Review: LG Arena KM900
May 26th, 2009 by Annkur
LG Km900
Every time we come across a clone of iPhone for a review, the expectations shoot up high in the sky. Here is another one from the long list of iPhone killers trying hard to make it big like the big white Apple 
. This one from LG isn’t a low end offering like the LG Cookie, but LG Arena still KM900 has some tough competition to fight off in the mobile market. So here we have a detailed review to let you know if Arena would live the competition or would it be a KO!
The official LG Arena KM900 promotional video
If it had been just an AD competition, believe me LG kicks ass with this Arena KM900 promotional video. But this is not about the AD but the phone. The 3D UI is something that we are really looking forward too. The 3D UI looks like the USP of LG Arena KM900.
A quick look at the Specs sheet:
- Tri-band GSM/UMTS/HSDPA
- 7.2 Mbps connectivity
- 8GB internal memory + MicroSD upto 16GB supported
- 3 inch touchscreen display
- 800 x 480 WVGA 262K color
- A-GPS support / FM / Mobile TV / WiFi / Bluetooth
- 5MP camera
- 1000 mAh battery
- “S-Class” 3D interface
LG Arena Unboxed
Looking at the retail package of the LG Arena KM900, it shouts cost cutting. The retail package looks hit hard by the recession and the slowdown, with the bare minimum accessories required packed inside. The retail package consists of the charger, a one-piece handsfree and a small one-button remote. Other essentials are the USB cable, a mini-CD and the manuals. With the 8Gb internal memory, one won’t really question the absence of a memory card in the retail package.
The Design
The LG arena form factor is quite similar to the iPhone with the front panel covered by the 3” touch screen. The screen is covered by a shiny metal frame as is the case with the iPhone. The top right corner has the video call camera and the light intensity sensor located next to it. The space on the bottom of the screen consist of three touch sensitive keys – send/call key, end key and the third key that turns the start screen into a cube. These keys require the same amount of touch pressure as the touchscreen.
The back side has a plain aluminum cover. The 5Mp camera and the LED flash are placed at the left top on the back of LG Arena (the standard placement for most mobile cameras). Another thing worth mentioning here is the small pinhole microphone for recording sound during video recording, this is placed at the bottom of the device on the back side. On the left is the port for connecting the USB cable. The port is hidden under a slide that prevents the port from dust and dirt.
On-to the right side is the volume rocker and the camera keys. These keys, though blend with the looks of the phone, are not much user friendly due to the thin shape. One would be comfortable with these keys with time we believe. The bottom of the phone is clean, no controls, no input/output. The top of the phone hosts the standard 3.5mm audio jack and the power key. The back panel release button is also on the same side. The LG arena KM900 weighs 105 grams at 105.9 x 55.3 x 12 mm. The phone is slim and light with a beautiful design.
The Display
The display of LG Arena KM900 is a 3” touchsceen with 16M colors. The 800×480 pixels crammed in a 3” display makes the screen pixel dense. A slight touch is enough for the screen to response. A few delays in the response time is experienced a few times though. There is no stylus which means no handwriting recognition – a shift from the approach seen in the LG Cookie. Hints that this is a iPhone / G1 / Palm Pre competitor with a capacitive touchscreen. This would certainly mean that the touchscreen experience would be much better than the LG Prada and the Cookie.
One thing that really hasn’t improved here is the sunlight legibility of the screen. Like most of the LG handsets, the sunlight legibility is an issue with this handset too. So, under direct sunlight the display is barely visible.
The UI
Talking about the USP of the LG Arena, the 3D User Interface. The LG arena consists of four home screens. The homescreens are broken down into four parts- the widgets, contacts, multimedia and shortcuts. The four homescreens are placed on sides of a cube which can be assessed by pressing the center button. The center button launches the cube which can be rolled by using your fingers.
The shortcut homescreen can be used for placing various shortcuts for different applications.The widgets homescreen consist of various popular widgets like clock, calendar, FM radio, memo, calculator and others. The contact homescreen displays the contact rotating reel with contact information along with the tagged photos of the contacts. The multimedia homescreen consist of various audio and video tracks of on a rotating reel. The 3D effects with motion blurring, animation and the cube menu really have an edge over the Apple’s UI.
The Phonebook
The phonebook is pretty awesome. The contact list has contacts showing the thumbnail of contact pictures and name with a tiny green icon for quick dialing. While expanded, the phonebook shows the other details of a particular contact. The search option is available to the upper left with other options and is quite user friendly. For adding a new contact, the fields available are all the standard possible fields one can think of.
Scrolling through the phonebook touch responsive with no lag whatsoever. A small star button next to the contact allows the user to tag the contact for the contact homescreen
Calling and Messaging
Calling is done through the on-screen numeric keypad or directly from the phonebook. The call log can be accessed with the green button on the phone. Smart dial suggests some contacts as you dial a number. The messaging options include the SMS, MMS and the e-mail. SMS and MMS share the same editor like in most other phones. The messaging can be viewed in a threaded view wherein you see the received message and its replies. Messaging input is available through the multi-tap on-screen keyboard or one can use the QWERTY keyboard in the landscape mode.
A slight lag is being observed while messaging quite often. The keys tapped during the lag are not registered. So, the messaging would have to be don’t with the pace of the lag and not with the pace of your thumbs. The e-mail is quite hassle free with support for most of the major email clients. One just needs to fill in a few information and the setting are downloaded automatically. The maximum attachment size allowed is 1Mb which could be an issue while attaching a 5Mp camera pic. The mails can be received automatically with predefined setting for time of receiving mail and roaming settings.
Camera and Multimedia
The LG Arena features a 5Mp camera with an LED flash. The camera interface is very user friendly with the settings mounted on a half wheel. The phone offers lots of picture effects along with geo-tagging, white balance, auto-focus and face detection. The image and video quality is good with a few problems while shooting at low lights. Browsing through the gallery is quick and comfortable with no lags. The music and the video players are simple and easy to use. The video can be viewed in landscape mode for better viewing experience. The music player can also be accessed through the cube interface with a good access to all your tracks and playlists. The video player allows one to directly upload your videos to YouTube.
Dolby Mobile really makes a difference with good quality sound. The 3.5 mm jack ensures a wide range of audio headsets that can be used with the phone. With lots of equalizer presets, we are sure you’ll be able to find one to fit your taste of music. The audio through the speaker and the loudspeaker is good quality and more than satisfactory.
The FM radio is simple and can be used when you are driving or do not have a good list of your own tracks loaded. The headphones need to be plugged in while using the FM radio. The FM transmitter allows you to stream your current playing tract to any standard FM receiver.
Connectivity and Browser
The connectivity options include the quad-band and the HSDPA along with the Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi and USB. The WiFi has a easy configuration with the search for the network, enter passkey and get connected. Many advanced options are available for techno nerds. The USB connectivity can be used with the Sync software or as a mass storage device. So an 8Gb of mass storage would never let you miss your flash drive.
The browser is identical to Renoir but lacks Flash. So, you cannot view the YouTube videos in the website mode while you would have to use the WAP to access the YouTube videos. The browser supports multi-touch zooming like the iPhone. The browser though takes a longer time for the pages to load.
Organiser and Applications
The organiser includes the calendar, to-do, memo with all standard features. It also includes the day finder to find what day it would be on a particular date or number of days from now. The alarm feature supports multiple alarms and customized alarm tone and has a bright interface. The calculator includes a wide range of scientific functions which can be useful while cheating in the math exam.
The in-built Picsel viewer is the office application for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files. The switching to/from the landscape mode is taken care by the accelerometer. The pre-installed list of games includes the Flying Dices, Wheel Mania and Tepong. The games are good one-time play and would never be able to keep you occupied for long.
Conclusion
The LG Arena KM900 is priced at $449 in the US, £350 in UK and Rs.25,000 In India. Arena is a multimedia device with loads of features including the 3D UI. The pricing seems reasonable. A 5Mp camera, high resolution, micro SD slot and multi-touch options make the LG Arena compete with the iPhone with an edge.
So if you are looking for a new multi-media phone loaded with lots of features and at an affordable price tag, this one is for you, but if you are looking at a touch powered business device with good media features – checkout the Palm Pre and the upcoming iPhone 3.0.
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Categories: LG, Reviews | Tags: iphone killer, km900, km900 review, LG Arena KM900, lg vs iphone, review
LG arena is an excellent phone. Screen is wonderful, very responsive to touch. The only problem is with the divx, since often it doesn’t work.
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