LG Secret: A Review

Last month, I attended the LG press conference held at CommunicAsia 2008 where they launched their latest Black Label Series phone, the LG Secret. I received my LG Secret at CommunicAsia and I've been putting it through its paces to find out for myself how good the phone really is. Here's a review.



The LG Secret is a slim phone, measuring only 11.8 mm in thickness - not bad for a mobile phone power packed with features. It fits nicely in the palm of my hand and on first impression, it looks like it's a beautifully crafted phone. LG has gone all out to dress up the LG Secret. Tempered glass, faux leather, shiny metal parts and even carbon fibre have been used to make the phone into the beauty that it is.

The phone's LCD screen is made of tempered glass which is great because it prevents scratches and it won't crack if you drop the phone. I haven't tested that out but er, I believe them! Slide the screen upwards and the phone reveals its keypad. The LG Secret's touch pad located just below the screen uses Neon Touch Navigation buttons which sensitively respond to commands with a luminous blue light.



The LG Secret uses the same battery that its predecessor the LG Shine uses. The battery performance is surprisingly pretty good for the LG Secret considering that the phone has more power draining features than the LG Shine. If you are an average phone user, the LG Secret's battery can last you around 2 days. Remove the phone's battery cover and you'll find the battery sitting together with the slots for the SIM card and a memory card. LG Secret supports up to 4GB Micro SD memory card. It has 100 MB of internal memory.

The phone reception of the LG Secret is pretty good. I've read several reports online saying that some users have problems with the phone's signal strength but I have experienced no such problems so far. The LG Secret's antennae area is at the bottom of the handset so if you want to have the best signal, make sure that your palm or fingers do not cover the antennae area.

The LG Secret has a 5MP autofocus camera which according to my test shots are as good as Sony's 5MP Cybershot phones. In fact, the photos from the LG Secret has a truer colour as compared to the Cybershots. You can choose from 5 different options: Normal Shot, Continuous Shot which allow you to shoot up to 9 shots automatically in quick succession, Frame Shot, Panorama Shot and Music Video Shot which allows you to take a shot with a music or your voice. The camera also comes with a lot of advanced settings such as ISO change, scene modes, effects, etc. You can also take very good close-up shots thanks to the camera's macro lens. Besides taking photos, the camera also does a good job on videos. You can shoot a video at 120 frames per second and with DivX certified recording!

One of the most talked about feature of the LG Secret is its Touch Media which allows you to use the phone's LCD screen as a full function touchpad! But too bad LG decided that the Touch Media function is only for accessing photos and documents, listening to the radio and playing music and games.

Talking about games, I never had so much fun playing games on a mobile phone before. The LG Secret has several motion sensor games. What's so cool about these games is that you just have to swing, shift, tilt or flick the phone to play the games. My favourites are the Dart and the Fishing games. These games are really so much fun to play.



The LG Secret is also loaded with popular Google apps like Google Search, Gmail, Google Map, YouTube and Blogger! Other features of the phone include the Mp3 player, office document reader, Internet Browser, FM radio, Auto Luminance Control, Auto Rotating Display, Bluetooth and Voice Clarity.

Overall, the LG Secret is a great phone that has the good looks and cool features but I can't help thinking that it could have been a greater phone if it comes with Wifi. Come on LG, what's so hard about putting Wifi into this phone? Argh!


Previously:

Live @ CommunicAsia 2008: LG Press Conference
CommunicAsia 2008: LG Secret Launch Videos
Live @ CommunicAsia 2008: First pics of LG Secret!
Unboxing the new LG Secret mobile phone