LG KU990 Viewty Review – Camera Phone At Their Finest (11)

Convergence of technology isn’t perfect and it has its share of drawbacks.  Anyone that’s ever purchased a TV with a built in DVD player knows the frustration of complete replacement when one component or the other fails.  In our fast paced world where we’re constantly searching for ways to simplify out lives, utilizing converging technology has become a whole lot less like a good idea and a whole lot more like a must.  So it should come as no surprise that mobile phones are starting to include some camera capabilities that rival those that most consumers purchase separately.  So it goes with the LG KU990, LG’s newcomer that is entering the high-technology camera phone market to the tune of rave reviews and raving fans! 

And no wonder!  Featuring an incredible resolution for a camera phone, you’ll be hard put to fully utilize the 5.1 mega pixels at your disposal with this phone. 

The phone itself features an understated designed that’s cool, sleek and sexy.  It’s not often that camera phones strike such a nice balance between form and function.  The phone is relatively light without feeling or looking cheap, which has been a weakness of some LG phones in the past.

Video can be shot as high as 120 frames per second (fps) in Quarter Video Graphics Array (QVGA) that captures the video in a 240 x 320 resolution.  Shooting at 120 fps allows you to watch your videos in slow motion, a feature we here just can’t seem to get enough of.  Fascinating is not the word for it; we think the word is more like addicting!  It’s your own personal instant replay for those all important live sporting events, like the kid’s soccer games.

If you prefer to capture video in a higher resolution you can strop down the fps and use VGA at 30 fps with a maximum 640 x 480 resolution. 

Ready to share your new video with the world?  The KU990 Viewty even supports direct upload to the popular video sharing site YouTube.  Imagine how cool it would be if Grandma and Grandpa could watch footage of their favorite grandchild almost immediately after an important play in the game.  This feature can be a great way to include people in any important event, whether it’s personal or business.

The front facing camera makes it super easy to use the phone for video calling or video conferencing.  You can also use the front facing camera to just as easily shoot still photos of yourself.

One of the few drawbacks we found was the unfortunate lack of a lens cover; with even normal use the lens is sure to get scratched.

The camera uses xenon flash which is known for its brightness, so called because of the xenon gas that it uses.  Although it may not be as bright as a standalone camera’s flash, the xenon flash is nonetheless a big improvement over an LED (Light Emitting Diode) photo light.

There’s also a digital stabilization feature which will reduce blur, just not at the same quality an optical stabilization would.  You do have control, though, over such things as the size of the images, the picture quality, the ISO and white balance, as well as other things.

We do love the built in photo viewer which allows you to display thumbnails of the pictures as if they were scattered across a table, but we did find that viewing them individually can be a bit draggy at times.

All in all, this camera is solid enough to have earned the rave reviews its getting and it definitely gets a thumbs up from us.