The LG GT540 is a bit late to the party with Android 1.6, which launched a full ten months ago, but should that matter for an audience after a simple and cheap smartphone? Find out as we detail the software in this part of our LG GT540 review.
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LG GT540 review
LG GT540 review: Build and touchscreen
While we’re happy with the tweaks LG has made to Android 1.6 on the LG GT540, they’re too little too late – especially since LG has announced its first Android 2.2 phones for later on in the year. As such, the LG GT540 feels like a stop gap measure that only a small audience will love.
For those not versed in Google’s relentless update pace to Android, Android 1.6 brings text to speech skills and support for useful tools like Google Maps Navigation (Yes, free satnav), as well as a quick search box for the homescreen. All good and welcome, but Android 1.6 has been available since last September, and Google has since released Android 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 – the latest of which brings speed improvements and even full Flash support for internet video streaming. That puts the LG GT540 far off the bleeding edge, and we’re not sure why when cheap phones like the T-Mobile Pulse Mini and Vodafone 845 are already toting Android 2.1.
Still, to its credit, LG’s adjusted Android 1.6 “Donut” to make it more enjoyable to use. The most obvious addition is the keyboard: you get a simple 0-9 numberpad in portrait mode to make typing easier on the LG GT540’s resistive screen, and it’s easy to use. The landscape QWERTY keyboard is also a tad preferable to Google’s stock QWERTY, but you won’t be using this a great deal: because of its screen, the LG GT540 is not a phone for emailers (Especially since Android 1.6 doesn’t support sync for more than one Google account).
Other welcome additions include sound, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS toggles built into the notification tray, so you can turn them on and off on the LG GT540 at any time, along with an excellent and streamlined media player. Fire it up, and you’re presented with large and simple icons, so even a child could operate it, and we were pleased to find that LG has expanded Android’s core video format support: the LG GT540 quite happily played DivX and Xvid AVIs along with MP4s, making it one of the best Android phones for video outside of the super specced Samsung Galaxy S.
The homescreen adjustments meanwhile are pleasant, with a cap of seven homescreens to stop things getting silly, and a dock with the dialer and messaging at the bottom. The LG GT540’s camera software meanwhile is hit and miss: while we love the options, including adjustable exposure and a continuous shooting feature, the red whirring icon that springs up when you pop the shutter leaves it woefully unclear as to when the snap has actually been taken.
As we said, we like most of LG’s changes. What we object to however, is the bloatware network Orange has shoved onboard in a pathetic attempt to differentiate itself. Orange Maps, an Orange App Shop and Orange contacts backup are all included, and as you probably don’t need us to tell you, none of them better what Google offers in Android natively. All they do is serve to confuse recent smartphone converters, who might not know Android backs up your contacts wirelessly anyway – clearly Orange staff behind this fall into this category too.
Still, you can always ignore them, since Orange hasn’t removed anything. Much more problematic for an Android 1.6 phone is the pricing. Orange, which is selling the LG GT540 in the UK, is offering the phone on 24 month contracts only, starting at £15 per month with an abysmal amount of minutes (50), and £20 per month for 100 minutes. Why bother when you can get an Android 2.1 toting HTC Legend for that much? Quite.
Read the rest of our LG GT540 review
LG GT540 review
LG GT540 review: Build and touchscreen
