LG GC900 Viewty Smart review: S-class act

Games & Apps

The preinstalled Picsel viewer handles Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files. Zooming in and out is done by - you guessed it - pinching.

There is a useful option to fit the contents in a single column but it only seems to work for doc files. The viewer makes full use of the accelerometer and auto rotates to take advantage of the wide screen.

Office documents and PDF are supported

The preinstalled games on the LG Viewty Smart are all motion-based - Flying Dice, Wheel Mania, Tepong, Dart, Fishing, Homerun derby and the two microphone controlled - Bubble Breeze and Mellow Candle.

Flying dice lets you pick a board and play against another player. You take turns to roll two dice (by shaking the phone of course) and then release them on the table. You move round the board and can either land on a good or a bad square. Landing on a bad square means you get beaten on the head.

Wheel Mania also lets you choose a template - cards, foods, drinks, activities, cars and more. Then you spin the wheel and wait to see your fortune.

The third game is ping-pong and we spent most of the time on it. It's simple enough - you must hit a ping-pong ball with increasing power and score more and more… until you hit an airplane.

Wheel Mania • Flying Dice • Tepong

Dart, Fishing and Homerun Derby are very simple and altogether pointless games just for showing off the accelerometer gimmicks. In all three you make a specific movement with a flick of the hand - hit the target with a bolt, angle the fishing rod or hit the ball with the club. Three attempts to score some points and game over. Simple, easy and pointless.

Dart • Fishing • Homerun Derby

The final two games - Bubble Breeze and Mellow Candle - are about blowing in the Viewty Smart's microphone to produce bubbles on the screen or just blow out the candle's flame. Again - simple and nutty.

Bubble Breeze • Mellow Candle

If those aren't enough (and they really aren't if you are into mobile gaming), you can install Java MIDP 2.0 games and applications.

Final words

LG Viewty Smart is the LG KM900 Arena in cameraphone disguise. That alone is enticing enough by our books. The Viewty Smart has a bit of everything - touch technology and S-Class UI, 8 megapixel camera, above average media and entertainment package. From a pure upgrader's point of view the Viewty Smart is an out-and-out improvement over the original Viewty. But it's this very same family affair that puts the Viewty2 in quite a predicament.

LG KM900 Arena

It might look like a very smart (and certainly cost-efficient) move by LG to develop two handsets at the price of one but somehow the comparison between the Viewty Smart and the Arena is not in the favor of the cameraphone. At least not at this point, when the price difference is so significant. We guess, many people will be asking themselves if a couple of more megapixels are worth the cash and the missing FM transmitter, less onboard storage and loosing 3.5mm audio jack.

And then, there's also pressure from the outside with a bunch of good performers trying to outsmart the Viewty Smart. Samsung S8000 Jet has just hit the shelves but is already winning many customers. The new 3D TouchWiz interface may as well be a match for the S-Class, especially on such a powerful hardware package as the Jet. The compact design and equally matched feature set (including full DivX/XviD support, full Flash support, Smart Unlock, excellent 5MP camera) make the Jet quite a threat.

Samsung S8000 Jet

In the end - it's hard not to like the LG Viewty Smart. But comparisons to the Arena and the daunting Viewty legacy are probably too hard for it to handle. We stand by our words that the Viewty2 is a complete and worthy upgrade, but we somehow doubt it we'll see the same sort of impact. It feels like the Viewty Smart will only reach cruising speed after a due reduction of price, which is likely to happen earlier than for the LG Arena.