The Secret is out. The LG Secret, that is, also known as the KF750. LG made a big fuss launching this phone, splashing cash on a lavish Sydney party and hauling out Sex and the City's Chris Noth to do some actorly spruiking.
With such a glitzy celebrity pedigree, you might expect the Secret to be heavy on the bling and light on the features. But for the most part the phone transcends its flashy origins, thanks to some decent specs and a solid overall performance.
Design
The Secret is a slimline HSDPA slider with a palm-pleasing heft, weighing in at 116 grams and measuring 51x103x12 millimetres. The "tempered glass and carbon fibre" so exalted in LG's publicity material do give the handset a high-end look. But there's a downside: the Secret is a smudge farm if ever we saw one, and it's likely you'll be getting grotty finger marks all over it, on both the front and back.
Beneath the 240x320-pixel display, a slim, lozenge-shaped silver selection button is surrounded by a touch-sensitive navigation keypad, where its sections light up with blue dots when active. Ordinarily we're not hugely fond of touch-sensitive keys because of how annoying it is when you accidentally press them — but the keys on the Secret are equipped with haptics, meaning you'll feel a little buzz to confirm selections. Slide the Secret open and you're greeted with a flat black keypad, the buttons large and distinct enough for even the most generously proportioned hands.
Features
A major feature of the Secret is its 5-megapixel camera. This spec puts the phone in competition with Sony Ericsson's C902, but LG has chucked in a bunch of extras including image editing, macro mode and a choice of ISO speeds. There's no Xenon flash, but then there isn't one on the C902 either — both phones sport an LED for late-night pic-taking.
There are also heaps of video options — you can shoot footage at high and low speeds, which results in a trippy or manic look. Should you care to share it with the world, you can upload straight to YouTube via the Google menu section.
Six games bundled under the "M-Toy" menu option make use of the phone's motion sensor. A dart-throwing title allows you to tilt the phone back and forth to aim, then flick it to send the projectile into the board. Other games include Maze, Homerun Derby and a fishing app in which you jerk the phone up to hook the fishy little blighters.
There's one aspect of the Secret that we just don't understand. The phone's display functions as a touchscreen, but it's only activated for a small selection of features, collectively known as the Touch Media menu. It's a little baffling to have a display that's sometimes touchable and sometimes not.
The 100MB of internal memory would be fine if LG had chucked a microSD card in the box, but our review phone was delivered card-free. Given the fact that each 5-megapixel photo takes up around a megabyte of space, it's disappointing to not have access to more storage.
Performance
When we tested LG's Viewty during our 5-megapixel camera phone showdown, we found that photos had a cold look, often having a purple or blue tinge to them. Although pics taken with the Secret did have a slightly blue look, the effect was far more subtle. Images were sharp overall, and displayed a depth rarely seen in camera phones. The Secret's camera won't replace your point-and-shoot digicam, but as far as 5-megapixel camera phones go, it's up there among the best.
Even though the touch navigation keys are quite user-friendly with that lovely buzzy haptic feedback, the centre selection button is so small that your thumb can occasionally stray to the sides. This is especially annoying in camera mode — when lining up a shot you can be unwittingly catapulted back to the main menu if you don't keep your fingers clear of the touch keys.
One area that disappointed us was battery life. We struggled to get more than two days out of the Secret with moderate use. If you're a big talker or heavy mobile internet user, you will want to pack your power supply.
All up, the Secret is a solid phone that belies its celebrity pedigree. Naturally we're inclined to compare it to Sony Ericsson's C902 — it retails for the same price — AU$899 — and both are HSDPA and have a 5-megapixel camera. Though the Secret's camera equals the Sony Ericsson's, the C902 just wins on account of its superior interface and overall usability.
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