The LG500 is a GSM phone featuring a VGA camera, MP3 player with dedicated control keys on the front cover and a TransFlash memory card slot.

It has a striking design – black and silver in a long sleek casing.

The LG500 is an unusually long black-and-silver GSM flip phone. It has a TransFlash memory card slot and an MP3 player with dedicated playback keys. It supports EDGE data networks, and has a VGA camera on the flip. Its features will fit well into the middle of GSM carriers’ product lines, but the Darth Vader-style design may be a bit polarizing.

This multi-band GSM phone was built with the music lover in mind. Its clamshell design with external MP3 player controls allows the user to operate the MP3 player without opening the phone.

The phone comes with 12 MB of onboard storage, and an additional 512 MB external Trans-Flash memory card. In all, you can hold around 150 songs, up-loadable by included USB cable. Mobile internet and infrared will keep you connected — but the phone is noticeably void in the Bluetooth department.

Not only is it thin, the KS20 is also very light. At just 92.5g, this handheld is even lighter than the HTC Touch which tips the scales at 112g. While most users will be happy with that, some may lament that it feels too much like a toy because of the same reason. While we admit that the chassis is a little plasticky, the fine construction on this LG ensures that it doesn’t come across as cheap. The black and silver glossy finish does invite fingerprint marks easily, so using it with a case is advisable.

Although its front surface is pretty clean with only the call and hang-up keys along with a directional joystick below the display, there are quite a number of shortcut buttons on the right side. One of those is the power button, while the other two activate the browser and camera applications. We would have liked one more button to act as an OK key so minimizing applications can be done much faster. A microSD card slot is also found there which supports cards up to 2GB in capacity.

On the left side are the volume control keys and a cover connector port for headsets and the charge/sync cable. This is a proprietary LG connector so you’ll need to use the charger and sync cable found in the box and not the standard mini-USB one most users are accustomed to for Windows Mobile handhelds. An upside is that an adapter is also included in the standard retail set, which allows you to plug in a 3.5mm audio connector so you can use your own headphones when listening to music.

Most likely in an effort to cut down the size, the battery of the KS20 does not sit behind a cover like most other devices. This means the back of the battery is also part of the chassis of this PDA-phone and can be removed by pressing a button at the base. Mobile phones that employ this design aren’t common these days, partly because the battery gets loose over time and may cause unplanned resets. This may be a problem for those who keep their mobile phone for a few years, though not so much for those who upgrade regularly.

The stylus of the KS20 has the same color as the sides, i.e. silver. This is an extendable one found on the bottom left corner of the device–a strange place because it’s almost impossible to retrieve when holding the handset in the left hand. So, on this rare occasion, left-handers are advantaged.

Not only can this handset brag about its camera, but it should also be very proud of its lovely large touchscreen, which lets you view images easily. On top of this, it has the ability to upload videos directly to YouTube and to shoot video at 120 frames per second, which allows you to slow it down and watch it in slow-motion, as seen in the clip below. This feature’s ideal for shooting fast-moving sports footage.

The LG KU990 Viewty is a true powerhouse packing a mass of high-tech goodies under its hood: the impressive 3″ touchscreen display with 240 x 400 pixels resolution, the HSDPA 3.6 Mbps capability, the stereo Bluetooth and the highly intriguing 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, which is also capable of capturing video at 120 fps. Feature-packed and exquisite, the LG KU990 looks set on the fast track to success and we were more than happy to get our hands on it.

Key features

* Tri-band GSM/GPRS plus HSDPA support
* 5 megapixel autofocus camera with image stabilization
* Camera strobe flash and focus assist beam
* Secondary video camera for video calls
* 3″ 262K color TFT touchscreen display with 240×400 pixels resolution
* VGA video recording at 30 fps
* QVGA video recording at 120 fps
* TV-out support
* Original stylus dongle
* DivX video playback
* Haptic feedback when the screen is pressed