LG Secret mobile phone - First Look review

Full Review

LG's latest handset in the Black Label series is the LG Secret, but should you leave it at that, or tell everyone? Pocket-lint got an extended play with the new handset at the London launch and a one-2-one with LG the following day to find out.

So what do you get? Well the Secret (or KF750 for those who like numbers) is an 11.8mm slim slider handset made from carbon fibre, metal and tempered glass.

The carbon fibre, not a material we've seen before in a phone, coats most of the back as well as being used to strengthen elements of the phone elsewhere in its structure.

The tempered glass like the carbon fibre does on the rear, dominates the front and covers the 2.4-inch screen and touch-sensitive buttons below. Bits not covered by glass or carbon fibre are metal.

Focusing on design, the LG Secret does well in its overall looks and will no doubt look good with any ensemble you can throw together. The angular design is complemented by a stylish looking button interface that lights up with blue concentric circles when pressed.

The addition of three buttons down the side does spoil the minimalist look, but on the whole it's a thumbs up. Even the keypad when revealed by the slide is simple, stylish and easy to use.

But it's not just about looking good, a phone has to offer functionality as well and LG believes it has got this base covered here too.

The LG Secret sports HSDPA and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, a 5 megapixel camera, accelerometer for motion sensor gaming and plenty of other gems up its sleeve.

In our two brief plays we were unable to test the capability of the digital camera although can say that you'll be able to capture still images and record movies with a number of scene modes and manual setting like other LG mobiles, and then edit them in phone just like the company's Viewty handset.

We were able to test the HSDPA functionality and as you would expect it works a treat for surfing the web. It's a shame then that the web browser isn't that great with a confusing control interface for navigating around pages.

But what is more confusing is the use of touch in the LG Secret. Why? Well because while the screen is touch-enabled, it's not touch-enabled all the time.

Want to view documents you've got saved on the device? No problem, you can use the touchscreen to select which one you want and then in a motion very much like the Apple iPhone move around the page with your finger.

Opt to do the same on the browser and you won't be able to. Touch isn't enabled for web browsing.

The list goes on but basically you can use touch (you activate it by pressing a dedicated button on the side of the handset) within documents (as above) music, games, images and FM radio, however you can't use touch to scroll through menus or make calls.

Giving you yet another input option beyond hard buttons, touch-sensitive buttons and a touchscreen, the LG Secret also features an accelerometer.

Primarily used to allow the phone to know whether you are viewing images portrait or landscape like the iPhone, LG has developed six basic games to get people thinking.

Darts, baseball, and a maze game compliment other titles like fishing that see you casting your phone in the air as if it were a fishing rod (we can see the lawsuits come flying in).

Verdict

The LG Secret's main competitor is likely to be the Samsung Soul. Having had a brief hands-on with both the Secret and the Soul, the Secret looks to be the more stylish offering.

With music not getting a look in at all really (there is a music player and radio however no real emphasis from a design point of view) this phone sits in the camera phone with style category.

That said the kind of person buying this handset isn't going to be doing so for the camera or music (or lack of it). This is still very much a style- and design-first handset.

But if that's what your after, our First Look so far suggests you won't be disappointed.

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