LG KC910 Renoir Review

The LG KC910 Renoir has looks similar to the iPhone but there are a lot of things that set it apart from it. The primary focus of the cell phone is its 8 megapixel camera. The cell phone packs in a 3″ touchscreen display, WiFi, GPS, accelerometer and various other features.

LG KC910 Renoir specifications :

• Dimensions : 107.8 x 55.9 x 14 mm
• Weight : 114 g
• Display : 3″ TFT touchscreen with 240 x 400 resolution
• Card slot : microSD
• Connectivity : GPRS, EDGE, 3G
• Bluetooth : Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• WLAN : WiFi 802.11 b/g
• Camera : 8 megapixel with autofocus, xenon flash
• GPS : Built-in GPS with A-GPS support
• Other features : Accelerometer, Flash UI, FM Radio
• Approx. price : $499

The cell phone seems attractively priced considering the amount of features it manages to stuff in. Also there are only a handful 8 megapixel camera phones in the market right now. Samsung Pixon is it closest competitor having a 8 megapixel camera.

Design and Display

The dimensions of the phone are by no means big and the weight is just about right. LG has left a lot of empty space on the front panel when it could certainly have gone with a bigger display. The packaged accessories include stylus, charger, USB cable, 3.5mm jack adapter. A generous 8GB memory card also comes bundled.

The front part consists of the 3″ display along with three buttons at the bottom that look like jewels. The earpiece is above the display in the center and is flanked by sensors on it left. The body has been made out of high grade plastic giving it a nice feel. The stylus can be used for handwriting recognition but otherwise fingers are sufficient for navigation.

The display is a 3″ touchscreen with a resolution of 240 x 400. When turned off, it has mirror effect which hampers its visibility in direct sunlight. Otherwise the display offers nice image quality and brightness and contrast levels are good.

Music Player and Camera

The music player on the device is similar to LG Viewty. The user interface is flash based and LG has done a good job with it. Music can be sorted according to artist, album, genre etc. You can control the music player through a widget on the home screen when it is minimized. However, the music player does not have the equalizer settings to tinker with but does support visualizations though in the form of album art or animations. You can create playlists on the music player itself. The audio quality of the device is very good but sadly no equalizer settings to tweak sound to your taste.

Camera is the main focus of the cell phone and it surely excels in this department. It has a dedicated shutter button and is placed strategically making it easy to use. It also features digital image stabilization and there is a hardware control to toggle its setting. The camera uses the Xenon flash but it has no LED flash to be used during video recording. The camera has manual cover that triggers the camera application when opened.

The interface is extremely easy to use and has loads of manual settings. The viewfinder is spread out on the big screen and landscape is the default view. The interface uses semi-transparent menus that house all the options.There is no help text to accompany the graphical icons. The manual settings include white balance, exposure compensation, ISO settings, preset modes, color effects, self-timer etc.

The camera also has burst mode that shoots seven full resolution pictures in a short span of time. Panorama mode is also available on the camera allowing to you capture panoramic images by combining images together. Geotagging is possible, thanks to the inbuilt GPS. Face detection is another feature which was found in digital cameras till now.  Smile detection feature saves you the hassle of capturing again if you missed the person smiling as the camera automatically clicks the picture when it detects the smile. Some other features include manual focus, backlight compensation, beauty shot etc.

The image quality is exceptional and certainly the best 8 megapixel camera till date.Although the camera has Xenon flash, it is not as powerful as seen in Sony Ericsson phone or the Nokia N82. There is no sign of purple fringing or blurry edges in the images captured. The noise levels are well within acceptable levels. There is over sharpening on some of the images but not too pronounced. The camera also takes great VGA videos at 30fps.

GPS and Web Browser

The inbuilt GPS on the device uses Google Maps as the default application for accessing the feature. There are other available software that you can install too. There are no voice-guided navigation present and no third-party application supported on the device has that feature. Otherwise Google Maps does the job perfectly.

The web browser on the device is good but not great. It is responsive and has all the basic features you would expect. Scrolling and panning can be easily accomplished just like the iPhone. The built-in accelerometer auto rotates the screen from portrait to landscape and vice versa. Controls are hidden while browsing but pop-up with a single tap on the screen. A certain portion of the page can be zoomed in to by a long press. It supports two tabs and supports pages to saved for viewing later offline. The browser does not support Flash however.

Pros :

• 8 megapixel camera
• 3″ touchscreen
• 8GB memory card included
• Built-in GPS
• Excellent camera quality

Cons :

• No equalizer in music player
• No stylus compartment
• No Flash support in browser

Final Thoughts

The LG Kc910 Renoir is a great cell phone from LG. It has all the making of a true winner. The camera hogs all the limelight with its extensive settings and exceptional image quality. The touchscreen offers good display clarity and can be operated through fingers too. 8GB memory card is bundled with the phone, enough for most of us. The inbuilt GPS is average though and the music player lacks equalizer settings. The web browser is good but does not support Flash. Overall the phone is value for money keeping in mind its features and an excellent 8 megapixel camera.

Rating : 4.25/5