LG GW300

 

Its price and features make it an impressive phone

 

 

Good design, sturdy build, comfortable keypad, good audio quality, multitasking, well priced

Average camera quality, unimpressive web browser 

I'll be honest, we aren't big fans of LG phones here. We have tested quite a few of them including some of their best models, but each one of them left a lot to be desired. So when the chance came to review the GW300 I was a bit skeptical. But then I had a look at the spec sheet and then at the price and I was quite intrigued. The GW300 sports a price tag of under Rs 5,000 and yet seemed quite feature-rich for that price. I decided to try it out and see if this one is any good.

The GW300 has a candy bar design with a full QWERTY keypad below the display; a form factor that has been popularized by the BlackBerry, the E series and, off late, the cheap Chinese phones. My colleagues did not fancy the design of the GW300 much but I quite liked it. At least it does not look cheap and it actually looks much more expensive than it actually is.

The phone is also well built. The design is entirely made out of plastic and the phone is quite light but it feels sturdy. Having said that the battery cover did creak slightly when pressed, but it wasn't that bad.

On the front, the phone has the earpiece at the top and the 2.4" QVGA display in the middle. The display quality is pretty decent indoors and even outdoors the display remains readable. Below the display is the navigation and QWERTY keypad. The keypad was very comfortable, especially the navigation keys, which were large and easy to use. The QWERTY keypad was also quite nice, although I did not quite like the sound they made when pressed; it sounded plasticky.

On the left side of the phone is the volume control buttons and below it is the microSD card slot that can take up to 16GB memory cards. On the right side is the camera shutter button, although I doubt anyone would want to use a button on the side, in a phone meant to be used in portrait mode. On the top is the micro USB port and the 3.5mm headphone jack, which has thankfully not been skipped to save cost. On the back of the phone is the 2 megapixel camera lens with a self portrait mirror and the loudspeaker. The loudspeaker, which although is fairly loud, gets a bit muffled when you keep the phone on a surface. 

Call quality and network reception was fine on the phone. I got full signal strength in most areas. The loudspeaker was powerful, so ringtones could be clearly heard. Speaker phone mode was also quite usable and the vibration strength was decent too.

The camera on the GW300 is a 2 megapixel one without autofocus or flash. Clearly the flash is not supposed to be a highlight of the phone and has just been added for the sake of it.  The quality of images is nothing to write home about and is just average; decent enough for a quick snap to upload on Facebook or Twitter but nothing else.

The music player on the phone is quite decent. It supports most of the popular formats and can play in the background as well. It also comes with multiple audio presets but there is no way to create your own. The audio quality over the headphones is really good and the presence of the 3.5mm headphone jack is much appreciated. The provided earphones weren't so great though and it is advisable to use your own headphones with the phone. The loudspeaker is pretty loud and the quality is decent as well. It supports up to 16GB memory cards, so you can have plenty of music on your phone. There is also an FM radio present if you ever get bored with your music collection.

There is nothing interesting to talk about the image and video player. The display is too small to enjoy either of it. The video format support is also limited and the resolution can only be up to QVGA. This is not the kind of phone to watch videos on so it would be wrong to expect that. One would have to be a fool to come looking for it and then complain about the lack of DivX/Xvid playback here.

The web browser on the GW300 is very disappointing. It's mostly designed to handle mobile optimized websites and that's the only thing it can do well. It just cannot handle anything beyond that and even if it could you would run out of memory before the page finishes loading. The display too is not that large for serious web browsing. A better alternative would be to use Opera Mini, which is much better at handling larger pages. There is no 3G or Wi-Fi available on this phone so the best you have is your EDGE connection.

The GW300 is powered by a 900 mAh Li-Polymer battery. In my testing the phone lasted for about two days on a single charge, with a few calls, messages, web browsing and music playback.

I don't remember the last time I quite liked an LG phone but I must say I'm impressed with the GW300. It isn't a brilliant product but what makes it great is the price it is selling for. For Rs. 4,800, the GW300 is excellent value. You are getting a phone with good looks and build quality, a comfortable keypad, good music playback and decent battery life. For someone on a tight budget this should be more than enough.
In comparison the Samsung CorbyTXT has a smaller, lower resolution display. Nokia will soon be launching the C3 but that is likely to be a bit more expensive. In return it will offer Wi-Fi and a bigger battery, but it will lack the multitasking functionality that the GW300 offers. In the end I would say that the GW300 offers a good balance of features and price, and would be my pick out of the budget range of QWERTY keypad phones for now.