Mobile Phone Reviews

LG is hoping to repeat the success story of the Chocolate phone with a new line of products under the Black Label Series: the all-mirror, all-metallic new Shine label. The idea of a series of similarly styled designer handsets is nothing new, but there is yet to be a company that could turn the concept into a worldwide sensation like LG. Today we will take a look at the LG KE970 Shine slider, and try to understand why it has managed to sell over 1 million units in just 4 months after launch.

LG continues their Black Label series but this time the black is replaced with a bit of silver shine. The new LG KE970 Shine is the first of the truly shiny devices of the Korean manufacturer that landed on our test site. Packing some serious horse power, the LG KE970 Shine is among the most advanced GSM handsets by LG and certainly one of the most attractive – armed with a 2 megapixel camera with auto focus, a QVGA TFT display, a microSD memory card slot and a number of other goodies it is sure to grab your attention. Read on for more on that exclusive device.

Features of the LG Shine include:

* 2 megapixel camera with Schneider-Kreuznach lens, autofocus, flash and 2x digital zoom
* Video recorder
* Display: TFT, 262,000 colours, 240 x 320 pixels
* Stereo music player (MP3, AAC, AAC+ and AAC++ file formats)
* MP3, AAC and AAC+ ringtones (40 voice polyphonic)
* Messaging: SMS, EMS, MMS, Email
* 3D Java games
* Document Viewer

LG KE970 reviews from Cnet

Pros: Metal-like casing makes it a durable and scratch proof phone, camera has autofocus, Can take sim-card and flashcard out easily (w/o battery)

Cons: Scroller has slight delay, limited theme selection (no biggy)

LG KE970 reviews from Cnet

The good: The LG Shine KE970 cell phone is certainly attractive. It also has decent call quality and a great camera.

The bad: The LG Shine KE970 has a flat, poorly designed dialpad, unintuitive Talk and End keys, and an average speakerphone. Battery life was somewhat low, and the mirrored front catches fingerprints easily.

The bottom line: Though it wasn’t always easy to use, the LG Shine KE970 is a pretty phone with decent performance. We just wouldn’t recommend paying full price.