LG GD910 watch phone

Dick Tracy and James Bond step aside - the LG watch phone has arrived

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LG has seen fit to release a device that looks like it would be at home in a gadget-packed James Bond movie: a watch phone. Boasting 3G connectivity, a full touch-screen interface and 2GB of built-in memory, the LG GD910 is surprisingly intuitive to use for such a small device, but its price tag is simply ridiculous.

Pros

  • Responsive capacitive display, Bluetooth headset included, 2GB memory, decent call quality, video calls, intuitive interface, splash resistant

Cons

  • Large and bulky for a watch, style won't appeal to everyone, no memory card slot, excessive price, dialling and messaging hard to grasp

Bottom Line

The LG GD910 watch phone works well considering the design limitations, but its price tag is simply ridiculous. If you've always wanted to pretend you're Dick Tracy or James Bond you'll be impressed. For everyone else, a watch phone isn't practical enough to seriously consider.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 2,299.00 (AUD)

The LG GD910 watch phone is large and chunky. Though we appreciate the design constraints, it will be too large for many users, especially those with small wrists. It’s also rather masculine looking, with a black-and-silver colour scheme and a square watch face. On a positive note, build quality feels very impressive and LG claims the watch phone is splash resistant.

The thick edge means the GD910 watch phone sits much higher on your arm than most regular watches, though it's quite light considering its size. The leather-style band features a small chequered pattern to add a touch of style, but we would have appreciated a steel band considering the extravagant price tag. The band is fully adjustable using a small metal slider, so it will fit any wrist size without the need to add or remove links.

The LG GD910 watch phone is largely controlled via its capacitive touch screen. There are three buttons on the right side (answer/end call keys and a clear/back button). The touch screen is responsive, and the UI is straightforward and easy to navigate. The display is visible in direct sunlight, though it does attract plenty of fingerprints.

In standby mode, the LG GD910 acts as a regular watch, with the ability to choose from eight watch face styles, including both analog and digital faces, a world clock and a couple of animated watch screens. You simply slide your finger up or down the screen to scroll through the available skins.

The watch phone's interface is minimalist, with only four icons in the main menu (contacts, messaging, utilities, settings) and further screens for video and voice calls, calendar and sound profiles. These screens are available by swiping left and right. The default UI style is black and white, but you can also choose from alternative themes in the settings menu.

To dial a phone number, you simply swipe to the left, select voice call and a small number pad appears. The keys are quite small, so those with large fingers will have trouble pressing the correct numbers. Here you can also access the LG GD910's phonebook — the basic phone book offers no smart dialling, so if you have a long list of contacts it takes an age to scroll through to the end.

Call quality is quite impressive, even when not using the included Bluetooth headset. You'll need a relatively quiet environment to make a call using the speakerphone, but outgoing audio can be heard from around a metre away before quality starts to deteriorate. If you don't feel comfortable talking to your watch, the included Bluetooth headset works well, even though it's large and chunky.

Messaging is well implemented, though it does take some time to adjust to the small screen. The LG GD910 watch phone uses an on-screen numeric keypad and T9 predictive text input is available. The lack of a character counter is annoying (though the phone indicates when your message needs to be sent in more than one part). Though the keyboard takes up almost all of the screen space while typing, pausing for three seconds will display the message you've typed so far.

Other features include video calling (provided this is supported by your network), a basic music player, a VGA camera and a range of PIM functions including alarms, a voice recorder, calculator, converter and a stopwatch. The LG GD910 watch phone comes with the AD2P Bluetooth profile (so you can stream music wirelessly to a compatible set of Bluetooth headphones), and it has 2GB of internal memory.

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