Hands-on with the LG Prada
At the O2 booth at CeBIT we had an opportunity to go hands-on with much-loved but not often touched LG KE-850-based Prada. We have been diggin' this phone since we first laid eyes on it, but now that we have finally had a chance to use it a bit, we can't help but feel fairly underwhelmed. The build quality looks top-shelf, but feels like inexpensive plastic, and while the idea behind the touch interface is grand, typing an address in a browser was nasty. That being said, the lovely PR type from O2 told us that it was most definitely her fav handset and that she was hoping to take one home, so what do we know? We won't bore you with the specs again, but we will share the pics!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mitch @ Mar 15th 2007 10:45AM
What is with the ugly blue dots?
brendan Sheehan jnr @ Mar 15th 2007 10:50AM
Wild guess.. I'd say it's attack of the blue UFO's from above.
steve @ Mar 15th 2007 10:52AM
@Sean,
Did you tell her that she was your fave boothbabe and that you were hoping to take her home?
brendan Sheehan jnr @ Mar 15th 2007 10:54AM
So basically it's a less thicker, less intuitive, uglier, pricier, plastic iPhone with less powerful software that also lacks a QWERTY keypad, but it's availble now. Where do I sign?
brendan Sheehan jnr @ Mar 15th 2007 10:56AM
Balls I hate typos, especially when you make them and you're saying the total wrong thing. I meant thicker - not less thicker. (You get the gist anyway, I hope)
Samo @ Mar 15th 2007 11:48AM
Less powerful s/w? Or Not as fancy O/S? I'm not a big fan of the iPhone personally (read: not a fan AT ALL), but I do like the nifty O/S infterface, BUT is it worth *that* price when this baby does everything that does, without *that* name brand, and better third party software support?
If I like big phones, with touchscreen only buttons, this is my choice, but until my taste changes, I prefer slim, candy-bar phones that have a nice MP3 player built in... Size matters! (...I didn't just say that did I?!?!?!?!)
tho @ Mar 15th 2007 12:13PM
actually, it has a QWERTY keyboard, you can see a picture of it on http://www.xonio.com/bildergalerie/x_bildergalerie_v3_24264474.html?show=5
bluemonq @ Mar 16th 2007 1:06AM
The Motorola Q has a QWERTY keypad. The Blackberry 8800 has a QWERTY keypad. The Treo 650 has a QWERTY keypad.
The iPhone does not have a QWERTY keypad. It has an *on-screen* QWERTY keypad. And multi-touch or not, keypads/keyboards without feedback suck.
Tom @ Mar 15th 2007 11:26AM
It's only 0.5mm thicker than the iPhone so I wouldn't worry about it brendan Sheehan jnr :)
Billy Kincaid @ Mar 15th 2007 11:01AM
3 more months until the competition arrives. *swoon*
geezer @ Mar 15th 2007 11:04AM
I'm still waiting to get my hands on a LG Prada Testdrive device hopefully to come in my house ~ early april (PR said so). Can't wait to see and test it.
Jim @ Mar 15th 2007 11:21AM
what service provider is this for?
Argot @ Mar 15th 2007 11:25AM
Morons posting "B-b-b-but iPhone"-comments in 3,2,1 oops, too late...
Liqwid @ Mar 15th 2007 11:26AM
I believe it's going to be a Verizon phone, Jim.
tim @ Mar 15th 2007 11:38AM
Why no pics of the hot PR girl?
MacVicta @ Mar 15th 2007 11:51AM
"So basically it's a less thicker, less intuitive, uglier, pricier, plastic iPhone with less powerful software that also lacks a QWERTY keypad, but it's availble now. Where do I sign?"
Now that's the spirit! I look forward to more and more of these realizations once the iPhone is released. The comparisons will put LG to shame.
The LG Prada is nothing more than yesterday's technology wrapped in a fancy package. At least Apple is attempting to make touchscreens useful with innovations such as Multi-Touch and a full QWERTY keypad that will function like no other before it.
Leave it up to LG and we'd go on believing that touchscreens are worthless.
craig @ Mar 15th 2007 1:07PM
"The LG Prada is nothing more than yesterday's technology wrapped in a fancy package."
Yeah, just like the iPhone will be.
"At least Apple is attempting to make touchscreens useful with innovations such as Multi-Touch and a full QWERTY keypad that will function like no other before it."
Apple has demonstrated multitouch on the iPhone only once and that was for a useless function. Their soft keypad will work exactly like others before it as evidenced by the Apple demos. Their keypad makes no use of multitouch and is not different in any way from those that have come before.
Of course, you know this already, MacVicta. You're just parroting Apple hype and have no useful input of your own. Curious how you continue to ignore each time I correct your mistakes and instead regurgitate the same Apple propaganda. Touchscreen keyboards suck. The Prada on sucks, as the author stated, and the iPhone will suck as well.
"Leave it up to LG and we'd go on believing that touchscreens are worthless."
Touchscreens are great but Apple's will be no different than any other touchscreen phone. For people who actually need a texting device, there will always be superior thumb keyboard products. Perhaps Apple will invent one someday. Meanwhile, a T-mobile Dash is everything the iPhone is not and it has Google Maps, iPhone's supposed killer app, today.
mrsalty @ Mar 15th 2007 12:12PM
Does this have WiFi? How is the MP3 player in this thing? How did the external Speaker Sound? What was reception like? Does it have visual voicemal?
Neo @ Mar 15th 2007 12:31PM
This is the iPhone competition? Look at that web browser, isn't that the same that you find on a 20 dollar phone? Nice try, LG.
craig @ Mar 15th 2007 1:52PM
No, the iPhone is this phone's competition. The Prada phone was announced first and will ship first.
Some people will want this phone because it says Prada and the extra high price increases the appeal. Think of it as a crappy,$200 phone with an expensive, Prada case bundled in. Makes sense when you see Sidekicks with crystals glued on and Louis Vuitton iPod cases that cost more than the devices they protect. There are fools out there with lots of money and both Prada and Steve Jobs are targetting them.
MacVicta @ Mar 15th 2007 1:38PM
craig, you're such a silly individual.
Everyone knows what Steve Jobs showed us wasn't the finished product. The software wasn't complete and there are secretive pieces tied into OS X Leopard.
If you believe Apple won't utilize Multi-Touch with their keyboard(s) to create the most satisfying typing experience possible, you don't know Apple.
From a new BusinessWeek article entitled "Apple's Magic Touch Screen" which looks further into Apple's Multi-Touch patent(s):
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2007/tc20070314_109157.htm
"Impressive as a touch screen that can keep track of two fingers at once may be—try more than one finger on a conventional touch screen—the screen outlined in Apple's patent application will be able to react to as many as 15 simultaneous touches. The document says that's enough for all 10 fingers, the palms of both hands, and three "others," whatever they may be. The software on the iPhone, or whatever other device employs the technology, can respond to each individual signal, independent of the others."
Now, do you honestly believe this won't be incorporated into the keypad? We all know they've snatched up FingerWorks and a Multi-Touch keyboard was one of the few projects they worked on.
It's nice to know I have such dedicated fans, btw.
craig @ Mar 15th 2007 4:28PM
"Everyone knows what Steve Jobs showed us wasn't the finished product. The software wasn't complete and there are secretive pieces tied into OS X Leopard."
We'll see. Nothing new and actually valuable to a cellphone experience has been shown so far.
"If you believe Apple won't utilize Multi-Touch with their keyboard(s) to create the most satisfying typing experience possible, you don't know Apple."
I know they won't because they've demonstrated the keyboard. The keyboard doesn't use multitouch (although it apparently tolerates it). Watch the demos and you will see that I'm right. I certainly don't know Apple in the way you do. I'm too objective for that.
Yeah, I've read the businessweek article and i've seen the apple and non-apple multitouch demos. It's all speculation and there is still very little that the technology is actually useful for. For what good it does, none of it applies to 3.5" screens like the iPhone has. You think you can get 10 fingers plus palms on the iPhone screen at the same time? In all the whizbang demos that the researchers have shown, no useful work ever got done.
"Now, do you honestly believe this won't be incorporated into the keypad?"
I know it won't. Apple has shown it. Multitouch is used to scale photos in the iPhone and that's all so far. It may well be used to control zoom in other apps but that's a trivial operation already. You have to compare what multitouch does to what a device without it uses as an alternative. So far I'm not impressed with multitouch.
If you think that multitouch will be used for the keyboard, why don't you try to imagine how? There's barely room for two fingers on the device (across, how the keyboard is layed out). If the keys are wider then normal like Apple claims (and has to be lie) and multitouch is used, then why is the keycount across the screen the same as on conventional thumb keyboard devices? In order for the keys to be easier to use as Apple says, the pitch of the keys has to be wider. That simply can't be the case. My Samsung is as wide as the iPhone and has the same number keys across. The pitch on the iPhone cannot be wider than the Blackjack and that's the smallest there currently is. Sorry, but the iPhone keyboard is not revolutionary. It can't be.
"We all know they've snatched up FingerWorks and a Multi-Touch keyboard was one of the few projects they worked on."
Yeah, we know that. That company was setting the world afire, weren't they? No doubt Apple has the multitouch knowledge but assuming multitouch is useful, even revolutionary, is not justified based on anything we've seen so far.
"It's nice to know I have such dedicated fans, btw."
It doesn't suprise me to know you interpret the facts that way.
Goobimama @ Mar 15th 2007 1:13PM
3 inch screen size? Still not good enough for me...
Xinyu @ Mar 15th 2007 1:31PM
How about 3.5 inch screen on the iPhone? Anyone who has seen the iPhone demo will know how pathetic this LG phone is in comparison. Does it even display normal webpages like iPhone does? Look at that screenshot with the Engadget.com page, it displays 4 big buttons at the bottom so you can move left, right, up and down on the page. What a waste of the touchscreen! The iPhone displays the whole webpage just like on your computer, in portrait or landscape, and you move around the page simply by moving around your finger on the screen. To zoom into a page to see more detail, you simply squeeze with two fingers, or double tap any part of the webpage.
Anyone can make a touchscreen phone, but to think that they will give you the same level of easy of use and functionality is just laughable. Stop comparing this to the iPhone, because all this has is good looks on the outside.
dave @ Oct 4th 2007 4:19PM
IPHONE POO..
HAD ONE OF EACH BATTERY IS TOTAL SH1T ON IPHONE PRADA BETTER WIFI RUBBISH ON IPHONE MY NOKIA 9300i BETTER AT PICKING UP ROUTERS
BUT ALL TOUCH SCREENS ARE BIT DAFT STICKY FINGETS SCREEN CLEANING SCRATCHES ETC ETC...OH DID I MENTION PRICE.........
treetrunk @ Mar 15th 2007 5:37PM
@MacVicta:
Do you actually know what multi-touch is, or do you just assume its great and going to /somehow/ provide the "most satisfying" typing "experience" possible because Jobbs says so?
It's exactly what it says on the tin- multiple touches. The keyboard Apple demonstrated did not use it, and it'd be entirely stupid if it did, as it would require you to have two digits on the screen to type anything. Think about how you use a phone - generally you hold it in the palm of your hand and press buttons with your thumb. Multi-touch would mean either you had to get one of your fingers onto the screen from /behind the phone/, put the phone down somewhere, or use both hands (as Jobbs did in the demonstration of it to scale pictures).
And I don't buy into the "secret features" that are apparently coming with Leopard- that's blatant marketing hype. Yes there will be features which weren't revealed in the demo because they didn't go through everything, but do you really think they left off anything major? Would they have missed off the web browser or iPod-like capability do you think? Of course not- they revealed everything of any importance and called whatever other gubbins they didn't mention "secret features" to add some hype on the side.
Fredrik Alvenes @ Mar 15th 2007 1:46PM
Picture of the roof (with blue lights Mitch): http://alvenes.dibon.net/alvenes.com/CeBIT%20side%202_files/DSC01376.jpg
js @ Mar 15th 2007 3:14PM
*insert pro-iPhone comment here*
seriously, there are two benefits of having a stylus:
1. Jot down free hand notes with the stylus
2. Handwriting recognition
Let the bashing begin. iBots, to your battle stations!
Brandon @ Mar 15th 2007 4:16PM
The Prada is nothing more then a stylish pda for those who can't handle to complexity of a windows mobile phone or the iPhone. Kinda like the sidekick but more out of reach of the teenage or college budget.
Xinyu @ Mar 15th 2007 5:08PM
Craig, I think you need to open your mind a little bit. Multitouch is not only used to scale photos on iPhone, it's also used to scale webpages (Steve mentioned this, but didn't show it, instead he used double tap). In fact, I bet that it can be used to scale pretty much any document such as PDF. And this "two finger squeeze" scale is not just for show, it's so much better than the current alternative on phones, which involves painstakingly zooming in step by step by pushing some button, then repeat the same slow painful process of moving the pictures or webpages little by little to the desired position with the keypad or joystick. On the iPhone, you just squeeze to zoom, then use the finger to move around, everything is so fluid and fast. This is just an example, but I sure hope you can see the light and day difference in terms of how multi-touch dramatically enhances the user experience that we currently have to endure on our phones.
john @ Mar 15th 2007 8:21PM
"It's exactly what it says on the tin- multiple touches. The keyboard Apple demonstrated did not use it, and it'd be entirely stupid if it did, as it would require you to have two digits on the screen to type anything. Think about how you use a phone - generally you hold it in the palm of your hand and press buttons with your thumb. Multi-touch would mean either you had to get one of your fingers onto the screen from /behind the phone/, put the phone down somewhere, or use both hands (as Jobbs did in the demonstration of it to scale pictures). "
The keyboard does use multi-touch. This is a fairly large phone, and is competing with smartphones (or so Jobs claims), so you would probably use the keyboard in the same way that most smartphone users do, with two thumbs. When you're doing this one thumb would be resting on the screen while the other hunts and pecks. Without multi-touch it wouldn't be able to deal with both thumbs on the screen at once, with multi-touch, it can.
bluemonq @ Mar 16th 2007 1:06AM
Wait, so explain to me *why* you would need to have two thumbs on the screen at the same time? Also, I would expect that if I were to hold a thumb down on a key, it would repeat the letter. Are you suggesting that I would have to tap it multiple times? How would the phone be able to differentiate resting and holding down a key? What if you're doing one with your left thumb and the other with your right thumb.
mitch @ Mar 15th 2007 10:22PM
I, for one, are not too impressed with either the iPhone or the Prada. Right now, multi-touch is just a gimmick. Real multi-touch will look like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKh1Rv0PlOQ
However, I do find it interesting that no one is jumping up and down and screaming that the iPhone is a Prada rip-off, they do look much alike.
PS3guy @ Mar 16th 2007 10:27AM
iphone no 3G = suck period,
Dan34 @ Mar 16th 2007 8:28PM
Prada have an on screen qwerty keyboard. The link below have a picture with it. My question is if you can really use this keyboard. I think that the buttons for letters are too small.
My second issue is that from what I know now you can't use MP3 as a ringtone. What do you think of that?
And please stop comparing LG with Iphone. Or start compare Ferrari with Rolls Royce. I think that they are not intended to be compared. Be positive and appreciate what is great in both of them.
http://www.xonio.com/bildergalerie/x_bildergalerie_v3_24264474.html?show=5