The LG GW520 Silver, an Overview

The mobile phone market has long been split into two camps, those like physical Qwerty keypads and those who do not. The first group will argue that there is nothing to match the speed of composing a message as physically pressing a button, the latter group will argue a touchscreen does the job just as quickly with less bulk. Regardless of where you allegiance lies, the LG GW520 Silver does a pretty good job of pleasing everyone.

Measuring 106 x 53 x 14mm the GW520 sit comfortably in the hand and does not feel to bulky either weighing 125 grammes, although this is a touch heavier than some of its counterpart models. The 2.8" TFT touchscreen shows a maximum resolution of 240 x 400 and displays up to 256k colours. Despite being a resistive touchscreen, it is none the less very responsive and very little pressure needs to be applied to achieve navigation. When the handset is held on its side, a metal sliding mechanism comes into play when you slide the screen upwards, revealing the full QWERTY keyboard. This keypad consists of four rows of keys. A built in accelerometer chip automatically rotates the screens to match the position you are holding the phone in.

The camera device incorporated in the LG GW520 is a fairly average affair. Capturing an image at a resolution of 3.15 mega pixels or 2048 X 1536 resolution. The camera lacks an autofocus feature as well as a flash, however there is a positve side to the lack of features. This is the noticiable lack of shutter lag on this phone. Simply put its the delay from the time when you press the button to when the image is actually captured, and to be fair on some models you can miss the shot altogether due to this lag. The 40MB of internal memory is not adequate enough to store many photos, but up to 16GB extra can be added thanks to the Micro SD card slot. This additional memory is also great when it comes to storing a host of audio files, but the GW520 fails in its efforts to become a serious MP3 player thanks to the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack, seriously limiting the choice of headphones that can be used on the phone. An FM radio is included on the plus side.

The LG GW520 Silver does achieve some of its goals. For a relatively low priced handset the good quality touchscreen and the full QWERTY keypad is a definite plus point, and the compact look and overall design will appeal to somebody looking for stylish looking handset that doesn't take up to much room in a pocket or handbag.

The LG GW520 Silver and the LG BL20 Chocolate Purple are available now.