LG KT610 Review

The LG KT610 is the latest entrant in the communicator range of mobiles with QWERTY keypads. However, it is very different than the normal communicators you would think of, the main differentiating factors being its price and feature list. It has a very unconventional design and plain looks. It competes head on with the Nokia’s E series phones and communicators and Sony Ericsson’s P series. It is some what of a letdown when it comes to features, with no Wi-Fi, just a 2 MP cam, a practically unusable outer display, and mediocre battery life but the price is very enticing, especially to heavy text users who need to type a lot of messages and email on their phones, to atleast give it a go. It features the Symbian v9.2, S60 rel 3.1 OS, which is quite the best in the smartphone department. Let’s have a look at the LG KT610 and check out if it is worth a buy.

LG KT610 Specifications

• Dimensions : 108.9 x 53.9 x 17.2 mm
• Weight : 125.5 gms
• Display : 2.4″ TFT, 256K Colors, QVGA 240 x 320 px, Secondary 4 line 1.45″ display, 256K colors
• Memory: 64 MB Internal memory expandable to 8 GB via Micro SD
• Camera : 2 MP (1600 x 1200) cam secondary videocall cam
• Connectivity : GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA, USB 2.0
• Bluetooth : Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
• OS : Symbian v9.2, S60 rel 3.1 OS

Design and Display:

With dimensions of 108.9 x 53.9 x 17.2 mm, the LG KT610 isn’t clearly competing for the most compact phone title, but it is surely amongst the smallest communicators out there. At 125.5 gms, it is light enough compared to other communicators, and quite pocketable. The KT610 wasn’t intended to be stylish or sleek either, and has rather vintage plain looks and a clean design. When closed, it looks like those old phones which used to rule the market about 7-8 years back. The build quality of the KT610 is quite good and the phone seems to be very sturdy despite being having a folding top with hinges. The plastic used is top quality. It also has a good grip around it.

The folding top can be opened and latched in two positions: one at about 120 degrees and one at a complete 180 degrees. The screen is a small 2.4″ TFT display with 256K colors. It is positioned at the center and a lot of space is wasted at the sides. There is a speaker at each side of the display. There is a Micro SD slot at the right edge which supports a max of 8 GB memory. On the left, you find the volume rocker while the Power button is situated at the top of the phone. On the front face, you find the miniscule secondary display with the earpiece located above it and the mouthpiece below it. Housed at the back of the phone is the 2 MP cam with a self portrait mirror.

The displays are a bit of a letdown, both the main and secondary one. The phone could have done better with a decent display supporting atleast 16M colors. Also as a communicator, it is expected to have a much bigger display then the 2.4″ it has. The E90’s secondary display is slightly better than the KT610’s primary one. The secondary display isn’t any good either, just a teeny weeny 4 line 1.45″ tiny display. The internal display however does good on some fronts, firstly it has great brightness and contrast levels with rich colors. Also it has almost perfect sunlight legibility, completely visible even under direct sunlight.

OS and Interface:

The KT610 is powered by the familiar Symbian 9.2 OS rel 3.1 with FP1. Having FP2 on this phone would have been a great addition to its features, but FP1 isn’t bad too. The Symbian OS integrates rather well with the dual interface functionality.
Through the external interface you can control almost all the basic functions of the phone like contacts, messaging, call logs, music player and the camera. The interface is almost similar to the one you find on the Nokia smartphones powered by the Symbian v3 OS, very intuitive and user friendly. You also have a voice recognition feature using which you can navigate through the whole interface using just voice commands. Almost all of the features are the same as the ones on Nokia Symbian smartphones as expe, just as expected.

Audio and Video:

The LG KT610 has remarkably good audio capabilities. The audio quality is surprisingly superb for a communicator. The Music player interface is just the standard Symbian one with slight changes. It supports a lot of formats natively like MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA. You can also play other formats using third party applications. The music player has 4 built in equalizer presets and supports user defined ones as well. You can also control music playback and change tracks using the external secondary interface. The KT610 also supports the A2DP profile so that you can listen to your tracks wirelessly with a stereo bluetooth headset. The KT610 is quite good when it comes to video playback as well. It comes with the default Real player installed which provides smooth video playback with no jerks or lags. You can also install applications to play other formats.

The LG KT610 comes with the standard Gallery found in all Symbian phones. FP1 greatly enhances the speed of accessing the gallery and makes it a treat to operate. It features a 2 MP basic cam with the standard camera interface and a load of advanced options. The pics are decent and have almost the same quality as other 2 MP shooters. Clicking a picture is tough though as it is not possible to see the whole captured area on the small external display. It also supports video recording at CIF resolutions at 10 FPS. Overall, the camera is quite basic as the phone is meant to be a business phone.

Connectivity:

The KT610 fares decently when it comes to connectivity options. It offers GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA. It also has Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP and USB 2.0 to transfer data. It doesn’t have Wi-Fi support though, which is be a big let down considering that it is primarily a business phone. It also has GPS but doesn’t support A-GPS or Geotagging. The GPS receiver has great sensitivity though and locks down in less than 2 minutes from a cold start. It comes with Google Maps pre installed. The built in web browser based on Webkit is excellent and renders even heavy and detailed web pages exactly as they would on a PC.

Phone features:

The LG KT610 doesn’t fall short when it comes to the basic phone functions, it offers superb call reception and call quality. You can use any of the screens for dialling, the small external screen comes quite handy when it comes to basic functions like calls and SMS. It has loud speakers and the vibration is strong too, so that you will never miss a call on that count.

When it comes to keypad quality, the LG KT610 certainly doesn’t fall behind. The keys feel good to press and offer decent tactile feedback than most other phones. The key placement is good on both the keypads with ample travel and spacing. The backlighting on the keypads is cool too. On the whole, the typing experience on the LG KT610 is superb with almost no drawbacks to speak of.

The LG KT610 is powered by a 960 mAh Li-Ion Polymer battery. It should last about 2 days on moderate usage, which is a bit less when compared to other communicators.

Pros:

• Superb pricing
• Great keypad
• Symbian OS
• Great Audio quality

Cons:

• No Wi-Fi
• No A-GPS
• Small Display size

Conclusion:

The LG KT610 is a great performer and is exactly what it was intended to - a low cost smartphone communicator. It does lack Wi-Fi and A-GPS but all of it can be given up considering its relatively low pricing. It is a great buy for those who need a business phone with okayish camera capabilities and good audio qualities and a superb keypad.

Our Rating: 3.5 / 5