LG's Shine

With Chocolate a runaway success, LG's follow-up handset lands to high expectations. There's no doubting that it's a sexy little beast, and the innovative scroll wheel promises to make navigation a doddle, but can this cellphone be as sweet as its minimalist predecessor?

First things first; man, this is a gorgeous phone. From that headline-catching mirrored display to the brushed metal body and pleasing heft, it's not only attractive but feels well put together, too. The slide action flicks out with a solid click, and while I'm sure the first time you drop it will inevitably be a heart-in-mouth moment I would be very surprised if you did any real damage.

Let's stick with the positives for a little while longer. LG's interface, something I wasn't familiar with, is straightforward to navigate and, while interesting to look at, doesn't sacrifice usability for visual flourish. The 2.2-inch, QVGA screen is clear and colourful, and visibility suffers very little from that reflective coating; photographing it, however, is another matter, and it proved very difficult to get reasonable pictures for this review. In use, though, it fares far better.

The camera is a pretty standard 2-megapixel offering, although LG would have you believe that the autofocus and Schneider-Kreuznach certified lens raise it above that of competing models. Actual results are only fair, however, and certainly not up to the quality of, say, Sony Ericsson's K800i. The built-in LED 'flash' makes low-light photography an option, although given its anemic power you'd have to be capturing shots of something pretty close to you.

Music support fares better, then, with expandable storage via microSD adding to the 50mb of onboard memory for files of MP3, MPEG4, WAV, 3GP and AAC/AAC+/AAC++ flavours.
Part2

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