LG Viewty

LG Viewty
The LG-KU990 or LG-KE990 (known and marketed as the LG Viewty) is a 3.5G touchscreen mobile phone by LG Electronics, announced on August 23, 2007 and then released in Europe and Asia. A high-end model at the time of its release, the Viewty had a resistive touchscreen and was specially marketed for its camera due to its powerful camera features. The Viewty had a high gloss black look similar to the previous LG Prada, although it was also released in many other colours. In South Korea, it was known as the Beauty Phone (Korean: 뷰티폰).
Features
Camera
The phone's main selling point was its 5-megapixel digital camera with Schneider Kreuznach optics, Xenon flash, autofocus, and a digital image stabilizer. It featured an ISO 800-equivalent High-Sensitivity mode for night scenery shots and "Smart Light" for bright and clear images in the dark. It allowed capturing DivX VGA video at 30fps, and QVGA at 120fps for slow-motion playback. According to the manufacturer, the camera's frame rate was high enough to film a balloon bursting.
The Viewty also had a front camera, designed for 3G video calling.
YouTube
In addition to being able to stream videos from YouTube, the LG Viewty also featured the ability to directly upload videos onto the platform.
Applications
The device supported Flash Lite 2 and MIDP Java 2.0. There were a few built-in system applications like Office and a PDF document viewer, movie and photo editor, and Obigo web browser.
Sliding disc
The round part around the rear camera has a wheel that physically rotates, and can be used for scrolling in menus, zooming in and out of webpages or change the volume.
KU990i
An updated model, the KU990i, was later released, but only in European markets. It features a new camera module, the strobe flash is replaced by a LED, it has no image stabilization nor Schneider Kreuznach optics, although it features always-on flash mode and automatic smile and face detection. Physically, the inner camera lens seemed to be slightly smaller.
Limitations
The organizer in the phone could only store 100 calendar events and isn't officially listed on the compatible list with the popular GooSync, which helps sync phone calendars with Google Calendar (though it does work by using instructions for LG Arena). Also some public customer reviews of the LG Viewty stated concerns over poor battery life, mainly due to the large touchscreen.
Model differences
The KU990 was the original Viewty model. The KE990 was released in 2008 and lacks 3G (HSDPA) support, but does have a camera cover. In South Korea its model numbers were LG-SH10/KH2100/LH2100.
Sales and reception
Mobile Phones UK praised the device, calling it a "souped-up Prada" and commenting that the Viewty "ticks all the boxes" in terms of features. TechRadar in its review thought that the device was stylish and praised its camera and HSDPA connection, but criticising the lack of a lens cover and the rotating disc being "fiddly".
LG reported sales of 310,000 units in Europe in the first five weeks. A blog entry by UK mobile phone reseller Dial-A-Phone suggested that the Viewty may be outselling the Apple iPhone in the region, citing anecdotal reports of sluggish sales and Apple's reluctance to publish figures for the iPhone in the region as evidence. The pricing and featuresets of the two phones were used as an explanation.
In January 2009, LG reported that the Viewty had sold 5 million units after 14 months on the market.
It was succeeded by the LG Renoir in 2008. A number of newer Viewty phones were then released: the Viewty Smart (GC900) in 2009, which was similar to the LG Arena but with improved camera capabilities, and two budget phones in 2010, Viewty Snap and Viewty Smile.
Specification sheet
See also
Information appliance
LG Prada
LG Secret
Samsung Ultra Smart F700
Nokia N95
Nokia N82
Sony Ericsson K850i
iPhone
HTC Touch
Sony Ericsson W960
References
External links
Official Website
TechCast Reviews the LG Viewty KU990 - with video
KU990
Mobile phones introduced in 2007