Unlocked Mobile

Awesome phone! More features than I'll ever use.
This is a review for the newer version of the KU990 (also known as the VIEWTY), the KU990R. I live in the USA, so this phone is pretty rare, and it's expensive to buy, but it's worth the price.

The difference between the KU990 and the KU990R is that the "R" version has a proper lens cover for the camera, while the 990 didn't. Also, some of the bugs have been worked out of the user interface and the scrolling functions. Other than that, it's the same animal as the KU990.

Like the KE850 Prada phone, this thing is a work of art; it's got an attractive brushed aluminum battery door, aluminum buttons for the camera and image stabilizer/unlock key, and chrome accents. The case is also well-constructed and the fit and finish is very good. It's not that compact, but for what it is, it's reasonably small, about the same size and thickness as an HTC Touch, TYTAN, Tilt, LG VU, or T-Mobile Wing.

Aside from being good-looking, the handset is functional. It's got a lot of useful features, and none of the complicated and superfluous bells and whistles of the Windows Mobile of Symbian smartphones (the VIEWTY isn't classified as a smartphone). It's got a 3 inch touch screen, so you can use a finger to navigate (LG includes a stylus that looks like a mascara tube, the stylus pops out when you pull off the cap) so you don't need a stylus. There's a multimedia player that handles several file formats, organizer, calender, planners, a virtual (landscape oriented) QWERTY keypad, T9 keypad, predictive text input, handwriting recognition, and photo/video editing utilities.

There's also an awesome camera. This phone was built around the camera. It's a 5MP digital camera, and like the Prada, has Schneider Kreuznauch-certified optics. For those who don't know about Schneider's optics, think Swarovski, Leica, Minox, Steiner, and Carl Zeiss, and you get an idea of the quality. the pictures came out great, and the video recording is some of the best I've seen for a camera phone, besting even some camcorders! Some have said the camera isn't that great compared to Sony Ericsson's or Nokia's N95, and if you don't know how to use it, it's not, but there's a lot of adjustments you can make to it to improve picture quality.

Calls came in loud and clear (on T-Mobile), and the touch screen works great (with haptic feedback). The loudspeaker isn't as loud as my Motorola ROKR E6's, but it's good enough.

Overall, a unique departure from the mundane world of cellular gadgetry.
I love it and I've only had it 3 days! Awesome handset in form, function, and design.

LG KU990R Viewty
I have this phone it's amazing phone,exellent phone.Extraordinary,awesome.design,functionality like next generation phones.Buy it dont wait and dont waste your time, this is revolution.....exellent

Smooth transaction
Great phone, love it. Faster shipping than expected, will definetly purchase fromt his seller again.

A great phone with minor flaws, just shy from perfect, best phone I've owned
The LG Viewty is a very expensive phone. But I will not get into that, I think, judging by its offerings, its worth the money.

The phone is very well designed, and I guarantee you'll be astonished at its relatively thin design and screen size. The full thing was much smaller than I had expected. I like the looks of the chrome outlining around the phone, but it would've been nice to have the bottom buttons off the screen in chrome too, like the Prada. BUT this chrome outlining is actually just a little thick and does chip over time.

The camera lens inconveniently DOESN'T have a lens cover, a rather strange move. The glossy front and matte back are nice and the chrome buttons on the side only compliment the phone. There is only one side of the phone with buttons, while the other only has a jack for the USB cable/Headphone adapter/Charger. But it has a sliding cover, much better than those rubber things usually.

The phone looks great, but the microSd card is located under the battery. Its both good and bad. Another slot on the phone wouldn't look great, but then again, removing the battery is irritating.

Turning the phone on, your greeted with an LG icon, as you wait around 30 seconds for the phone to start up. Luckily, there is no initial lag after start up.

The menu's are VERY simple and easy to use. You are immediately prompted to activate your Sd card, and export your contact list on your SIM to the phone. Worked fast and efficiently.

The menu is slightly similar to the iphone. There are 4 main icons on the main screen. THey are always there, either horizontally or vertically on the screen. Within each is a different shortcut. The first one takes you to the apps page, like on blackberry's. The second one allows you to call. THe 3rd is a mail shaped icon that takes you to texting and emailing, conveniently located in the same shortcut. The 4th one is your contacts list. The original menu is black and white, but there are plenty of themes, user made or not, that can be installed, some mimicking the iphone, others the blackberry, etc.

The screen is originally decorated with the 4 shortcut buttons, a clock, and the bar strength/battery life/profile settings, but can be littered with a full calander, blu tooth/music settings, and a digital or normal clock and even a Fish to move around the screen.

Call quality is amazing on this phone, better than my high quality home phone! Even at 1 bar, people sound crisp and clear and several times people have wondered, during a conversation, how I sound so clear on my cell. Even with the included headphone adapter for music, which has a mic in it, I sound clear and loud.

Texting is very easy, but takes some learning and getting used to. You need to understand how the QWERTY board is different from normal ones, but it works, very well actually, once you fully grasp a hold of it.

The 3.0" screen is beautiful and colorful, with nice contrasts and brightness. But the touch screen is just touch and not thermal like the itouch/iphone. It works well, very well, better than the Nintendo DS or Prada. But not quite as touch screen sensitivity defining as the iphone.


Video is amazing. Simply put. Depending on the video, if you put in a good quality video you'll love the results. DivX, h.263/4, MP4, WMV, and MPG,
Music quality is great, and the music is organized exactly as it would be on a normal iPod. There is no lag, and it shows album art, features fowarding/rewinding, and music minimizing so you can use other apps while listening to your music, key features no other phone, even music based phones offer, other than the iPhone.

But this is no music phone, its a camera phone. Besides the awesome game support (full 3d graphics, guitar hero works!) , great music support, awesome video player, etc.

Its AMAZING. I've never owned a phone with a camera this beautiful and sophisticated. It actually has a really, really, really, good lens. You could take 1MP photo's, and they'd appear better than some 2.0 MP compact camera's!

A plentiful variety of options await you as you turn on the camera. The camera part of the phone is almost entirely separate. As soon as you click the camera button or enter it via menu, the phone options, music, its all gone, and it seems like a camera and only a camera. The xenon flash works fantastic and in horribly lit situations, the phone performs reasonably well, although it isn't the greatest. But some ISO level tweaking, and white balancing working helps a bunch. Initially, although I was impressed, I expected better from the renowned lens developer. But I realized that by default the phones camera is not set as optimally as you'd want it.

The video camera is even better, probably the best I've used, period. For the price, of course. It reaches resolutions of up to 640x480 or normal screen size of 320x240.

It can also record at 120fps, which is very fun to play with. See a balloon pop, things dropping, cars driving by, etc.

Originally it records at a stable 30FPS.

The phone is absolutely great.

It has some other faults though. there are other toys, like a voice recorder, FM Radio, a great HDSPA browser, etc.

But no wifi, no quad band (tri band), no thermal screen, no lens cover, etc.

I still definitely recommend the phone to anyone. Especially those in European/Asian areas. In America it works fine, but I live up in the mountains and around here, while the 850 band is present, 1900, which is all this phone supports in America, is not as profound. Around big cities/high ways/mostly everywhere except suburban/rural areas, it works great. And even at 1 bar it works fine.

Definitely recommend it. And get a different screen protector and a case, the thing scratches a little easily.

SOlid phone, however sucks completely in working with internet/networks
LG Viewty is a solid phone for anything from calls to photos and video shots, however it is completely stupid in a way how it handles network/internet access.

LG Viewty asks you multiple times and round and round again if you will allow the program to access the network. Instead of just asking once and for all. Don't buy if you need solid internet phone. LG Support knows about this problem, but denies it as a bug and says it's a security feature !! haha. schmocks.