMS and MMS messages. You can also use the P7200 as a modem via a Bluetooth connection or USB cable and this means you can access the Internet on your laptop or PDA.

Performance
The audio on calls was very clear and didn't sound muffled or distorted. The speakerphone mode was loud and the speaker will play your MP3s at an audible level if you're listening to it in the park.

The quality of the pictures was good and images came out clear and sharp when printed.

The battery life is a little disappointing with only 200 hours standby time compared to the Motorola Razr V3i's 310 hours. According to LG the talktime is around 4 hours which again is 2 hours less than the V3i and we found it disappointing. We also felt charging the phone took longer than it should and overall weren't impressed with the P7200's battery.

Edited by Mary Lojkine
Additional editing by Kate Macefield