14 DAY TRIAL // The first 8 Megapixel camera handset manufactured by LG, KC910 Renoir is one of the few of its kind that can be found on the market. Competing directly with Samsung's M8800 Pixon, which also features an 8 Megapixel camera and touchscreen interface, LG's Renoir closely follows in Viewty's footsteps, one of the best LG camera phones. While there are many similarities between the two camera phones, LG Renoir received lots of improvements regarding the Flash UI, specific to latest LG mobile phones with touchscreens.
Basically, all the goodies related to the camera performance and capabilities have been kept, but the interface has been redesigned to meet more of the user's needs. LG KC910 Renoir has to be more user-friendly and easy to work with than its Viewty predecessor. Whether that's true or not, you will find out by reading the following review. In case you need to compare the Renoir with Viewty, you can also take a look at the review of the latter.
Announced in August 2008, LG KC910 was released on the market three months later, in November. LG Renoir can be bought for around USD 500$ free of contract, depending on the location. Unfortunately, there aren't many colors to choose from, as the phone is only available in a Black version.
Design
I believe there's no mystery that the main concern of the Korean company, when developing a new handset, is design. The latest Chocolate and Shine series proves that LG has improved its products' look to raise their impact at first glance. LG Renoir continues the same form factor that became standard for LG's touch devices starting with Prada and Viewty. In fact, Renoir is about the same size as the latter (107.8 x 55.9 x 14mm), only a little longer. It weighs around 114g, which is pretty light for an 8 Megapixel camera phone. Because of these 'universal' sizes, it will perfectly fit in your hand or pocket.
The three transparent buttons on the front look very stylish and are backlit every time you use the device. The two Accept/End calls buttons are framing the middle button, which has multiple functions. Above the 3-inch touchscreen, there's a small in-call speaker, a secondary camera for video-calls or for snapping lower quality pictures and a light ambient sensor, which adjusts the brightness of the display. The right side of the phone features two volume keys also used to zoom in/out when the camera lens is opened. Lower on the right side, there's a lock/unlock key, which locks/unlocks the screen, and a dedicated camera key. The microSD slot card and LG's universal port that can be used to attach the charger, USB cable or headset, have been placed on the left side of the device. The mobile phone has been left clean on the top and bottom, which means you don't have a stylus attached. The back of the phone embeds the 8 Megapixel monster camera together with a Xenon flash and a supplementary light that help the camera focus on the object when in darker areas. The sales package contains a telescopic stylus, which can be carried separately as a dongle or attached by the eyelet found on the top left corner, but that won't be necessary, as the phone can be easily controlled without it. Inside the box, there's also a secondary display protection film and a 3.5mm adapter for headphones. The compound used for manufacturing makes the phone look exquisite, rich and stylish. While the front part is almost entirely seized by the huge display, the back cover is very well polished and shines even if you keep it covered with the thin protective plastic that comes with it. LG KC910 Renoir is impressively slim for its rich multimedia capabilities, with excellent finishes that make it glow whenever you're using it. The quality of its build and its high standard ergonomics recommends it as one the most good-looking camera phones currently available on the market.Display and Camera
LG Renoir features a large TFT touchscreen display, with the same unusual 240x400 pixel resolution and supporting 262k color. I'm still waiting for the day LG will come with a 16 Million support display, but for the moment, it seems that Nokia owns the supremacy on the market for this component. Anyway, the 3-inch display is no different than its older brother, Viewty's display. Everything on the screen looks excellent, with good color contrast. When your fingers touch the screen, you'll notice that it features the 'haptic feedback' technology.
Usually, the display doesn't catch fingerprints, but only if you keep it covered with the protective plastic. Its only drawback is the fact that it's almost unusable when in strong sunlight. The backlight is only present for the three contextual keys placed on the bottom of the display: Accept calls, End calls and Middle keys. The screen also features an accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate. The 8 Megapixel camera features Schneider-Kreuznach optics, but that is pretty obvious if you check some of the pictures taken with the phone. Thanks to these lenses, the pictures don't get too much noise and there are no color distortions. Users can take pictures with a maximum resolution of 3264x2448 pixels. The camera is protected by a plastic cover that can be opened only manually by using the grip placed on the metallic frame that surrounds it. The dedicated camera button has been comfortably placed and can be used with ease. LG Renoir's camera also features auto-focus, xenon flash, geo-tagging, as well as face, smile and blink detection. The lock/unlock key near the camera button also controls the digital image stabilization function. Unfortunately, it doesn't have too much functionality and cannot be compared with the much better mechanical optical stabilization used in digital cameras. The interface of the camera is pretty complex even for a veteran user, and can be compared with LG Viewty's. Starting with the full preview of the pictures, red-eye reduction and ISO function, LG Renoir features one of the best 8 Megapixel module cameras on the market. Users can also take advantage of a wide array of scene modes (landscape, beach, party, portrait, night, sport, high sensitive) and shooting modes (continuous shot, panorama and frames). The usual White balance and Colour tone settings are also available and can be used whenever needed. Those who are expecting to shoot high quality clips won't be disappointed by the LG Renoir's recording camera capabilities. The maximum resolution that can be used is 640x480 pixels, but all movies are saved in AVI format and feature DivX 5.0 encoding. The camera supports movie capturing in VGA resolution at 30fps or QVGA at 120fps. Overall, LG Renoir's camera exceeds all expectations making it one of the best choices for those looking for a top-notch camera phone.Menu and Software
LG KC910 Renoir features the highly acclaimed Flash UI and can be controlled with or without a stylus. The strong point of this kind of interface is without any doubt the full customization feature. Furthermore, Renoir's UI has more animations than its Viewty predecessor. While the layout of the menus has not changed too much, there are some tweaks that improve the usability. Besides the fact that you get more options for everything (like widgets on the Home screen), you are now able to reorganize the menu by dragging applications appearing at the bottom in front so you can have quicker access to it. This is a very nice improvement, which has been lately embedded in Nokia's handsets.
The phone also features a Picsel viewer application, which supports Word documents, Excel files and PDF files. Also, 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 phonebook of the device looks standard and accepts 1000 contacts. But there is a catch - you will probably notice that Renoir has received an upgrade compared with any of the latest LG phones and now you will be able to see contacts stored on the device's memory and SIM contacts separately. Unfortunately, together with LG's firmware, you also get the same bugs that have not been corrected yet. The all time famous 'clock delay' bug makes your standby clock delay for one or two seconds when showing the right time. Now, the 'bug' is also available with the widgets appearing on the screen.
The Main menu has been organized into four parts accessible from the tabs placed on the right side of the screen. The first one on the top will give you access to the phone and messaging functions, while the second represents the multimedia and entertainment area included in the phone's firmware. Google services (Search, Mail, Maps, Blogger, YouTube), as well as some productivity tools (Calendar, Calculator, Unit converter) are available by tapping the third tab. For Settings, check the last tab. The most important feature of the phone is the Task manager, which can be accessed by clicking the Middle key. However, this is only available only when you're working with another application or navigating through other menus. When Home screen is displayed, clicking the Middle key will bring up a window with configurable Shortcuts. The last function of the Middle key is an excellent addition, as the four shortcuts on the Home screen are not configurable. Using the Task manager enables you to Alt-tab among various applications that you have opened. Unfortunately, you cannot 'abuse' this feature, as the phone's interface is kind of slow, especially when running more than one application. Compared with Pixon's interface, I could say that LG Renoir is very slow because of the low power CPU. Another great asset to the user interface is the Status windows, which can be activated by touching any of the icons on top of the phone (clock, battery, and signal). It displays information about battery, memory, network, and enables quick access to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Profiles.The Java emulator 2.0 MIDP works with all Java compatible software, but has a file size limit that cannot be exceeded.
Communications
LG KC910 supports GPRS and EDGE connectivity, both class 10, but also HSDPA 7.2 Mbps (HSDPA 900 / 2100) technology and Wi-Fi. 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 (300), MMS, EMS, email (no SSL support), and Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP.
The integrated GPS receiver is working, but doesn't have any practicability, as the software that comes with it – Google Maps doesn't feature Voice guidance function. You can install other third-part applications, but none of the Java compatible pieces of software will provide you with the voice guidance function.The high-speed USB Mass Storage support enables users to synchronize the phone with their PC. There's no way to access the internal memory of the phone when you are synching it with the PC, so you'll be limited to the memory card. You can also connect the phone to a TV, as the phone features TV-out function. Apart from these, you get the usual handwriting recognition, which finally works much better than Viewty's.
The triband (GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network compatible slider has a good GSM signal reception. Unfortunately, I was disappointed by the in-call sound quality, which is a bit low and muffled.Processor and Memory
Renoir features a low power ARM9 family processor, which runs at speeds of up to 140 Mhz. This could have been better, especially since LG included an improved Flash UI that asks for a better CPU than those usually embedded in low-end handsets. When internal memory is full, you'll notice a slight delay when browsing the file manager. The low processor is probably the cause.
The phone comes with 100 MB of internal memory, but can be upgraded through the microSD slot card up to 16GB. We have tested it with an 8GB microSD card and everything worked smoothly. The memory is hot-swappable.Multimedia
LG Renoir features the same music player that Viewty also embedded, an enhanced version of Prada's music player. Users will be able to filter their music by artist, album, and genre or make their own playlists. The music player still lacks any Equalizer setting, but Dolby for Mobile sound enhancement has been added. The difference when the latter is activated is huge.
Sound is very good especially that LG has added good quality earphones in the sales package. Moreover, these can be changed with your own headphones thanks to the 3.5mm adapter that also comes with the earphones. 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 correspondent widgets. The only thing I was disappointed with is the Gallery. It has been reshaped and can now take advantage of the accelerometer sensor so you can see the pictures in landscape mode. Unfortunately, if you have more than ten pictures in the Gallery, it will take forever to display the snapshots. Also, zooming is very slow due to low CPU. Otherwise, scrolling among pictures is pretty smooth.Battery
LG KC910 Renoir features a 1000 mAh Li-Ion battery, which depletes pretty fast only if you use the camera. The official numbers stated by LG - 264 hours of standby mode and three hours of talking - are low as it stands. Usually, I got about three days of use with about 20 minutes of talking everyday and two or three pictures taken, no Internet navigation though. Strange, but if you use the phone to take pictures, exactly its main purpose, it will drain your battery in one or two days.
Impressions
There's no doubt, LG KC910 Renoir impresses through its slim, stylish design, which will surely attract camera phone fans. The improved Flash UI adds to the unique experience that the phone offers to the owner. Overall, Renoir stands on top of LG's camera phones, but that will probably not last too long, as the Korean company might release more camera monster phones pretty soon.
The Good
The Bad
Sales package
LG KC910 Renoir Handset 1000 mAh Li-Ion Battery Stereo Earpiece with 3.5mm adapter Hand Strap Stylus dongle USB Data Cable Protective film CD-ROM User Guide.
