LG U400
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Full marks to LG for attempting something a bit different with the U400. Different for a phone, that is – the influence of the iPod on this music-centred handset is clear to see in the scroll wheel mounted off-centre on the front.

The wheel certainly gives this chunky slider phone a distinctive look, and feels pretty smooth in use, though we found that it can be hard to judge the amount of movement necessary for scrolling through menus (three clicks of the scroll wheel didn't always seem to guarantee three lines on a menu, for instance). We didn't come across any games that incorporated the scroll wheel function either.

Fortunately, that's not the end of the matter. There is standard D-pad hidden under the scroll wheel, which always keeps its north, south, east, west configuration, no matter which way you turn the wheel.

It's quite responsive and easy to use but there is a problem: the two soft keys directly to the left and right of the scroll wheel can be easily pressed by accident during hot 'n' heavy gameplay, which could pause the game, or worse. Not an ideal state of affairs but you can get used to it – with practise.

Those soft keys also take a bit of getting used to because, unusually, they're not located directly under the left and right edges of the screen, where the soft key prompts are on screen.

The keypad on the other hand is nicely spaced and well delineated, with half moon-shaped keys in the centre line.

Our U400 didn't come with any games as standard, but LG has made much of the device's built-in 'DJ function', which enables you to 'scratch' over any music tracks you play by moving the scroll wheel. It's not much more than a gimmick though, since there's no scope for timing your scratches, so it gets old very quickly, even for wannabe turntablists.

The music player incidentally isn't bad, but it falls behind some of the others out there, not least on sound quality, which certainly seems to lack something in the lower regions. It does have twin speakers, which gives a hint of stereo sound, although they still sound rather weedy. The headphones are much better, and there's the option of stereo Bluetooth for wireless headphone fun.

And so to games. The U400 is available exclusively on 3 for a while, which offers a decent range of mostly old-school classics available to download.

Now, the U400 is not a bad gaming phone as such, but it needs a little perseverance to get used to its little quirks. The large, bright screen renders well and is reasonably nippy but falls down a bit on clarity – we've seen other screens with a similar number of pixels and colours that look better than this.

Arcade classic StreetFighter II seemed to slip up in the quick-paced special moves sequences, though the much more sedate police procedural Special Crime Unit rendered well, with no fast-moving action to muddy the detail.

Elsewhere, the two-megapixel camera is pretty good, offering good quality pics and a host of editing options. There's also a secondary VGA camera on the front for 3G video calling (remember when that was supposed to be the future?).

With 68MB of memory onboard, plus a microSD card slot for expansion, there's plenty of room for games on the U400. But that fiddly D-pad, less-than-perfect screen and inferior audio quality mean that few gamers will make it their first choice.

LG U400

The LG 400 boasts some special features, including an iPod-style scroll wheel, but it's nothing special when it comes to games
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