14 DAY TRIAL // LG KE850 Prada is a result of the collaboration between Korean giant manufacturer LG Electronics and the well-known fashion company Prada. The phone combines the avant-garde Prada design and the uncompromising quality of technological features received from LG. The stylish candy-bar can be easily, and with great success, used as a glamorous accessory. Nevertheless, few people will be able to "display" the necessary outfit for this kind of luxurious accessory. As stated by LG, the phone can be acquired for no less than $850, but we get an impressive set of accessories for that sum. The handset is delivered in a deluxe box which includes an exclusive Saffiano leather case, LCD cleaner, Bluetooth headset (optional) and Prada branded earphones.
Recently, the phone has been showcased in Romania at the annual CERF 2007 trade show for IT&C solutions. The hands-on session went well and you can read here our first impressions regarding LG's Prada phone.
As you can see in the pictures, the phone is particularly slim (12 mm) for its size and features a huge, unusual TFT display (240 x 400 pixels resolution) that supports 256k colors. The bright screen has vivid colors and is one of the best in its class. You can get a fully sensorial experience when using this device, as it lacks the numbers keys.
On the front bottom of the screen, you can find the usual accept call or end call key and a menu key which helps users navigate if they don't want to grease the display with their fingers. The screen has a very good touch response and you can do most of the stuff by using the touchscreen. If you find it difficult to scroll up or down, LG thought about it and placed two keys on the right side of the phone that will help you with the scrolling command. The card sized phone measures 98.8 x 54 x 12 mm and it weighs 85 grams (battery included).
Its low internal memory (16 MB) is backed by a 256 MB microSD card, which is delivered with the phone. Its ARM9 family processor features 133 Mhz speed and can run most of the Java applications with no problems.
The phone also features the usual communication stuff such as: GPRS and EDGE connectivity, Bluetooth 2.0 technology and USB 2.0 port for synchronization. It can read PowerPoint, .xls, .txt, .pdf and .doc files with ease. The MP3 player (MP3, ACC, WMA files supported) and the FM radio are more than enough to satisfy any multimedia lover.
LG KE850 Prada has one of the best cameras found in an LG terminal. One of the reasons is the Schneider-Kreuznach lens embedded in the 2 Megapixels camera. I have printed some pictures taken with the phone and I was amazed by their quality. The pictures can't be in any way compared with those taken by photo cameras, but for a phone camera, the images are surely looking great. Praise to LG for that; finally we have a good camera in a good looking phone.
The Li-Ion 800 mAh battery will probably be recharged frequently as the huge touchscreen will drain most of the energy fast. The stated life expectancy of the battery (300 hours in standby and 3 hours in talk time) is obviously overestimated.
For what it's worth, the phone is looking great and Prada did a great job designing the device. In fact, it really shows from the look of it that it's a fashionistas phone with some good technical features. I'm pretty sure that I'll spend 850 bucks on this phone (yeah right).
