LG Prada 3.0 review: Slim fit

Introduction

It's slim and smart, and wears Prada. This little devil is too sexy to hang out with the other droids. It puts on its evening shoes and goes to town. It hates being chased by paparazzi but always turns its better side to the cameras. We'll see what the other droids think about that.

And by other droids we don't mean a certain Armani-clad Samsung Galaxy S. We're talking about some pretty scary dual-core smartphones with massive screens and the latest in connectivity, imaging and entertainment.

LG Prada 3.0 official photos

We're looking at the third phone designed by Prada and built by LG. And it's only the first smartphone to come out of this partnership. LG and Prada go back a long way and their latest creation isn't supposed to be just another Android smartphone.

With Prada kindly supplying the glitz, the thrills are entirely on LG. They've made sure the LG Prada 3.0 gets nothing short of a flagship treatment. Leading the long list of features is a 4.3" NOVA display, which pumps out 800-nits of brightness. There's a 1GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 processor ticking inside and RAM aplenty. An 8MP auto-focus camera and full HD video earn the LG Prada extra points.

But it seems a no brainer that the audience targeted by the Prada Phone by LG 3.0 couldn’t care less about the nuts and bolts. Chipset, megapixels, nits and mbps belong in the fine print, with all the acronyms. Here's the rest of the fine print anyway, for all of you who think 3.0 is the best sounding part of the phone's name.

Key features:

• Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support
• 21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA speed
• 4.3" 16M-color IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen (480 x 800 pixels) with 800-nit brightness
• Android OS v2.3.7 Gingerbread with custom monochrome skin, ICS confirmed
• 1 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, PowerVR SGX540, TI OMAP 4430 chipset, 1GB of RAM
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash
• Up to 1080p video recording @ 30fps
• Dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n; DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct and Wi-Fi hotspot
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
• 8GB internal storage, microSD slot
• Accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• microUSB port
• 1.3MP secondary video-call camera, HD video
• Stereo FM radio
• Exceptional video playback

Main disadvantages:

• Leather-like pattern of the back cover doesn't look good in plastic
• Color icons and widgets make a mess of the monochrome UI
• Awkwardly placed camera button, no half-press
• Not the latest in processing power, screen resolution
• Passive lockscreen notifications

The LG Prada 3.0 is all about making an impression and it gets busy right away. We're about to start exploring the handset and - in our usual routine - we'll have to get past the Prada packaging to discover the Android device inside.

The LG Prada 3.0 in hand

The Prada phone by LG 3.0 oozes elegance but it also packs quite a punch. There's plenty to keep us busy and little chance of anyone getting bored. A warning may be in order though, for geeks like us, who can't tell Saffiano leather from croc skin to save their life. Bear with us through the tour of the exterior. You'll be in familiar territory in no time with our usual benchmarks and tests.