Review: LG GD900 Crystal

For friends who have added me on FB/Twitter/Plurk, you’ll know that finally, after 3 months of waiting for the LG GD900 Crystal (I’ll call it Crystal from now on), I received Crystal on August 26, 5.58pm

I’d won Crystal from participating in a Sparklette.net contest I’m super happy as I’ve been reading Sparklette.net since 2003.

Anyway, CRYSTAL!

The LG Arena Bag that Crystal arrived in through a courier.

Btw, I must really thank Deborah from the marketing company who is in charge of contacting the winners about the phone. I must have sent tons of SMSes and emails to her asking about the delivery of the phone and each time, she patiently answered my questions. (I’m too excited lah!)

After all, LG GD900 Crystal is the world’s first transparent phone.

Read about the specs here: LG Website.

The accessories that comes with the phone are what you usually see in most handphones: a charger, a starter kit (for your phone to connect with your PC), battery, USB Cable (for connecting to PC). But oh! This comes with a pouch just the right size for your phone itself!

Crystal’s screen has a 3-way orientation. Turning it left or right will allow me to use the menu no matter what.

Turning it left and turning it right

Of course, the first thing that mesmerized me was the transparent keypad. I’m still awed by how it’s transparent!

Pretty!

As I’m a first time user of a touch screen phone, it was difficult for me to adapt to Crystal. Even though I’ve been using it for more than a week now, I still kept pressing on the wrong numbers and words when I’m using the phone.

But for those who are worried if the phone will lag, fret not as it doesn’t lag most of the time.

Though, to be honest, I don’t use the keypad much except when I take pictures (I have to slide the keypad out otherwise I won’t be able to use the camera).

The S-Class interface is pretty fun and functional to use.
But at first, I wondered why it lacked various functions, like forwarding of SMSes, but I eventually found out that it was because I had to scroll to get to the functions. Silly me.

There’s a bug though in the SMS feature, where I won’t know who I’m replying to in my sms until I’ve sent it. Hope the developers fix it! But since this software is used in the newer LG phones, I guess other phones like LG Arena will also have this problem.

Speaking of which, the camera hasn’t disappointed me so far. 8MP (more MP than my compact camera!), and I think the computer for the camera’s pretty smart. The auto settings just adjusts the contrast and all most of the time. Outdoor shots are the best, but indoor shots can be noisy.

Here are some sample of the shots (click for bigger image. Not original size though):

Here are the list of things that I like about Crystal:

• Comes with games that are motion activated – just like the Nintendo DS.
• It has a browser that allows me to view many file format types – pdfs especially! Gosh, you know how difficult it is when you are unable to view an important pdf document on your mobile device. Crystal can!
• My Crystal comes with Google Apps including one for YouTube that basically allows you to stream YouTube videos on your phone. The screen automatically turns to the landscape orientation for easy viewing.

  Here’s a picture of Crystal playing a Youtube video (although it’s not clear coz of my camera):
  
  Know what the video is?

• Crystal has an internal 1.5GB memory and up to 32GB external memory that you can add with a micro SD card
• QWERTY Keyboard for SMS! Just turn the screen horizontal!
• External speakers are not too bad.

My verdict: With many features packed in to it, it’s worth the money, though it would be great if LG can come up with the updates for the S-Class software (for ALL LG phones and NOT the Crystal only) You can just carry a Crystal to replace your radio, mp3 player, camera, etc.

Best of all, it’s not bulky!

Oh and I love the reactions of my friends when they see the transparent keypad. Sorry, I don’t mean to show off and all. =x

Updated: My sis said that my pictures don’t really show how transparent the keypad is, so here’s one (with a rare picture of me wearing spectacles)! Look at the transparency of the keypad. You can see my hand behind it!