LG Louvre GC990
Summary
Finally... the time has come to make your pockets happy and throw away your standalone camera! The first cameraphone to offer not only 12 megapixels for its still imaging, but also HD video recording capabilities, this is a sight to behold indeed. Add to this all the expected features of a top-of-the-range phone these days and you´ve got something that will be flying off the shelves.
Specifications and features
3D S-Class Touch User Interface
Accelerometer
3.2” touchscreen
16 million colours
Wi-Fi with DLNA
GPS (and A-GPS)
Bluetooth
TV-out
High-Def (1280 x 720 pixels) video recording @ 30fps
XviD and DivX playback
12.1MP camera featuring:
- Schneider Kreuznach lens
- Autofocus
- Tap-to-focus
- ISO up to 3200
- Xenon flash
- Intelli-zoom and Touch Focus
Features
First shown to the world at a Korea Products Exhibition held in Warsaw, the GC990 has been gaining a steady following for a while now. And rightly so, we say. As you´d expect of any new phone, the GC990 comes with the full range of features all running via the fantastic S-Class Touch UI (based around the 3D cube navigation, using the accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate). With TV-out, Wi-Fi with DLNA for super quick internet speeds,Advanced GPS for all your mapping and search facilities and a crisp 3.2" 16 million colour touchscreen display, this is a great phone in its own right.
But it´s the 12MP camera and the HD video recording that have – rightly so – been attracting all the attention. The GC990 actually looks more like a camera than any phone we´ve seen before, especially if the lens is pointing straight at you. This is in no small part due to that lens being a Schneider-Kreuznach. The German company, operating for a century now, were a fantastic choice to work on this lens (as they have been on previous LG handset, and even though small, this is about as good a lens as we´ve seen on any previous phone. Other camera features include: zero shutter lag, which explains itself, a variety of zoom options such as tap-to-focus that have been packaged under the rather dull but equally informative title of ´Intellizoom´, and an ISO setting of 3200 for low-light shots (though we´re expecting images taken like this to be very noisy indeed).
The HD video recording at an impressive 30 frames per second is something never before found in conjunction with a 12MP camera, and we´ve been more than a little impressed with what we´ve seen of it so far. And don´t forget anything you record can be played on the big screen using that nifty TV-out function.
Overall
The best cameraphone out there, bar none. We´re sure this title might not last all that long, but for now, at least, LG are top of the roost and deservedly so.