LG Prada (KE850)

One such model is the LG Prada (KE850), which is a collaboration between the famous Italian fashion label and the South Korean electronics powerhouse.

As expected from such an alliance, the end-result is one beautiful and elegant phone – everything about the KE850's high-gloss black piano finish and slim candybar housing just exudes class.

Measuring just slightly bigger than an ATM card, the phone's build quality is excellent and feels solid in the palms of my hands.

Its 3in touchscreen display dominates the phone's front portion. There is a line of three small function buttons for pick up, hang up and cancel underneath the screen.

On both sides, you will find keys to access the camera, MP3 player lock and volume control. It also comes with a dedicated lock button to prevent users from activating the touchscreen accidentally.

While the piano black finish looks great, the glossy material used is prone to smudges and needs to be regularly cleaned to keep its appeal.

Touch me

Despite its large touchscreen display, the LG Prada is neither a PDA phone nor a smartphone. It is actually just a standard mobile phone that offers a different approach to user navigation.

The phone comes with a few themes built-in, including two that offer animated Koi fish and butterflies on the phone's home screen.

What's interesting is that each of these animated characters would swim or fly towards where you are tapping on the display. A novelty feature for sure, but it never failed to impress my friends and curious onlookers.

Unlike a PDA, there is no stylus provided so you need to use your fingers. Usage is fairly simple – you just have use your finger to scroll and tap on the icon to open an application.

For dialling purposes, you tap on the phone's virtual keypad.

It is quite responsive but there are some trade offs – there is no tactile feedback and you will also need to look at the virtual keypad often when texting as there is no "elevated" key 5 to guide you to the location of the numbers or alphabets.

Those with slender fingers won't have much problem with the touch interface especially when it comes to typing messages. But it gets tricky for those with fatter digits as they will need to use their fingertips to tap on the right spot.

Once your call gets connected, the virtual keypad disappears and is replaced by the call status screen. You cannot recall the virtual keypad while a call is in progress.

Although this does not affect your call but in some scenarios it is imperative to have the virtual keypad back.

For instance, I couldn't get through to my prepaid service's automated customer centre just because I couldn't key in the preferred language options when prompted.

In another situation, I had to get a telephone receptionist to patch me through to a person at the office even though I know his extension number.

Whether this is an honest mistake on the manufacturer's part or due to other reasons, LG definitely needs to rectify this problem ASAP.

Shoot me

Fortunately there is plenty to look forward to in this phone especially in the multimedia department.

For starters, the phone has a video player that supports MPEG4 and H.263 formats, a music player that plays MP3 and AAC files, as well as a built-in FM radio and a voice recorder.

It also supports Bluetooth stereo headphones for wireless listening pleasure.

Video playback looks good on this device and its music player also has respectable sound quality.

However, the latter comes with a very limited functionality – repeat, shuffle and only two skin options (white or black).

The LG Prada also doubles up as a 2-megapixel shooter, with a Schneider Kreuznach lens, an autofocus system and a LED photo light.

Still and video images taken under bright sunlight turned out quite good. In dimly lit environments, however, the picture quality drops significantly as expected.

In terms of productivity applications, there is a document viewer that supports Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat files.

The documents are automatically resized to the screen's width and are generally readable but you do have to squint your eyes a little.

The phone has a meagre 8MB of built-in memory but if you need to store more files, it has a MicroSD slot with a 256MB card included.

As expected, the large screen drains a lot of power and the battery lasted for two days with regular usage before it needed a recharge.

Final words

The LG Prada takes the cake for being one of the priciest "standard" phones around but I suppose that's the price to pay for exclusivity.

While it does have some really fun-to-use functions, there are some blips such as the disappearing virtual keypad, texting problems for those with large fingers and limited music functionalities.

These drawbacks aside, the phone's design is cutting-edge and hip, and is sure to turn heads whenever you take it out in public.

Recommended for fashion-conscious users with cash to burn.

Pros: Cool design; touchscreen; some novel features.

Cons: Virtual keypad hiccup; smudges easily; needs slender fingers.

PRADA (KE850)
(Prada and LG)
Triband touch-phone
Camera: 2-megapixels
Display: 3in 262,000-colour touchscreen
Messaging: MMS, SMS, e-mail
Connectivity: USB, Bluetooth, EDGE, GPRS
Phone memory: 8MB
Expansion slot: MicroSD
Battery type: 800mAh lithium-ion
Standby/talk time: 300/3 hours
Other features: FM radio, MP3 player, video player, Java applications, document viewer
Weight: 85g
Dimensions: 98.8 x 54 x 12 mm