Our Review of the LG Secret
The LG Secret is the latest in the ultra-stylish Black Label range from LG and it is a very easy phone to fall in love with.
The LG Secret is the latest in the ultra-stylish Black Label range from LG and it is a very easy phone to fall in love with. With its glossy, tempered glass front panel and carbon fibre back cover, the LG Secret oozes quality from every pore. From picking up the handset you can really feel the superb build quality. You could say that the carbon fibre battery cover does not really match the rest of the handset but it does lend the Secret feelings of both durability and tacitility. The exterior of the front panel is also covered with a thin metal frame, which really gives the Secret a rich ergonomic feel. Placed on the front panel is the all new navigation system of the Secret; called the "Neon Touch" navigation pad, it is essentially a touch sensitive pad with one standard confirmation button. It has to be said that blending hardware and touch sensitive keys feels a little bit odd at first, but once you get used to it, it's a really novel and interesting idea that makes accessing the more mundane phone fucntions (such as the address book) both engaging and fun.
The LG Secret also has a great number of features tucked away within its software. For instance you can actually customize the user interface, menu font and dialling style. But the real meat is in the area of functionality. You would expect the Secret to have a music player and LG have duly delivered. The software is incredibly user friendly and allows you the option of creating playlists and filtering tracks by album and artist. The player also gives the user some great visualization options too, even album artwork options. The Secret manages to put out some decent quality sound and it also includes an FM radio.
What will attract many users to the LG Secret is the 5 Megapixel camera. LG are no strangers to this particular battlefield as the Viewty is already a well established 5 Megapixel favourite. Thankfully LG have not got complacent with the Secret. The interface software on the camera will be familiar to anyone who has used the Viewty, as it has the same black and white look. While the operating system is similar LG have brushed up the minor faults that plagued the Viewty so the Secret takes altogether clearer shots. To handle or your music and photographic needs LG have included 100MB of memory and the Secret is also upgradeable up to 4GB via the microSD card slot. The secret also comes pre-installed with a Google package that includes Google Maps for mobile and Gmail. Connection to the web is very fast over HSDPA. Six mini Wii-style games, which make use of the built-in motion sensors, are also included in the package - just make sure you don't put your Secret through a window when you're playing.
Pros
Tempered glass, steel and carbon fibre jacket.
5 Megapixel camera.
Touchscreen elements.
Memory expandable up to 4GB.
Cons
Motion control mobile games will not be to everyone's liking.
Our Rating
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The Secret is a welcome addition to LG's Black Label line up. The Neon Touch interface is particularly cool, and the high quality of the tempered glass and carbon fibre back panel give the Secret solid, durable feel.
