LG GT350 Town

The GT350 could very easily be categorized as a Cookie Series device but instead it’s been called the Town. The reason for this eludes me. It’s a mid-low end device that’s designed for the avid texter/social networking fiend but the question always is, does overall functionality or features really make up for lack of performance? Take a closer look.

Form Factor
The simple but tasteful design is definitely an appealing factor about the GT350. It has a 3 inch resistive touchscreen with a 240 x 400 pixel resolution (256K colors) that’s just about perfect for a handset in this range. It’s clear and fairly visible in direct sunlight (can’t expect much more). LG has deviated a bit from conformity by placing the volume/zoom keys on the left side making it just a little bit awkward for the right handed. On the same side is the MicroSD card slot (2GB card included). On the right side you’ll find the micro USB port and camera shutter release while a standard 3.5mm handsfree socket is well located at the top near the power button.

Comfortable keypad

The GT350’s slide out keypad is by far its biggest asset. It pops in or out smoothly without much of an effort. The keys are just a bit hard to press but the layout is extremely set and the keypad overall is very well designed for comfortable use with four way navigation keys neatly placed on the right. The handset is comfortable to handle with the keypad neatly tucked in.

Features and Performance
Interface
I’ve never been a fan of LG’s user interface S-Class or otherwise and the GT350’s is no exception. It’s sluggish and not altogether comfortably responsive for speedy usage. It took annoyingly long to open applications like the music player or video player and a few others. A few options like accessing the Running Apps, the drop down menu that offers quite a bit of functionality from the desktop like changing profiles, activating and deactivating Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and accessing the music player were handy. As usual the UI also comes with three desktops assigned for separate tasks – shortcuts that are neatly assigned to specific backgrounds, favourite contacts and LG’s LiveSquare.

Media
Media functionality, although limited to just the basics, was decent at best. The music player managed to scrape through with decent tone quality. There was a reasonable punch in the bass line and the higher frequencies were well balanced. I could have used a boost in the decibel level but as is, it was ok. There are a few presets included that do make a bit of difference but not much to sing praise over. The FM radio was also just about adequate with a fair amount of reception in most places of the city that I happened to be at. While commuting though, it was quite a bust. No points there.

Cute and easy to manage

The video player only supports low resolution 3GP and MPEG4 files. If you’ve converted them properly they’re not too bad, but there will be a bit of framing irrespective. Videos captured from the camera won’t have this problem though.

There are a couple of games like Music World and Sudoku Café and other mildly entertaining apps like A Banner apps that allows you to display anything you type on the screen like a ticker. The app even allows you to edit the colors and fonts to an extent. It serves no real world purpose but it can be fun.