Hi,
I bought my Viewty last week after a long hesitation between it and the N95 8Gb. I was looking for a 5 Mpx camera / video phone that also has all the functionalities for business users (Outlook integration mostly). I was hoping to ditch my Axim x51v windows mobile pda.
After one week of using the Viewty, I must admit that this is an excellent piece of work. Unfortunately for me, it is mainly oriented for the “fun and leisure” user type and lacks a good integration with Outlook. The synchronization with 2 computers (contacts, notes, calendar) is quite uneasy. I also really don’t understand why there are limitations on the number of items you can synchronize (5 memos max, 100 meetings, etc.). The viewty does extremely well what it is made for: camera, video and phone. But I have the feeling that it can and should be doing a lot more. Comparing to Windows Mobile, the number of software applications available for the viewty seems scarce (maybe I did not search well though)… For this, users like me should be able to easily install third party applications from a trusted source like LG itself. Do you guys have a website that offers such a software distribution platform? It would be really nice if LG developed its online communities for users to share their experiences, tips, etc. Today the only point of contact with the company (apart from marketing stuff) seems to be this blog. I think that this is part or the customers’ experince with your products: feeling the company understands their needs (more software) and is close to them (online communities).
Also as a developer myself, I would really like to develop some tools in Java, software that would respond to my needs. But I found no information on an API for the Viewty’s OS. Do you know if this exists? With the iPhone OS and Android on the way, I really think LG should open up its OS (at least give us an API). I am certain lots of developpers would start hacking with it (i.e. improving on it).
Two last annoying points on the viewty:
- why is the keyboard only available for messages ? Can’t you make it available in all the applications requiring the input of text?
- contact searc functionality is really too basic. Check out how “SPB Mobile Shell” uses the phone pad to search for contacts: you don’t need to push 3 times on the button to get the letter, you only push once and the application automatically guesses the name. That is intuitive!

I just realized the “dictionary mode” needs to be activated for searching through contacts, so please disregard the last point of my comment.

One thing I cannot get confirmed anywhere – does the Viewty support user-downloaded Flash or Flash Lite content, either in the web browser, or in a standalone player ?

We have just launched a new website, http://www.playyoo.com (or m.playyoo.com from WAP) dedicated to mobile games created in Flash Lite, and I’d love to add the LG Viewty to our list of recommended phones.

Hi Camille thanks for your questions

In terms of the text input – this is something that I whole heartedly agree with but generally once the software development is finished unless there are any major issues we don’t tend to mess around with the software unless we really need to, however I have fed this back as an action point for future products.

In terms of an API, we don’t tend to allow access to 3rd parties on this as it’s not exactly an Open OS.

HI, I’ve owned the Viewty for about 3 weeks and although it did take a while to get used to the touch screen and scrolling, it does a good job. Here are my personal comments on this handset:

Negatives:

Scrolling thumbnails in the gallery is quite slow to go from page to page. ( this may be due to the speed of the SDHC card? )

The MP3 player could do with EQ and a bit more volume.

Lower light conditions exhibit quite a bit of noise, no matter how you set the Camera ( ISO, Flash, Auto, Image Stabilisation ).

The Flash won’t come on in manual mode i.e. ISO 100.

The autofocus (using the focus assist lamp) is a bit slow.
Images have a significant red hue in “Auto mode” (this can be cleaned up in photo editing software).

Manual Focus setting should stay “saved”, or default to infinity so that if you want to take a photo of a funny moment, the camera will operate almost immediately – rather than having to wait for autofocus to kick in.

POSITIVES:

The Video mode is quite exceptional! The N93 might just pip it to the post – but that’s the size of a tapeless camcorder anyway! You can take excellent quality clips in a variety of lighting situations. The only significant differences between this and a normal camcorder is probably:

1. Optical Zoom ( I’m not fussed, the digital zoom in video mode
works okay)
2. Automatic gain control for the audio. I like to video live bands and a camcorder can set the volume so that it doesn’t distort – unfortunatley not something any mobile phone maker has apparently considered yet?

The handwriting tool is fun and works well even using the edge of your fingernail.

The QWERTY keyboard is an excellent idea and allows for very quick texting and even memo taking.

The Slow motion video (when used in reasonable light ) works very well.

The overall design and asthetics are very good in my opinion and a lot of features are packed in to a very compact handset.

Does it curently match up with LG spokeman’s quote:

The LG Viewty is a camera phone with unparalleled functions,” said Dr Skott Ahn, CEO of LG Electronics. “This handset provides quality matching or exceeding that of conventional digital cameras.”

For me, not yet. But the majority of my gripes are fixable in software based on my experience with SE and Nokia handsets and I would certainly recommend the Viewty to anyone.

Pete

I was thinking of changing my N95 because the camera is dreadfully slow on the N95 and I like taking pictures, but it hit me, there are quite a few features I use on my N95 that I would loose if I changed to the viewty, TomTom, Wifi, and well the Symbian OS, whilst not being the most stable OS it has plenty of 3rd party software, which i think is important. Personally unless a manufacturer shows us something new with a decent OS with 3rd party application support I will be sticking to Symbian or Windows Mobile phones.

Rob

The Viewty’s camera and the competition thanks for this post!

Hi,
How do I get the still camera to work with the J2ME API on the Viewty….
I tried all possible things…Can you please put a sample code?

Thanks.
ARK