Review of LG Dynamite KP 199 mobile phone

LG has recently launched this mobile phone in India with a claimed battery life on 1 month (standby). I have been playing around with this phone and here is my take.

This is a basic phone with a street price of Rs. 4175/- (US$ 85 Approx)

Whats good about this phone:

• The battery went on for 3 days with moderate usage. I wasn’t able to to test the claim of standby time. MP3 playback drains battery.
• The phone includes FM Radio and MP3 function.
• Inbuilt speaker is quite loud but quality is average as compared to expensive phones.
• Good screen resolution, better than the basic phones from Nokia.
• USB cable included to sync address book with PC and can be used to charge the phone as well.
  Note: This is a proprietary cable, so you can’t use any standard USB cable, you have to use this one.
• You can record video, audio and record songs form FM Radio. I tested this and works well. You can also record your phone conversations ;-).
• Can playback audio and video files using handsfree, bluetooth or through inbuilt speakers.
• Can play FM  Radio on the speaker (provided you have your handsfree cable connected which acts like an antenna)
• Supports stereo bluetooth headsets! When even the iPhone doesn’t 🙂
• No degradation of performance after loading 900 contacts + 1000 mp3 files.
• Inbuilt 60 MB memory which is free even after loading all the contacts.
• Expandable memory, so you can add MicroSD card. I tested this with Sandisk 4GB MicroSD and works well.
• Decent 100 pages manual.
• Mobile tracker included, so if your phone gets stolen, and someone changes the SIM, you can get an SMS alert of the new number on any 2 alternative numbers of your choice.
• Handy and light weight.
• You can exchange Business card from other users (including Nokia), the card is saved as vCard format (which is s a standard), you can also save any contact as vCard to the memory card.

Side note for Linux users (Tried this on Ubuntu 8.10): When you connect the phone with the USB cable, it gives you an option on the phone to select Mass storage, if you select mass storage, the phone will get auto mounted, then you can then drag and drop any files that you like for example you can copy mp3 files which can be played back on the phone.

When you plugin the USB cable, it also gives you an option to select COM port, if you select COM port,the phone gets detected as  /dev/ttyACM0 . To test you can type:

echo atdt111 > /dev/ttyACM0

and the phone will dial 111 🙂 Make sure you select a number that won’t call the police!

I was also able to use KMobileTools and access the phonebook but haven’t done extensive testing.

Limitations.

• Camera is of a low resolution, so if you are primary looking for camera function, this camera is not for you.
• The interface is not very intuitive, takes time getting used to.
• Cannot charge and use handsfree at the same time, as they use the same slot.
• No 3G, EDGE, GPS or Wifi, so if you are looking for using more of data functions, this one only has GPRS support.
• T9 dictionary is included but can’t be customised, no way to add your own words. No way to cycle through words.
• Handsfree quality is good for music but has a hissing sound when used for phone call.
• No standard headphones jack, so you can’t directly connect any other headphones (except bluetooth).
• No stop watch or timer included.

Final Thoughts: Excellent phone for its price, if you really need any of  the missing features, then you need to look for alternatives.