LG Shine Bar (KE770)

The latest addition to LG's Shine range, the KE770 offers an expandable memory slot, a 2-megapixel camera and a music player. Despite the low price point, the latest Shine retains a similar appearance to the Shine (KU970), making it a reasonable choice for fashionistas on a budget.

The clear focus of the Shine Bar is its design. At just 9.9mm thick the compact and lightweight frame makes this handset both stylish and attractive. In particular, the mirror effect display and metallic casing are nice touches. Unfortunately, the keypad and controls are somewhat uncomfortable to use. LG has clearly opted for design over ease of use — the buttons are flat, require a very firm press to activate and aren't separated. It took us longer than we expected to get used to this style of keypad and controls, and even then we struggled to type messages at fast speed. A particular annoyance is the five-way navigational key — the buttons feel too cramped and we too often winded up accidentally pressing the wrong keys.

The display is adequate, but not outstanding. This isn't a 3G handset, so streaming video content will be minimal. With this taken into consideration, the screen does a fair job. Unfortunately the glossy finish means it is impossible to view in any kind of sunlight; the viewing angle is also mediocre.

In terms of features, the KE770 is quite basic. This is to be expected considering the asking price. On the rear is a reasonable 2-megapixel camera with flash, autofocus and digital zoom. The pictures produced obviously aren't amazing, but they are good enough to use as background wallpapers and for the occasional happy snap if you forget your standalone digital camera. A dedicated camera button on the right means the handset can be held like a digital camera to take photographs.

The included MP3 player is serviceable, but quite basic. Sound quality using the included proprietary headphones is average. Unfortunately there is no 3.5mm headphone jack, so you are unable to use regular headphones. Settings include a preset equaliser, repeat and shuffle play modes and two visual effect settings. The biggest let-down is the fact that you can't run the MP3 player in the background — so no checking your SMS messages while playing music.

A microSD card for extra storage is available. Disappointingly, LG doesn't include a card in the sales package. Bluetooth with A2DP is also present, so users can stream their audio to a compatible wireless headset.