LG KC780

LG handsets housing eight-megapixel cameras; they're like buses they are. You wait an age for one and then another follows right behind it. Ok it's not the best analogy, but you get the gist that the South Korean manufacturer has brought another camera powerhouse to the table. The LG KC780 is not as heavily-specced as LG's other eight-megapixel phone the Renoir, but this would suggest that it will be available for less, which when the terms ‘credit crunch' and ‘recession' are being branded about so freely, can only be a good thing.

Look and feel
Another fundamental difference between the LG KC780 and the Renoir is that whereas the Renoir is fully operated via touch-screen, the KC780 is entirely controlled by much more conventional means. Sporting a slider format, the handset is made from a sleek plastic that while we felt it gave it a refined polished look equally felt a little slippery, particularly the keypad. LG has managed to keep the handsets width down to 13.9mm though it does protrude a little around where the lens is. However, it still manages to remain fairly pocket friendly.

Found beneath the 2.4-inch TFT screen is the usual array of keys; a navigational pad, hard keys, a call and call end button and the cancel button. However, the cancel key also doubles up as a shortcut to a clock, organiser and photo album, all of which can be accessed when in the homescreen. We did have a slight issue with how close LG has positioned this key to the navigational pad. Situated directly below it - in fact it's actually adjoining - when using your thumb to navigate around the KC750's menu, on more than one occasion we found that due to the positioning of the keys we accidentally hit this key when merely wanting to press down on the navigation pad, which would take you back a step.

We're assuming LG is gearing this phone towards a slightly younger demographic. Not only is it more affordable than the Renoir, added extras such as the animated wallpaper that adorns the phone's homescreen, coupled with the musical keypad (thankfully you can turn this off) did nothing other than irritate an old fuddy duddy like us. When dialling numbers each digit will even be emblazoned with a rainbow of colours.

Portrait shot
LG has placed a great deal of emphasis on the KC780's ability to "take good pictures of people", even stating such on the box. Presumably they mean taking a half decent shot of your mate after one too many to embarrass them at a later date. Well that might be partially true, but there are enough camera enhancements that mean they shouldn't prove too embarrassing. These include, face recognition, smile detection and even beauty mode.

To fire up the camera, you have two options, both of which are a tad time consuming so don't expect to capture that spontaneous shot. The first method is to use the dedicated camera key found on the side of the device, but to do this you will have to be idle in the homescreen, that is to say if you are operating any other features, you will have to use the more conventional method of opening it up via the multimedia folder.

Camera features
We found that face recognition and in particular the smile shot required a steady hand which can be helped by the image stabilizer mode, while you'll have to be in close proximity to your subject for either to work. For those unfamiliar with smile shot, it works by concentrating on your mouth looking for a change in angles (i.e. a smile). As soon as it does so, voila, the photo will automatically be taken. It was a tad disappointing to find that the KC780 couldn't detect more than one persons face at any one time, particularly as the Renoir had no trouble doing so.

While the Renoir boasted a blemish disguising beauty shot feature, the KC750 differs slightly in that it has beauty mode, which fundamentally corrects the same pimples and wrinkles, only rather than doing so pre-shot, you have to doctor the picture after it has been taken. In fact there's a whole host of post-editing options available, including turning your subject into a cartoon character or giving them an upturned nose or large head. It makes for an amusing few minutes, though quite what purpose it serves other than mild amusement is beyond us.

Other notable snapping features include the Panorama setting that aligns three shots together creating a decent landscape shot, and continuous shot which takes seven (very) rapid shots in quick succession which could prove useful when taking that action or sporting shot for example. The LG KC780 records video in 30 frames per second (fps) which is traditionally said to be DVD quality, so if you're fan of recording video, it's definitely another box that the handset ticks. What's more pair up a Bluetooth enabled PC to the handset and use the camera as a webcam to communicate with others over the web.

The verdict
Buy the LG KC780 for the purpose of having a good quality camera and all your snapping needs should be met. However, if you want something beyond that you may ultimately be disappointed. There's no 3G or HSDPA for starters so you'll be surfing the web on the sluggish GPRS or the ever so slightly faster EDGE data speeds. Music wise and while the audio experience was adequate, there's no 3.5mm headset jack or for that matter an adapter, while the onboard memory is only 140MB meaning if you're wanting to store anything more than the odd track you'll be needing to splash out on a memory card of some description. Likewise while it's great for a handset to have the ability to view content or play games (the KC780 has a host of LG's accelerometer based M-TOY games) on a large TV screen, it would have been nice for the manufacturer to include a TV out cable rather than expecting us to splash out that extra bit of cash.

It's these slight oversights that despite its snapping credentials, the LG KC780's price is not the only thing that is mid-range.