At first glance, the LG GW550 could easily be mistaken for a BlackBerry, such is its design. With a QWERTY keyboard and almost identical keypad layout, it isn’t instantly obvious that this messaging device is actually from LG. Seeing the popularity in recent times of messaging devices with QWERTY keyboards, maybe taking a lead from BlackBerry isn’t such a bad thing. We’re going to take an in depth look at the GW550 in this review, to see just what lies under that dour exterior.
It would be difficult to describe the GW550 as aesthetically pleasing, given its rather boring look. Functional, would be a better word. The phone is a rather standard QWERTY device, with a large 37 key QWERTY keypad dominating the lower half of the phone. Just above this, and below the display, are the navigation controls for menu browsing and selection, whilst the display itself is a standard 65,000 colour TFT display, QVGA (320 x 240) resolution measuring 2.4 inches, the same size and widescreen orientation as the display found on a Nokia E71.
The operating system on the GW550 is Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard. The user interface is not to the standard of the excellent HTC TouchFlo system; however despite this the menu layout is easy enough to navigate, and thankfully you don’t have to deal with too many long menu lists, at least not in the top tier of the menu.
A competent device, the GW550 offers full email support with a push email option, as well as support for instant messaging. An onboard document viewer allows you to view email attachments in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and .pdf format. Unfortunately the document viewer is just that, a viewer; it is not possible to edit documents on the device.
There is a full media player on board, which is well laid out and easy to navigate. Memory can be expanded up to 8GB with the option of a MicroSD memory card, allowing for plenty of music files, as well as video and images to be stored. Music on the device is categorised depending on genre, album or artist, and you can also create your own playlists. Multiple music files are supported, including MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA. Video files present well on the screen, with the GW550 able to playback both 3gp and MPEG4 files. Unfortunately it appears that LG have not included a 3.5mm audio jack on the device, so you will have to make do with the supplied LG headset, although with Bluetooth 2.0 included, you can always turn to a compatible stereo Bluetooth headset.
The LG GW550 ships with a 3.2 Megapixel camera. There isn’t much to say about this; it is adequate for a point n shoot device, pictures will present well on the screen and should look ok when viewed on a PC, but they certainly aren’t of a standard to be printed out. A nice option is the inclusion of a photo and video editing application on the phone, allowing you to string a few photos together which you can email out direct from the handset.
The inclusion of 3.5G HSDPA Mobile Broadband is a welcome bonus, especially as it supports up to 7.2Mbps. HSUPA is also included so uploads can also be sent from the device over the high speed data network. Not all areas of the UK have HSDPA enabled, and even then some parts are not 3G enabled. For such occasions, the GW550 offers data transfer over GPRS, HSCSD or EDGE.
And that pretty much covers the basics of the LG GW550; a competent messaging device, kind of a blend between a BlackBerry handset and a Nokia E71, a bit bland and normal looking, and lacking any real star quality that either a BlackBerry or Nokia Eseries devices can offer.
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