In a nutshell: The LG Renoir is the first 8 megapixel touchscreen
phone. Added benefits include 3G video calling, a high quality video
camera with slow motion effects, an MP3 player, an FM radio, Dolby
Mobile, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps for broadband internet speeds, Assisted-GPS
and an 8GB memory card. This is one of the most powerful multimedia
devices ever created. Best buy: *Free* with half-price line rental from Mobiles.co.uk
(Black) or Mobiles.co.uk
(Pink).
Review:
October 2008. Updated June 2009.
The LG KC910, released at the end of October 2008,
is the replacement for the LG Viewty.
We loved the Viewty, and we love the KC910 too! The KC910 is nicknamed
the "Renoir". Renoir was a famous impressionist painter
(you knew that, didn't you?) and so the name gives us a clue that
the KC910 is a pioneering imaging device. It's LG's first phone
to have an 8 megapixel camera, and it pushes the highly capable
photographic capabilities of the Viewty to new heights.
The Renoir looks very similar to the Viewty. It's
a flat touchscreen phone that's slightly larger than the Viewty,
but more compact than the iPhone 3G.
Weighing 110g, it's a fairly weighty phone, but feels about right
for its size. Remember that heavier phones are better for taking
photos, as you can hold them steadier. The size of the phone also
gives space for a large LCD display - an important factor in a camera
phone, and a fact that also makes the touchscreen user interface
easier to use. The screen is exactly the same size as the Viewty
in fact - 3 inches across, with a high resolution of 240 x 400 pixels.
We like the touchscreen user interface very much. It uses haptic
(vibration) feedback to confirm that you've pressed a "button"
on the virtual screen. New users may take a little while to get
up to speed, but after some practice you should be able to text
just as quickly as using a numeric keypad. Some things may be slightly
trickier, but the sheer pleasure of using a virtual on-screen QWERTY
keyboard and buttons more than compensates for this. The phone also
supports T9 predictive text via a virtual keypad, and you can use
handwriting recognition if you prefer. There are real buttons below
the touchscreen, so you should have no problem turning the phone
on and answering calls!
The Renoir launches one full year after the Viewty,
and LG haven't been lazing about these past 12 months - far from
it. There are many improvements and new features in the Renoir.
Headlining these is the upgrade of the camera to 8 megapixels. This
makes the Renoir into a superb camera phone, with a high quality
Schneider-Kreuznach lens, autofocus, xenon flash and new features
such as face tracking and beauty shot. The xenon flash is a much
more powerful flash than conventional LED flashes, and gives substantially
improved after-dark shots, especially when used with the camera
sensitivity at its maximum setting of ISO 1600 . Beauty Shot is
a very innovative feature that automatically detects faces, brightens
them and removes spots and other imperfections. Now all your friends
can be as beautiful as you already are! Another camera feature makes
imaginative use of the touchscreen UI. Called Touch Shot, it enables
you to focus on an object by touching it on screen. The shutter
fires when you remove your finger from the screen. The result of
all this new technology and gadgets is that the Renoir can easily
take pictures that are good enough to print. It may not beat a dedicated
digital camera, but with photos this good, will anyone care? The
Renoir also features an outstanding video camera too. With the ability
to capture video at 120 frames per second, you can then playback
in slow motion for fun or special effects. 3G video calling is also
supported.
But there's much more to the KC910 than just its
camera. This is the first mobile to feature Dolby Mobile. This brand
new technology from Dolby processes sound to enhance music, in particular
by boosting bass output. The music player can play virtually all
popular digital music formats including MP3, AAC, AAC+, AAC++ &
WMA. It can also play back video in DivX and Xvid formats so that
you can watch movies on your phone. An FM radio is built in too,
so you have a very wide range of music and video options available.
We're delighted to see that the Renoir has even
more memory than the Viewty, which was already pretty well endowed.
The Renoir has 100 MB of built-in memory, and comes supplied with
an 8GB microSD memory card too. This is capable of storing around
2,000 MP3 tracks, or even more if you use a compressed format such
as WMA. The maximum phonebook capacity has been increased too, up
to 1,000 entries.
The connectivity options of the Renoir are excellent
as well. It's one of the few phone to offer full speed HSDPA, giving
download speeds up to 7.2 Mbps. In addition to the standard USB
and Bluetooth connections, it's also WiFi-enabled, so you can connect
wirelessly to a home or office network, or access a WiFi hotspot
in your local cafe or pub. The combination of fast internet access
and the super-large LCD screen makes the Renoir a formidable platform
for mobile internet access. Whether you're web browsing or accessing
email, the Renoir is a good device to be using. The email application
supports attachments, and you can view TXT, PDF, DOC, PPT &
XLS documents on the phone. It may not beat a BlackBerry if you're
a corporate emailer, but for many users it will be an excellent
choice. The Renoir makes web information available using so-called
Widgets. Widgets can be used to display live content such as the
local weather forecast.
If all this was not enough, the Renoir also comes
with Assisted GPS. This puts it on a par with the very highest spec
phones out there - the Nokia N96, The
Samsung Omnia and the Sony
Ericsson X1. Unlike its competitors, the LG isn't a smartphone,
and this is both its strength and a weakness. It means that the
user interface is fast and responsive, and that the operating system
is a lot more stable. It also means that the number of applications
that you can download is limited. But with a phone that already
does so much out of the box, we think that most users will be happy.
Just one thing: the quoted battery life of
the KC910 is significantly shorter than the Viewty, and when you
consider how many things the phone does, it isn't really surprising.
Just bear this in mind when you choose your phone.
We are super-impressed with the KC910 Renoir. It's
definitely a candidate for phone of the year 2008, and was one of
the biggest sellers in the 2008/2009 winter season.
Features
of the LG Renoir KC910 include:
8 megapixel camera with Schneider-Kreuznach
lens, autofocus and xenon flash
Video recording (MPEG4, 320 x 240 pixels, 120
frames/second)
Love
your mobile? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other
people choose the phone that's best for them. Please do not review
this phone if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a
forum, so please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear
words or offensive language, and please, no advertising!
Reviewed by Wayne Higgerson from England
on 25th Feb 2009
It's rubbish. The touch scren needs fingers like needles to operate
correctly, you'll throw it out of the window as it trys to access
functions other than the one you've "pressed". If you ever have
to make a call with some sort of automated operator system "press
2 for sales" etc you'll be crying. It is truly appalling for music
without the headphones, my old SE K800i was 100 times better. The
camera functions are clunky and unrefined, and the zoom has a mind
of it's own. Handsfree is almost unuseable, try answering a call
while you're driving, it's dire. The stupidly short screen lock
comes on when you're trying to turn on the loudspeaker! Trying to
scroll menus by dragging is a pain, spend too long on one spot and
it'll try and access it, lost count of the times I've made error
calls when scrolling through contacts. The text screen is too small
and what's the point in handwriting recognition? You have to write
like a five year old in their first english class to get it to recognise
anything. Rubbish for games too. Honestly the worst phone I've ever
used, I will not be getting another touch screen phone, and not
another LG either. Because of the faults above, I only use it now
for making and receiving calls, which I could do with an old Nokia
3310 to be honest. Rating:
Reviewed by Paul from Wales on
25th Feb 2009
I bought a Renoir on Orange, but from Tesco Contract Mobiles, almost
a month ago and haven’t made a single call. This is because
it has been with G’s repairers for the last 3 weeks with no
promised return date. The full story would take far too much space
to post here, but in summary: The first thing I tried to do was
download my hundreds of contacts by Sync’ing with Outlook
on my PC. After numerous problems with the provided PC suite, I
got to a point where I could connect, but the phone always disconnected
after reading all contacts and without storing them. I therefore
tried to download the latest upgrade from LG, via the PC, following
instructions in the manual as far as possible. In the middle of
a very slow upgrade, it crashed Windows and left the phone in a
completely unusable state, having presumably wiped the original
software but not installed the new. Nothing would work at all. After
a round of frustrating and unhelpful calls to Orange and Tesco Mobiles,
I was advised to send back to LG for repair and a pre-paid sack
(enormous thing for a small phone) was sent to me. It has not been
returned and, if I can speak to the repairers at all, I am told
it is ‘awaiting parts (from LG!)’ which seems bizarre
for a brand new phone. I have complained to LG but not heard back
from them. So I am paying about £30 a month for a phone I don’t
have and have never used, although Orange say I am paying for the
sim, which I retained as instructed by both Orange and LG. But as
I have retained my previous phone and sim until I am confident I
have a working replacement, this isn’t being used. How frustrated
am I by all this? What do you think? Rating:
Reviewed by sarah from egland on
24th Feb 2009
my mates got this phone an she thinks it's great!! after having
the iPhone for 12 months she was propa put off gettin another touchscreen
but decided to give this ago. the cameras boss and it is easy to
use (for me it is anyway cos av got the lg cookie an it's like that}.
me mates come with an 8gb mem card so thats boss!! defo 5/5 xx Rating:
Reviewed by michael from scotland,uk
on 24th Feb 2009
The LG KC910 is great only thing is it has no animated emotions
when you text,Other than that it is just what i was looking for. Rating:
Reviewed by Hytham from Libya on
24th Feb 2009
Not what i expected at all when the salesman sold me the phone,
wouldnt recommend it to anyone who wants a fone that plays songs
and videos. The camera is good but the face detection doesnt work!
Not a fone you can use for quick texting expecially on a bus! My
advice go for a smart phone but one that also has a normal keypad
touch screen was a bad idea! Rating:
Reviewed by Paul from UK on 24th
Feb 2009
Don't believe the hype. This phone has been nothing but irritation
for me. From brand new out of the box: Regular crashes and freezes
whilst in various screen modes. Full screen turns black and the
only way to rectify this is to remove battery and switch on again.
When moving through the screens it starts. to. go. verrry. slooooowwwwwww.
After taking pictures the phone couldn't retrieve them from the
memory card - it reported 'cannot execute. conflict with camera'
- the only way around this was to reformat the card - the phone
was nearly executed by throwing against a wall. Touching key tones
gives audible response and vibration, but did not actually DO anything.
Often went to 'emergency calls only' when in perfectly serviceable
areas - internet 'connection' is also tediously slow in serviceable
areas. The pc suite software is garbage - wouldn't recognise phone
(this was on an xp and a vista pc). The ring tone is ridiculously
quiet even when on 'loud' setting - great if you work in a library.
Extremely irritating fact is the phone automatically goes into auto
lock when you are actively making a call - this means if you need
to use a touch tone service you have to keep unlocking the phone
every few seconds then press the keypad button to continue making
the call. WTF?! FFS! This is incredibly annoying. If you use the
camera and change settings, the next time you use the camera the
settings have defaulted back to the original. The speaker quality
on calls is hit-and-miss, sometimes superb, sometimes rubbish. The
phone does look good and does genuinely have some nice features,
but the bad points in this phone far outweigh the good ones. It
is just too tedious to bother with. I have better things to be doing
than tolerating this aberration of technology. Anybody who has XP
and then moved to Vista on their pc will see the similarity with
this phone. Maybe I've been unlucky with mine, but the phone is
being exchanged for a different model after just one week. I'll
be glad to see it gone. Utterly woeful. Rating:
Reviewed by Mario from Australia on
24th Feb 2009
Have had the KC910 for about a month now. Love it very much. However
I'm dissapointed with features that the phone doesn't support such
as Skype. With 3, I purchased one of the Essential pack that offers
you to use 4000 minutes of Skype calls for free, but unfortunately
it can't use Skype. It seems that there are features of that kind
that are not compatible. Let's hope Skype and such think of the
KC910 when they design their next release. Otherwise, great phone. Rating:
Reviewed by John from UK on 23rd
Feb 2009
Some facts they don't tell you before you buy a Renoir. a) it doesn't
support Hotmail; b) you can only listen to an album in alphabetical
order - not track order; c) the user manual is atrocious - barely
covers the basics; d) LG customer service is the worst you could
come across. Idiots answering the phone with ZERO knowledge of the
product (I promise you, one of them actually said "Oh, I've not
used a Renoir before" - !?!?!?!?!). Then, when they can't help you,
they just sit there mute..... I bought this so I didn't have to
carry an MP3 player and a phone. But it's a bit like one of those
DVD/Video players you used to be able to buy; it does neither job
particularly well. In hindsight, should've bought something more
straightforward and an MP3. May have cost more, may have meant more
gadgets to lug about, but at least they would do the job they are
designed to do. [Reply by Arron from UK on 25th Feb 2009: Hotmail
cannot be accessed by any device or application other than Windows
Live Mail or a browser unless you upgrade to the premium version
($19.99 for a year), and this is not therefore a limitation of the
phone. However I agree with you about LG customer service - hostile,
arrogant and utterly useless, even worse than Samsung.] Rating:
Reviewed by Mel from UK on 22nd
Feb 2009
I bought this phone a while ago, and have to say I absolutely love
it. I've had my fear share of phones; sony ericssons, samsung, nokia
(the list goes on) and the LG Renoir is by far the best. Its so
easy to use, you won't need to touch the user guide. The camera's
got a good lens, with some pretty cool features. The sound quality
is really good too. It'd be better if it was thiner, and I would
prefer it if the stylus slotted into the device rather than be externally
attached, but that's not a big deal. So yeah- amazing phone, I'd
recommend to anyone. Rating:
Reviewed by Jazza from Australia on
22nd Feb 2009
This fone is awesome!!! the camera is the best so now i dont have
to buy a digital camera.. All the features on the camera really
makes the best out of the shot... The touch shot is great and the
ISO 1600 is really useful at night time with dull light... I love
the 120 fps video recording. I use it al the time with my mates
recording stuff in slow motion. Yeah its a bit pricey but i think
its worth it considering how much this phone can actually do.. The
texting will take a little while to get used to but once you've
mastered it, its great! Ive fallen in love with this fone!!! 100/100
beyond outstanding Rating:
Reviewed by chez from uk on 21st
Feb 2009
only had this phone a few days love every thing about it except
the ring volume is very quiet i have missed calles and not realised
i have had messages i have on full volume cant understand why its
so quiet the last lg i had was the venus and that was very loud
adn thats the only reason im giving it 4 stars other wise would
have been 5 Rating:
Reviewed by Mike from Crawley, West
Sussex on 21st Feb 2009
Compared to my first phone, this is an absolute dream to use, its
responsive, easy to use, compared to my old W850i from my first
contract with Orange (i know), the camera is superb, im thinking
of selling my old camera as this has a better resolution on it,
the Video capabilities is amazing, its like nothing i have used
before... Now, the downsides: The volume level when speaking to
someone is INSANELY low, its not supposed to be that low in volume
at all, the music is tinny, the loud speaker is very, very bad and
sounds like the other person is underwater, and the overall volume
for the music played through the Dolby (nice touch) sound system
is a bit sketchy... So overall, this is a brilliant phone, but by
the looks LG have been more concerned with the camera compared to
the rest of the phone, otherwise, its a superb phone, a must buy
for budding photographers, but not for music fans Rating:
Reviewed by azam from singapore on
21st Feb 2009
Phone is good , but the worst thing is ringtone, when people call
we hardly can hear the ringtone, when went to LG customer service
and told about this problem they asked me to go and tradein this
phone with other model.And told that this phone is designed with
low ringtone volume. Iam very upset about it, I have also used viewty
but the renoir ringtone is lessthan half of viewty Rating:
Reviewed by Carl from UK on 20th
Feb 2009
I agree with all the good points mentioned so far. My battery is
fine, normal useage lasts me two days. Anyway this is supposed to
be a qucik one so I'll just say I had the Samsung Omnia and this
LG beats it hands down if you want a snazzy does most things kinda
phone. If you really want a business phone then the smartphones
will win because of the Microsoft compatibility Word etc etc But
if you want a good looking phone where camera, net surfing, looks,
ease of use and you're not that bothered about downloading applications
(games are around) then buy this. I've had N95->HTC Diamond->Samsung
Omnia-> the LG KC910 and the LG wins Rating:
Reviewed by Benjamin from England on
20th Feb 2009
Lovely phone until you attempt to update the software. It doesn't
matter how well you follow the instruction it crashes the phone,
displaying the message "LG mobile phone.com please wait" which flashes
on an off constantly. There appears to be no way of getting the
phone back from this point. The first phone was sent back and the
replacement has done exactly the same. For all of the phone's features
and selling points it has not been worth the hassle and inconvenience
of sending the phone back and waiting for it to be exchanged. Rating:
Reviewed by bob from U.S.A on
20th Feb 2009
the best phone i have ever had u should get one now Rating:
Reviewed by Howard from UK on
19th Feb 2009
This is a lovely phone and I am massively happy with it - The camera
is Excellent and the video is a wonder over my old phone (SonyEricsson
K800i) and I agree with all of the review above with only a few
exceptions... The touch screen can be a bit non-responsive on occasion,
but a bit of fiddling with the calibration settings sorted out 90%
of this. Occasionally it feels as if the processor is a bit overtaxed
and the phone can be a bit slow to respond, but this is not often.
The use of the virtual keyboards and item selection etc are surprisingly
good compared with the other touch screens I have tried and is definitely
the closest I have come to that I-Phone feel. Having said that,
the browser can be a bit fiddly at times, especialy when trying
to select from a list of options, but by zooming, you can make this
a lot easier. When using the camera, I have not been able to make
the "touch shot" work. (take a photo by touching the screen) and
the anti-shake feature is on the button beside the shutter button
and in average use have found myself turning it off unwittingly
when taking a photo with obvious consequences. The music player
is great and the bundled media card holds massive amounts (all my
digitised, but slightly small music collection with space to spare
- a first for me on a phone). I have had an issue with switching
from the player whilst listening to music to the artist/track lists
etc where, when using Bluetooth headphones the processor maxes out
for a moment causing the music to stall for a second and is a bit
irritating in its frequency but not a killer fault. I have had major
issues with the bundled PC Suite that caused problems with my laptop
and it's Bluetooth. However, having contacted LG customer services
they have offered assistance without hesitation and my guess is
that it is a conflict with either software on my laptop or more
likely in my mind, the Vista operating system (although I would
have thought that by now all new products would carry compatible
software). OVERALL: I am more than happy to recommend the phone
to others and have every confidence in using it (so much more reliable
than phones I have had before). Rating:
Reviewed by Jimboman from England on
18th Feb 2009
Had the phone now for 3 months. Camera is very good although the
settings need to be amended each time you switch to camera mode,
impressed with the panorama shots, touch screen is responsive but
some of the icons are too small and many times have hit the wrong
ones. Internet access is ok but on 3 network be careful unless you
have paid for the privelege!! The 2 really annoying things about
this phone are the timeouts which means you have to constantly unlock
the phone to use the keypad and teh battery life. I fully charge
it everyday and with normal use it needs to be done the next day...now
bought a car charger as well as a wall charger. Dont really use
it much for music so cannot comment. Another really annoying thing
is teh low battery alarm...I use the alarm clock function so its
next to my bed. Usually at about 3 oclock the 3 beeps go off....and
they are very loud! Its an ok phone but I should have gone for an
iphone...regretably Im stuck with this for another 15 long months....anyone
wanna swap? Rating:
Reviewed by girl from united kingdom
on 16th Feb 2009
This phoneis great. Good Features And a really good camera. First
i thought lg was rubbish because i never used lg before but now
i think it is great. And worth the money. So get it. Rating:
Reviewed by zak peel from england on
16th Feb 2009
this fone is awful i wouldnt recommend it to anyone! when pressing
the touchscreen to hard the screen turns all blue and misty. not
a grest fone to say the least. Rating:
Reviewed by J from UK on 16th
Feb 2009
Had LG Renoir about 5 weeks. Some good aspects, however, the loudspeaker
is inaudable. I have bought a Parrot bluetooth kit and the phone
keeps dropping this signal too. Also the internet brousing is restricted
on Three and redirects you to the Three pay per view adult content.
I wouldn't mind but it was my neighbour who wanted to show me a
funny picture on a questionable site. I hate censorship. Rating:
Reviewed by Kof from UK on 15th
Feb 2009
My advice for anyone who is going to get this phone is to at least
read the instructions first or else it will frustrate you when using
the touchscreen and the menus for the first time. If you can do
that then you will enjoy the LG Renoir just a little bit more. Its
my first time in using a touchscreen phone and though not perfect,
so far I have not had any major problems. The best feature is the
camera and the ability to film in slow motion which is cool. Battery
life is just about average but understandle as the LG Renoir packs
so much technology like WiFi & GPS. My only disappointment is this
so called Dolby Mobile which is just a gimmick and sounds dull and
tinny but again it could be the supplied earphones. Ringtone volume
could be higher too but on the whole not a bad phone. Rating:
Reviewed by Rumikon from U.K on
15th Feb 2009
Ive never had an LG phone before so was taking a bit of a risk taking
an 18 month contract with a phone make ive never used but after
reading up on the phone and comparing it to what is out there i
decided to go for it. I love the phone, its probably the best phone
ive had so far. In terms of ease of use its a breeze to do things
on and the touch screen is easy to use and has just the right amount
of sensitivity. To me the only phone that matches it with regards
to the touch screen is the Iphone everthing else ive used isnt as
good. My dad has a tocco and i absolutely hate that just isnt as
easy to navigate and not as intuitive. The camera is great too and
all the extra features arent just gimmicks but actually enable you
to enhance your photo taking experience. The only thing i can think
of that is at fault on the phone is the PC suite that comes with
it as like mentioned before it sometimes disconnects the phone when
your in the middle of transferring large files but i managed to
get round this thankfully as in the settings on the phone you can
tell the USB to connect to the PC as a Mass media storage device
and just drag and drop instead of it only connecting via the pc
suite. another tihng was i didnt think i needed to format the 8gb
card when i got the phone so just started using it as normal but
i began having problems with the phone reading the card. I formatted
the card (you can do this on the phone) and since then anything
ive put on the card has been fine. Overall im extremely satisfied
with the renoir and would recommend it to anyone Rating:
Reviewed by laura from uk on
14th Feb 2009
had this fone for 3 months now LOVE IT best fone ive ever had (and
ive had a few) the quality the camera is amazing the fone in itself
is just great ive had sony ericsson fones, samsung ect. none are
as good as this Rating:
Reviewed by bty from uganda on
14th Feb 2009
what a rubbish fone had automatic shutdown problems with it may
i recommend the lg cookie(kp500)or the lg ks360 Rating:
Reviewed by arthur from uk on
11th Feb 2009
had lg phones before this 1 is the best so easy to use very smart
looking phone well done LG Rating:
Reviewed by andrea from england on
8th Feb 2009
little dissapointed about sound as its very quiet but overall like
the phone!! Rating:
Reviewed by varun from uae on
5th Feb 2009
the phone is ok, butt not excellent :( All features are gr8- smile
detection, face tracking, beuty shot etc for camera & video recording
is also good but i found some problems with the phone :( whenever
we take videos in slow motion or in fast motion i cant hear any
sound during the play back though in the settings it is shown as
unmuted !!! and another problem is with the FM radio, no response
whenever i try to tune the stations though the range is good !!
some times phone hangs while trying to tune the stations tried my
best to make FM radio work but i failed :( how SAD !! Can anyone
help me with an appropriate solution ???? Plzzzzzzz :( Rating:
Reviewed by philip smith from england
on 5th Feb 2009
i had the phone for 2 months and my screen broke and now i cannot
find anybody who sells replacements Rating:
Reviewed by Geo from Scotland UK on
4th Feb 2009
Well I got this phone at 5pm last night as a replacement from O2
for the long awaited SE X1 I got last week !(not worth a Da** do
not buy it !!) so far I have set it up in about an hour synced to
my computer music email the works. This phone is a dream to use
functions are gr8 the fact you can change the font size is superb(Not
so good eyesight now) after the SE X1 and three days to get it just
working! my last 4 phones have been SE and the latest gen seem a
tad under par. All In All the LG Renior is A Damn good piece of
kit. BUY IT BUT NOT ON ORANGE . Rating:
Reviewed by jamie from england on
3rd Feb 2009
I spent weeks looking for a decent upgrade and finally picked the
Renoir. The features on it (the 8mp camera, 3g etc.) are all well
and good, but it's the common things you'd expect a phone to be
able to do that end up letting this down. For example, the qwerty
pad is useless unless you have the wand to hand or skeleton-like
fingers. Also, LG have conveniently placed the language icon right
next to the usual lettering in a text message. This means that if
you use the predictive text and type pretty quickly, a slight miss
hit means you will change the language to German or Italian and
be halfway through a foreign word in at least 1 in 6 texts. Surely
the language doesn't need to be changed THAT much that it is deemed
necessary to put it as a key option? Also on the subject, to change
a word in the predictive text menu, you have to push the tiniest
of icons that appear. So tiny, that you miss it the first 3 attempts
at least. But that's not all. When you do miss it, it thinks you've
okayed the word you were trying to change in the first place AND
puts the cursor in the middle of the entire text. You'd need the
patience of a Saint not to quit the whole thing and call the person
instead. Plus the send icon is right next to the space bar, so you
end up sending blank or half finished texts. The camera and video
quality is very good and the added features (smile mode, beauty
shot etc) are all well and good, but the fact you have to change
every setting whenever you use it is a major flaw. It has a setting
called GPRS tagging. This means that it pinpoints your location
on the globe whenever you take a picture, so when you look back
at it on your computer you know where it was taken. Perfect for
holidays or when you are travelling around the world. Not so good
that you have to select it after every single photograph, until
you simply cannot be bothered anymore. As Matthew (the review prior
to this) has commented on, the phone re-locks itself after about
5 seconds when you're making a call. So if for example you use telephone
banking, you have to keep unlocking the phone everytime you need
to key in a set of digits. This is SO ANNOYING. I have also noticed
over the last couple of days my signal has become really poor and
the handset drops calls in the middle of a conversation. If you
get the phone on the Orange network, using their web browser is
a joke. The text on their home screen is too small to be selected
so you have to stop, zoom in, then select, everytime you want to
open something. Orange have also put their rubbish software on the
handset too so every icon on the start screen is a boring orange
and white colour. The GPRS used to work but now I have to pay a
minimum of £5 a month to keep it. Even the google map application
i downloaded doesn't work until i pay the extra fee. It seems like
nobody at LG bothered to actually use this phone before it went
into mass production. Had anyone bothered to do so, they would've
discovered that at times it gets so annoying that it makes you want
to throw it against a wall and wish you'd picked another handset. Rating:
Reviewed by Andrew from UK on
3rd Feb 2009
I have had this phone for a week now. I got a very good deal from
3 as I had been a seriously annoyed off customer for 12 months mostly
due to the N95 but there were other issues. Anyway they gave me
this good deal, a big apology and the phone. Fair enough. My previous
phone, the aforementioned Nokia N95 was rubbish. It had chronic
memory problems that just would not fix and I had the latest firmware,
hard resets and the lot but it just did not work. The memory reduced
so much it would only txt and make calls like some £10 cheapo phone.
The Renoir is a revelation in comparison. Great memory control,
superb camera, touch interface works like a dream, the browser is
excellent, the PC sync with Outlook just does what it is meant to
do. Txting is easy and the generally subdued but stylish and clear
interface layout just works for me. It's logical unlike the N95
layout which was always a mystery tour. Google maps is fine for
my purposes but I have yet to try the GPS in anger, though this
feature is nice its not that important to me because as part of
my work I have GPS devices all over the place. I tend not to listen
to music on the move or at my desk and at home I use my own full
on sound system so the music capabilities are not that important
though again nice to have. The touch interface works well through
protective covers too. Great phone, well pleased. Rating:
Reviewed by ibzy from uk on 3rd
Feb 2009
one heck of a phone Rating:
Reviewed by Matthew from England on
1st Feb 2009
This is going to be warts and all, honest review. When I swapped
tarrifs, I was offered this phone as an upgrade, moving from a Sony
K800i. At first I thought "ooh, nice and hi tech.." The reality
was soon clear that LG are more concerned creating a triumph of
style over function. 1. The touchscreen seemed to vary in sensitivity
from day to day. Some days it worked well, some days it didn't.
The stylus looked nice though, being very well constructed. 2. The
camera lense was good. But if the touchscreen was having a sensitive
day, it'd jump to "send photo to MMS or email" menu without me actually
wanting this to happen. When I then backed out of that menu and
returned to the camera, all the camera settings would return to
default which was very frustrating. I had to write down the settings
I wanted to use and keep entering them in, every time this happened.
3. Accessing the internet by GPRS was appalling. The page would
either not find the host, or would hang in a much reduced view,
completely unusuable. This was despite repeated reset instructions
via my service provider. 4. It may have GPS, but it doesn't work
on Orange. You can download Orange Maps, but it simply isn't worth
the effort. I can say this in complete honesty, as I now have Garmin
Mobile XT on my replacement phone which is outstanding. 5.Whenever
I was calling an automated service, eg Orange Customer Care or my
bank, the phone would auto lock once the call was connected. This
would mean having to press the unlock icon (hoping it would work),
then pressing the keypad icon (again hoping it would work) before
pressing "1" or "2". The phone would then immediately relock again
meaning that I'd have to repeat the process for every menu choice.
Not funny at all! 6. The MP3 player would only list songs in alphabetical
order. What is the point in hyping the phone as having a really
good, Dolby equipped, MP3 player when this was a clear design fault.
7. The onscreen qwerty pad was quite good, using T9 to predict and
then give you a choice of what words to use. 8. The LG PC Suite
Software was less than useless. The phone would connect, then disconnect
to the PC, making file transfer a time consuming and annoying experience.
9. There is next to no online support from LG. When I tried upgrading
the firmware, following the LG updater software instructions, it
crashed my phone, only displaying "LG Mobile, Please Wait...." on
the screen. It is now being returned to LG for reflashing. 10. It's
impossible to personalise the phone. I either had to put up with
Orange's white and orange menu or LG's black and white menu. I was
very disappointed. The phone did not live up to the hype. I did
read the instructions, but the majority of the problems that I've
described are clearly a result of LG shipping an incomplete product.
I would not buy another LG again, given the lack of customer support
and over complicated and eventually useless software. As this phone
was free, I didn't lose out, although I chose to purchase an unused,
unlocked Nokia N95 8GB. Guess what, it has 3 megapixels less but
the camera is far easier to use. I can find contacts instantly.
The internet connection works flawlessly and very fast. The GPS
in conjunction with Garmin is superb. The software is a dream, works
first time and puts LG to shame. Most importantly, the data transfer
mode actually works, enabling me to go into the phone and delete
applications that are unwanted. I wish I'd got this in the first
place. Sorry LG, but you've lost a customer. Rating:
Reviewed by Katie from UK on
31st Jan 2009
This phone is superb. Rating:
Reviewed by James :P from nEVERland
on 30th Jan 2009
Pretty klas fone.... but........... as always....a few little probs.....1:
Evry time you turn da fone fone off nd turn it bck on... da music
takes lyk 2 minutes to load... 2. touchscreen scrolling can be pretty
tedious to say the least 3: No screensavers as wallpapers.................
Other than that WELL DONE LG!!! Rating:
Reviewed by Marcus from England on
30th Jan 2009
What a pain this phone is... widgets just mess about when pressed.
Texting is a big disappointment, vertically the txt window is tiny,
horizontally it gets even worse having to plonk about with that
little cocktail stick, impossible to do on a bus. Camera great,
but don't take it to a party as everyone presses down the zoom button
accidentally... Flash weak too. Finally the sound over the headphones
is pretty tinny, Dolby Mobile is pointless and just cuts the treble
off... there is no other way of equalizing the sound and thus tiring
to listen to after 30mins. So another hugely hyped half baked gizmo
that I will have to live with for 18 months contract... Hate the
thing. Rating:
Reviewed by Tom from England on
27th Jan 2009
I've had this phone for about a month now on o2 and I have to say
it's been fantastic for me! The phone itself has a very solid, quality
feel about it and the touchscreen is up there with the best of them
(You can use your finger tip/ pad, supplied pen or even a normal
pen and it works perfectly). I find the navigation around the menu
system simple and intuitive, and when texting people the touchscreen
keypad is perfect for me (though I do have smaller fingers :D).
The option to use the keyboard and handwriting feature is also superb!
The haptic feedback when pressing on the screen also adds to the
quality experience. Being a camera buff I have to say the photo
quality is supreme when it comes to outdoor photos. Indoor photos
are less impressive but can be of good standard if you manually
adjust the settings. Video quality is great with slow/normal/fast
modes and i've been making some really cool matrix style clips!
Music sound quality is superb but don't expect that of a SE walkman
phone in terms of sound equalizers (extra bass etc) settings. There's
only an option to turn the Dolby mobile Audio on and off and that's
it. I use the internet alot and the web browsing works very well
for me. Mobile sites load up very fast and smooth, full sites take
a little longer but its still very good for a mobile device! There
are so many other things to like...the call quality, widgets, document
viewer, connectivity etc. Battery life is surprisingly good too!
It's a great multimedia device and I just love it to bits! Rating:
Reviewed by Coolio from UK on
26th Jan 2009
This seems cool;) Rating:
Reviewed by Amy from Newcastle on
26th Jan 2009
When i first got this phone i loved it, the review were great, the
whole touch screen was fab, as i had the Sony Ericson K800i which
was rubbish it was a real step up. I got this phone about november
time in the first 14days it started to freeze, so i took it back
they give me a new one straight away. Since yesterday all it does
is freeze. Green lines appear on the top of the screen, its knocked
itself off, so i have to take the battery out. Ive switched back
on and it was stuck on the bit were it says LG, it keep refreshing
itself as it goes bright again so it must be doing somthing? Its
took about 30mins to get past that stage and it switched on. I shall
be taking this phone back today. Rating:
Reviewed by marky2009 from Scotland
on 26th Jan 2009
Got a G1 a week ago, but this went back within an hour and swapped
for the renior. Great phone, superb camera, this was the main reason
I went for this phone. I always forget my camera when whe we go
out, so this is a winner. This does most things well, the screen
is easy to use, syncs with outlook and email (though I am having
an issue to get it to retreive my mail every 15 mins). The internet
is a little fiddly but I will get the hang of the screen. the full
querty keyboard is fantastic. I went from a Blackberry to the renior
and thought it would be a hastle with exchange etc, but on the most
part it does every thing I want. Rating:
Reviewed by Don from UK on 25th
Jan 2009
Very solid, well built phone. Picture quality is quite amazing.
I have printed lots of at A4 size and am surprised at how sharp
and clear they turn out. Macro mode is a dream for a phone. Close
up pics are sharp showing lots of detail, boke is incredible. Sound
through Dolby is superb. Cannot understand the various complaints.
I am assuming they don't--or judging by the quality of the spelling
here, are unable to read or take in the instructions. Is m8 msg
actually English as taught in our schools now? How sad. Rating:
Reviewed by Fraz from Scotland on
24th Jan 2009
Had this phone for well over a month now, and having previously
owned the LG Viewty which I loved, I fancied a change to a different
manufacturer just for the simple reason part of the fun in getting
a ne3w phone is learning how to use it and I feared going from the
Viewty to Renoir wouild be too similar. Anyway I spent a good month
looking at phones such as Samsung Omnia, SE C905, iPhone and lastly
the Samsung Pixon. Having previously owned a couple of SE's i was
tempted with the C905, however the menus have never changed since
my last SE 3years ago. I was very tempted with the Pixon, however
after speaking to the CPW I decided to go with the Renoir and I
am so glad I did. The Phone is exceptional so good that when I go
back to the Viewty that my wife is now using and that I loved i
think to myself what a load of Junk. Yes the menus are pretty similar
but with a lot more added and tthey have fixed the one or two annoying
things that were lacking on the viewty. The Wi Fi is great although
I don't realy need it due to free Internet Browsing. The camera
is exceptional, any neg reviews re: the camersa is probably due
to the fact that these people have not bother to read the instructions
on it. The touchscreen on the odd occassion can recognise your touch
and not actually do what you are commanding it to do but this is
only a minor flaw which happens now and again and you will laways
get this on any touchscreen phone. You also have the added bonus
of the 8GB Memory Card which according to the CPW you do not get
with it, I went about two weeks complaining to CPW that the phone
should come with the free card and them telling me that they didn't
supply it with the phone before I realised that it is actually already
inserted in the Phone. Anyway in a nutshell if you liked the viewty
then go out and get the renoir for all those who have never had
an LG and are thinking about this phone do not hesitate go and get
it you will not be dissapointed. Rating:
Reviewed by R from England on
23rd Jan 2009
Got this phone for the camrama. Genrally a great phone but with
everything you will find faults. The touch screen take a bit of
time to get used to but I have had it for a few weeks and I find
it great. Would recommend to peoplr over the C905 which I had loads
of problems with. Hope this helps Rating:
Reviewed by Laura from Essex on
21st Jan 2009
I got this phone just before xmas & wasn't really overly impressed
with it. However, after a week or so I really started to like it;
It has a very good camera (although the flash is so bright, close-ups
in the wrong light don't come out) Yes the music player was a little
annoying - having to go into the memory card to play an album -
but i'm used to it now & it's not really that much of a hardship
to switch albums after like an hour (or however long the album is).
The texting is easy via the touch screen, only problem being if
you enter a word that it doesn't recognise but uses the same keys
as another word it won't give you the option to add it to your dictionary
but there's ways around this. I don't use the internet on it so
cannot comment on this. Overall I now love this phone, I bought
a nice leather case for £5 on ebay so no worry about scratches (these
days I think you should always have a case for an expensive phone!)so
4 stars from me (only missing 5 because of the small niggles Rating:
Reviewed by Josh from Thatcham =) on
15th Jan 2009
i love it. far better than my nokia. does everything i want. i do
wish it had a password for messages! Rating:
Reviewed by aLEX from uk on 15th
Jan 2009
I have had 3 of these phones now on the 3 network and each one has
developed a fault my current handset has now got a burn mark in
the screen which somes times appears it is most bizzare. I am hoping
i can argue it now be changed for something eles eg Sony! The camera
is great the capacity is great but the build is just not up to scratch!
Rating:
Reviewed by Carl from England on
14th Jan 2009
Ive had the phone for just over a month now, and it has surpassed
all expectations for a works phone and a personal phone, even after
getting top reviews from several sites and experts. Im not going
to speak about the many positives because you can find them everywhere.
This is just an unbiased account of the (very few) flaws in the
phone to help you decide if it is for you. 1) The touch screen isnt
very durable and will scratch easily because it isnt re-inforced,
therefore take off the thin sheet and use the thicker plastic sheet-cover
supplied in the box straight away! 2) The supplied 8gb memory cards
are being reported from time to time as being faulty and not working,
therefore i recommend upgrading to 16gb HDSC micro card (which the
phone can easily handle) for only £40 3) The biggest flaw with the
renoir is the music playing function. Unfortunately the renoir ONLY
plays music in alphabetical order in their music player. This can
be averted by going into the memory card and choosing whole albums,
but you do not have the "usability" of the iPod or iPhone's player.
The phone is absolutely fantastic and there may well be 500+ positives
to every negative, but the music system it has prevents it from
getting 5 stars. Rating:
Reviewed by Adrienne Franks from USA
on 14th Jan 2009
i got my phone on the 1st jan and everything was ok and then weird
things started to happen but then it all stopped about 2 days later
i have had no problem since x Rating:
Reviewed by Chaz from Norn Iron on
13th Jan 2009
mint! Rating:
Reviewed by swanseaosprey from Wales
on 7th Jan 2009
Great Phone, well built and great features. Would recommend. Toutch
screen can take a little getting used to, otherwise supurb A+++++++ Rating:
Reviewed by my name from uk on
4th Jan 2009
got this phone today, and it's awesome! the only problems i have
had so far are with the network, can hardly think of a fault with
the phone. camera and video quality are both brilliant, internet
is obviously not as fast as a computer but pretty quick considering
it's just a phone. sound is great. texting is a bit of a difficulty
at the moment because I'm used to keys but it hasn't taken long
to speed up a bit. everything is quick and easy to use. touch screen
could be a little more responsive, but as i've only had it a day
i haven't had chance to get annoyed with it yet. great phone all
in all. Rating:
Reviewed by Liz from UK on 4th
Jan 2009
Great phone. Love It Rating:
Reviewed by Phil from UK on 4th
Jan 2009
Well the phone is pretty cool to be honest the touch screen is responsive
enough i can even say more respncive than the omnia and it dont
lag as much as the omnia and it has a better quolity pictures so
just for that i have to rate it 5 star and i prefer it alot better
than the pixon or any other phone on the mrket at the moment! Rating:
Reviewed by lee liverpool from u.k on
1st Jan 2009
great phone nice features but terrible for texting. viewty buttons
were easier to text with. problems with downloading updates (orange)
great camera and sound Rating:
Reviewed by abdul teronia from uzbecistan
on 28th Dec 2008
thiz fone iz da bomb buy it any day. Rating:
Reviewed by §UkHÍ № WĄИ‼
яfc¹ from glasgow!! no.1 on 28th Dec 2008
a bought this phone from orange and worked for about 2 weeks then
the camera started having problems like when i started it, would
start jamming then not odng something and when i inserted the memory
stick it would not read it soo i absoulutly not recommened this
phone... look people theres people on this site saying this is the
phone ever but i bet you that they are having problems aswell!!!!
BUT JUST NOT ADMITTING IT!!!! $%^&* CHICKENS Rating:
Reviewed by Sophia Azamika from Bradford
on 28th Dec 2008
DONT BUY this phone. It has fantastic features but the touchsreen
is awful...really hard to use... buy the pixon...much better Rating:
Reviewed by curly from uk on
27th Dec 2008
this is the best phone i have ever owned and i have owned a lot Rating:
Reviewed by Sabha Ul Haq from Newcastle
upon Tyne on 26th Dec 2008
This is an excellent phone. I love. Itr is much better than the
tocco and pixon. Camera Quality......fantastic. Video quality.....outstanding.
Love it. Rating:
Reviewed by Lawrence from England on
25th Dec 2008
I just got this phone for Christmas!....and its superb the sound
quality is awesome due to the Dolby sound system, the eight mega
pixel camera is even better with its Schneider Kreuznach optics.
It could quite possibly be the best phone in the world. Rating:
Reviewed by ben from england on
24th Dec 2008
got this phone after having a bad two weeks with the samsung innov8
and it is so much better the touch screen is great, and the internet
access is the quickest i have ever seen, Not to mention the fantastic
camera. p.s BUY IT Rating:
Reviewed by skinner from ENGLAND on
22nd Dec 2008
what can i say this phone is by far one of the best phones i have
ever had the camera is magic the touch screen is very responsive
wifi is very fast i upgraded from n95 8gb and i am very pleased
and i will be quite happy to keep this phone for more than my contract
lenth i would say buy this phone well worth it 5 stars Rating:
Reviewed by Maria from UK on
21st Dec 2008
This phone is a little technological marvel. The camera is amazing
and is way better than my normal digital camera. I'm very happy
with this phone, texting is much easier than I expected, the qwerty
keyboard is good, but I don't find it makes it much quicker than
using the normal phone layout keyboard. This is my first LG phone
and I'm very pleased with my first impression. Rating:
Reviewed by Cleave from UK on
19th Dec 2008
Little tip for anyone struggling with wifi. Make sure you dont use
a key thats more than 27 characters long, thats providing you are
connecting to a home router. Rating:
Reviewed by Padraig from Ireland on
19th Dec 2008
This is an absulute magic phone i love the fantastic 8 mp camera
and the slow motion effects on the video camera the touch screen
is extremely impressive and very responsive although scrolling up
and down can be a bit hit and miss. The gps is fantastic and the
wifi is lightning speed although the bluetooth can be a bit slow
at times but this doesn't put me off it and i do not know why some
people can say bad things about the best phone currently on the
market Rating:
Reviewed by Pete from UK on 13th
Dec 2008
This is my first touch-screen phone. I've previously owned an LG
phone (U8110, a few years back and I was fairly impressed with that
phone - even tho it too had PC-connection problems as have been
mentioned with the Renoir). Have to say, I've only had the phone
3 days now, and my initial impression is generally good. It would
be unfair of me to comment on a lot of the features of the phone
that I haven't used, so I won't. I haven't even used the camera
yet! So no review of that. I'll re-post after I've had a play with
it. For the most part I've been transferring contacts, sending texts
and using the internet connectivity. Got Windows Live Messenger
working no problem. Same with Google Mail. Wifi and Bluetooth work
great. Call clarity is very good. Menu's can sometimes slow down.
This is a minor annoyance when it happens - which is rare - but
maybe I'll experience this more as I get used to the phone and where
everything is. Can't fault the phone on calls/texts. Internet browsing
is "useful" to have, and it's good to be able to check my e-mail/MSN/Facebook
on the move. The speed is great WHEN you have sufficient signal
strength to achieve full speed on the 3G HSDPA. My advice would
be to use a wifi connection (if available) - it seems to be more
stable - although I suspect it will probably reduce battery charge
quicker than normal (not had a chance to confirm this though). Navigating
around the internet in a 3" display takes a bit of getting used
to ... mainly because of the software's "zoom" facility which can
be cumbersome to use at times. Sometimes it just doesn't seem to
zoom when you want it to, and other times it will zoom when you
don't want it to. This may be more to do with the touch-screen though.
I'm using it with the original LCD protective film cover and you
do have to apply a little pressure. My biggest "gripe" so far has
to be about trying to position the cursor when editing a word. It
is virtually impossible to achieve (I haven't tried the stylus to
do this), but using a finger, or even a finger-nail it is VERY "hit-n-miss".
And unless I'm missing a trick, there doesn't even seem to be anyway
to MOVE the cursor to a different position without having to constantly
tap on the screen in the proximity of where you want the cursor
... and then when it DOES decide to move the cursor for you, it
usually puts it anywhere BUT where you actually wanted it, and where
you actually clicked (and my touch-screen calibration was pretty
good!!). Overall, the Renoir appears to be a very stylish and quite
accomplished PHONE. So far so good then :) I'll give it 4 stars
for now, as some things on the phone could be better, and some things
I've not had a chance to check out. Finally just a rather general
observation although this applies to most of the latest mobile phones
- not just the Renoir. Battery life, and people who complain that
they have to charge their new touch-screen, camera-phone EVERY DAY
(or even every other day!). Considering that you are watching videos,
taking pictures, surfing the internet, making/taking phone calls,
sending/receiving text messages, using bluetooth and wifi (possibly)
and lighting the screen EVERY time you do ANYTHING on the phone,
then I don't think having to charge it every day is necessarily
a bad thing ... look at it this way ... you can do most of these
things with a suitable laptop computer and how long do those things
last? a couple of HOURS if you're lucky! Yeah we ALL wish batteries
would last longer, but they don't ... accept it and plug it in ;-)
Rating:
Reviewed by Cleave from UK on
11th Dec 2008
This phone is my first LG but i am picking through the menus fine.
I can also say that i have found no problems to date. As to any
negative views, i have yet to find a phone that is totally bug free
there again nothing is built to last . Overall this phone is highly
recommended & comes as the ideal all rounder Rating:
Reviewed by Moke from uk on 11th
Dec 2008
my first LG after a long association with sony so found the user
interfacew very strange at first, but once used to it its quite
ok Reception is excellent, though i have changed networks - no lost
signals yet travelling about Scotland!! music quality ok, have had
difficulty loading music using supplied sorftware so bought a micro
sd card reader for 2.99 and it syncronises wit hthe pc really well.
WiFi - i havent been able to get this to work yet, bluetooth seems
to have difficulti recognising new devices but once paired this
has been fine. Havent had any proble,s ith the touch screen - this
is my first touch screen phone. Camers i have founfd this to be
very good and easy to use, flash is fine for indoors. The stylus
is usefull for some of the menus, my fingers are pretty big though
the stylus holder of a bit of a faff though after a while i dont
really notice it. Overall i can recommend the phone Rating:
Reviewed by Scratchy from England on
10th Dec 2008
The renoir is a very good phone, but mine got sent back before 14
days.... there was too many little niggles that i couldnt get on
with. Everyone complained that they couldnt hear me properly. May
have just been a fault out of the factory but it was there from
day 1. The texting 'board' has too many junk buttons around it (dedicated
key for language, T9 on/off etc?), meaning the actual keypad is
just that little smaller. Compare it to the Tocco/Pixon keypad and
you will see what i mean. Makes texting just a bit harder. The landscape
keyboard is only useful with the gaybar stylus, which looks wrong
hanging off the phone. The alarm has a STUPID glitch that if you
set an MP3 to wake you up... it sometimes wont stop until it has
played the WHOLE song! Not fun at 5am, good way to wake the whole
house up. i think most poeple will love this phone, and it was so
close to being perfect... but i decided the bugs were too many to
live with for the next 18 months. Rating:
Reviewed by rhonda from united kingdom
on 9th Dec 2008
i think this phone is great! my mate has got one and it is very
easy to use. it has a big memory and its touch screen!The only thing
wrong is that it is a big phone.this is a pretty good phone for
this size and great for people who have big hands, well what do
you expect ?if it has all of those features it wont be very tiny!
overall this is the best phone yet from LG and it beats the iPhone
by a long shot! Rating:
Reviewed by Tahir K from Kenya on
9th Dec 2008
got this phones as an upgrade from my viewty and i love it its awsome!!!!!!!!
the cameras great love the pics the internet is really fast and
i love the large screen display plus im used to using the on screen
QWERTY keypad and i love it on the down side when ever i try to
wipe the finger prints of my screen it creeks and everytime i put
it on the table it rings (vibrates in a funny way) Rating:
Reviewed by lee from u.k on 26th
Nov 2008
had this phone for over 2 weeks now its been brilliant so far battery
life is excellent although i do turn my phone off late at night.
sound quality is excellent, photography is brilliant and no delays
like my old smart phone (n73) i would recommend this phone due to
ease of use and how all round nice it is. only slight gripe is updating
the software (orange) seems to not work and texting isnt the easiest
task. i tend to use the stylus for that as i got fat fingers Rating:
Reviewed by Col from England on
26th Nov 2008
Well i've had this phone for 5 days now and already its in need
of repair, the loudspeaker seems to have blown even though ive hardly
used it for music. But on the plus side i found this phone to be
very good, touch screen is very accurate and responsive. Camera
and video recording is excellent, best ive seen yet. The only drawback
is when playing back an album it will play the songs in alphabetical
order instead of numerical, maybe LG will fix this if they release
a new update Rating:
Reviewed by Paul from England on
24th Nov 2008
I can't understand the bad comments. This is the best phone on the
market and I've not experienced any of the problems that feature
in the negative reviews. the camera works great in low light and
I tested it by snapping a picture in a completely dark room with
excellent results. I too have upgraded from a Viewty and LG (not
known for customer service) have really listened to the users' comments.
Every annoying Viewty problem has been fixed and I highly recommend
it. buy it now. Rating:
Reviewed by Branavan Sivakumar from
Sri Lanka on 24th Nov 2008
Phone not good. It have the poor interfaces. WI_PHI is not in the
league of the my 52 kps broadbands. And i have diffulyts about the
camera zenon flashing. it is not brite enouf. i ulso don like the
screen it is not responsing to my touches and i don like the recepsion
i have 1 and half bar of recepsion. In concludision i think the
pohne can has many improvemens. thanks for yur time. Rating:
Reviewed by scooper from UK on
22nd Nov 2008
Great phone especially after the Viewty I really like this phone
it's easy to use and the 8gb memory card is great for storing all
those mp3's and the playback with Dolby is good through the phone
or headphones Camera is miles better than the Viewty- no horrible
delay My only gripe is the horrible plastic cover for the power/headphone
slot which will easily come off in time Rating:
Reviewed by michelle c from uk on
20th Nov 2008
Had this phone for 5 days. On first impression its great. Camera
is great. Touch screen is easy to use. finding your way around it
is pretty much common sense. Only problem ive had is it wont synchronise
with my pc. Lg have not been too helpfull becuase the phone is a
new release and they don't even have a handset yet????. Have given
up, if you set the phone to mass storage then you can just download
pics and videos via usb, or get a micr st card converter and pop
it straight into the reader.. Have not tried putting any music on
yet though. Apart from the software issues im really pleased with
this phone. Rating:
Reviewed by Chrissy from UK on
19th Nov 2008
I got this phone as an upgrade and loved it. Touch screen great,
no problems messaging and camera is Excellent. However, here comes
a warning. If you have a Mac and not a PC then this phone, great
as it is, may not be for you as LG, like samsung, do not do software
for Macs. Therefore the only way to connect is bluetooth, so if
you like using PC suite etc you can't on a Mac. Apparently both
companies think Macs are not a big enough market and have no plans
to do any softwre, and I didn't find any on the www. Found a problem
because of this - can only transfer music via bluetooth and the
phone did not always play the track afterwards - said file was corrupted,
but if turned phone off then on again it found and played the music.
Also cannot sync calender/contacts so would end up inputting twice
- once to phone and to mac. I got the phone paired with my car's
HFT no problem. Because of the mac issue, I am returning the phone,
which is a shame as it looks and feels great. I am going back to
my nokia E65 smartphone while I find another upgrade - either C905
or N96 - at least Sony E & Nokia do some Mac software!! Rating:
Reviewed by Dominic Pianolica from Wales
on 19th Nov 2008
This phone is not that good! It has terrible UI and the camera flash
is perfectly inadequate!! wi-fi okay, but the rest is just not up
to scratch!! I will be taking this phone back for sure!! Rating:
Reviewed by Paul S from UK on
19th Nov 2008
T-mobile, branded. Have been waiting to replace a first edition
K800i. iPhone 3G didn't get a better camera so here I am. As a summary,
if I keep it then I'll use the Renoir for camera and phone duties
but sticking with my iPod Touch for everything else. Sound in video
is often out of sync. As others have mentioned, autofocus is slowwww
but it does work. The fast and slow motion is fun. When email client
crashes (which is often) it causes the phone to reset. I've *never*
been able to get the client to sync with an Exchange server - locks
up as soon as it tries to get a folder list. (I'm an IT Manager
- I know what I'm doing!) Browser is poor - often will not follow
links or download images. TMobile bookmarks can't be removed and
make using the bookmark menu tedious. Click a bookmark and it still
asks you if you want to go online... well, duh. Just loaded Operamini
instead. Assisted GPS is nice and fast - T-Mobile have put Google
Maps on but nothing with tracking/waypoints/routefinding. The camera
is supposed to geotag but, as is the same with most of the other
settings, it's got to be turned back on every time you turn on the
camera AND you can't tell if you've got a GPS fix so often there
isn't anything in the EXIF. Also, photos aren't saved to a DCIM
folder so when you plug the phone into PC/Mac Adobe Photoloader
or iPhoto won't find your images and you have to manually drag them
over. Not a biggy but an added annoyance. The WiFi works - hooray!
- BUT (you knew that was coming) it doesn't automatically reconnect
to known networks. Bluetooth... no problems so far. Dolby Mobile.
Nope. I can't work out what it's supposed to do either. I've got
a few more days before I can no longer return it. I'm still deciding.
May go to the SE C905. It's probably no better. Rating:
Reviewed by rik halton from england
on 19th Nov 2008
been uming and arring which phone to get, had the sony e c905 for
a week, even though it is a good phone, it was the size, look and
buttons that put me off. i swopped it for the lgkc910 and had it
2 days now. must say totally diff to wat i have had before, im still
finding pages and contents, things that i not found,lol does take
a good sense of touch for the touch screen and will get easier to
use. no probs and everything working fine, looks good, feels good
and is good. i do recommend this phone to anyone. Rating:
Reviewed by Theodoric from England on
14th Nov 2008
Never done a review before but I'll give it a bash, Im approaching
40 so don't expect too much. After nearly 15 years of Nokia's and
refusing to "buy" an upgrade from Orange (N95) I thought I'd try
this, it's getting easier to understand the more I use it but some
things are still beyond me for now. The camera is very good and
Ive even got the hang of texting on a touchscreen, drag and dropping
my Mp3's and connecting via WiFi. If I have one gripe it's the volume,
both the ring tone and conversation doesn't seem very loud, but
then I am from the era of "classic rock" (Saxon Motorhead ACDC)
so my hearing may be to blame. All told it's a good phone, if a
40 something can use it anyone can. Rating:
Reviewed by Rob from United Kingdom
on 12th Nov 2008
Currently have this phone on orange and I will definately be taking
it back. I hate the phone! Sound Quality Through Decent Headphones:
Dolby Mobile is a complete waste of time it makes music sound like
your listening to it in another room with a thick curtain rapped
around your ears. Turning off Dolby Mobile helps things allot and
only then does it sound acceptable ish (But still not loud enough).
Touch Screen: Inconsistent and buggy it took me 5 minutes to move
the slider and press buttons when trying to set the alarm. Camera:
Ok its 8 megapixel but actually the N95 produces better pictures.
Bugs: If you have auto phone lock on and decide to connect your
PC via bluebooth to the phone you will notice if the lock is on
and phone displays an allow request then the phone will lock up
and the only way to get it working again is to take the battery
out... Good Ey? However I have to praise the browser, wifi and Video
features. The LG Renoir is probably the fastest phone I have seen
with the Internet and Wifi is brilliant on this phone not to mention
the class leading video recording Rating:
Reviewed by Jack from UK on 12th
Nov 2008
Good, but with major flaws. I really, really wanted to like this
phone. I usually do a lot of research before buying a phone, and
will happily wait until the right phone becomes available. So I
waited for the Renoir. I've had it a weeek and a bit now... Mostly,
I have loved the phone, but it isn't excellent by a long shot -especially
for usability. The major problems I have are twofold. 1) The phone
will not sync with the PC- even though it sets it up for outlook,
when I try to connect it says not supported (when it isn't saying
other stuff about idle screens and it being failed to connect. I
need to get my outlook appointments onto my phone, and I cannot.
LG support don't even have a handset, so cannot possibly help. 2)
The camera. Yep, I know it is 8mp. My last phone was 5mp (N95) and
it took better pictures. Autofocus makes it auto blur, and manual
focus- while excellent eventually, takes far too long, and the touch
screen is far too unsphisticated to make it work properly. I have
had two handsets already, and it was the same in both. I am now
sadly considering taking it back and getting a SE 905. Rating:
Reviewed by Hundred Legs from England
on 10th Nov 2008
This phone is an outstanding phone thats full of great features
and it looks the biz too. Its weight for me is just perfect. This
is my first touch screen and my first LG and im hooked on touch
screens now, the only gripe i have is the battery life. I'm getting
just over 36 hours out of it and i haven't started to watch any
vids or play music yet. I've ran the battery down several times
and fully charged it again but its had no effect. I swapped my n95
for this same reaon so i'm swapping the renior to the X1 but it
took along time to decide wether to or not. I will miss the 8 meg
cam for sure. If you can live with the short battery life than this
would be a great phone for anyone. Rating:
Reviewed by TiM from UK on 8th
Nov 2008
Upgraded from the Viewty to the Renoir... Love this phone.. Its
perfect!.. BUY IT!! ;) Rating:
Reviewed by gerard from glasgow on
8th Nov 2008
as someone who only liked motorola's i gave this phone a go as my
contract was up i'm glad i did top phone excellent camera and it
also works as a phone Rating:
Reviewed by Mark from England on
8th Nov 2008
I got the LG Renoir as a free upgrade on Orange. The guy at Phones
4 was quite honest with his opinion on the latest phones - which
was good, which was not so good; so when he recommended the LG Renoir
I thought "why not?" I've had the phone three days now and have
a good old play of it - I am very impressed. The main use of any
mobile phone is obviously to make calls on it and the Renoirs clarity
is very good. The 8mp pixel camera does everything an 8mp should,
except take good pictures in very low light. Night shots leave a
lot to be desired but photos I've taken in daylight are very good.
The touchscreen is very responsive with just a very short delay
between touching an application and the application opening. The
scrolling effect is very smooth and the fact the display changes
from "portrait" to "Landscape" when you turn the phone round appeals
to me a lot. Texting is made simple by the activation of a qwerty
keyboard when the phone is turned to its side although the hand
writing recognition is something I haven't been able to master yet
- doesn't mean to say it's bad though. All the connectivity stuff,
i.e, bluetooth, wi-fi, etc works as it should and connecting to
the internet is very easy and quick. Out of all this amazing stuff
this phone can do, the thing that made me go "wow!" is a game that
came with mine. It's a dice game and to shake the dice, you simply
shake the phone side to side; to throw the dice, simply flick the
phone forward - brilliant! I would recommend this phone to my friends
and since I like my friends a lot, take this as a good indication
this is a phone you should own. Rating:
Reviewed by Johnny from UK on
6th Nov 2008
Only ever had Sony's before but decided I'd give this a go due to
it's spec, had it a couple of days now and am slowly getting used
to it and quite impressed, the slow motion video is brilliant altho
I'm not sure it has any real world use. Slightly disappointed with
the camera though, not as good as I expected it to be, I'm sure
my Sony k810 produced clearer pics..maybe I haven't given it enough
chance yet. Rating:
Reviewed by lizzie hart from new york
on 6th Nov 2008
this phone feels, hold the part it is so nice i love it and i am
going to buy the phone for my it sister and my 2 little brothers
so yeh it runs in our blood we love good looking phones thanks bring
some new good phones out PLEASE !!!!!!!!!!! Rating:
Reviewed by Nick from England on
5th Nov 2008
I h8 it. I hav had this fone since it came out nd i am very unhappy
with it.It freezes and it also has an over sensetive screen. My
previous fones hav been gr8. My dolce and gabanna v3 razr was brill.
My lg prada was brill. As was my samsung armarni. Ted baker was
rubbish tho. Im goin bk 2 desighner fones. Rating:
Reviewed by jonesdude from england on
1st Nov 2008
Had it 4 days, mixed opinions. Texting tricky on screen but getting
better with practice. Had 10 years practice on "button" phones,
4 days on touch screen. Video problems. Plays some divx files, rejects
some. Same with xvid. Don't know why yet. Should really play any
divx/xvid as it says it supports them. Video camera, audio and video
out of sync. Makes it useless for any decent movie shots. Orange
have changed appearance of home screen and logos. Removed GPS Maps
in favour of their, chargeable and not operational yet, "Orange
Maps" They too have added 5 non deletable bookmarks. The built in
browser i found very difficult to click on any link, repeatedly
poking at the screen with nothing happening. And the press-hold
to zoom percentage seems completely random, unless i haven't figured
it out. I've installed Opera Mini instead. Camera seems good, though
does not save straight to memory card, despite setting it to do
so in Memory Manager and Camera Settings. PC suite software is terrible.
Best to change usb settings to Mass storage mode and add files by
drag & drop. On the whole it's a pretty cool phone, just the niggling
details, i'm going to stick with it. Maybe there will be updates
to help the lack of full divx/xvid support. Anyone else tried changing
their divx files to suit it, i.e. audio codecs or bit rates/video
resoulutions? Rating:
Reviewed by paul from uk on 31st
Oct 2008
after reviewing many fones when my contract renewal came along i
was uming and areing what fone to get and finally plumped for this
over the SE c905. I have to say it is one of the best decisions
I have made about phones. the interface is easy to use and the touchscreen
is brilliant and very responsive. although txting is a chore at
first arter a few messanges it becomes easy and you feel that it
is even easier than an actual keypad. the camera is also outstanding
with smile and blink detection and beauty shot all taken with an
amazing 8mp camera. this fone although not a full smartphone is
the closest your going to come to being one without actually being
one. i would recommend anyone to get this phone as in my opinion
it is currently the best phone on the market at the minute. Rating:
Reviewed by MI from UK on 30th
Oct 2008
I just got my phone today for 3G on contract, its brilliant so far,
right now Im copying films on my phone, love it, and I love the
texting, qwerty keybard is awesme. Rating:
Reviewed by SK from England on
28th Oct 2008
Got this phone monday and have mixed opinions on it. If you like
texting alot and quickly think again about getting this phone. It's
a bit of a chore to tx! The camera is great though and probably
its best feature. The touch sceen is also less responsive than the
iphone & Samsung Omnia. Rating:
Reviewed by GER DAVIES from UK on
27th Oct 2008
ONLY HAD PHONE SINCE SATURDAY- SO FAR ITS OUTSTANDING - CAME FROM
THE NOKIA N95, THIS NEW LG IS EASIER TO USE AND FAR MORE FLEXIBLE.
IT IS LIGHTER AND THINNER, THE CAMERA IS FAB AND THE BATTERY SO
FAR IS WAY OUT BETTER - CHARGED IT SAT NIGHT STILL OVER HALF FULL
AND BEEN USED A LOT TO FIND MY WAY AROUND THE PHONE. SO FAR 5 STAR Rating:
Reviewed by STEVEN MURRAY from SCOTLAND
on 22nd Oct 2008
THIS FONE ROKS MAN ITS DA BOMB Rating:
Reviewed by mrs small from usa on
21st Oct 2008
this phone rocks man!!!!! You must get it Rating:
Reviewed by sam thoma from england on
14th Oct 2008
i have previously owned an lg kc910 renoir and it is an amazing
piece of kit with an 8 megapixel camera and touch screen capabilities.
truly AWESOME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rating:
Reviewed by mr big from usa on
14th Oct 2008
its great what more can i say Rating:
