14 DAY TRIAL // The newly announced terminal from LG seems to be giving us an insight on what the Korean manufacturer plans to release for this summer. Tagged with the Vodafone brand, the LG KU580 slider will be available starting this quarter (July-August). The price will probably be around USD 500-550, which is decent enough if we think that it's the same price we had to pay for every Chocolate Series' device when they were launched. I had the privilege to talk about the phone with one of the representatives of LG Electronics, and what I have found gave me a good impression.
It seems that LG intends to keep its codename secret for the press, but info already transpired on the Internet and that's why we know now that LG's KU580 is called 'Hero'. Great offer from Vodafone as the new slider includes a 'plethora' of updated features and technologies.
Besides its 'fresh' design the handset is 3G compatible, featuring a VGA camera for video calls. Even if its TFT display is rather small, it supports 262k colors and 240 x 320 pixels resolution. Perhaps LG thought that a bigger display will be more energy consuming and decided to make it smaller, but more economical for the energy part.
Hero's dimensions (94 x 53 x 16.5 mm) and weight (73 grams including battery) recommend it as a stylish offspring of the Chocolate Series. Furthermore, the handset includes 45 MB internal memory and microSD slot card for memory expansion. The multimedia part is strongly backed by the polyphonic sounds (64 voices), MP3 player, FM radio and 2 Megapixel camera (maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels).
Hero also borrowed the touch-sensitive keys with backlights system from the Chocolate and probably has the same menu. I'm not sure about the menu yet as the software pre-installed is still in Beta testing, we'll keep you posted as soon as we receive the device for review.
The Li-Ion 860 mAh battery of the phone seems to be better than those included in the Chocolate Series, but we should also consider that the Hero has more energy consuming features and latest technologies embedded (3G) which will probably "suck" the life from the battery faster.
All in all, the phone's design, even if stylish, shouldn't be a surprise because LG's "Chocolate" look will make you diabetic if it doesn't get you addicted.