LG Prada Review - Multimedia

Alfredo Padilla
Published on June 25, 2007 Comment on this

Accessing Music Software (3.91)

To test how easy it is to get music playing on the Prada we timed how long it takes to go from the home screen until we have a song playing on the device. We repeat this five times and take the average for our score. The Prada took an average of 5.12 seconds to get a song playing. This is about average, about the same as the Helio Ocean's 5.2 second time and faster than the Sprint Upstage's 6.54 second time. It is a little slower than the LG Chocolate, which took 4.73 seconds. Launching the music player is simple, just hit the dedicated music button on the right side of the phone. We did find that once we selected a song it took the player longer than we would have liked to actually start playing it. Still, 5 seconds isn't too bad to get a song playing.

Dedicated Music Controls (2.0)
The LG Prada has a dedicated key that will immediately launch the music applications, however it does not have any hardware keys to control playback features like play/pause, next and previous. The volume keys do control music volume when it is playing back. Most music functions need to accessed via the touch screen when you are in the application.

Music Software Functionality and Organization (1.8)
The music software on the LG Prada is very simple and straightforward. There is no support for playlists, or organizing your music by things like artist, album or genre. Instead you can only access a simple list of songs organized alphabetically by file name. Mp3 idv3 tags are recognized when you look at the file's information. The software is easily accessible from the home screen using the dedicated music key and you can play music in the background by simply hitting the music key again. More advanced features like album art, visualizations and ratings are not supported. The music software does not include an equalizer. We were rather disappointed by the lack of features in the Prada's music software, especially the lack of library management features. We've seen better even on handsets that use carrier branded software like the Sprint Upstage.

Online Song Downloading (0.0)
The LG Prada does not support any online song downloading services.

Streaming (0.0)
The LG Prada does not support streaming MP3 Audio, Windows Media Audio or Real Audio. This is not surprising as regular phones rarely support streaming media.

Podcast Support (0.0)
The LG Prada does not include any software to download or manage podcasts.

Music Sync with PC (7.0)
You can synchronize your Prada with Windows Media Player on PC's as the computer recognizes it as a mass storage device. This will allow you to quickly and easily get music onto the phone.

Music Formats and DRM (1.0)
The only format of music that is supported by the Prada is MP3. This is the most popular format, but anyone who's music collection is in AAC or WMA formats will need to convert the files before listening to them on the Prada. We were rather surprised by the limited support as even basic handsets support multiple music formats. The Prada does not support any form of DRM protected music.

Music Interruption (7.0)
If you are listening to music when a call comes in the music software pauses the music during the call. The functionality when the call ends is a little strange however. Unlike most phones that simply begin playing the music back from the same spot the Prada leaves the music paused, but takes you back to the music interface. This may be useful in some situations, but generally we would have preferred to see the music resume automatically.

Video

Video Software Access (1.82)

To test how easy it is to get a video playing on the Prada we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have a video playing. We repeat this five times and take the average for our score. The LG Prada took an average of 10.98 seconds to get a video playing. This is not a good time, well short of phones like the LG Chocolate's 5.34 second time or the Helio Ocean's 5.5 second time. We were slowed down by the fact that in order to access our videos we were forced to go through several screens, and as we've encountered before the touch screen interface isn't the fastest.

Video Controls (8.0)

When playing back video on the LG Prada your controls are on screen for the most part. At the bottom of the screen you will find a play/pause button flanked by next and previous buttons. There is also a volume button on screen, however you can also control volume with the dedicated buttons on the left side of the device. The LG Prada has two video playback modes. Initially the video appears in portrait mode, with the controls below the video display. Simply tapping on the video will shift the orientation to full screen landscape mode. In this mode there are a couple of additional controls. You can set the screen to 1:1 or widescreen format. You can also move forward or back in the video by touching the progress bar and moving your finger back and forth. The controls in this format are not immediately obvious, you will need to tap the screen to see them. We found the video controls on the Prada to be simple, but well thought out and very usable.

Video Software & Organization (3.0)
The video software on the Prada is not very advanced. It is generally meant for watching the videos you have taken with the device and you will need to do some work to use the phone as a mobile video device. We liked the ability to watch videos in full screen landscape mode. There is no support for rating videos, and you will need to place videos in the specific folders either on the device or your memory card in order for the software to recognize them. The software won't scan your device and memory card to discover playable content. The basics are here, but you won't see advanced options like you do in Windows Media Player Mobile.

The LG Prada's video organization features are not very advanced. There is no support for playlists, nor can you sort videos by categories like TV shows and movies. Search features are not supported, nor is background play. Instead videos are browsed through in a simple file explorer format, with the folders and file names used just as they were created on the device or the memory card. You will need to place files in the appropriate folder for them to be available in the software. We were relieved that the next and previous controls will move to the next or previous file in the same folder, many phones don't support this. Still, we were not impressed by the Prada's video organization features.

Video Sync with PC (7.0)
The LG Prada can synchronize videos with your desktop PC's Windows Media Player software by acting as a mass storage device. Note however that you won't be able to view windows media encoded video on the Prada. See below for a list of supported formats.

Video Formats (3.5)
The LG Prada was able to play back all three of our test 3GP files, two encoded with the H263 codec and one encoded in MPEG-4 format. Our test .Mp4 files was recognized, but the software was unable to play it back, probably due to the H264 encoding, your Mpeg-4 encoded .Mp4 files should playback fine. Real media, windows media, quicktime and flash files were not supported by the Prada. 3GP is the mobile standard for video and we were glad to see it supported, but we wish that H264 encoded video was also supported to provide higher quality video.

Video DRM (0.0)
The LG Prada does not support any form of DRM for video. This means you won't be able to watch videos purchased from iTunes or Amazon's Unboxed service.

Video Playback Smoothness (10.0)
To test video playback smoothness we play five 3GP encoded videos of increasing bitrates from 48 kbps to 768 kbps. We were pleased that the LG Prada had no problem playing any of our sample videos. Even in full screen with the 768 kbps video the Prada displayed no hiccups.

Online Video Downloading (0.0)
The LG Prada does not support any online video download services.

Video Streaming unscored
We do not score streaming video because of the lack of standardization in formats. However, we do test a few services to see how the device handles them. Because the Prada is not sold by U.S. carriers there are no carrier streaming video services available for it. Were were also unable to playing streaming video from Youtube's new mobile page or even load zoovision's mobile page. Both of these use streaming 3GP video. Streaming Windows Media video from windowsmedia.com was also not supported. Basically, don't expect to watch any kind of streaming video on your Prada.

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