Camera

The camera isn't much to shout about but it's fully featured. As mentioned earlier, there are better camera phones out there, but for such a slim phone, a 1.3 megapixel camera should suffice. It snaps pictures at 320x240, 640x480 and 1280x960 resolutions, comes equipped with night mode, white balance (daylight, incandescent, cloudy, and fluorescent), image effect (sepia, monochrome and negative) and zoom - everything you'd find on a basic digital camera. It has video recording capabilities at 176x144 resolution too.

Picture quality is borderline average as you can see below. Anything beyond 800x600 however, the image will be too grainy. Taking shots and viewing the real time screen is also a tad too sluggish. It feels as though night mode is perpetually turned on - the image is amplified even at the slightest hint of darkness. The camera has decent focus as a result, but if you absolutely have to be quick with your shot, you might just miss it because the display and shutter are a split second too slow.

Located on the right side of the phone, at thumb level (assuming you hold the phone with your right hand) is the external camera key. This key allows you to activate and use your camera with the phone folded, so you can snap a picture of yourself, with the external screen as your display. Convenient, but the key is in a position that is prone to accidental activation, and the key is very light. Since the phone is so thin, there isn't much of a surface to hold on to at the sides, and I've found myself holding and pressing the external camera key by accident many times.

Battery Life

LG has shrunk the battery from 800mAh for the KG800 to 700mAh for the KG810, no doubt to accomodate the phone's smaller size. It is said to provide 200 hours standby time and 4 hours talktime (as opposed to 6 hours talktime on the KG800). Less than 48 hours into usage (a few hours of navigation and testing, standby mode the rest of the time, with extremely minimal calls and messaging in between), and the battery is almost depleted. If you are a heavy user, expect to charge your phone every two days at the very least.

Next: Conclusion