LG KC780

Although the mobile phone is often cited as the very epitome of technological convergence, it’s still possible to see which section of the market each individual handset is hoping to cater for.

For example, the Nokia 5310 - with its unique side-mounted playback buttons - obviously has designs on replacing your humble MP3 player, and while Apple’s iPhone also has a musical focus, the touchscreen and astonishing feature-set indicate that your previously irreplaceable PDA may find its existence under threat.

Similarly, when you pick up the LG KC780 and turn it over, its aspirations are as clear as day. The large 8 megapixel camera lens results in a noticeable bulge at the top of the phone, and the fact that it’s certified by Schneider-Kreuznach is made abundantly clear by the text that runs proudly along the back of the battery compartment.

As if to seal the deal, the phone’s packaging helpfully explains that the KC780 is a “slim 8 megapixel camera phone for taking good pictures of people” (we’ll assume that this statement has lost some of its impact during the translation from Korean to English).

Make no bones about it - LG’s latest handset was born to take photos. However, this section of the market is rapidly becoming one of the most over-subscribed, so any communications device purporting to transform its owner into a David Bailey-style photographic guru has to have the skills to back up its haughty claims.

Thankfully the KC780 unquestionably captures a fine photo, and manages to showcase many of the advanced features found in its 8 megapixel-toting big brother, the Renoir. Here we have smile detection, face detection and even a ‘beauty’ mode (although sadly the latter isn’t able to perform miracles, and is essentially just a post-snap ‘clean up’ tool).

Although it would be foolish to compare the KC780 to a dedicated point and shoot digital camera of the same megapixel rating, the overall photo quality is excellent; it boasts good colour balance, excellent contrast and impressive detail, even in challenging light conditions.

However, the KC780 is slightly less proficient in other departments. There’s no 3G, which means that surfing the web and downloading files is done via old-fashioned GPRS (or the slightly faster EDGE if your network happens to support it).

Also, the music player is rather basic, and lacks the finesse displayed by rival handsets in the same (modest) price range. On a more positive note, DivX video playback is thankfully incorporated.

The 140MB of internal memory is just about adequate for normal use, but if you intend to take lots of snaps or upload stacks of music albums then you’ll almost certainly need to shell out for a memory card.

While the general design of the phone is pleasing, there are aspects that become quite irksome the longer you spend with it in your hand. The slider mechanism is solid, but the casing feels a little cheap. We tested the rather drab black version (it also comes in silver) and we have to admit it wasn’t the kind of phone we’d be all that keen to show off to mates.

Bucking the recent trend of LG phones, the KC780 lacks any touchscreen capability, which means it has to rely solely on ‘mechanical’ buttons for navigation and interaction.

The main directional key is large and will suit those of you with ape-like appendages, but the surrounding buttons are located far too closely and this results in mistaken presses.

We lost count of the number of times we accidentally pressed the ‘cancel’ key when we actually intended to press ‘down’ on the D-pad.

This naturally has a knock-on effect on the KC780’s gaming prowess. For the most part, the D-pad functions perfectly, offering accurate control over the on-screen action, but during particularly frantic games you’ll almost certainly become irritated.

Thankfully the majority of the phone’s pre-installed games don’t rely on the D-pad. The ‘My Toy’ application - which has previously been seen in the LG Secret and several other accelerometer-enabled entries in the company’s catalogue - is as much fun as it ever was.

Our only worry is that this is a ‘one off’ program rather than a dedicated gaming portal, like Nokia’s N-Gage. $It’s possible that LG will take it upon itself to produce additional ‘My Toy’ game packs in the future, but it’s unlikely.

The key thing that allows the KC780 to clutch a rather timid victory from the jaws of defeat is the price. Like LG’s Cookie, this phone is aimed squarely at the consumer on a budget and in the current perilous financial climate, the ability to purchase a decent mobile with an 8 megapixel snapper will definitely appeal to many.