Having spent some time using the LG GW520 recently, this review will focus on what it was like for us to use it for the past few days. The LG GW520 has been designed and aimed at social-networking fans and those who are mad about texting but does it live up to this expectation?

Design

Just looking at the GW520, one thing comes to mind, the sliver-paintwork all round its front, side and back simply doesn’t do it justice. Though there is the alternative of black with red trim or black with blue trim, there are still no metal or chrome bits anywhere on the body of the phone, this gives you and your mates the first impression that its cheap and boring. In fact, the GW520 isn’t that bad.

When you hold it in your hands, it is quite comfortable and natural. In fact, I wish my iPhone would feel like this when I pick it up, though of course the obvious compromise is a much smaller 2.8-inch TFT touchscreen display, the weight of the GW520 isn’t bad at all – around 125 g. The LG GW520 doesn’t look nor does it feel like that its got a full QWERTY, this has been well made in that it is tucked underneath that display perfectly. You’d definitely be able to surprise a few people by sliding out that full QWERTY when you start to text. The layout of the keyboard as you can see has been evenly spaced with plenty of room, there are plenty of sliders out there at the moment that don’t have a layout done as nicely as this.

One thing that LG have improved on is microSD slots, on the GW520, the slot is accessible from the outside. They have in the past required its users to open up the back in order to take out / swap memory cards, that was very annoying and clumsy in our view.

Features

For those who are not familiar with the LG GW520, here’s a quick recap on its specs. Connectivity wise, the GW520 boasts quadband, HSDPA and bluetooth. As mentioned there is a 2.8-inch TFT touchscreen display, full sliding QWERTY, the 3.2-megapixel camera is not equipped with flash or autofocus. Finally the GW520 supports up to 16GB of microSD memory capacity, however it only has 40MB of internal memory. The GW520 does not run the new S-Class “3D Cube” user interface designed by LG and is one of the few (LG Cookie also), LG phones of late which has not been given this upgrade.

The touchscreen on the GW520 isn’t one of the best we’ve seen from LG. Repeated tapping was very common for us at first. Response is satisfactory, and like all LG phones you get the option of having a vibration when you touch, this can be switched off if you prefer. Our experience with the phone is that the scratch resistive screen on the GW520 means you really need to press firmly when you want your touch to be registered. Once registered, it usually is accurate and brings you where you want to go. Having said that, once you get used to it you can easily scroll through its elastic menus. You just need to remember to press harder.

Some sites who have reviewed the LG GW520 believe that it does have an accelerometer as the menus do change to landscape view. But in fact while we were reviewing it, we found that the menus / apps only did this because the QWERTY keyboard were slid out not because the phone was being tilted to one side.

Though you don’t get the S-Class UI, what you do get with the GW520 is a feature LG calls LiveSquare. Again, this is one of those features which social-networking fans will love. LiveSquare is part of the UI and can be shown by sliding the screen towards the left when you’re in the home menu. In LiveSquare, your most contacted numbers / buddies will be shown on the screen as animated, moving cartoons, next to it will be the number of messages you have stored from that contact. Tapping on that contact will also bring you the call history.

One thing we’ve always enjoyed having on LG’s user interfaces (no matter the old one or the new S-Class) is the quick “Status Summary” you can get just by tapping the top bit of the screen when you’re in the home menu. If you’ve got the phone already or have a newish LG phone, you may not have realised that this function existed. In this Status Summary, you get access to the phone’s network info, memory info, battery info… You can also quickly change to a different profile, access music player and also quickly switch on Bluetooth. This is one function which the iPhone doesn’t officially have and would require you to jailbreak if you wanted this to be installed!

The music player on the LG GW520 is user-friendly and accessible. There is a widget configurable on the home screen which allows you to play, stop and basically control the music player quickly without going into the actual app. The music player can therefore run in the background and you will be able to see the title of the song being played also on the home menu, as pictured below.

Music file formats supported include MP3/MP4/AAC/AAC+/EAAC+/WMA. The sound quality of the speakers are satisfactory but we would reserve from using the word “stunning”. If you want to watch videos on the GW520, you would have to keep your video files on your microSD as there is only 40MB of internal memory. There is no DivX support or Dolby sound technology support. It was not in our view the best experience to watch films or movies on the GW520′s screen, firstly due to the size of the screen and secondly, you’re stuck with playing files at 240 x 400 pixels resolution. If you are planning on having videos prepared to watch on this phone just to kill time for example, we would advise you use MPEG-4 format – that should give you the best experience.

The browser on the GW520 is exactly the same as that seen on the Renoir, Arena and Viewty Smart. Its a basic internet browser but has all the features you would need, for example bookmarks, rss reader, there isn’t anything fancy like additional browser tabs and there isn’t support for flash. Unlike the phones mentioned above, the GW520 suffers from not having WiFi and relies on HSDPA. This is fine if you’ve got a good reception but if you’re restricted by your network or if you just use pay as you go, then you’re out of luck. The lack of WiFi is a major downside in our view for the GW520 especially when LG claims that it has been designed for social-networking fans.

One of the two factory-loaded applications on the LG GW520 is the Facebook featured in the picture above. Like the music player, you access the application from the home screen via its widget. The Facebook app is by no means as fully featured as that of the iPhone Facebook for example. However, you do get to change your status, see post feeds, pictures and albums, rate images and leave comments. Annoyingly, the first thing we noticed was missing was the ability to see who was online. This led to us finding out that there is no way in which you could chat with your friends while using the application. The app does not support direct uploading of pictures taken by the GW520.

The push email application is quite good, although also java based, this function is made possible because the GW520 user interface allows applications to run in the background. You can configure up to eight different email accounts, and that includes Gmail and Hotmail, etc… The app did have considerable delay when we tested it, up to four or five minutes. This would usually not happen if you compare to the gold standard ie the likes of BlackBerrys’.

Practicality

Overall, the LG GW520 is a basic phone which will suit those who have long wanted to try out a phone with a full QWERTY keyboard for the first time but do not wish to be commited to a contract. The GW520 has been claimed to be designed for social networking fans, however, we feel there are features and functions which were missing or could have been done better for this targetted consumer group. WiFi as well as limited features from its much boasted factory installed Facebook app were the major turnoff for us. The LG GW520 was overall, a practical, borderline smartphone that’ is reliable, you get the feeling “what you see is what you get” with the GW520, it doesn’t offer you any surprises and as a phone that would be satisfactory for many. One thing we need to bare in mind is that the GW520 is available for just £170 or there abouts on PAYG and free on a number of affordable contracts from Three, Orange and T-Mobile. Despite the limitations, there are only a handful of phones in this price range which can offer the spec of having both a touchscreen as well as a full sliding QWERTY which we thought was actually very well designed.

Pros:

• Comfortable to hold, not bulky, grip feels great, reasonable weight
• Well designed, nicely laid out full sliding QWERTY keyboard
• microSD slot accessible from the outside rather than inside like some LG phones in the past
• Reasonable price range

Cons:

• Some may find the look / colours less attractive
• Small screen for comfortable multimedia purposes
• Lack of WiFi
• Limited onboard factory applications preloaded (though Java apps are relatively easy to find)
• Has Google applications but no Google maps
• Camera does not have flash or autofocus