The Apple iPhone hype has been so overwhelming that it’s easy to forget that there are other really good phones out there at the moment.

The LG KU990, dubbed Viewty, is a recent favourite of mine. In the same way as the Apple iPhone is instantly appealing, the LG Viewty is beautiful to look at and one of the best-looking phones I’ve seen. It features an impressive 5-megapixel camera complete with auto-focus and xenon flash.

The real star of the show is the 3-inch LCD touchscreen which lets you type text and email messages, view images, browse the web, shoot video and much more. The touchscreen is amazingly responsive and is also set to vibrate when you enter a command, a feature called “haptics“. This gives you a more tactile sense of touching the screen than with standard displays.

The vibrating feature is also useful when typing in a SMS text message or a phone number. The numeric or alphabetic keypad on the touchscreen works in the same way as a standard mobile phone keypad, but without the traditional mechanical buttons.

There’s also a handwriting recognition option which you can use for typing emails and text messages. I found this function slow and fiddly though - it is a lot quicker just tapping the touchscreen keypad.

5 Megapixel Camera

Putting aside for one minute the inclusion of 3G HSDPA and the phone’s fine internet browsing abilities, the LG Viewty’s obvious draw is almost certainly its 5.1 megapixel camera.

As we’ve already mentioned, the lens is made by Schneider Kreuznach, a renowned manufacturer of photographic optics and ample proof that LG understands that the lens is paramount to a camera’s quality and ability; even more so than the number of megapixels on offer.

In camera mode, the Viewty is designed to be held like a conventional camera, with the viewfinder showing a landscape view and the shutter key easily accessible by your right index finger.

When in camera mode, you can bring up all the required camera settings and controls simply by tapping once on the screen with your fingertip or thumb. This gives you access to such staples as photo settings, zoom and flash.

You have two means of controlling the 16x digital zoom on the Viewty; unfortunately, both are a little fiddly. Option one is to use the virtual slide-control on the left of the touch-screen, which requires real thumb dexterity and caused us to drop the camera twice. Option two requires you to rotate the click-wheel positioned around the camera lens on the back of the Viewty. There are two problems with this second means of zooming: it feels clumsy and you’re highly likely to smear the lens with greasy fingerprints. Neither of which will enhance the quality of your photos.

However, for simply pointing and shooting photos on auto-focus, the Viewty feels great. It’s a well-balanced handset with a great viewfinder and the shutter button is in exactly the right place.

Having a dedicated switch for accessing the video camera and video playback is also a nice touch and really sets the phone apart from other run-of-the-mill camera phones.

On the back of the phone, you’ll find the camera’s flash and Schneider Kreuznach lens, which is surrounded by a jog-wheel which operates both the camera’s zoom and the ability to zoom in and out of webpages.

When you’re done shooting you can view your photos in the photo viewer which displays pictures as if you’d laid them out on a table. You can flick through them with your finger - a bit like you use the Cover Flow option in iTunes - or view in the standard mode, all lined up next to each other. You can zoom in on, or open up, a photo by resting your finger on the picture for a couple of seconds.

The real draw is the LG Viewty’s photo-editing functionalities, which is one of the best I’ve seen on a phone. You can quickly add text, music, and morphing effects to your photos. Our photos turned out well when viewing on a computer screen, and looked great when printed out.

Navigating the Phone

The usability issues that afflict the Viewty’s web browsing and camera zooming don’t overly sully a phone which has a lot of tricks hidden beneath its glossy exterior.
The touch-screen operation is the best I’ve enjoyed to date for making calls, sending texts and email and navigating through the Viewty’s icon-based menu. The vibration response really does improve the touch-screen experience and the overall simplicity of the Viewty’s operating system is also a major plus.

There are 24 icon-based menu options, which are divided into four key menu categories – each represented by a symbol. It would help if the four key categories were named, however. The first menu category is represented by a phone symbol and here you’ll find the relevant call, contacts and messaging options.

Beneath the movie clipboard icon (at least, that’s what we think it is) you’ll find the fun multimedia stuff like camera, movie studio, games, FM radio, music and video playlist. Under the filofax/clock icon, you’ll find the phone’s organisational tools like calendar, memo and alarm, plus the internet browser. And by clicking on the menu graphic that could represent either a flower or a cog, you’ll be taken to the phone’s profiles and settings, plus the Bluetooth connectivity.

It won’t take you long to find out where everything is and you’ll be zipping around the phone’s menu in no time, although some simple labelling would help.

All of the Viewty’s multimedia capabilities, from game playing to watching movie clips and home videos, are enhanced by the phone’s high-resolution screen.

Sliding disc

The camera lens is surrounded by a sliding disc that lets you scroll through menus, zoom in and out on web pages, adjust the call volume, plus zoom in and out in camera mode. It is a useful function but feels a bit fiddly and sometimes doesn’t work as well as I would like.

The LG Viewty also shoots video at 120 frames per second, which allows you to watch it in slow-motion when you play it back. Videos can be uploaded straight to YouTube with just one button. A personal favourite feature of mine is the Viewty’s ability to record video in DivX format - no more converting low quality .mp4 and .3gp files!

The huge screen also makes web browsing ideal; the LG Viewty is one of the best web-enabled handsets I’ve seen. You can view full-size web pages and zoom in on particular sections in the same way you can with the Apple iPhone. The LG Viewty offers HSDPA connectivity so web browsing and downloading was quick and easy. A five-minute music track downloaded in about 20 seconds, for example.

The LG Viewty is well-designed; it is light to carry but its stylish looks would appeal to most. The touchscreen does get messy from fingerprints, and could potentially get scratched if kept in a bag with your keys.

Audio quality

There’s nothing to complain about when it comes to audio quality - it was loud and clear during calls. I also like the video calling functionality, which really comes to life thanks to the large screen. The speaker functionality is also good when playing tunes from the built-in MP3 player.

Accessing the Internet

With mobile broadband (3G HSDPA) and a large display on offer, accessing the internet should be a real pleasure with the Viewty. While it looks the bee’s knees, there are some usability issues which are largely down to the touch-screen. When you access your internet homepage, you’ll notice a series of virtual internet control options that appear at the bottom of the touch-screen.

These are simple shortcuts, which enable you to add to favourites, zoom in and out of the page and alter the view between portrait and landscape. Whichever way you choose to view the pages, they look great. It’s when you come to browsing that you hit trouble. The Viewty is designed to be navigated with your fingertips or using the stylus. You can stroke the webpage up or down as if you are moving a piece of paper – just as you can with the HTC Touch. The functionality is erratic; sometimes the screen scrolls up and down, sometimes it doesn’t. The same applies to the scroller bars on the side and bottom of the phone.

The problem is, although the Viewty’s display is large by mobile standards, you can only ever see part of a page, which makes scrolling essential. And if the scrolling mechanism is erratic, you’ll simply stop browsing. This is a real problem. A side-mounted jog-dial might help, or simple navigation keys beneath the phone’s display.

Similarly, the jog-wheel which controls the camera’s zoom can also be employed to zoom in and out of the internet pages and to control the volume of voice calls.Battery life is good - an average user could easily make the battery last well over two days but if you tend to take lots of photos and surf the web a lot, then a daily charge is probably recommended.

Conclusion

I think this is one of the best phones around at the moment, and a definitive challenger to the Apple iPhone. The impressive camera, responsive and easy-to-use touchscreen and high-speed internet connectivity, all crammed in to a very stylish body, makes this one of LG’s best ever phones.

The LG KU990 Viewty is available now on all major networks, from free on some monthly contracts.