LG Prada Review - Messaging

Alfredo Padilla
Published on June 25, 2007 Comment on this

Supported Email Services (6.0)

The LG Prada supports both IMAP and POP email services, covering the two major protocols. It does not, unfortunately, automatically configure popular email services like Yahoo or Gmail. Configuring an account is a little painful, especially using the on screen keypad to enter all the settings. Another item of note is that you will not be able to download every email because the device limits message sizes to one of three settings topping out at 300kb.

Push Email (0.0)
The LG Prada does not support any push email services like Blackberry of Microsoft Exchange Email.

Multiple Email Accounts (10.0)
The LG Prada allows you to create up to five different email accounts. This should be more than sufficient to cover most individual's needs. Unlike some smart phones that allow you to create more than five accounts, the Prada's limit is five.

HTML and Attachements (0.0)
The LG Prada does not support viewing of HTML encoded emails, instead converting them to plain text. Although the Prada has a menu item to view attachments in a message we were unable to view any attachment type sent to the device. This includes photos, which seems strange as we would have expected document support to be lacking but not the ability to view an attached photo.

Email Customizations (2.0)
The LG Prada provides few email customization options. You cannot change the font size or type for viewing or composing. You also cannot change how email messages are viewed in the list. You can however create signatures for outgoing email messages. The lack of email customization options is not surprising as few phones offer more than signatures, and many don't even offer that.

Time to a New Message (8.26)

To test how easy it is to create a new email message we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have a new email message dialog up. We repeat this test five times and take the average for our score. The LG Prada took an average of 2.42 seconds to get to a new message dialog. This is a good time for a cell phone, significantly better than the Nokia N95's 4.4 second time and only slightly slower than the Helio Ocean's excellent 2.1 second time. To create a new message you just hit the messaging icon on the bottom of the home screen and then choose "new email message" from the on-screen list.

Email Usability (5.0)
In the Prada's messaging application you will see an item for emails, tapping on this will take you to a list of your email accounts Each account has its own set of folders. Messages are arranged chronologically, there is no option to re-arrange them. At the top of the screen are arrows that move you left or right to the other folders in the account. There is a menu button on the lower left that allows you to manage messages and download new messages. On annoying feature is that although you can reply to or forward a message from this menu you cannot create a new message. Instead you will need to back up to the main messaging screen.

When you create a new message there are three tabs. The first allows you to enter the email address for the recipient, the second allows you to write the body of the message and the third allows you to attach files. The menu in each of these views changes, for example in the To tab you can insert a Cc or Bcc, while on the body tab you can preview your message or save it to drafts. We found the interface for email on the Prada to be generally simple to use, some annoying items like the inability to create a new message from the account view aside.

Supported IM Services (0.0)
The LG Prada does not support instant messaging. In a time when most phones ship with some kind of instant messaging client this is a curious oversight.

MMS Support (7.0)

MMS on the LG Prada is well implemented. You can create a new MMS from the main messaging menu. When creating a new message you are presented with a tabbed interface similar to the email interface. The first tab is used to enter recipients, the second the subject and the third is used to add media and text. You can create a message with multiple slides, each of which has its own associated text. MMS is well integrated with both the album software and the camera, allowing you to send an MMS from each. The only place where MMS falls down a little is its lack of integration with SMS. You cannot turn an SMS into an MMS, however all such messages do come into a single inbox. We were generally pleased with MMS implementation on the Prada.

SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (0.0)
To test whether a handset can interpret smiley faces as graphical representations we send four common smileys to the device. We were disappointed to see that the Prada was unable to display the smileys graphically, instead leaving them in simple text format.

SMS/MMS Ease of Use (6.0)
SMS and MMS messages both come into the same inbox in the messaging application. Messages are arranged in a simple chronological list. The menu button allows you to delete, forward or respond to messages, as well as make a phone call to the originator. You open messages by tapping on them quickly, although this doesn't always work as sometimes you only highlight the item. If this happens you can view the message simply by hitting the view button at the bottom of the screen. The interface is very simple and easy to use, which we appreciated.

Time to a New SMS Message (4.24)

To test how easy it is to create a new SMS message we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have a new SMS dialogue. We repeat this five times and take the average for our score. The Prada took an average of 2.36 seconds to open a new SMS dialogue. This is very similar to the time for a new email message because the process is about the same, simply hit the messaging button on the home screen and choose "new text message" from the list of options on the screen. This time compares less well to other devices than the email time. It is faster than the Helio Ocean's 3.1 second time, but slower than the Sprint Upstage's 1.7 second time or the Nokia N95's incredible 0.9 second time. Of course the difference here are minor, and we found getting to a new text message on the Prada to be reasonably quick.

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