LG KE820 mobile phone
$498 (with plan); $598 (without plan)
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Ever thought of getting a phone that drips with sophistication and yet is small enough for that petite handbag? LG's latest phone, the KE820, fits that description nicely.

At first, it reminded me of another Korean creation, the Samsung SGH-P310.

But LG's product has a shiny black casing and a silver navigation stick in the middle of the phone.

And with the bundled faux leather phone casing, the whole phone oozes class from every angle as opposed to Samsung's more utilitarian look.

It is also amazing that the phone has so many features.

The small body includes Bluetooth, micro-SD storage expansion slot, 2-megapixel camera with LED light, MP3 player, radio, music composer, voice recorder and a bright and wide LCD screen.

Using the phone is easy enough as navigating through the menus and settings is an intuitive affair.

There are also dedicated MP3 and camera buttons on the side of the phone for you to quickly call up the respective features.

Calls made and received are clear and pristine.

Dialling or messaging using the keypad, however, takes some time getting used to as the keypad layout is different from most phones in the market.

For example, the 0 button is placed next to 6 key instead of the usual place - below the 8 key.

Taking the cue from Sony-Ericsson's line of Walkman phones, the KE820's hands-free headset allows users to use their favourite earphones by offering a standard 3.5mm stereo jack at the remote controller.

It also has 10 equaliser modes.

Given these two features, it would seem that the KE820 is designed to be a phone with a capable music player.

However, the sound reproduction was less than satisfactory as the bass was non-existent and the sound started to distort even at low volume levels.

Even a quick change to my trusty earphones did nothing to perk up the quality of sound.

What frustrated me most was the phone's inability to continue playing my MP3 songs when I accessed my SMS messages.

The phone's camera also could not focus well enough even for a simple wide-angled landscape shot of a sunset.

Poor battery life and the lack of 3G - for fast Internet downloads of anything from ring tones to data files - sum up the disappointing experience.

Final Say

The LG KE820 looks great, but the poor implementation of its features lowers its desirability factor.