LG Shine KE970 Review - Making/Receiving Calls
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Richard Baguley Published on April 25, 2007 Comment on this |
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Dialing Speed (5.26) We test the dialing speed by dialing 5 sample numbers and averaging how long it takes. The KE970 had a pretty average score in this test; we found that numbers took an average of 3.8 seconds to dial. The keypad is a good size, but it is a little difficult to navigate by touch; the lack of any raised edges or dimples on the buttons mean that you can’t easily find the buttons with just your fingertips. This means that we did hit the wrong keys every now and then. In particular, we found ourselves sometimes hitting the hang up key instead of 3, which cancels the list of numbers you’ve just entered. That’s kind of annoying if you’ve just entered a long phone number and hit the wrong button and cancel the whole thing by accident.
Talk and End Buttons (5.5)
As mentioned above, the talk and end buttons are located just above the keypad, with no bumps or ridges between them. This makes them too easy to hit by accident.
Call Management (8.0)
The KE970 maintains several call histories, including missed calls, dialed calls and received calls. And it’s easy to take a number from either list and add it as a contact; you just go to the number on the list, hit the options soft button and select save as new contact from the menu. This also allows you to send a text message: a useful trick if someone calls you in the cinema and you want to send them a message without calling them and upsetting the person next to you. The KE970 also maintains a running tab on the length of calls, the cost of calls (determined by a user-defined tariff) and the amount of data that you’ve sent. These are useful if you are on a pre-paid plan and your network doesn’t provide an easy way to check the credit you have left.
Startup to Call (3.23)
In this test, we measure how long it takes to make a call from the phone being turned off; such as if you’ve gone on a trip and turned the phone off to save battery power, but suddenly realize that you left the bathtub running and need to call a neighbor. The KE970 took 31 seconds to go from being completely off to hitting the dial button (we don’t measure how long the call takes to connect, as this depends on the network). That’s pretty speedy, especially compared to Windows Mobile phones which usually take at least a minute to start up.
Ring Volume (8.53)
Using a professional SPL meter, we measured the loudest of the built-in ringtones at an ear-splitting 85.3 decibels. That’s loud enough to be heard inside a coat pocket or bag. Combine that with a unique ringtone and you’ll definitely know when you have an incoming call.
Ringtone Customizability (6.0)
The KE970 allows you to set any MP3 file on the phone as a ringtone, so you can easily make your own musical ringtones. You can’t however, edit the ringtones on the phone itself, so you need to create your own ringtones on a PC or Mac.
Non Audio Alerts (2.0)
The KE970 has a vibrate only profile, but it’s nothing to get excited about; the vibrate isn’t particularly dynamic, and it could be easily missed if it was in a bag.
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