Phones.com » Cell Phones » Review of the LG KE820

The LG KE820 is made of a glossy black frame. The phone is physically sleek, with the measurements being 95 x 52 x 9.9 mm. It weighs accordingly too, at just about 73 grams. The candy bar design of the LG KE820 accommodates a moderate TFT display in landscape mode. Below the screen is a strictly packed keypad which has an unusual key placement. There are two soft keys, A call and Delete/End button, in a single row just below the screen. Below them is the D-pad, blended into the neighboring keys, and saving a lot of keypad space unlike other phones. The ‘*’,’0’, and ‘#’ keys are placed in a downward column in the numeric pad, making for an unusual keypad. Nevertheless the LG KE820 was surprisingly easy to use. The sleek phone still held a microSD slot, volume keys on its left, and a headset/data port on its right. Within the thin 10mm frame of the KE820, LG managed to pack a 2MP camera and LED Flash.

Despite being incredibly small, the LG KE820 wasn’t made for calls alone. LG didn’t forget to include value features on this tri-band 2G phone. To begin with, the KE820 had 16MB onboard memory shared between the PIM, apps and user data. Thanks to the microSD slot, you can expand it up to 4GB. The KE820 kept a good call log of 40 entries each of missed, received, and dialed calls. There were ample entries in the 1000-slot phonebook of the KE820. We’ve already mentioned the 2 mega-pixel camera the KE820 has. It had auto-focus, a bunch of image controls and took decent shots. What surprised us most was that this petite device had an FM radio onboard. On the multimedia side, the LG KE820 could record and playback video clips, and has an MP3 player. The KE820 has many options to stay connected, with SMS, MMS, and Email. Included WAP browser did a decent job, however it was a pleasure to use Opera Mini on the KE320’s landscape screen which had a 220x176 pixel-resolution. The organizer and Voice memo by LG were very handy.

The KE820 wasn’t unfortunately Quad-band. It functions in the 900/1800/1900 MHz bands of GSM, still providing decent roaming capability. Moreover the KE820 has EDGE capability, making up for lack of 3G data. Local connectivity was decent with Bluetooth 1.2 A2DP, allowing to pair stereo music headsets. There is also USB connectivity for Mass storage and modem connections. Overall this doesn’t make a little phone like the KE820 a bad one.

The KE820 owing to its smallness, is fitted with a 750mAh Li-ion battery. This translates into a talk time of just 2.5 hours. The phone’s standby was also rated at a low 250 hours. This is definitely a trade-off over the portability of the KE820.

LG had weighted the KE820 at around 350 dollars, which is reasonable considering the advantages it offers. Users looking for a feature-rich, slim-profile phone would definitely find the LG KE820 worth the money. In our personal opinion, the KE820 makes for a strong contender from LG in the lightweight phone market.