We had no trouble transferring video to our YouTube account using the built-in uploader, but syncing to our PC over USB was a different story -- and one with an unhappy ending. LG's PC Suite III is confusing to use, due to poorly-translated messages, and it's inflexible, too -- it wouldn't let us define where we wanted videos to be put on our PC, for example.
We could only sync our media in one direction at a time, and we had to change our settings to go the other way. Our test videos made it onto the phone with no trouble, but the files didn't get converted automatically, so we ended up with an MP4 file on the phone that we couldn't watch. But we were happy to see that the Viewty Smart supports the DivX and Xvid file formats, which are popular among downloaders.
The Viewty Smart also has Dolby Mobile, a set of digital audio-processing features that aims to make your phone's audio output sound less like a distant nest of hornets. Dolby says the feature adds 'surround sound' and 'spaciousness' when you're using headphones. But there's no standard headphone jack on this mid-range phone, so you'll have to use the included headphone adaptor to get the most out of it.
Troublesome typing
times
The Viewty Smart features LG's S-Class user interface. This phone wisely does
away with the pointless spinning cube, with its own dedicated button, that we
saw on the LG Arena KM900.
Instead, there's just one long button across the bottom that kicks you out onto
the home screen. From there, you can swipe your finger across the display to access the four home screens and
their shortcuts for things like your favourite contacts. You can also tap the menu icon
to see all of the options laid out in rows, iPhone-style.
The user interface isn't as fast as the iPhone's, but it's quick enough to avoid being frustrating. One gigantic exception is the on-screen keyboard, which is far too slow. When you only have a soft keypad to make a call or write a text, any delay between tapping the letter and it appearing on the screen can be frustrating and lead to errors galore.
As we found with the Arena, there's a slight delay between pressing the keys and the letters appearing, both with the alphanumeric keypad in portrait orientation, and the Qwerty keypad in landscape mode. Also, any keys that we tapped during the lag didn't register, so we frequently missed letters out, rendering our messages nonsensical. The T9 predictive text didn't help us when we hit a nearby letter accidentally, unlike with the HTC Magic, and we didn't find an easy way to reject its over-complicated suggestions.
We found typing on the Viewty Smart irritating, and had to turn off the predictive text and rely on standard tapping. We wouldn't recommend the Viewty Smart to experienced texters with lightning-fast thumbs.
Smooth surfing but
slow zoom
The Viewty Smart's Web browser does a good job of rendering complex Web pages like those of our favourite site, CNET UK. Although the 76mm (3-inch) screen feels slightly smaller than the display of some other phones because of its big bezel, tiny text is still readable
thanks to the WVGA (480x800-pixel) resolution.
The Viewty Smart has multitouch zoom capability, so you can zoom into a page by pinching your fingers together, but we found it sluggish. There's a delay of about a second between the pinch and the response. As a result, we couldn't see our zooming in real-time, making it hard to be accurate.
Conclusion
Despite its 8 megapixels, the LG Viewty
Smart GC900 won't be replacing your compact camera anytime soon. Photo
positives like good colour reproduction and a pleasant camera user interface
are outweighed by shutter lag and noisy dark areas, and the
video didn't impress us much either. Making calls is painless thanks to a
snappy dialling pad, but we struggled to send text messages and emails because
of the unresponsive on-screen keyboard and poor predictive text.
Touchscreens have evolved a great deal since the much-loved LG Viewty KU990 -- look at the Samsung Tocco Lite, for example, which manages to make a resistive touchscreen feel fun, and is free on a £12-per-month contract -- so the Viewty Smart has plenty of competition. It's not without its strengths, but we can't help feeling it languishes in the land of mediocrity.
Edited by Charles Kloet
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User reviews3
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charliepj 8 February 2011
Good: NOTHING
Bad: EVERYTHING
Comment: This phone is awful! When i first got the phone i had to take it back because it wouldn't let me answer calls. The replacement is not much better the touch screen has a very slow reaction and the screen changes to horizontal even when the phone is not being held that way. It turns its self off all the time and sometimes wont even let me send texts, make calls or use the camera. The battery life is terrible and runs out incredibly quickly. I cannot wait for my contract to end so i can get a new phone i will never get an LG phone again!
Conor Bfmv Costello 30 November 2010
Comment: viewty snap is better tbh
drewbaby05 2 August 2009
Good: Everything
Bad: creates 2 pics when added in contacts(so the one you've taken and smaller one for contact)
Comment: Considering i have changed from the NEW and all so brilliant (yeah right) Sony Ericsson W995, it just goes to show this site has its favorites, ok the Viewty smart may slow a little when taking a pic but lets face it who's gonna take a pic of a fast moving object when you've got slomo video i wont, and notice how nobody has said anything bout the software on the VS, because its brilliant in every way, other than that really bland really boring SEW995 ok if you wanna walkman the w995 is good but the VS beats it in terms of player by a mile, graphics are better sound is awesome (notice how lg haven't had to give you a free set of speakers, thats because the VS dont need em) and the SE W995 does trust me and they still sound poor anything above 7 volume, not so good walkman then, then theres the problem i had with the SE W995 buttons stopped working after 2 weeks pc kicked me out half way through file transfer (not computer or cable tried different se phone) then theres that horrible slide that become loose within the same 2 week period, on my second phone all these problems took just 14 hours to settle in, so i changed to the viewty smart and so far so good, i dont feel like i'm gonna break it, it hasn't disconnected from my pc and the buttons are still working oh and in regards to the pc suite yeah bit difficult there but thats why you got mass storage mode drag and drop to and from the phone easy!!!! oh one other thing the se w995 also defaults back to original settings when you exit the camera so VS not alone there, anyway this is my opinon of said phones and apparently the jet is pretty good too according to a friend (another not so good phone apparently) i liked the SE W995 when i had no problems and the worst was the quality control ( loose slider) i just felt like i was gonna break it all the time and the funny thing is i see another one in a worse condition so, if your looking for an exciting very smart looking sleek mobile with plenty of functions you should just take a look at the VS texting isnt that bad, i used a tocco, just as good, that ended up getting changed for a renoir (lg) and that was a friend, as i said this is my opinon i have compared it to several phones as you do and its come out on top. hope this helps.
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