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Pros
- Unusual touch-screen interface.
- Luxury brand and feel.
- Excellent music and video playback quality.
- Surprisingly long talk time.
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Cons
- No 3G.
- Relatively quiet earpiece.
- Poor PC software.
LG Prada KE850 Specs
| Screen Size | 3 |
Sure, part of the Prada's high price is the luxury-brand appeal. But LG's KE850 phone isn't just a pretty logo. This handset is a capable device with an innovative interface. In fact, the Prada not only looks a lot like Apple's long-awaited iPhone, it shares many of the features of that upcoming vaunted über-communication product.
The Prada is a smooth, easy-to-hold rectangle with a huge 320- by 480-pixel, 3-inch touch screen sporting three real buttons below the display: pick-up, hang-up, and clear. Various other buttons line the sides. They lock the keypad, change the volume, activate the camera and MP3 player, and kick the phone into vibrate mode. On the back of the Prada sits a 2-megapixel camera with flash. I can't overstate that the Prada feels just plain great in the hand, but then again, it's Prada—it should!
What makes the Prada stand apart is its interface. It really doesn't look like anything else. You touch one of four icons at the bottom of the screen to start a call or a message or to jump to the main menu. High-res icons smoothly move into view, and you touch them to activate programs. In some cases, such as in the Web browser, transparent overlays appear on the screen, letting you touch virtual buttons while still seeing what's beneath them. Frankly, it's gorgeous. The problem is that the screen also acts as a magnet for fingerprints and face grease, to the point where you understand why one of the included accessories is a cleaning cloth. You will want to wipe it off after every call.
Dialing is the easiest I've seen on an all-touch-screen phone, mostly because the touch screen is so responsive. Texting and e-mail relies on predictive text on a virtual phone keypad, not an onscreen QWERTY. That gets very tiring after only a few words.
Yes, you'll have to get used to some aspects of the interface. There's a certain rhythm of tapping in, say, a contact entry, then using the volume keys to scroll, then tapping the menu or call buttons. It isn't immediately obvious, but it makes sense once you get used to it. When you do get the hang of it, your fingers fly.
The Prada is an acceptable but not excellent voice phone. I tried it on the Cingular network, though as a 900/1800/1900 MHz phone it works better on T-Mobile. Reception on Cingular's network was mediocre. Voices through the earpiece were smooth and well-rounded, but didn't get very loud; the speakerphone was quiet, with a bit of a buzz at top volume. The Prada supports Bluetooth mono and stereo headsets and worked fine with my
Multimedia, Messaging, and More
The Prada makes a gorgeous handheld media player and stores media on a MicroSD card (up to 2GB) stuck under the battery. You can transfer files with an included USB cable in mass-storage mode. (The Prada supports Bluetooth file transfers, but, oddly, only into the pathetic 8MB of built-in memory.) The device's MP3 player plays files (MP3 only, not AAC or WMA) over its internal speaker or a wired or Bluetooth headset, and they sound great, with plenty of bass. The phone's video player plays MP4 files in full-screen mode. You can also use MP3 or WMA files as ringtones. There's a built-in FM radio, too, with unusually good reception and sound, though it doesn't support RDS text, which would show you what song is playing.
Messaging could be better, but it's still decent. The Prada supports both text and picture messaging, of course, and has a POP3/IMAP e-mail client that supports attachments. The built-in Microsoft Office document reader and PDF reader are pleasant surprises, and documents look good on the high-res screen. But because of the Prada's limited memory, the e-mail program can hold only 20 messages in your inbox; anything over 300KB gets summarily rejected. There's a basic but very attractive WAP browser, and Opera Mini runs well if slowly. Though the Prada supposedly has EDGE networking, I was getting slower GPRS speeds of 23 Kbps on my tests.
The 2MP camera has an extremely slow autofocus—like most cameraphone autofocus functions, it takes well over a second to lock on, eliminating any chance of grabbing spontaneous shots. But the autofocus does work, delivering sharp, if washed-out, pictures. The video mode shoots at an impressive 400-by-240 resolution and 15 frames per second, though the video seemed jerkier than that frame count would imply.
Sadly, you can't multitask with the Prada. For example, if you're playing MP3s, you can't send a text message at the same time. But the Prada's real failing is that although it's a very capable organizer and multimedia device, its PC software is very rudimentary. (There's no Mac syncing software at all.) The Prada plays gorgeous videos in full screen, at 30 fps—but offers no instructions on how to encode them for your phone. The MP3 player sounds great, but there's no way to sync it to your existing jukebox. And the included software that syncs calendars, contacts, and notes to Microsoft Windows XP and Vista PCs just barely works; it's very clumsy and difficult to use.
Compare that with Windows Mobile phones, which tie into Windows Media Player, and with the upcoming iPhone, which is expected to be coupled with iTunes. To sync up the Prada properly, you need either to be extremely tech-savvy or to have a personal IT department. On the other hand, if you can afford this phone, you probably can afford a personal IT department.
The Prada's competitors could include
The Prada is currently available only through specialty importers such as Dynamism.com and Mobileplanet.com. Yes, that's legal, though you should make sure you're getting a U.S. charger, English manual, and U.S.-based tech support from your retailer, as LG won't provide those things directly to U.S. customers. Shop around.
Basically, the LG Prada KE850 is a high-priced, high-fashion, high-tech device. No, it's not the iPhone. On the other hand, it's stable and beautiful, works with T-Mobile, and has that very unusual touch-screen interface. Buy it if you want to set yourself apart from the little people.
Benchmark Test Results
Continuous talk time: 10 hours 45 minutes
Jbenchmark 1: 1332
Jbenchmark 2: 164
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