The LG GD880 Mini – Less Mini, More Wow
The new LG GD880 Mini is synonymous with LG’s exotic and stylish range of products. The Mini appears, at first glance, to be LG’s most refined touch-phone device. Top LG directors have said that the Mini has been designed very much in keeping with the feedback received from customers.
Despite its ‘mini’ tag, the Mini isn’t actually a particularly tiny device, although it is somewhat smaller than the LG BL20 New Chocolate. LG, with the Mini, have decided not to engage with the smartphone rage that currently grips the industry, staying within its own S-Class operating system. First impressions of the design show an artfully designed device with an excellent, pixel-rich screen displaying extremely vibrant colours. Its 3.2-inch 480 x 854 pixel resolution says all it needs to, and also features tough scratch-resistant glass – excellent for those of us tired of flimsy devices that collect scratches like some of us collect mobile phones. The touchscreen is also fast and ultra-responsive few mistakes are generally made when writing texts. The only slight caveat is that it is very sensitive, and will register even the most feather-light of touches, so be careful.
The device itself is fairly light at 99 grams and is ergonomic and comfortable to grip. It is LG’s thinnest phone – and no doubt this will appeal to the style-tragic, although it is not quite as thin as Toshiba’s TG01. In terms of the construction, the Mini gives a fairly minimalist feel with square angles and straight lines housing black plastic and brush metal. The screen font is also fairly simple and is helped by the fact that the front of the Mini has no keys at all. Usefully, for those of us who have been disconnected before when bumped on public transport, the screen features a proximity sensor that turns the screen off and simultaneously locks it during a call.
On the top of the Mini, we can find a 3.5mm audio input jack, as well as a covered micro-USB port. There is also a power and lock key here. All of these keys are easy to find and are user-friendly. The device also features a 5-megapixel camera, with the lens being housed in the top-left-hand corner of the phone. The camera is decent enough, but unfortunately features no lens protection which can raise concerns about scratch accumulation for some people and also has no flash, which will be limiting to those looking to take snaps in different lighting conditions. Despite the fact that the back cover of the Mini is easy to remove, it is firmly held in place and there seems no danger that it will fall off. It covers the battery, which is a 900 mAh Li-Ion, as well as the SIM card.
By tapping the Status Bar at the top of the screen you can launch a new menu that can switch Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on and off as well as change profiles and take a look at all recent events. The home screen of the device also features a dedicated shortcut to the device’s main menu, and all items within the menu are easily accessible simultaneously – a departure from early LG incarnations. The device also has native Twitter and Facebook, both of which are easy to access for those into social networking. The music playing capability of the Mini is a real step up from the BL20 New Chocolate, and it features a ‘now playing screen’ which displays album art, where possible, as well as a spinning vinyl icon for presentation.
Internally the phone’s equalizer settings are fairly standard, although LG’s set-piece Dolby Mobile is particularly excellent. The 5 megapixel camera’s processing also allows it to take decent enough photos, although the video streaming was less impressive – and it is to be hoped that this facility improves when the device hits retail.