LG GD900 Crystal
LG was the first manufacturer to take the importance of phone design as a main point. Touch sensitive and entirely transparent sliding keyboard with handwriting recognition stands GD900 out of other phone models.
Style
When the keyboard is closed GD900 looks just like any other ordinary phone. But when you slide it out, you see transparent numeric keypad. It’s really astonishing, but to really push the concept, LG should have went for something that wasn’t so plasticky. Nevertheless, the LG mobile phone is still well-built.
Transparency isn’t the only new feature on the keypad: it also includes shortcuts to your applilcations and a simple way to switch between programs, as the Crystal is a multitask device. All you have to do to launch an application is drawing a symbol that you’ve pre-defined. It works pretty well once you get used to it, and it’s surely an intriguing gadget, but after a while, I’ve got myself back to the traditional menus. For dialling numbers or writing texts, the keypad is perfectly reasonable, as the error rate is pretty low. You can also use a virtual keyboard which appears when you turn the LG mobile phone round to the landscape mode.
3 inch screen, which I assume is a little bigger than a reasonable display, although it’s hard to see in direct sunlight, and is reasonably accurate although. It’s pretty responsive, even if sometimes I find myself tapping on the same icon for couple of times. That’s something you should consider alongside the S Class interface (same as in Arena and the LG View ty Smart) which lags time to time when scrolling through photos or loading a feature. That’s nothing really major, but you can found it being kinda annoying.
Underneath the display
The GD900 Crystal isn’t ungenerous when it comes to features. If you’re looking for a multimedia cell phone that’s ready out of the box, think about it, because this could well be the one suiting your needs. As of your needs you should consider that LG doesn’t have a platform for third-party applications.
The menus are crystal clear, with a fresh new look for the home screen appearing with the transparent look, although they aren’t always completely clear: multiple features can be easily grouped into a single icon. The four-sided cube is a amusing way to switch over between 4 different homescreens, including one for multimedia content and another for your contacts.
Multimedia
The LG cell phones GD900 offers multimedia features which I expect to be in a multimedia phone: music player, video player, camera and Internet access.
Despite a 8 megapixel camera, Crystal’s photos aren’t so crystal, because its sometimes tricky to get it right. In natural light photos are almost OK, bet when the sun fades away, things get a little bit complicated, because the sensor begins to struggle.The result photos is fairly on average, but lacking in detail and often blurry. In some darkest photos you could also see electronic noise. Once again, the number of pixels on the camera isn’t the only keystone to a successful camera. The same applies for shooting video: you can shoot short clips on the fly without zoom, but this phone will never replace even a cheap pocket camcorder if you are after quality results.
The sound quality produced by the phone is around the average for telephones in this segment, and the audio player interface is simple and easy to use. It also has a FM tuner. Unfortunately, there’s no 3.5mm audio output jack.
Surfing the web isn’t something to write home about. The browser itself is useful only if you occasionally need to check a site or google something, but it is way behind the best examples in the market like iPhone, Nokia N900 or HTC Hero. It is kinda difficult to read text without zooming in, which is a problem, and the multi-touch interface to take a closer look is wobbly, scrolling through pages is even less enjoyable.
Finally, the phone misses GPS, so you could get lost somewhere, and GPS these days isn’t an optional feature in a high end phone.
As of battery life, you can get around two days on average with some WiFi, internet browsing, texting, calls and music.
Specifications
- Dimensions: 105 x 52.5 x 13.5 mm
- Weight: 127 g
- Display: 3 inch 16M colours TFT multi-touch touchscreen
- Camera: 8 megapixels with LED flash
- Memory: 1.5 GB
- Battery: Li-Ion 1000 mAh
- Supported formats by audio player: MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA
- Supported formats by video player: MP4, DivX, XviD
6 Responses to “LG GD900 Crystal”
I cant seem to find any applications for this phone, anyone know a website where u can actually download them for free?
I have a black screen during incoming calls or outgoing even when i have the phone in my hand. Sometimes the phone even freezes. So i do think this is a factory fault.
My friend has this phone really nice features, I don’t like the design much though it’s too classy and business looking. Perhaps a little touch of sporty looks is much better.
Not being negative but I’m not much of a fan of any phone that have moving parts like sliding keypads. Their sliding mechanisms almost always get defective after a year or 2.
While the transparent keypad looks awesome, it might be view as very breakable. Though I think its plastic and not easily broken.
With today’s competitive market in cellular phones, there are too many choices and too many features to think about. And most of them, if not all, will have some defects because the technology moves so fast we can’t keep up.
This is a great looking phone on the exterior and looks like it is a capable judging by specs. I could get one trading a n96 but i am worried reading the opinions that on this phone all sorts of problems appear . Eny sugestions and advice? Thanks
I agree that moving parts tend to wear out in a year or two. However phones that have no moving parts (bar types) are usually big and bulky. Then you also get a small screen.
I like folding types myself. Those clam shell phones are small and handy. You just have to take care of your devices that’s all. Read the manual and use it as it should be used. Electronic devices are not indestructible.
The see-through keypad is interesting though a bit out of place from the whole design. It looks like it was added as an after thought. Personally, I would be interested in a see-through phone. Not just the keypad but the whole thing.