With all the hype of the current release of the Apple iPhone you would be forgiven for not being familiar with LG's latest offering, the LG KU990 Viewty. As with the iPhone handset the Viewty allows you to navigate its menus and features with the touch of a finger. But LG have added a few features to the Viewty that the iPhone is sorely missing. Could this touch screen technology underdog really be better than the iPhone?



The LG KU990 Viewty is equipped with a 5-megapixel camera including a xenon flash and auto focus which puts Apple iPhone's 2-megapixal offering to shame. The camera can also be switched to capture high speed motion footage and includes a unique feature that allows you to watch the video replay in slow motion. Combine this with the option to automatically upload to YouTube and you can plainly see why the Viewty is genuine competition for the iPhone.

The Viewty allows you to browse the Internet through a fast GPRS or 3G Internet connection with an innovative web browser that allows you to zoom in on areas of web pages and then use your finger to drag the page across the screen. This function is useful as the handset screen is small and trying to read a full webpage without the zoom would be almost impossible. Surprisingly the Viewty is missing a Wi-Fi option, a feature which has become very popular and almost a ?must have? on new mobile phones as Internet browsing becomes more popular.

The onboard 170MB memory is generous but the microSD memory can only be expanded to 2GB which is really poor when you consider that the Viewty is going to be used for capturing high quality photographs and video. In comparison with the iPhone's standard 8GB the Viewty falls short by a long way.

The onscreen buttons and menus are easy to navigate and the photo gallery neatly allows you to drag and drop photos as if you were shuffling through a bunch of photographs laid out on a table. As with the iPhone there are some traditional buttons located under the screen that allow you to quickly answer calls or direct you to the main menu. There is also a selection of buttons on the side of the handset which allow easy use of the camera options.

At 103.5 x 54.4 x 14.8 mm the Viewty handset is smaller than the iPhone but slightly thicker. The battery life is good for a regular phone but with the other technologies included it will be necessary to regularly recharge especially if you have set the phone to vibrate each time you select a button on the touch screen.

In conclusion the Viewty is not just a clone of the iPhone. Yes the iPhone will be a lot more popular and will sell many more units due to a frantic advertising campaign and brand awareness. Yes the iPhone does look beautiful and operate a lot slicker than the Viewty. Yes the Viewty is missing Wi-Fi, but there are a few features that will help the Viewty compete with the iPhone. It has a far superior camera which includes video capture, the Viewty is open to networks other than O2 and the handset costs are likely to be significantly less than the Apple iPhone. The Viewty is kind of like the footballer playing for a small team who scores a spectacular goal but is overshadowed in the media by the big team player's strike.