LG Chocolate 3G (KU800)

Print

Email

Bookmark

Share

Add to My Products

By Damian Koh, CNET Asia
Apr 10, 2007

Unlike peas in a pod, LG's 3G-enabled Chocolate, or KU800 in short, addresses some of the issues we had with its predecessor. But is that a good enough reason to upgrade?

Editors' note:

This review addresses mainly the differences between the KU800 and the KG800. For a more in-depth writeup of the Chocolate phone, please refer to our full evaluation of the Chocolate KG800.

What You Can Expect
The LG Chocolate 3G is not just any slider on the block. Within the confines of 94.6 x 45.6mm (about the size of your credit card, but thinner and longer) is an alluring design encased in a glossy black finish. If you're seeing the phone for the first time, you'd probably wonder what happened to the buttons and the LCD screen which are virtually invisible until you slide the top lid up--a cue for the touch-sensitive keys to light up in glowing red.

Like its name suggests, the main difference between the LG Chocolate 3G and its predecessor is 3G connectivity--a boon to users who travel frequently to Japan and Korea. The primary 2-megapixel camera (compared with 1.3 megapixels on the earlier model) has also been moved to the rear instead of hidden until you slide up the top lid. There's a front-facing VGA camera for video calls which is barely noticeable until you get up close. With the exception of a higher-resolution option, camera features on the KU800 are largely similar to its predecessor.

The lack of a memory card slot on the LG Chocolate is somewhat of a sore omission. Either the Korean folks listened or they finally remembered that people do sometimes store more than 32 songs (the LG Chocolate had 128MB of internal memory which worked out to approximately 32 MP3 files of 4MB each), the KU800 now comes with an external media slot that supports up to a 1GB microSD/TransFlash card. The handset also supports Bluetooth stereo so you can stream music directly to your wireless headset.

Like the Chocolate, we still can't fathom what LG was thinking when it moved the End/power button to the right spine, and likewise for the menu key. We kept forgetting where the controls were. The only good thing that's come out of this is that the dedicated music button now sits nearer to the bottom on the some side of the phone, away from the other two keys, for easier access.

Here's the crucial part. Unlike most other handsets that have hard buttons, navigating the menu grid on the 3G Chocolate requires a bundle of nerves, lots of patience and a lot of cleaning (the KU800 is one giant fingerprint magnet). It's one thing looking good, another if it actually works. The touch-sensitive controls on the top lid frustrated us on many counts, causing a lot of misdials and wrong "clicks". If you're considering this LG, we would advise you try it out before shelling the cash.

Next page »