LG GW620 Review: Specifications, Design, and User Interface

LG GW620 Review: Specifications, Design, and User Interface
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LG GW620 Review

lg-gw620

The LG GW620 is a budget Android smartphone by LG. LG is generally known to cater to the “dumb” phone audience and hasn’t had any smartphone releases for a long time. The LG GW620 competes with the likes of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini, Xperia X10 Mini Pro, and the Samsung Galaxy Spica i5700. It runs on the Android 1.5 OS, which is probably its greatest disadvantage. If it does get upgraded to Android 2.1 Froyo, it will be one of the best budget Android options.

LG GW620 Specifications

  • Dimensions: 109 x 54.5 x 15.9 mm
  • Weight: 139 gms
  • Display: 3 inch TFT resistive touchscreen display, 320 x 480 pixels
  • Memory: 150 MB internal memory, up to 32 GB microSD
  • Processor: 528 MHz
  • OS: Android 1.5 Cupcake
  • Camera: 5 MP camera, 2560 x 1920 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
  • Connectivity: GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, microUSB 2.0
  • GPS: GPS Transceiver with A-GPS
  • Radio: FM Radio with RDS
  • Battery: Li-Po battery, 1500 mAh

Design (4 out of 5)

The LG GW620 has a nice design with great build quality. It has a QWERTY keypad which slides out from under the display. It has dimensions of 109 x 54.5 x 15.9 mm and weighs around 140 gms. It is pretty compact and easily pocketable. The design is minimal and looks great.

The front face is covered largely by the 3 inch display and the three touch sensitive buttons beneath it: Home, Menu, and Back. The QWERTY keypad is really good, with good key spacing and feedback. On the left side of the GW620 is the volume rocker and the microUSB port. On the right are the music and camera keys and the microSD card slot. The Power button and the 3.5 mm audio jack are placed on top. On the back of the phone, there are the 5 MP camera with the LED flash and the battery compartment.

The LG GW620 has a 3 inch TFT resistive touchscreen display with a standard resolution of 320 x 480 pixels. The display quality is pretty good and the display offers nice contrast. The sunlight legibility is also pretty decent and it has wide viewing angles. However, the resistive touchscreen isn’t as responsive or usable as a capacitive touchscreen.

User Interface (3 out of 5)

The LG GW620 comes with nice hardware specs: a 528 MHz processor and 150 MB internal memory. It supports up to 32 GB microSD cards. It runs the older Android 1.5 Cupcake OS, but may get an upgrade to Android 2.1 Eclair. The OS sports a slightly customized UI by LG. It sports the usual UI elements: home screens, widgets, and the notification bar. The OS is very fast and the UI is responsive. It supports almost all the applications from the Android Market, thanks to the standard resolution.

Multimedia (3 out of 5)

The LG GW620 sports a great image gallery app which has nice visual effects. The gallery interface is very nice and easy to use. It allows you to view the images in a 3D grid and browse, zoom, and pan through them. You can also share images directly via email, MMS, Myspace, and Picasa.

It also has a media player application which allows you to play video files: 3GP, MP4, DivX and Xvid videos at low resolutions. The media player can also play audio files and has a nice interface with basic features. The display size is a bit small though, especially compared to recent Android releases.

It also has the standard music player which offers features like playlists, albums, etc. The sound quality is pretty nice and the GW620 can easily be used as a PMP with good headphones. It also comes with a built in FM Radio.

The LG GW620 also has a 5 MP camera with auto focus and LED flash. It can capture images at a resolution of 2560 x 1920 pixels. The image capture quality is pretty nice. The camera interface has been customized by LG and is very easy to use. It offers advanced customization settings. It can record QVGA video at 30 FPS with decent quality.

Connectivity (4 out of 5)

The LG GW620 has all the standard connectivity options that you might need in a smartphone: GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA, and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g. It also features Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0. It comes with the standard Webkit browser, but doesn’t support Flash. However, you can watch Youtube videos on the Youtube application. It also has nice call reception quality. It also has a built in GPS transceiver with A-GPS and comes bundled with Google Maps.

The LG GW620 comes bundled with the usual accessories: microUSB data cable, charger, standard earphones, a 1 GB microSD card and the user manual.

The Verdict (3 out of 5)

It is a great option for those who want an entry level Android smartphone. Even the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro and the Motorola Backflip are decent alternatives. Hopefully, you have enjoyed this LG GW620 review. Feel free to check out the rest of the mobile channel for even more Android based smartphones.