One of LG’s most successful handsets was the Viewty. Launched back in July 2007, the Viewty was released at the same time as the original iPhone, but with much higher spec – two years later and the Viewty gets a make over and becomes the Viewty Smart, but what’s changed? Apart from the obvious cosmetic changes, the Viewty Smart has been pretty much rebuilt from scratch, with an improved camera, a better menu system, improved battery life, more storage and a load of new features. If you’re considering getting the LG Viewty Smart, this quick guide will point out the key changes.
Camera:
One of the original Viewty’s strongest features was it’s camera, and LG have taken this a step further and given the Viewty Smart an 8MP Camera, with Schneider-Kreuznach optics and have improved the camera interface. As well as Video recording, (including slow motion) the camera on the Viewty Smart has advanced features such as Intelligent shot, geo-tagging, image stabilization, multi face detection, smile detection, beauty shot and ISO 1600 (allows you to take photo’s in very low light environments.)
Size:
The original Viewty was a neat compact handset, but the Viewty Smart is even more compact. Overall height and width are about the same, but with the camera now flush against the back of the phone, making it feel a lot more than just 2mm thinner!
Menu System:
I was never a fan of the menu system on the Viewty, and was blown away by the improvement LG made when they introduced the S-Class interface onto the LG Arena last month. The great news is that LG have also put this great new interface on the Viewty Smart. It is a little similar to the appearance of the iPhone at first glance, but once you get your hands on it, you’ll soon realise that its actually very different. As well as being able to customise the home screen with widgets, you now have 4 different home screens, one for your widgets, one for contacts, one for your media (music & photos) and one for short cuts – all of them are customisable.
Screen:
Another big step forward on the Viewty Smart is the screen. Resolution has gone up from 240 x 400 pixels on the original Viewty to 480 x 800. The other big change is that the screen is now a capacitive touchscreen, this means that you no longer need to use a stylus to use the phone and can control everything with your finger.
The full list of improvements is quite long, so I’m not going to go through them all, but to give you an idea on what has changed, and what the differences are with the recently launched LG Arena, I’ve listed all the key features here.
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| Feature | LG Viewty | LG Viewty Smart | LG Arena |
| Size | 103.5 x 54.4 x 14.8mm | 108.9 x 56.1 x 12.4 mm | 105.9 x 55.3 x 12 mm |
| Weight | 112 g | 102 g | 105 g |
| Screen Size | 240 x 400 pixels, 3 inches | 480 x 800 pixels, 3 inches | 480 x 800 pixels, 3 inches |
| Internal Memory | 100 MB | 1.5 GB | 8 GB |
| Max Memory Card Size | Micro SD 2GB | Micro SDHC 16GB | Micro SDHC 16GB |
| 3G | Upto 3.6 Mbps | Upto 7.2 Mbps | Upto 7.2 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | No | Yes | Yes |
| Bluetooth | v1.2 with A2DP | v2.1 with A2DP | v2.1 with A2DP |
| Camera | 5MP | 8MP | 5MP |
| Video Capture | VGA 30fps, QVGA up to 120fps |
D1, VGA@30fps, QVGA, Time-lapse Slow-mo |
D1, VGA@30fps, QVGA, Time-lapse Slow-mo |
| Video Formats | MPEG4/WMV/DivX | DivX/XviD/MPEG4 | DivX/XviD/MPEG4 |
| Music Formats | MP3, AAC | MP3/AAC/AAC+/WMA | MP3/AAC/AAC+/WMA |
| Document Formats | DOC, XLS, PPT, PDF | DOC, XLS, PPT, PDF | DOC, XLS, PPT, PDF |
| Radio | Stereo FM radio with RDS | FM Radio | FM Radio |
| GPS | No | Yes | Yes |
| TV-Out | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Battery – Stand by | Up to 430 h | Up to 350 h | Up to 300 h |
| Battery – Talk Time | Up to 4 h | Up to 5 h 30 min | Up to 3 h 50 min |
| Battery – Music Playback | – | – | Up to 30 h |
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FM Transmitter |
No | No | Yes |
| 3.5mm socket | With Adapter | With Adapter | Yes |
| Viewty Full Specs | Viewty Smart Full Specs | Arena Full Specs |
The Viewty Smart is available to order now. If you’ve already got one, leave us a comment below to let us know what you think of it.