Mobile phone technology continues to take great strides forward, and mobile phone manufacturers are working to maximize what each iteration of technology bring to current models. This has been true for each generation of mobile phones from the very beginning, plain to see in the way that mobile phones have been evolving ever since. Even mobile phone manufacturers who have been working on making new mobile handsets for quite some time have to turn to new tricks of the trade in order to ride the wave of technological change and keep turning out bleeding-edge handsets that bring new mobile experiences and capabilities to their target markets.
Mobile phone manufacturer LG have made a name for themselves, particularly in the realm of Android smartphone making. They’ve become a particularly notable brand in the European and Asian markets, and have been working hard on their first US-released handset, the LG Ally. All told, this sturdy device packs a lot of promise, with Android 2.1 as the OS and a good range of features including a slide-out QWERTY, stereo Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi, and a good 3.2-megapixel camera. It’s a good showing for LG’s first full-on US outing, even if it doesn’t really try to reinvent the wheel – or the smartphone, for that matter.
On the surface, the Ally is reminiscent of LG’s EnV Touch, which is a good thing. Blocky in black and silver, the ally’s 4.56” length, 2.22” width and 0.62” thickness is wrapped in ergonomic curves and angles that make it fit well in hands, even at its hefty but sturdy 5.57 ounces. The 3.2-inch display is great to look at, with a very stunning 800×480-pixel resolution matched by its 262,000 color support that shows off crisp and sharp images. The capacitive display has good responsiveness, with optional haptic feedback adding vibration register to screen touch. The option for “live” animated wallpaper is accompanied by an accelerometer and proximity sensor, which adds to the experience.
The Ally has a slide-out full-QWERTY keyboard in four rows, the activation of which adjusts the screen to landscape mode. The keyboard is responsive and roomy, with a dedicated number row and sizeable keys that let you type with speed and accuracy. The square navigation toggle to the right of the keyboard is a good alternative to navigating via the touch screen. Along with this hardware feature, the Ally sports Android 2.1 and a variety of well-integrated Google applications like Gmail, Google Search, Google Maps [with Navigation], YouTube and Google Talk.
The Ally also has A-GPS, stereo Bluetooth, WiFi and a variety of other features including speech-to-text recognition, visual voice mail and voice commands. Along with these, the Ally features the LG Socialite app which syncs the user’s Facebook and Twitter conacts with their Gogole contacts, allowing for easy coordinated access to these services courtesy of a custom user interface. One the more serious side of contact options, setting up a variety of email accounts and editing and reading documents with Quickoffice are all very easy. This is balanced out with a good music player, which can plauy songs from the 512mb onboard memory or in the expandable removable microSD storage [up to 16gb supported]; you can copy songs to the card or purchase songs through the Amazon MP3 store]. The 3.2-megapixel camera takes fairly good if not exceptional photos and video, and call quality is similarly decent – loud and clear but receiving somewhat tinny and tunnel-sounding calls.
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