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Design and Looks
The LG GM200 looks a lot like her Nokia sister, the 5310. But the LG phone is not as hot as the Nokia model. Atleast not from the front (and strangely that’s where the resemblance comes from.) but maybe that’s because the Nokia XpressMusic handset is slim at the waist and has nice accents to add to her looks. What makes the GM200 look like the 5310 is they both share a similar looking keypad and form-factor. The display stands at 2.0 inches and produces 256K colours over a dismal resolution of 176 x 220 pixels. The pictures definitely look grainy but LG has intelligently covered this up with simple looking themes. Apart from this little blurb, the front is really nothing to talk about.
At either side of the phone are good quality speakers, a standard 3.5mm headset, a volume rocker and other vital ports. Thanks to good design sense, LG have managed to make the GM200’s derriere look chic. The back is black and to add to the bling is a large sub-woofer to complement the already awesome dual side speakers. The output coming from this 2.1 channel arrangement is out of this world. It’s loud and does not distort even at its maximum volume. The sub-woofer helps take care of the bass frequencies and the side speakers accentuate the mids and highs offering users with wholesome sound.
But let’s not forget that this is a phone first. And the phone’s user-interface is just as important as its speakers. Sadly, in this case the Java based UI is laggy and slows down noticeably when typing long drawn out messages or when accessing an overloaded memory card (even if the card has a capacity lesser than 2GB.) There are also many smart features included in this phone like the Smart profile which adjusts the volume depending on the surrounding environment. But this in no way makes this phone a smartphone!
The sound quality, as we already mentioned is great the way it is. But that’s also because the phone incorporates Dolby Mobile sound engine to give that crystal clear sound. On the flip-side, there are no customizable equalizer presets so users will have to make do with the ones that are already available with the phone. The GM200 is also equipped with a radio that boasts of good reception. There is also an internal antenna on the phone that LG calls ‘intenna’ which offers users true wireless radio enjoyment. Finally, users can also record broadcasts playing in real-time off the radio for later playback.
The phone’s camera is a 2MP unit. It performs average for its pixels count but since this is a dedicated music phone and a relatively inexpensive one at that, that’s more than we could ask for. The phone’s UI has some other interesting applications like Data Wallet, a document viewer and the usual suspects like the organizer with calendar, memo pad, To Do list (all of which can be password protected by the way.) The phone’s battery life is also good and LG did wise to incorporate a long-lasting Li-Ion 1100 mAh battery to complement the phone’s energy demanding loudspeakers. In practice this could give users several hours of non-stop loudspeaker playback on a full battery.
To conclude, LG’s GM200 fills a void that no other handset manufacturer has every filled before. Surely, there will be many takers for a handset with good loudspeaker (and in this case there are three of them!) It’s competitive pricing and decent feature set is also worth looking forward to. Here’s a handset that’s both novel and reliable. Now there aren’t many of those around, wouldn’t you agree?
Features
- First-of-a-kind 2.1 channel loudspeaker set up
- Dual side and sub-woofer speakers with crystal-clear clarity and loud output
- FM Radio with inbuilt antenna
- Dedicated FM Radio launch key
- Standard 3.5mm handset of good quality
- 1GB memory card with package
- Good powerful battery with great life
- 2.0-inch TFT screen capable of 262K colours over 176 x 220 pixels
- 2MP camera