LG KS20 review

LG KS20
enrich mobile internet experience
R.P.: S$868
Promo: S$298 (with 2 years Singtel high-end mobile contract)
First, they gave us the LG Prada phone, then they gave us LG Viewty, now Life's Good bring us "LG KS20". The LG KS20 is a minimal design form, sleek-looking 12.8mm thick, pitch black fashion PDA/mobile phone powered by Microsoft Windows™ Mobile 6. This Broadband on Mobile Internet (3.5G) device is capable of video streaming and Push Email, on a large comfortable viewing 2.8-inch touchscreen with Intuitive Touch Input and Natural Handwriting Recognition. The KS20 allows connectivity via Wifi and Bluetooth v2.0. The Mobile UI can be customized to suit your style. KS20 is also equipped with a 2-megapixel camera with autofocus and a bright LED photolight. The 128mb internal memory can be expanded to 2GB with micro SD card for storage of multimedia files (videos and MP3) and playback on Microsoft Windows™ Mediaplayer. Apart from the pre-installed standard software package inclusive of Microsoft Office™ Mobile, other Pocket PC applications can be installed to enhance your mobile computing experience. If you prefer to keep it simple, the bulit-in FM radio might just be sufficient to keep you smiling.

KS20 Packaging
The LG KS20 box comes with a sleeve with the prints. The box itself is a hard and tough paper box with a checkered texture. The flap of the box closes with magnets embedded in the paper. Flipping the flap of the box up reveals a striking red surface and a black card covering main contents. The black card has a window that reveals the KS20.

The Accessories
LG KS20 PDA/mobile phone with battery, user guide, retractable stylus, usb data cable, earphones (connects to handsfree cable), handsfree cable (not shown; connects to KS20), charger, micro SD with adaptor, leather case, Getting Started CD-Rom, warranty card.
For the promo which I got, I had a free desktop charger and a spare battery.

SPECIFICATIONS
Network
Type: GSM (900/1800/1900 MHz) UMTS European/Asian 3G (2100 MHz)
Data: GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA 1.8 Mbit/s/HSDPA 3.6 Mbit/s
3G Capable: Yes
Size
Dimensions: 99.8 x 58 x 12.8 mm
Weight: 92.5 g
Battery
Type: Li - Polymer, 1050 mAh
Talk: 4 hours ( 240 mins) of Talk time
Standby: 400 hours ( 17 days) of Stand-by time
Main Display
Resolution: 240 x 320 pixels
Type: 262 144 colors, TFT
Dimension: 2.8 inches
Touch Screen: Yes with stylus and handwriting recognition
Camera
Resolution: 2.0 megapixels Resolution (1600x1200)
Video: Yes
Features: Flash, 4x Digital zoom, Auto-Focus
Secondary Camera: VGA camera for video calling
Multimedia

Video Playback: H263, H264, MPEG 4, 3GP formats supported , Windows Media Player
Music Player: MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA formats supported
FM Radio: Yes with RDS
Memory
Processor: 400 MHz Qualcomm processor
Memory Slot: micro-SD (up to 2GB)
Smartphone

OS: Microsoft Windows™ Mobile 6.0 Professional for Pocket PCs
Memory: 256 MB ROM, 128 MB RAM
Connectivity
Internet: Internet Explorer Mobile
USB: Yes
WiFi: 802.11b / 802.11g
Bluetooth: 2.0
Connectors: Proprietary
Other Features
PhoneBook: capacity depends on system memory, Multiple Numbers Per Contact, Picture ID, Ring ID
PIM: Alarm, Calendar, Calculator, TO-DO, Notes
Voice: Recording, Speaker Phone
Email: IMAP / POP3 / SMTP

The KS20 Gallery



Physical Profile
The left side of the KS20 reveals the strap eyelet, charger/cable/handsfree connector, up & down side keys, stylus in stylus slot. The right side of KS20 reveals the power key, micro SD card slot, internet explorer and camera buttons. The bottom side is where the battery release button is found. On the front face of the KS20 is the Send key, 4-way navigation joystick, End key, 2.8-inch touchscreen speaker/earpiece and secondary camera.

Form-Factor Comparison
Comparing the form of the LG KS20 to my previous PDA which is a PalmOne Tungsten T5. Comparing the KS20 to one of my clam-shell mobile phone Panasonic VS2. Comparing the KS20 to my iPod mini 2G. Comparing the KS20 to my present compact Canon Digital IXUS40. Comparing the KS20 to a card.

My Take on LG KS20
I was recently looking into changing my mobile phone since I had a high-end contract up. I had always wanted to get myself a PDA phone to replace my PalmOne Tungsten T5. I needed a PDA to do my spreadsheets anytime on-the-go to manage my finance records. At this present age and time, form-factor is critical. Hence, carrying my Tungsten T5 and my SE k770i around is getting rather cumbersome. I would love to combine both devices together. I was looking at two models, LG KS20 and HTC Touch Dual. There were plenty of mixed reviews on both devices. But I decided to go for the LG KS20 instead of the HTC Touch Dual.

Negative Comments

One of the main negative comment of the KS20 is the poor sensitivity of the touch screen, which I beg to differ. After testing out the KS20, I was convinced that there is nothing wrong with the touchscreen. In fact, the lesser sensitivity allows user to slider their fingers or stylus across the screen without accidental activation/selection, before depressing very gently for activation/selection. Tapping gently with finger or stylus can easily for activation/selection. Most importantly, users worry too much about putting too much pressure on the screen. The screen is very durable and it is all about getting used to the sensitivity.
Another negative comment is the lack of Chinese support in Microsoft Windows™ Mobile 6 powered devices, however, HTC Touch devices come bundled with a Chinese software "CE-Star". LG has not included any Chinese support software with the KS20. I am not to particular about Chinese input and display, but my mum usually send me texts in Chinese. Without any Chinese support software, Chinese texts cannot be displayed.
UPDATED 18th April 2008: Nevertheless, thanks to ber, I have managed to do a simple tweak of the registry and managed to get my KS20 display and write in Chinese for FREE! There is no need to even install any software like CE-Star.

One negative point which I realised is the rather small touchscreen compared to HTC devices or even the iPhone. The virtual QWERTY keyboard is so small that my big fingers always miss the right key. I can only accurately point the key using the stylus or scribble using the transcriber. The text recognition transcriber recognises natural keystrokes like my Tungsten T5, hence my learning curve is minimum. That makes a single-handed messaging operation rather tough and thus I will have to wield the stylus most of the time.
Another negative point is the inferior speaker which is the same as the earpiece. The audio playback through the small speaker can result in slight fuzzy sounds which cracks gently with high bass and treble.

I personally dislike using the handsfree with earpiece since I will have to connect through the proprietary port which is covered by a soft plastic cover and hangs on its frail soft plastic hinge.

POSITIVE POINTS
The good points of the LG KS20 which I must emphasize are the small form-factor, fast processor, light-weight and sleek design. The music and video playback is smooth on the Windows Media Player. The Microsoft Windows Mobile™ 6 OS comes with Microsoft Office™ Mobile pre-installed. The marketing people in Korea has done a great job at designing the packaging of the LG KS20. The hard leather case is well-designed such that the front keys will never be accidentally activated and magnetic flap closes the case together. The 2-megapixel fares surprisingly well and comes equipped with photo light which serves as a mini torchlight for some. It is also not necessary to buy a screen protector, the default screen protector is quite resistant to scratches from scribbling with the stylus and oily smudges can be easily wiped with a facial tissue. When the KS20 leaves the box for the first time, it is well protected with protective stickers/filmsI have left the protector stickers on the rear in this shoot to protect the rear. The ringtone is relatively loud but as I have mentioned earlier fuzzy at maximum volume. Most importantly, the vibration is very strong.

Though the HTC Touch Dual has a slide-out numeric keypad, bundled Chinese software and at a slightly cheaper price, not having WLAN/WIFI and camera flash puts the LG KS20 ahead of the competition. I have also chosen the LG KS20 over the LG Viewty because the Viewty is more dedicated towards its camera functionality but also lacks WLAN/WIFI. I believe that I have made my best choice getting the LG KS20. It is truely a device where "Style meets Functionality"!

LG KS20 Gallery


DISCLAIMER
Please respect the copyrights of the photographs and content in this post. Please support my work by linking back to this post via this address: http://mybearbrick.blogspot.com/2008/04/lg-ks20-review.html

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Comments

Anonymous said…
welcome to the WM6 family!

did the chinese thingy work?
WILLIAM TAN said…
Haha, thanks ber.
I have yet tried it.
Haven't download a registry editor for WM6.
BTW, does it support Pinyin input to Chinese recognition? That is what I would like to use to input Chinese text.
I believe your file only supports viewing and not input?
I guess I will have to get CE-Star already.
Anonymous said…
so u need a registry editor as well right?

can input via pinyin, strokes etc.
its actually a hack that removes some of CE star files n fix it into WM6 registry
Laurens said…
nice hoot!!!
BBB
WILLIAM TAN said…
ber said...
so u need a registry editor as well right?

can input via pinyin, strokes etc.
its actually a hack that removes some of CE star files n fix it into WM6 registry


ber,
thanks for the heads up!
I managed to dl a freeware no frills WM6 registry editor.
I was earlier unsure how to install ".cab" files for the Chinese SIP, but later found out how to.
So now I can 读中文,写中文了!
谢谢 ber!
Anonymous said…
no worries William.

for more tips n tricks... u can refer to ppcsg and xda-developers forums.
Anonymous said…
Hi William,

Can you guide me how to tweak the phone to read and write chinese?

Moreover, can you advise how to retrieve the Mac address for LG KS20?

Can you email me, if possible?

Thanks in advance!
WILLIAM TAN said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said…
wah... so open...
discreet mah... u r teaching how to hack m$s$ products leh...
WILLIAM TAN said…
you are right,
i shall remove it.
but keep getting requests to teach.
i shall now officially not entertain requests and direct to "GOOGLE"
Anonymous said…
Hi, really appreciate if you can advise on how to get the KS20 have Chinese support as I am facing problem receiving Chinese SMS. Please email me at ronin68x@yahoo.com

Thanks.
Anonymous said…
Ber and William

May I ask how to tweak of the registry in order to read chinese? Please

thank you
WILLIAM TAN said…
GOOGLE churned this up:

1. Download CE-star setup package from his site and then extract sunglobe.ttf inside
2. Copy sunglobe.ttf to your WM6 "\Windows" directory
3. Create four String registry entry under key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\FontLink\SystemLink"
"Times New Roman"="\Windows\sunglobe.ttf,UniSun"
"Arial"="\Windows\sunglobe.ttf,UniSun"
"Courier New"="\Windows\sunglobe.ttf,UniSun"
"Tahoma"="\Windows\sunglobe.ttf,UniSun"
4. Change a Ringtone sound and play for a few seconds (allow changes to be written).
5. Soft Reset

viola!
WILLIAM TAN said…
Please do not ask me to provide the files.
GOOGLE it.
Arigatou!
Anonymous said…
thank you so much William!

I did as you said and now I can read chinese :-)

one more question:
how to input chinese text?
how to do it?
hjx said…
thanks for the tweak for chinese display. i shall google for chinese input now!!
Anonymous said…
Hi, I just bought this KS20 today. It's the first PDA I owned. Am still getting round to using it. Can I ask you if I run into problems?
Anonymous said…
hello,

do u face problems with the alarm? it has limited ringtones for the alarm and all are very short tones. how do u change it to those tat are able to wake u up from a deep sleep!!!
WILLIAM TAN said…
orangey19 said...
hello,

do u face problems with the alarm? it has limited ringtones for the alarm and all are very short tones. how do u change it to those tat are able to wake u up from a deep sleep!!!


hi orangey19,

1. find any alarm tone you want and edit it in your PC.
2. copy it into your device's /Windows folder.
3. go to the window for setting of alarm on device
4. Click on the Bell icon
5. Now you should be able to find the file name of the alarm tone which you copied into the device's /Windows folder.

Lemme know if it works for you.

Cheers
yingiie said…
Hi sorry to disturb...i tried your method but from the font link i can no longer find the files can you help? please email me at jcai_ying@hotmail.com
Eevonne Chin said…
Hi!!!
May you advise me on the chinese software for KS20.

As i had just purchased KS20 and i found out that it is not chinese support.

Found your blog on the web and i would like to seek your advise.

Thank you!

Email: yvonne_chinxm@yahoo.com.sg
Eevonne Chin said…
Hi!!!
May you advise me on the chinese software for KS20.

As i had just purchased KS20 and i found out that it is not chinese support.

Found your blog on the web and i would like to seek your advise.

Thank you!

Email: yvonne_chinxm@yahoo.com.sg
WILLIAM TAN said…
Hi,

you can refer to the instructions that I posted above:


1. Download CE-star setup package from his site and then extract sunglobe.ttf inside
2. Copy sunglobe.ttf to your WM6 "\Windows" directory
3. Create four String registry entry under key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\FontLink\SystemLink"
"Times New Roman"="\Windows\sunglobe.ttf,UniSun"
"Arial"="\Windows\sunglobe.ttf,UniSun"
"Courier New"="\Windows\sunglobe.ttf,UniSun"
"Tahoma"="\Windows\sunglobe.ttf,UniSun"
4. Change a Ringtone sound and play for a few seconds (allow changes to be written).
5. Soft Reset
成Shing said…
I don't know how you did it. But this Chinese language tweak is freaking amazing.

Thanks.
Unknown said…
Yo dude, anyone can guide me how to hack my i600 with wm6 to read and write chinese

Cheers
Anonymous said…
hey. william. just wanna ask, I've got the reg editor. but it comes with value name and value data? which one do i input? thanks
Anonymous said…
hihi, jus gt this ks20..den can i ask how to dl the CHinese software....n im v noob in this kind of dl things de.and how much that software will cost??
pls help me..thxthx
Anonymous said…
brudder how to tweak registry?? and how to get the phone out of the casing???
johnlim said…
Hi can anyone tell me how to get the LG ks20 registry editor for WM6
and how to use.ps email me and advise ps johnlim28@yahoo.com.sg

1. Download CE-star setup package from his site and then extract sunglobe.ttf inside
2. Copy sunglobe.ttf to your WM6 "\Windows" directory
3. Create four String registry entry under key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\FontLink\SystemLink"
"Times New Roman"="\Windows\sunglobe.ttf,UniSun"
"Arial"="\Windows\sunglobe.ttf,UniSun"
"Courier New"="\Windows\sunglobe.ttf,UniSun"
"Tahoma"="\Windows\sunglobe.ttf,UniSun"
4. Change a Ringtone sound and play for a few seconds (allow changes to be written).
5. Soft Reset
Anonymous said…
hellos. is it possible for u to email me how to change the alarm sound? cos i already tried the ways u teach in the above commments but it didnt work. =D

my email is star-nitez_xin@hotmail.com

thank you..=DD