touch-screened mobile, but only sometimes (08/09/2008)

The Secret is a slider phone. Its lack of a front number pad and its black and chrome fascia make it reminiscent of the phone of the moment; Apple’s iPhone (3G or not). Well, except for the faux leather patterning which adorns the front and back of this phone.

The carbon fibre that’s used in the design helps make this a robust mobile, and when closed it is neat in the hand at 102.8mm tall, 50.8mm wide and 11.8mm thick.

As this is a 3G mobile with HSDPA, the 2.4-inch front screen can be used for web browsing. There is a 5-megapixel camera which can shoot video at 120 frames a second, too. You also get some video editing tools, music playback and an FM radio. In addition a range of Google utilities is pre-installed, including gmail support, Google Maps and YouTube video display.

The 100MB of internal memory is a healthy amount and easily boosted with microSD cards. The slot is nicely protected under the battery cover, but can be reached without the need to remove the battery itself.

When not in use the Secret’s front fascia shows the screen and, beneath it, Call, End and Cancel buttons as well as a wide, lozenge-shaped Select button. There is a lot of empty space, though, and when you turn the phone on six touch controls pop up to fill it. Two are soft-keys, the others offer directional movement.

The touch controls work well enough, but we found it was easy to hit one accidentally when opening the slide, which was really irritating. And there is something else irritating about this handset: the screen is touch sensitive – but only sometimes.

To get into touch mode you use a side button and this gives you access to photos, music, documents, the phone’s FM radio and a set of six games. An accelerometer is also present and this comes into use when gaming, viewing photos and in some other areas. For example, you simply turn the phone in your hand to switch between landscape and portrait photo viewing modes.

This works well enough, but we can’t really see why LG hasn’t gone for full touch sensitive screen control or none at all. This half-way house we found somewhat confusing.

There is a front-facing camera for two-way video calling, but the main camera takes the imaging honours and sports a macro mode and autofocus in stills mode to complement good video shooting.

LG – Secret features – Verdict

The 120 frames per second video recording is a highlight of this phone, while its occasionally touch sensitive main screen is good when it is operational but frustrating when it is not. LG should have gone all or nothing where this is concerned.

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