14 DAY TRIAL // Even though its name might suggest that LG GD880 is a small mobile phone, it isn't. In fact, the Korean company advertises it as the smallest phone with a 3.2-inch touch screen. LG Mini is the pure example of how a candybar should be made.
The phone looks like a chocolate bar even more than its older brother – LG Chocolate. Just don't bite it, as fragile as it may look, you will certainly lose a few teeth on it. While I find it exceptional, I heard numerous opinions of people rejecting LG Mini's design, so for now I would tag it as controversial. Indeed, this is not a small phone, but you haven't been lied, as it is pocket size and very nice to the touch.
Announced in February 2010, LG GD880 Mini was released on the market two months later, in April. LG Mini can be bought for around $350 free of contract, depending on the location. Unfortunately, there aren't many colors to choose from, as it is only available in a Black version, probably more will come in the near future (white?).
DesignLG Mini is one of those simple phones that tend to attract through form and less through content. If you're one of those people that like the simplicity of forms, then LG Mini is the perfect choice for you in terms of design. Measuring 102.0 x 47.6 x 10.6 mm and weighing 99g (including battery), the gadget is one of the smallest boasting a 3.2-inch touch screen.
At first glance, the handset looks like having been brutally chopped off from a piece of stone, but at a closer look, you'll notice the discreetly rounded shapes. LG Mini features a minimalistic look, with straight lines and a classic bar form factor. There's no bling bling or 'wow factor,' but in my opinion, LG has been original with the design of the phone and did an excellent job. The combo between the material for manufacture and the design makes LG Mini by far one of the most appealing phones built by the Korean company.
While the front part is seized by the large 3.2-inch display, there's still some space left where one can notice a secondary videocall camera and the earphone speaker. The small metallic stripe above the screen is also present on both sides of the handheld, as well as on top, which makes it more compact and solid. Faithful to its conservative look, LG Mini only features the dual volume key on the left side, while the right side includes a very small shutter key and a microSD memory slot. The latter is protected by a nice sliding cover made from the same metallic alloy, but which kind of disturbs the eye, as LG didn't kept the same model pattern imprinted on the sides. There are lots of things on top of the phone, but the company found a way to render it as minimal as possible: a very small on/off button (also used to lock/unlock the screen, visible thanks to its imprinted red color), a microUSB slot (covered by a plastic stripe), and a 3.5mm jack port. The battery cover on the back is very thin and feels like it has been made from a rubber-like material, which improves the user's grip over the phone, but also feels great to the touch. The 5-megapixel camera has been placed in the upper left corner and doesn't feature flash for night pictures. As a matter fact, I found that the camera looks very 'lonely' without any other visible add ons or loudspeakers. LG placed one thin loudspeaker on the bottom of the gadget, so be careful how you keep it in your hand when you want to listen to the music using it. Overall, I think LG Mini is one of those compact and solid devices that amaze through their balanced shapes and simple lines. Far superior to the Chocolate line in terms of design, LG Mini cannot go unnoticed – you will either love it or hate it.Display and Camera
LG Mini features a large TFT capacitive touch screen display, with an excellent WVGA 480x854 pixel resolution and supporting 262k colors. Even though the contrast, the colors and the overall quality of the image are exceptional, the 3.2-inch display has poor sunlight eligibility. If you can get over this, the screen is amazing, especially when gaming. It also features an accelerometer sensor for automatic screen rotation, proximity sensor, multi-touch support and, most important, a scratch resistant surface.
The 5-megapixel camera is left unprotected at first glance, but at a closer look, I noticed a plastic cover, which protects the camera module. Users can take pictures with a maximum resolution of 2,592 x 1,944 pixels. The dedicated camera button has been comfortably placed and can be employed with ease. LG Mini's camera features auto-focus, image stabilization, geo-tagging, as well as face and smile detection. Its interface looks much the same as that of older mobile phones with S-Class UI, but has been improved. You will now find most of the settings on a wheel-like selector, which you can browse from. Some of the settings that you can take advantage of include: Shot mode, Colour effect, White balance, Scene mode, ISO function. Clips can be recorded using a maximum VGA (640x480 pixels) resolution at 15fps. These cannot be compared with quality pictures at all and are not worth the trouble. In terms of performance, LG Mini's camera is clearly showing some improvements from LG's part. The quality of the pictures, even if far from perfection, as there is still a high level of noise on some pictures, is pretty high. In fact, I wasn't expecting such good quality, since the manufacturer didn't use the well-known Schneider-Kreuznach lenses. On a scale from 1 to 10, I would give the camera an 8, but that might be a little bit too much, as the camera lacks a flash for night pictures. Menu and SoftwareLG Mini features the same highly acclaimed S-Class UI and can now be controlled easily without a stylus thanks to the capacitive touch screen. The strong point of this kind of interface is without a doubt the full customization feature, flash integration and functionality that come with the customization. Furthermore, Mini's UI has borrowed some elements from Android's layout, but also looks a bit like HTC's Sense and iPhone's UIs. Instead of only one Home screen, you are now presented with an extended one that provides you with a total of three standard Home screens, which can be customized with widgets, just like Android's.
To browse between them, you will simply need to swipe the screen to the left or right. There are some new things introduced by LG, which come in very handy and should definitely be highlighted: Task Manager, which is accessible from anywhere in the menus; Quick Menu, which can be accessed by clicking on the very upper part of the touch screen, where the clock and signal reception icons are placed; LG Air service, basically a cloud computing service that allows users of this phone to save their data on any desktop computer, but also on LG's servers automatically.The Home screens are editable by clicking on the special icon placed to the right and above the 4-icon bar at the base. After editing the Home screen, you will be able to align the icons by simply shaking the phone. Besides the usual widgets, you can insert bookmarks and shortcuts of various functions and programs that are found inside your gadget. The main menu has been organized much like the iPhone's, as you can now see all the icons reasonably unfolding on three different pages that can be browsed by swiping to the left or right on the touch screen. Furthermore, LG Mini features Twitter and Facebook integration, which means users will be able to take advantage of the native clients of these social networking services with only one click.
The phone also features a Document viewer application, which supports Word documents and Excel files. Users can take advantage of the Google package that has been embedded. The package includes Google search, Gmail, Blogger, YouTube mobile web version and Google Maps for Mobile applications. The phone comes with two demo version games: Sims 3 and Tetris. The gimmick includes Flash and HTML5 support as well. The Java emulator 2.1 MIDP works with all Java compatible software, but has a file size limit that cannot be exceeded. Unfortunately, even though the S-Class UI has been graphically improved, I still found it laggy and sluggish. In terms of performance of his user interface, LG is still behind Android and iPhone's UIs. I just hope that what it accomplished graphically will soon be on par with performance. CommunicationLG GD880 Mini supports GPRS and EDGE connectivity, both class 10, but also HSDPA 7.2 Mbps (HSDPA 900 / 2100) technology and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA. Data transfer speeds are average, but the integrated browser and the large screen definitely enhance the browsing experience. In terms of messaging, the slider is compatible with a wide range of type messages: SMS, MMS, EMS, email, and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP.
The integrated GPS receiver seems to be working, but doesn't have any practicality, as the software that comes with it, Google Maps, doesn't feature any maps. The high-speed USB Mass Storage support enables users to synchronize the phone with their PC. The quadband (GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network compatible bar has a good GSM signal reception. I was pleasantly surprised by the sound quality. Processor and MemoryLG Mini features a more powerful processor than what we were used to, as benchmarks show the presence of a CPU running at speeds of up to 768 Mhz. This shows LG's intentions to offer users a fast gadget that would be able to fight iPhone and Android devices. Unfortunately, even though the performance of the graphical interface has been improved, the phone might still be sluggish.
It comes with 330 MB of internal memory, but can be upgraded through the microSD slot card up to 32GB.
MultimediaThe gizmo features an eye-candy music player that includes the usual settings and supports album art visualization, but also landscape mode. One of the mutimedia highlights is the LG proprietary Dolby Mobile Sound enhancement, which sounds pretty cool on headphones. Users will be able to filter their music by artist, album, and genre or make their own playlists. Unfortunately, the music sound is not what I would've expected and making comparisons with other music dedicated phones is out of the question. Nevertheless, you will be able to watch a wide range of movie files, as the phone supports DivX/XviD codecs (subtitles not supported, though).
The 3.5mm audio jack port will offer users the possibility to change the included headphones with professional ones for a better experience. The FM Radio features RDS and can only store up to 50 base stations and can be played through the loudspeaker. Both radio and music player can be run in the background and accessed on the Home screen through their corresponding widgets.The Gallery has now been reshaped and offers 3D perspective, displaying five pictures in a row. Multi-touch feature is available, as well as zooming in/out. It takes advantage of the accelerometer sensor so you can view the pictures in landscape mode.
BatteryLG GD880 Mini features a 900 mAh Li-Ion battery, depletes at a medium pace, depending on how you use the phone. The official numbers stated by LG - 330 hours of standby mode and seven hours of talking - are not attainable. I got about three days of use with around 30 minutes of talking everyday and two or three pictures taken, and 10 minutes of Internet navigation. Anyway, comparing it with other LG devices, this one has a really decent autonomy.
ImpressionsThere's no doubt about it, LG Mini is a good phone and that proves LG continues to improve its handsets even though it has been a very long road until we got here. The S-Class user interface has become a really nice alternative to HTC's Sense or iPhone's UIs. Good-looking, stuffed with loads of nice features and sold at a decent price, LG Mini is surely one of the best devices on the market offered by the Korean company.
The Good
The Bad
Sales Package
LG GD880 Mini Handset 900 mAh Li-Ion Battery Stereo Earpiece microUSB Data Cable CD-ROM User Guide.
