LG Incite

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Touchscreen phone is not something new for LG. However, LG fails to built its reputation in this market. We can see that KS20 and Dare are far left behind by the HTC Touch Diamond, Touch Pro and Samsung Omnia. But LG never give up, the LG Incite is the newest touchscreen smartphone for the company. The Incite is specially made for AT&T and it is the first LG’s touchscreen smartphone in US market.

Design

At first glance, the LG Incite looks pretty cool. The LG Incite is covered almost entirely in a reflective coating which is really stand out from other touchscreen smartphones. From the metal body, you will know that definitely have a tough time trying to get fingerprint smudges off the phone, and there’s no need for a self-portrait mirror next to the camera, as the handset’s surface itself can act as a mirror. Measuring 107mm inches long by 55.9mm inches wide by 14mm inch thick with  119.9g, Incite is very small and light. In fact it’s about the same size and weight as the Samsung Eternity touch screen feature phone. The Incite sports the same [ad#mobile]240 x 400 resolution as the Omnia and Samsung Eternity feature phone, but in a smaller 3″ LCD. The screen quality on the Incite isn’t as good as other similar devices. Likewise, the touch screen on the Incite has haptic tactile feedback, which lets you know, using vibrations, that your touch has registered. You can adjust the sensitivity of the touch response as well as the length and strength of the vibrations. Since the touch screen is resistive, you can use either your finger or the provided stylus to navigate through the screen. The two dots above the display are the proximity sensors, which switch off the screen while you’re on a call with the phone close to your face.  The right side has a speaker and next to it is the miniscule LED indicator light. Also, you will found two physical button under the display, we have just a Call Start and End key, plus a mic in the center here.Flipping over to the left side, we have microUSB for syncing and charging, a volume rocker, and a nicely-placed soft reset hole. On the other side of the device, we have a dual action camera button,standby/lock button, external microSD slot, and a springy scroller, which helps to mitigate the loss of functionality caused by the D-Pad omission.

Software

LG Incite runs Windows Mobile 6.1, so you get all the typical Windows Mobile features like Microsoft Office Mobile Suite, and support for Microsoft ActiveSync and Microsoft Direct Push technology that lets you sync with your Outlook calendar and e-mail via your office’s Exchange server. As for the user interface, it is standard Windows Mobile with a few special LG touches. The home screen, or Today screen, is typical for most Windows Mobile phones, with a display of important information like date, time, the day’s calendar appointments, whether you have any new messages or e-mails, and miscellaneous items like the current weather at your location. However,the UI sometimes makes the phone seem a step behind. The tap, then tap again steps to launch programs from LG’s launcher, the too-small UI items and less sensitive screen that sometimes require more than one press make the phone seem less than brilliant. With a screen recalibration using the lightest of light touches with a stylus and a few days practice, controlling this little beast gets easier and the phone thus felt more responsive but still less than ideal. As for the user interface, it is standard Windows Mobile with a few special LG touches. The home screen, or Today screen, is typical for most Windows Mobile phones, with a display of important information like date, time, the day’s calendar appointments, whether you have any new messages or e-mails, and miscellaneous items like the current weather at your location. However,the UI sometimes makes the phone seem a step behind. The tap, then tap again steps to launch programs from LG’s launcher, the too-small UI items and less sensitive screen that sometimes require more than one press make the phone seem less than brilliant. With a screen recalibration using the lightest of light touches with a stylus and a few days practice, controlling this little beast gets easier and the phone thus felt more responsive but still less than ideal. The browser is another interesting feature here. NetFront made by Access is the key, default browser which wouldn’t really impress you, especially if you’re an Opera Mobile 9.5 user. Well, the experience with the browser was truly pathetic. Double tap to zoom in and the overview of the page still eludes you. There’s a pretty looking guide on the right but the rendering of pages isn’t really top priority for NetFront. The numerous ‘menus’ don’t make things easier either. However, the full suite of Office Mobile 2007 is the only consolation here.

Multimedia

Easily the most disappointing feature on this phone is the media player. As Windows Media Player 10 is a first for LG, it hasn’t added one lick of style to the standard Windows Media Player interface on the LG Incite. The app looks dated, with buttons that are too tiny for touch. When we pull out a stylus to listen to music, it’s obvious that something has gone wrong. As a consolation, LG includes a 3.5mm headphone jack, so we could use our own headphones. You get the customizable equalizer, the ability to create and edit playlists, plus you can set it on repeat or shuffle. The Incite supports MP3, +AAC, eAAC+, EAAC+, WMA, and WMV formats for both audio and video playback. You load music onto the phone via the provided USB cable and the included software. As for storage, you do get 256MB of internal storage and additional storage in the form of microSD/SDHC cards. The Incite accepts up to 32GB cards. Also the handset is come with FM radio receiver. To use it, you need to attach a headset, as it uses the cord as the antenna. For the video, AT&T’s cellular video service looks pretty good on this phone, and streams smoothly over the 3G connection. The sharp screen and fast CPU handled files up to 600kbps just fine. Still, it isn’t a replacement for an advanced video player, and even the streaming media clips open up in the stodgy old Windows Media Player environment. The LG Incite uses a 3-megapixel camera with auto focus. The camera application performs well, and is finger friendly. Beside can take photos up to 3.0MP resolution, the video capture can be done up to 400×240 resolution. The camera app lets you do things like make a panorama, shoot a continuous shot, or shoot with a picture frame. Focus times also are relatively quick for an auto-focus camera phone. It seems everything is ok about the camera, but unfortunately, the Incite’s camera can’t manage decent shots. The auto focus was unreliable though it was fast, and plenty of our shots turned out blurry. Plus, the camera has trouble with lighting, leaving many areas in our photos underexposed.

Conclusion

In the end, we have to admit that LG Incite is disappointing. The device is saddled with so many usability and quality problems that it’s hard to get excited about it. LG seems will lost in this high competitive smartphone battle again.