LG GM730

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At February's Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, LG announced it would be using Windows Mobile more in its smartphone lineup over the next few years. It unveiled the GM730 then, and now half a year later, it is finally here. The design of this handset is stylish enough as is typical of LG phones. Unfortunately, there are quite a few areas in which it needs improvement.

Design

With so many full-touchscreen handsets around these days, there's a danger of looking generic. The GM730 avoids that with an interesting design on its edges. The corners of the phone, along with the sides, are nicely rounded, so it's as if you are holding a very flat and smooth pebble. At 109.8 x 56.5 x 11.9mm and 107g, it is very compact and light, especially for a Windows Mobile smartphone. It should also fit nicely into most handbags and jean pockets.

The downside to being compact is having limited space for the screen. The touchscreen on the GM730 measures 3 inches diagonally. This would have been more than acceptable just a year back, but with mid- to high-end smartphones sporting larger displays these days, the LG's panel feels small. What's more, it has a resolution of 400 x 240 pixels, the same as what was found in the original Samsung Omnia SGH-i900. That's a far cry from the WVGA (800 x 480) displays we are seeing in many current Windows Mobile smartphones.

Below the screen are an optical pad and two buttons (Call and Hang up) that are flush with the chassis. The optical pad can be depressed to select items and, depending on your preference, operates as either a four-way directional pad or optical mouse. It worked fine in our use, although we didn't like the optical mouse option (this puts a mouse pointer on your screen) as it made getting things done a little slower.

The left side of the GM730 is where the volume controls are, while on the right, you'll find the power button and a camera shortcut. Also on the right is a covered micro-USB port for charging, syncing and connecting a wired headset. That's the only connector on the device, so those who want to use their own pair of 3.5mm headphones will have to do so through an adapter.

The back plastic cover has a wavy, carbon fiber-like motif and hides a battery and the microSD card slot. A small cutout on the top left corner is where a 5-megapixel camera is located.

Features

Connectivity features are aplenty on the GM730. These include HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS for navigation. Because it uses Microsoft's mobile OS, many features such as Bluetooth tethering, Office document support and integration with Outlook on your desktop are available.

Like every other Windows Mobile phone these days, LG has included a customized user interface (UI) called S-Class to mask the default Microsoft interface. This has already been implemented in devices like the non-smartphone Arena, so LG is attempting to put a consistent feel in its touchscreen devices across different platforms. This is the same strategy employed by Samsung as you'll find its TouchWiz UI across different product platforms, too. Unfortuntely, LG did not do as well as Samsung in this area.

The Home screen has five pages which you can rotate between by swiping horizontally. This worked fine for the most part and gives you widgets, quick access to favorite contacts and even music stored on your phone. When you go deeper into the interface, inconsistencies start to appear. One example is in text messaging.

The LG Message app shows all your text messages complete with large fonts and icons. One of the first things you will notice is the disappearance of threaded messages. That aside, it takes too may screen taps to get something simple done. Let's run through the process. When a message arrives, a notification icon pops up at the bottom of the screen. This is the default WM notification which stands out starkly from the LG S-Class UI in the background. By touching the left softkey to reply, you are first brought to the WM messaging inbox before the LG Message App takes over and you see the last message from the sender. To reply, you have to tap Menu, then Reply. A New SMS screen appears but you still have to make contact with the white space to bring up the virtual keyboard. After composing, you end by tapping OK on the top right corner, but that's not all. You have to press a Send icon again to finally seal the deal. Making matters worse, each new screen transition doesn't feel instantaneous. If you are moving between many screens, each 1-second wait adds up to a lot of wasted time.

The Menu is also another aspect that doesn't quite click. It looks nice with the square icons which scroll horizontally, but new programs installed don't appear here automatically and you end up going back to the WM's Programs page.

One aspect we did like was quick access to a Multitasking page which lets you switch between open applications and close them easily.

Virtual keypads on the GM730 included an alphanumeric version for one-hand operation and a full QWERTY one which was hard to use in portrait mode because of the small screen. In our week with the GM730, we frequently mistapped items and had to try many times to make the correct contact. This was partly because of the small screen, and using a stylus should improve things. Problem is, the device has no stylus slot and you have to hang one from the accessory loop. Some people (like this reviewer) don't like things dangling from their phones, so we wished the GM730 was more fingertip-friendly.

The 5-megapixel camera has an autofocus feature but not an LED light for dark situations. Photos taken were quite good when viewed on the smartphone's screen and the interface was pretty snappy.

Tags: Smart Phone, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Screen, Optical Mouse, Microsoft Windows Mobile

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