LG Shine KE970 Review - Hardware
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Richard Baguley Published on April 25, 2007 Comment on this |
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Keypad
Text Words Per Minute (4.6)
The small keypad of the KE790 doesn’t encourage quick typing; we measured our average speed typing out a 16 word test sentence at a rather pedestrian 41 seconds. This works out at an average words per minute score of 23.4 words per minute. This is somewhat slower than many of the other keypad phones we have tested, and this is due to the smaller size of the keys and the lack of any ridges or bumps to allow you to find your way by touch. Instead, you end up hunting for the keys by sight and pecking at them to make sure you don’t hit the wrong one by accident.
T9 and Auto Complete (5.0)
T9 text entry (where the system tries to predict the word you are entering from key letters you enter) is supported, and, as you would expect with an international phone, this can be switched to any of 20 languages. There is no option for auto completion of words, though.
Two Hand Usability (4.4)
Like most keypad only phones, we didn’t find much difference between using one hand and two; the keypad is simply too small to get much advantage from using both hands. We found that the typing speed of the KE970 with two hands was 22.4 words per minute, a touch slower than one hand.
Keypad Backlighting (6.0)
The keypad and controls are illuminated by a cool blue glow when the cover is opened. This should make it easy to use the KE970 in dark rooms. The brightness of this backlighting is tied in with the screen brightness, which can be set by the user; there is no light sensor. How long the backlight stays on is also controlled by the screen backlighting controls. One interesting thing to note here; if you set the backlight to always on, it seems to automatically reduce the backlighting level to save battery power.
Controls
The KE970 has a rather unusual set of controls; it eschews the common directional pad, replacing it with a scroll wheel and 4 small buttons. This different approach is not that successful; the phone ends up being awkward to use.
D-Pad/Joystick (0.0)
There is no D-pad or joystick on the KE970; all of the functions commonly controlled by this are managed through the scroll wheel.
Touch Screen (0.0)
The Shine does not have a touch screen interface.
Jog Dial (4.0)
The scroll wheel on the KE970 is centrally located, right below the screen on the sliding front panel. This small scroll wheel also doubles as a button; you move through menus by scrolling it then select by pushing it in. However, this really doesn’t work that well; it is far too easy to inadvertently scroll while pushing it in, accidentally selecting the wrong menu option. There are also two small buttons on either side of the scroll wheel that are used to move up and down in some menus (such as the camera and camcorder controls). These are very awkward to use; they are way too small, and it is too easy to inadvertently push in the scroll wheel instead.
Soft Buttons (4.0)
Two illuminated soft buttons are located on either side of the scroll wheel, and the functions these perform are shown on the screen. The left one is usually used to access the options menu, while the right one usually works as a back button. These are well spaced, but they lack much positive feedback; it is hard to tell if you have pressed them in properly.
Volume Control (5.0)
The volume control of the KE970 is in the form of two buttons on the right side of the case. These are rather poorly placed and are hard to reach in a call when you need to knock the volume up or down a notch.
Power and Standby (7.5)
The KE970 automatically switches to standby mode when you slide the cover closed; in this mode, the buttons on the side are disabled, and you have to press the left and right soft keys to activate the phone. This is a good approach; it makes it unlikely that you would accidentally dial, but means that it is easy to open the phone and make a call. To shut the phone down completely, you hold down the end key.
Other Buttons (4.0)
There are a handful of other buttons; an MP3 button on the side of the case starts off the music player software, while the shutter button is used to take photos. This is placed where you would expect to find the shutter button on a compact camera, so you can use the KE970 in a similar way.
Display
Primary Screen Gross Resolution (8.0)
The main and only screen of the KE970 is a 240 by 320 screen. That’s some way below the high resolution screens we are seeing some smart phones, but it is more than adequate to show the menus and images.
Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (8.8)
In theory, the higher the pixel density, he more detailed the images it can present and the stonger the color. With the 320 by 240 resolution screen measuring 1.33 by 1.8 inches, we calculated the pixels per inch of the KE970 at 178 pixels per inch. That’s a little higher than most, but it’s not a record: the LG Chocolate had a higher pixel density of 200 per inch.
Screen Physical Size (5.5)
The screen of the KE970 has a diagonal measurement of 2.2 inches; a good size for such a compact phone.
Screen Brightness (3.35)
We measured the screen brightness of the KE970 at a paltry 47 lux; you certainly won’t be using the KE970 screen as a torch. There are 4 settings for the brightness level, but there is no sensor for the automatic adjustment of the backlight depending on the lighting conditions.
Screen Bright Light Performance (1.0)
The performance of the mirrored screen in bright light of the KE970 is, in a word, awful. The reflective coating may look cool, but it also reflects sunlight, which drowns out the image on the screen. This photo shows an example; believe it or not, the phone is turned on. But even with the phone out of direct sunlight, the reflected light still drowns out the screen so the menus are barely visible.
Color Depth (7.0)
The KE970 screen has a color depth of 18 bits, which means it can display up to 262k colors. That’s pretty standard for cell phones, and is adequate for menus and viewing images. And out of daylight, the colors look reasonably accurate; just don’t try and show off your photos in daylight; because of the mirrored screen, people won’t be able to see them.
Ports & Storage
Power & Data Ports (3.0)
A single port on the left side of the KE970 body provides both power and data connections to the phone. This is a proprietary port, so if you loose the supplied power adapter or USB cable, you’ve got a problem. However, the phone can be charged through the USB connection, so you can get away with just taking the USB cable with you on a trip if you have a laptop.
Headphone & Jack Compatibility (8.0)
There is no headphone socket on the body of the phone itself, but the KE970 does come with a wired remote that includes a 3.5-mm headphone socket. It also supports Bluetooth headphones that use the A2DP profile.
Internal Storage (1.0)
40Mb of RAM is built into the KE970, which can be ued for storing files. That’s a little less thant wehat we have seen on other phones, but it’s enough to store a few images and a few songs. And memory cards are so cheap these days that adding more storage capacity for music is not an issue.
Expansion Slot & Format (6.0)
More storage space can be added through the MicroSD card slot. Capacities of up to 2GB are currently available.
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