For the GC900 to bare the “Viewty” badge, it needs to live up and improve on the expectations which have been inherited from its highly reputable predecessor, the original Viewty. In this part of our Viewty Smart review, we’ve focused on testing the GC900’s multimedia features and these include music play, video play, camera and also video recording.

• Music Player: For those hoping to make the most of the Viewty Smart’s Dolby Mobile technology integration we highly recommend giving it a go, especially with the headphones which came with the handset. This can of course be enabled during both music and video play. The LG Viewty Smart’s music player is accessible both from the Cube interface and the main menu. The Cube-accessed music player plays only those music files which you have already chosen as your favourites, it does offer a quick way in to your tunes. Loading music files on to the Viewty Smart was simple for us as we simply transferred them onto our microSD, alternatively its always possible to do it through the traditional software method via Windows Media Player. We found it strange to not be an option to choose which memory source to use within the music player. But apart from this all was straightforward, like in the Arena, tilting the Viewty Smart brings the music player into landscape mode which shows a neat thumbnail of the album you are playing on the left. If you’re thinking of using a non-Dolby Mobile music mode, you can also tap on equalizer and choose from a huge range of preset modes such as acoustic to hip-hop and jazz, etc, there’s also Bobcat Mobile mode which is best suited for techno tracks! In full, the on board music player offers what you would expect on mobile phones and more, these include playlist creation, search and visualisation. We found it handy to see within the music player interface, quick add to favourite buttons (for playing directly from the Cube) and also a large repeat track(s) button at the bottom. Though we didn’t have the option to choose which memory source to use, under each track we were playing was an icon indicating whether it was the external memory card, I suppose this was better than nothing!
• Video Player: As you will know, the LG Viewty Smart GC900 is equipped with a high-res WVGA, three inch display. With DivX/XviD/MPEG-4 (and again Dolby Mobile) support, there aren’t many other phones to compete with when you’re talking about one of the best portable video players. Unfortunately, it wasn’t so simple to get videos playing during our test. As the only DivX videos playable on the Viewty Smart were those processed by the DivX converter which can be found either on the supplied CD or downloaded off the internet (we’d be happy to hear from you if you have been successful with alternative methods!). To switch the video player to full screen mode you only need to rotate the phone to landscape position. A tap on the touch screen reveals the onscreen overlay controls. Alongside the standard controls (such as play/pause, volume, etc.) you can also change playing speed to 2x or 4x and to zoom in or out. Thanks to a reader to asked about watching YouTube on the Viewty Smart; the Viewty Smart does come with on board YouTube integration and you can upload videos to YouTube directly from the handset. Like we mentioned in part 2, strangely, this is available only in the video player and not in the file manager (My Stuff). Because the LG Viewty Smart internet browser doesn’t have Flash support, using it to watch YouTube (the desktop computer version) as an alternative won’t be possible. The only way to watch your favorite videos is via the mobile version of YouTube.com. Like the rest of LG phones, the Viewty Smart is no different and allows you to watch streaming media only over an EDGE or UMTS connection. As a result, you won’t be able to watch streaming mobile YouTube videos over WiFi.
• Taking Photos and Recording Videos: Checking out the Viewty Smart’s camera function was our favourite part of all. We were indeed satisfied at how easy it was to take quality photos from its camera. To illustrate how satisfied we were with the Viewty Smart’s eight megapixel camera, we took several photos both during daytime and night to demonstrate how versatile it was and to test how well it could cope. The LG GC900 Viewty Smart’s camera is capable of maximum image resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels. Boasts Schneider-Kreuznach optics and also LED flash. Many users fancy having flash on camera phones but in fact just like the one on the GC900, it is not actually that useful especially when you’re standing too close to your focus point. Features which we thought were most useful included intelligent shot, geo-tagging, image stabilization, multi face detection (up to 3), smile detection, beauty shot and ISO support of up to 1600. A rotating dial is used to scroll through different settings which you might like to configure, for example the image quality. Though this was quite fancy, we couldn’t help it noticing minor lags at times while spinning through the range of options. Not being able to go back to our previously tweaked setting (for example ISO) after we left settings to go back to the camera didn’t help. This meant we needed to be quite patient everytime we wanted to adjust a previous touched settings.
  • The following daytime photos that were taken below were based on super fine quality, auto ISO, normal shot mode and an image size of 3264×2448 (8M) originally, though this needed to be resized later on for uploading onto our server (click to enlarge):
  • The following two photos were taken using the same parameters except in macro mode. Like we expected, taking pictures close up using a cameraphone has never been an easy job. Yes, the Viewty Smart does have a soft, light auto focus button but it doesn’t mean image stabilization will be able to compensate for all the shakiness when you’re up close (or even with a touch of digital zoom!):
  • We were really ecstatic to see the quality of photos that came up after this shootout at night. Though ISO ranges from 100 to 1600, we thought it was best to keep it at auto if you’re not entirely sure what you were doing or to keep it below 800 to avoid waiting for too long: ISO 100ISO 200ISO 400Auto ISOAuto ISO
  • Video recording on the Viewty Smart ran smoothly without any hiccups. Features most worth pointing out were the ability to quickly change to using camera by sliding the recording button, we also enjoyed having the option to switch on the phone’s flash in case this is needed in the dark. Its also possible to record videos so that they fit exactly that of MMS. The maximum supported video size using the outer camera is 720×480 D1 while it is QVGA for that of its inner camera. On the flipside, one minor issue we had with recording (and also a problem with many other phones) was that zooming is disabled while you are recording, but this is still just digital zoom therefore it wasn’t absolutely vital. Because the Viewty Smart’s video camera supports auto and night recording mode, we recorded the two videos below to test how well it would turn up on screen. Both videos were recorded in 720×480 D1 size and fine quality.

Practicality

Overall, through comparing various highly demanded features on the new LG Viewty Smart GC900 (part 1 and part 2 also), we felt the GC900 had lived up to the expectations which we had. Baring the Viewty badge didn’t ease our demand for its predecessor’s excellence in photography. If you want to know whether the new Viewty Smart is worth buying compared to others of its class, you need to make sure you know what you want and what features you will most likely make the most of. Though an application store is on the way, the iPhone and Android-based phones are still currently ahead of the game with regards to this. Though we have read some poor comments regarding the quality of photos taken with the Viewty Smart, we disagree, we think there is certainly potential for the Viewty Smart to excel in its speciality. There are at the moment only a handful of cameraphones within this price range capable of taking such quality pictures and be able to record good quality videos while at the same time boast a range of uncompromised, easy to use multimedia orientated functions at the same time.

Pros:

• Improved exterior design compared to many previous LG phones (for example, easier to access microSD card slot)
• S-Class (3D Cube) user interface connects well with the Viewty Smart’s range of functions, especially connectivities and continues to be an easy to use platform
• A fair 1.5 GB of onboard memory plus support for up to 32 GB worth of external memory
• Though there are just a few minor issues with the Viewty Smart’s multimedia management function, its eight megapixel camera with LED flash will definitely not disappoint anyone who is hoping to get more out of mobile phone photography (and video capturing!)
• Music and video play boasting Dolby Mobile with the Viewty Smart’s original headphones were already enough for us to impress many colleagues

Cons:

• Camera button doesn’t start up the camera (or video camera) when pressed in the home screen
• Browser does not support flash
• Video player was slightly disappointing as it only supported a limited range of video file formats
• For those who fancy running applications like those on iPhones and Android phones, LG phones still lags behind