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	Lg Renoir (3) 3 Mobile £124.99
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RATING:

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SUMMARY:

Tri-band slider phone with 5 MP camera, 720 x 480 video capture, 2.4-inch screen, EDGE, auto screen rotation, M-Toy games. Good value mid-range compact slider camera phone. No 3G. No Wi-Fi or GPS.

LG Kc550 Orsay Review

The LG KC550 Orsey ('orsey - neigh) is a mid-priced (£165 - August 2008) slider phone with a decent 5 MP Schneider Kreuznach lens camera, WVGA 15 fps video capture. It's tri-band only, there's no 3G, no Wi-Fi and no GPS.

The 2.4-inch screen is bigger than the common 2.2-inch, the music player is decent, screen auto-rotation (the motion sensor is used in games - M-Toy) and there's an FM radio to play with (No RDS). The KC550 slider phone is good value - approx £165 SIM free, £110 on PAYG (Phones4u) - T-Mobile, O2. A compact 5 MP camera phone for £110 - pretty good value.

Design

The KC550 is also available in black or silver colours. The front casing is shiny black plastic - we're not fans of shiny black plastic phones - feels and looks cheap. Metallic parts around navigation keys. The back is much better - rubber feel and a metal-coated lens cover.

Quick tour:

Bottom: Mic, battery cover latch.

Top: Lanyard.

Left: Connector.

Right: Volume, microSD card slot, camera key

Back: 5 MP camera lens, power LED flash, self-portrait mirror, loudspeaker.

Remove the back cover to reveal the 900 mAh battery. LG say 6 hours talk time, 450 hours standby time.

The microSD card slot supports up to 4 GB microSD cards. A microSD card should be in the box. Check this.

Front: Navigation keys - central d-pad with knob, and 2 side rockers - each with 2 keys. Slide the front up to reveal the keypad. Alternate coloured keys, much like other LG phones. Good size, flat keys, easy to press. Not much tactile feedback, but we like them.

Features

5 MP Camera

Good image quality, similar to other 5 MP camera phones. It's 5 MP, pretty good, similar quality.

There's a power LED flash - 12 times brighter than a regular LED. Quite bright. A dual or triple LED light would be better (the Nokia N96 has a dual-LED flash). Still, the single LED gives out a bright light.

Features include:

White and black interface, 5 MP lens (2592 x 1944). power LED, digital zoom, white balance, ISO 800 (photos are noisy), EV, resolution, auto-focus, shot mode, shutter mode, macro mode, image stabilizer.

WVGA video capture

720 x 480 pixels at 15 fps. VGA (640 x 480) at 30 fps. Saves in the .3gp format.

Other 5 MP camera phones

Have a gander at the best camera phones. There will be a few 8 MP camera phones on the market by Christmas 2008. 5 MP phones include the Nokia N96, Samsung Omnia, Nokia N95 8 GB, Sony Ericsson K850i and at least 14 more.

Music Player

Playlists, shuffle, repeat, equalizer, visualisation, album art. No 3.5 mm jack, so you must use LG's headphones.

Motion Sensor

The screen auto-rotates. 6 M-Toy games included, which make use of the motion sensor.

Other Features

FM radio (no RDS), NetFront Brower (fine. 2.4-inch screen, EDGE only, no 3G, so Internet download speeds are slow). Document viewer, Google search and mail, video player - 30 fps playback.

Summary

For £110 on PAYG, the LG KC550 is good value. The 5 MP camera is the key feature. OK for playing music (just the 4 GB memory card capacity), not good for Internet browsing (no 3G, thus slow speeds). Tri-band only (why?), and there's no fancy stuff like Wi-Fi or GPS. £110 on PAYG. Bargain.

TAGS: 5.0 MP camera, slider phones

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