Archos gives the home phone an Android upgrade

Pioneers of Android Tablet devices, French company Archos has turned its hand to the home phone in a bid to push the aging product into the digital age.

To create its sleek and desirable Archos 35 Smart Home Phone, Archos streamlined the often-outdated device to match smartphone standards, added the Android operating system and refreshed it with forward-thinking technology.

"Compatible with any ADSL box or phone line and using standard DECT protocols the Archos 35 Smart Home Phone is a light and stylish home phone that brings users contact sharing with their Android smart phone, MP3 ringtones, caller photo display as well as access to thousands of Android apps, web surfing, emails and video calling," said Archos.

The handset is equipped with a built-in front-facing webcam that enables consumers to use the device to make high definition video conference calls, to watch over their baby monitor from a separate room or as a remote surveillance device.

It also features a 3.5in touchscreen, email access, WiFi connectivity, and the ability to download games and applications.

During a press event in Paris, the company also took the wraps off a less-useful hybrid Tablet and music player product called the Archos 35 Home Connect. The clunky-looking Android device follows in the footsteps of Sony's Dash personal Internet viewer and the Chumby 8 - great products if you want an expensive feature-rich alarm clock or photo viewer, less enticing if you were hoping for a portable, full-featured Tablet.

Archos gives the home phone an Android upgrade

Pioneers of Android Tablet devices, French company Archos has turned its hand to the home phone in a bid to push the aging product into the digital age.

To create its sleek and desirable Archos 35 Smart Home Phone, Archos streamlined the often-outdated device to match smartphone standards, added the Android operating system and refreshed it with forward-thinking technology.

"Compatible with any ADSL box or phone line and using standard DECT protocols the Archos 35 Smart Home Phone is a light and stylish home phone that brings users contact sharing with their Android smart phone, MP3 ringtones, caller photo display as well as access to thousands of Android apps, web surfing, emails and video calling," said Archos.

The handset is equipped with a built-in front-facing webcam that enables consumers to use the device to make high definition video conference calls, to watch over their baby monitor from a separate room or as a remote surveillance device.

It also features a 3.5in touchscreen, email access, WiFi connectivity, and the ability to download games and applications.

During a press event in Paris, the company also took the wraps off a less-useful hybrid Tablet and music player product called the Archos 35 Home Connect. The clunky-looking Android device follows in the footsteps of Sony's Dash personal Internet viewer and the Chumby 8 - great products if you want an expensive feature-rich alarm clock or photo viewer, less enticing if you were hoping for a portable, full-featured Tablet.

Archos gives the home phone an Android upgrade

Pioneers of Android Tablet devices, French company Archos has turned its hand to the home phone in a bid to push the aging product into the digital age.

To create its sleek and desirable Archos 35 Smart Home Phone, Archos streamlined the often-outdated device to match smartphone standards, added the Android operating system and refreshed it with forward-thinking technology.

"Compatible with any ADSL box or phone line and using standard DECT protocols the Archos 35 Smart Home Phone is a light and stylish home phone that brings users contact sharing with their Android smart phone, MP3 ringtones, caller photo display as well as access to thousands of Android apps, web surfing, emails and video calling," said Archos.

The handset is equipped with a built-in front-facing webcam that enables consumers to use the device to make high definition video conference calls, to watch over their baby monitor from a separate room or as a remote surveillance device.

It also features a 3.5in touchscreen, email access, WiFi connectivity, and the ability to download games and applications.

During a press event in Paris, the company also took the wraps off a less-useful hybrid Tablet and music player product called the Archos 35 Home Connect. The clunky-looking Android device follows in the footsteps of Sony's Dash personal Internet viewer and the Chumby 8 - great products if you want an expensive feature-rich alarm clock or photo viewer, less enticing if you were hoping for a portable, full-featured Tablet.

Full Review of Galaxy Ace: Android Phone

The Galaxy Ace is aimed at those who are looking to own an Android phone on a budget.

SAMSUNG is looking to repeat the success of its Galaxy line of smartphones with its latest Android smartphone, the Galaxy Ace S5830.

In terms of design, Samsung's Galaxy Ace closely resembles the Apple iPhone - in fact the two phones look almost identical when placed side-by-side though the Ace is slightly smaller.

But don't get us wrong; the Galaxy Ace is still a good-looking slim and compact smartphone in its own right.

Though it is mostly made of plastic, it has a solid build quality and is ergonomically shaped so it feels nice to hold.

Much like modern touchscreen-based phones, the Galaxy Ace has few physical buttons including a single home button on the front while the rest such as the power button and volume rocker are located on the side.

SLIMLINE: The Galaxy Ace keeps a slim profile and has a handy microSD card slot on the side for easy access.

You'll also find a microSD card slot on the side for easy access. The phone heavily relies on external microSD cards for content storage, as it only has a paltry 158MB of internal memory.

The 3.5in screen is quite decent in terms of brightness and colour. It is also responsive when in use. However, considering that the screen only has a 320 x 480 resolution, it does pale in comparison with Samsung's AMOLED equipped smartphones.

On the positive side, we liked the matte textured rear panel that, unlike the iPhone's glossy surface, provided a better grip.

On the back is a 5-megapixel autofocus camera which is complemented by an LED flash and a tiny slit for the loud speaker.

Adding their own touch

Looks aside, the Galaxy Ace is up to speed with the latest Android smartphones as it runs on the latest Android 2.2 (Froyo) operating system.

The smartphone runs Samsung's TouchWiz 3.0 interface on top of the stock Android interface which gives it a slightly different look and feel. Despite the changes on the Samsung driven interface, it still runs like a regular Android smartphone but with a few added enhancements.

USEFUL: The Galaxy Ace has several built-social media widgets for Facebook and Twitter that allows users to stay connected with friends.

Holding down the home button brings up a window showing all applications running in the background. It also doubles up as a handy task manager for killing unwanted applications to conserve battery life.

The customised drag-down notification area also houses handy switches for turning on/off WiFi, Bluetooth, rotation lock and mute settings.

Similar to Windows Phone 7's People tile, the TouchWiz 3.0 address book also syncs with your friends from Facebook, where you can even check and comment on their recent activities directly from the address book.

Functionality

As a phone, the voice call quality was loud and clear, and the speakerphone mode was sufficiently audible when used in a car.

Text messaging, however, still feels like a chore on the phone's virtual Qwerty keyboard because of the keys that are placed too close together. The auto-correction system is also quite poor and often results in mistyped words. The experience does improve slightly when used in landscape mode but not by much.

The Galaxy Ace does however offer an alternate method for text input using the aptly named Swype. This feature basically allows users to enter a word by sliding their finger from letter to letter.

Admittedly, it does feel weird at first but it is surprisingly accurate at predicting words that you use. In fact, we felt that we could "write" faster using Swype than the regular Qwerty keyboard.

The Ace's 800MHz processor isn't the fastest around but it gets the job done running most basic applications.

Social media buffs that can't live without Facebook, Foursquare or Twitter can breathe easy as the Galaxy Ace can run them without any problems.

ERGONOMIC: The Galaxy Ace fits the hand nicely.

However, the phone's limitations really show as there's a noticeable lag even when you perform simple tasks as dragging icons around on screen.

Certain games like Angry Birds even lagged as we played through the levels while more graphic intense games like 3D racing game, Asphalt 5, are not supported on the phone.

The web browsing experience is average at best - even though pages load relatively quickly on the phone, the low-resolution screen makes reading text a little difficult.

But the biggest problem we had with the browser was its inability to wrap text around the screen when zoomed in.

This forces you to constantly scroll from side-to-side to read a full paragraph of text.

Despite running Froyo, the web browser doesn't support Flash but this doesn't surprise us considering it is an entry level phone after all.

In terms of battery life, the Ace managed to last us for at least a full day of usage before needing to be recharged.

Not so great for media

Truth be told, the Galaxy Ace isn't great for watching videos as it misses out on common file formats like AVI and is restricted to playing MP4 formatted files. On the other hand, the music player isn't half bad and does a decent job of keeping your songs in order.

Samsung has also provided an AllShare function that allows you to stream media from the Galaxy Ace to a connected WiFi player such as a computer or network-connected HDTV.

GOOD GRIP: The textured matte rear panel provides better grip than other smartphones with glossy surfaces.

We honestly don't see this feature being that useful aside from streaming music because of the lack of HD video playback and poor video quality from the camera.

The 5-megapixel camera is decent at taking still images that are acceptable for online use. The autofocus speed is quick when outdoors but is slow when shooting indoors.

It comes with several nifty features like smile detection and a panorama sweep mode (which dials the resolution down to 0.3-megapixels) but the picture quality won't blow you away and the colours appear a little washed out.

The LED flash helps illuminate close subjects fairly well in low light situations, but it isn't going to cut it for lighting up a room.

You will probably want to skip using the video recording feature as its only capable of taking QVGA quality (320 x 240-pixel) videos.

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy Ace is a very much a scaled-down version of Samsung's higher-end Galaxy phones. Its target definitely isn't the high-end user who is looking to upgrade their Android phone but rather those who are contemplating buying their first Android smartphone.

Despite its name, the Ace compromises on several key features - it doesn't have a brilliant AMOLED screen and the slow processor can't run certain games.

The on-board camera is decent for still photos and it has a few extras like smile detection, but the video recording quality is poor.

However, it does get the job done if all you want to do is to browse the Web, check e-mail and keep you up to date in your social networks.

Another positive is the Swype text input method that makes texting on the small screen easier.

Pros: Affordable; runs on Android 2.2 Froyo; compact and light; TouchWiz 3.0 interface; camera is decent for still photos.

Cons: Slow processor; limited on-board storage; QVGA quality video recording; low-resolution screen.

GALAXY ACE S5830
(Samsung)
Smartphone
NETWORK: EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA 900/2100
OPERATING SYSTEM: Android 2.2 (Froyo)
DISPLAY: 3.5in TFT capacitive touchscreen (320 x 480-pixels)
CAMERA: 5-megapixels; autofocus; LED flash; QVGA quality video recording
CONNECTIVITY: Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi 802.11 (b/g/n), USB 2.0
MEMORY: 150MB
EXPANSION SLOT: microSD (up to 32GB)
STANDBY/TALK TIME: 421 hours/6 hours
OTHER FEATURES: FM radio, Swype text input, A-GPS, ThinkFree, Exchange ActiveSync
DIMENSIONS (W x D x H): 112.4 x 59.9 x 11.5mm
WEIGHT: 113g

Full Review of Galaxy Ace: Android Phone

The Galaxy Ace is aimed at those who are looking to own an Android phone on a budget.

SAMSUNG is looking to repeat the success of its Galaxy line of smartphones with its latest Android smartphone, the Galaxy Ace S5830.

In terms of design, Samsung's Galaxy Ace closely resembles the Apple iPhone - in fact the two phones look almost identical when placed side-by-side though the Ace is slightly smaller.

But don't get us wrong; the Galaxy Ace is still a good-looking slim and compact smartphone in its own right.

Though it is mostly made of plastic, it has a solid build quality and is ergonomically shaped so it feels nice to hold.

Much like modern touchscreen-based phones, the Galaxy Ace has few physical buttons including a single home button on the front while the rest such as the power button and volume rocker are located on the side.

SLIMLINE: The Galaxy Ace keeps a slim profile and has a handy microSD card slot on the side for easy access.

You'll also find a microSD card slot on the side for easy access. The phone heavily relies on external microSD cards for content storage, as it only has a paltry 158MB of internal memory.

The 3.5in screen is quite decent in terms of brightness and colour. It is also responsive when in use. However, considering that the screen only has a 320 x 480 resolution, it does pale in comparison with Samsung's AMOLED equipped smartphones.

On the positive side, we liked the matte textured rear panel that, unlike the iPhone's glossy surface, provided a better grip.

On the back is a 5-megapixel autofocus camera which is complemented by an LED flash and a tiny slit for the loud speaker.

Adding their own touch

Looks aside, the Galaxy Ace is up to speed with the latest Android smartphones as it runs on the latest Android 2.2 (Froyo) operating system.

The smartphone runs Samsung's TouchWiz 3.0 interface on top of the stock Android interface which gives it a slightly different look and feel. Despite the changes on the Samsung driven interface, it still runs like a regular Android smartphone but with a few added enhancements.

USEFUL: The Galaxy Ace has several built-social media widgets for Facebook and Twitter that allows users to stay connected with friends.

Holding down the home button brings up a window showing all applications running in the background. It also doubles up as a handy task manager for killing unwanted applications to conserve battery life.

The customised drag-down notification area also houses handy switches for turning on/off WiFi, Bluetooth, rotation lock and mute settings.

Similar to Windows Phone 7's People tile, the TouchWiz 3.0 address book also syncs with your friends from Facebook, where you can even check and comment on their recent activities directly from the address book.

Functionality

As a phone, the voice call quality was loud and clear, and the speakerphone mode was sufficiently audible when used in a car.

Text messaging, however, still feels like a chore on the phone's virtual Qwerty keyboard because of the keys that are placed too close together. The auto-correction system is also quite poor and often results in mistyped words. The experience does improve slightly when used in landscape mode but not by much.

The Galaxy Ace does however offer an alternate method for text input using the aptly named Swype. This feature basically allows users to enter a word by sliding their finger from letter to letter.

Admittedly, it does feel weird at first but it is surprisingly accurate at predicting words that you use. In fact, we felt that we could "write" faster using Swype than the regular Qwerty keyboard.

The Ace's 800MHz processor isn't the fastest around but it gets the job done running most basic applications.

Social media buffs that can't live without Facebook, Foursquare or Twitter can breathe easy as the Galaxy Ace can run them without any problems.

ERGONOMIC: The Galaxy Ace fits the hand nicely.

However, the phone's limitations really show as there's a noticeable lag even when you perform simple tasks as dragging icons around on screen.

Certain games like Angry Birds even lagged as we played through the levels while more graphic intense games like 3D racing game, Asphalt 5, are not supported on the phone.

The web browsing experience is average at best - even though pages load relatively quickly on the phone, the low-resolution screen makes reading text a little difficult.

But the biggest problem we had with the browser was its inability to wrap text around the screen when zoomed in.

This forces you to constantly scroll from side-to-side to read a full paragraph of text.

Despite running Froyo, the web browser doesn't support Flash but this doesn't surprise us considering it is an entry level phone after all.

In terms of battery life, the Ace managed to last us for at least a full day of usage before needing to be recharged.

Not so great for media

Truth be told, the Galaxy Ace isn't great for watching videos as it misses out on common file formats like AVI and is restricted to playing MP4 formatted files. On the other hand, the music player isn't half bad and does a decent job of keeping your songs in order.

Samsung has also provided an AllShare function that allows you to stream media from the Galaxy Ace to a connected WiFi player such as a computer or network-connected HDTV.

GOOD GRIP: The textured matte rear panel provides better grip than other smartphones with glossy surfaces.

We honestly don't see this feature being that useful aside from streaming music because of the lack of HD video playback and poor video quality from the camera.

The 5-megapixel camera is decent at taking still images that are acceptable for online use. The autofocus speed is quick when outdoors but is slow when shooting indoors.

It comes with several nifty features like smile detection and a panorama sweep mode (which dials the resolution down to 0.3-megapixels) but the picture quality won't blow you away and the colours appear a little washed out.

The LED flash helps illuminate close subjects fairly well in low light situations, but it isn't going to cut it for lighting up a room.

You will probably want to skip using the video recording feature as its only capable of taking QVGA quality (320 x 240-pixel) videos.

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy Ace is a very much a scaled-down version of Samsung's higher-end Galaxy phones. Its target definitely isn't the high-end user who is looking to upgrade their Android phone but rather those who are contemplating buying their first Android smartphone.

Despite its name, the Ace compromises on several key features - it doesn't have a brilliant AMOLED screen and the slow processor can't run certain games.

The on-board camera is decent for still photos and it has a few extras like smile detection, but the video recording quality is poor.

However, it does get the job done if all you want to do is to browse the Web, check e-mail and keep you up to date in your social networks.

Another positive is the Swype text input method that makes texting on the small screen easier.

Pros: Affordable; runs on Android 2.2 Froyo; compact and light; TouchWiz 3.0 interface; camera is decent for still photos.

Cons: Slow processor; limited on-board storage; QVGA quality video recording; low-resolution screen.

GALAXY ACE S5830
(Samsung)
Smartphone
NETWORK: EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA 900/2100
OPERATING SYSTEM: Android 2.2 (Froyo)
DISPLAY: 3.5in TFT capacitive touchscreen (320 x 480-pixels)
CAMERA: 5-megapixels; autofocus; LED flash; QVGA quality video recording
CONNECTIVITY: Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi 802.11 (b/g/n), USB 2.0
MEMORY: 150MB
EXPANSION SLOT: microSD (up to 32GB)
STANDBY/TALK TIME: 421 hours/6 hours
OTHER FEATURES: FM radio, Swype text input, A-GPS, ThinkFree, Exchange ActiveSync
DIMENSIONS (W x D x H): 112.4 x 59.9 x 11.5mm
WEIGHT: 113g

Full Review of Galaxy Ace: Android Phone

The Galaxy Ace is aimed at those who are looking to own an Android phone on a budget.

SAMSUNG is looking to repeat the success of its Galaxy line of smartphones with its latest Android smartphone, the Galaxy Ace S5830.

In terms of design, Samsung's Galaxy Ace closely resembles the Apple iPhone - in fact the two phones look almost identical when placed side-by-side though the Ace is slightly smaller.

But don't get us wrong; the Galaxy Ace is still a good-looking slim and compact smartphone in its own right.

Though it is mostly made of plastic, it has a solid build quality and is ergonomically shaped so it feels nice to hold.

Much like modern touchscreen-based phones, the Galaxy Ace has few physical buttons including a single home button on the front while the rest such as the power button and volume rocker are located on the side.

SLIMLINE: The Galaxy Ace keeps a slim profile and has a handy microSD card slot on the side for easy access.

You'll also find a microSD card slot on the side for easy access. The phone heavily relies on external microSD cards for content storage, as it only has a paltry 158MB of internal memory.

The 3.5in screen is quite decent in terms of brightness and colour. It is also responsive when in use. However, considering that the screen only has a 320 x 480 resolution, it does pale in comparison with Samsung's AMOLED equipped smartphones.

On the positive side, we liked the matte textured rear panel that, unlike the iPhone's glossy surface, provided a better grip.

On the back is a 5-megapixel autofocus camera which is complemented by an LED flash and a tiny slit for the loud speaker.

Adding their own touch

Looks aside, the Galaxy Ace is up to speed with the latest Android smartphones as it runs on the latest Android 2.2 (Froyo) operating system.

The smartphone runs Samsung's TouchWiz 3.0 interface on top of the stock Android interface which gives it a slightly different look and feel. Despite the changes on the Samsung driven interface, it still runs like a regular Android smartphone but with a few added enhancements.

USEFUL: The Galaxy Ace has several built-social media widgets for Facebook and Twitter that allows users to stay connected with friends.

Holding down the home button brings up a window showing all applications running in the background. It also doubles up as a handy task manager for killing unwanted applications to conserve battery life.

The customised drag-down notification area also houses handy switches for turning on/off WiFi, Bluetooth, rotation lock and mute settings.

Similar to Windows Phone 7's People tile, the TouchWiz 3.0 address book also syncs with your friends from Facebook, where you can even check and comment on their recent activities directly from the address book.

Functionality

As a phone, the voice call quality was loud and clear, and the speakerphone mode was sufficiently audible when used in a car.

Text messaging, however, still feels like a chore on the phone's virtual Qwerty keyboard because of the keys that are placed too close together. The auto-correction system is also quite poor and often results in mistyped words. The experience does improve slightly when used in landscape mode but not by much.

The Galaxy Ace does however offer an alternate method for text input using the aptly named Swype. This feature basically allows users to enter a word by sliding their finger from letter to letter.

Admittedly, it does feel weird at first but it is surprisingly accurate at predicting words that you use. In fact, we felt that we could "write" faster using Swype than the regular Qwerty keyboard.

The Ace's 800MHz processor isn't the fastest around but it gets the job done running most basic applications.

Social media buffs that can't live without Facebook, Foursquare or Twitter can breathe easy as the Galaxy Ace can run them without any problems.

ERGONOMIC: The Galaxy Ace fits the hand nicely.

However, the phone's limitations really show as there's a noticeable lag even when you perform simple tasks as dragging icons around on screen.

Certain games like Angry Birds even lagged as we played through the levels while more graphic intense games like 3D racing game, Asphalt 5, are not supported on the phone.

The web browsing experience is average at best - even though pages load relatively quickly on the phone, the low-resolution screen makes reading text a little difficult.

But the biggest problem we had with the browser was its inability to wrap text around the screen when zoomed in.

This forces you to constantly scroll from side-to-side to read a full paragraph of text.

Despite running Froyo, the web browser doesn't support Flash but this doesn't surprise us considering it is an entry level phone after all.

In terms of battery life, the Ace managed to last us for at least a full day of usage before needing to be recharged.

Not so great for media

Truth be told, the Galaxy Ace isn't great for watching videos as it misses out on common file formats like AVI and is restricted to playing MP4 formatted files. On the other hand, the music player isn't half bad and does a decent job of keeping your songs in order.

Samsung has also provided an AllShare function that allows you to stream media from the Galaxy Ace to a connected WiFi player such as a computer or network-connected HDTV.

GOOD GRIP: The textured matte rear panel provides better grip than other smartphones with glossy surfaces.

We honestly don't see this feature being that useful aside from streaming music because of the lack of HD video playback and poor video quality from the camera.

The 5-megapixel camera is decent at taking still images that are acceptable for online use. The autofocus speed is quick when outdoors but is slow when shooting indoors.

It comes with several nifty features like smile detection and a panorama sweep mode (which dials the resolution down to 0.3-megapixels) but the picture quality won't blow you away and the colours appear a little washed out.

The LED flash helps illuminate close subjects fairly well in low light situations, but it isn't going to cut it for lighting up a room.

You will probably want to skip using the video recording feature as its only capable of taking QVGA quality (320 x 240-pixel) videos.

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy Ace is a very much a scaled-down version of Samsung's higher-end Galaxy phones. Its target definitely isn't the high-end user who is looking to upgrade their Android phone but rather those who are contemplating buying their first Android smartphone.

Despite its name, the Ace compromises on several key features - it doesn't have a brilliant AMOLED screen and the slow processor can't run certain games.

The on-board camera is decent for still photos and it has a few extras like smile detection, but the video recording quality is poor.

However, it does get the job done if all you want to do is to browse the Web, check e-mail and keep you up to date in your social networks.

Another positive is the Swype text input method that makes texting on the small screen easier.

Pros: Affordable; runs on Android 2.2 Froyo; compact and light; TouchWiz 3.0 interface; camera is decent for still photos.

Cons: Slow processor; limited on-board storage; QVGA quality video recording; low-resolution screen.

GALAXY ACE S5830
(Samsung)
Smartphone
NETWORK: EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA 900/2100
OPERATING SYSTEM: Android 2.2 (Froyo)
DISPLAY: 3.5in TFT capacitive touchscreen (320 x 480-pixels)
CAMERA: 5-megapixels; autofocus; LED flash; QVGA quality video recording
CONNECTIVITY: Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi 802.11 (b/g/n), USB 2.0
MEMORY: 150MB
EXPANSION SLOT: microSD (up to 32GB)
STANDBY/TALK TIME: 421 hours/6 hours
OTHER FEATURES: FM radio, Swype text input, A-GPS, ThinkFree, Exchange ActiveSync
DIMENSIONS (W x D x H): 112.4 x 59.9 x 11.5mm
WEIGHT: 113g

Optimus One LG-P500 : Reviewed

The LG Optimus One promises all the thrills of Android 2.2 at an affordable price and without much compromise.

WHILE it may seem odd to describe an Android 2.2-powered smartphone as an affordable, no-frills device, that's precisely what the LG Optimus One LG-P500 is.

Although it's armed to the teeth with an array of technological acronyms and probably has a kitchen sink stashed somewhere in there, it doesn't exactly shout "Pick me!" as your eyes glaze over the sea of other budget Android phones in the market.

Of course, it probably doesn't help that it looks identical to the rest of them too. But let's give it a chance and power it up, shall we?

Mostly regular

Unlike some other Android phones, the Optimus One doesn't have any weird manufacturer-imposed customisations made to its Home screen. Whether that's a plus or minus to you, at least it doesn't get in the way.

POWER UP:The port at the bottom lets you charge the Optimus one while it syncs with your PC. It's a proprietary plug though.

Browsing through the app screen, you can see a bunch of preinstalled 3rd party apps such as NDrive for car navigation, ThinkFree Office for document editing and TasKiller for killing apps (and freeing up more RAM).

And on the social networking and connectivity front, you've got apps for Facebook and Twitter, along with built-in apps for Gmail, Google Chat and YouTube.

Nothing out of the ordinary - just letting you know that it's there and it works well. The only other thing that's bespoke is the LG software keyboard, which is supposed to be an improvement over the standard Android keyboard.

Real estate

Speaking of which, the Optimus One's 3.2in LCD is a little too small for typing on a portrait-oriented Qwerty keyboard. Doesn't look much smaller than the 3.5in screens on some other touchscreen smartphones but it does make a difference when your thumbs are big enough to cover several virtual buttons at the same time.

Good thing that the LG software keyboard has pretty effective word-prediction and auto-correction, then.

It's a bit on the slow side, though, so you may end up waiting for the software to catch up if you're a fast typist. The LG keyboard also does handwriting recognition for Chinese, though I can't comment on how good it is.

The weird thing, though, is that the standard Android keyboard's text prediction is disabled; it doesn't seem to have access to the system's language dictionaries. So if you want word prediction, the LG keyboard it is.

But when you're not typing on it, the 3.2in LCD is big enough for other stuff like messaging, web browsing and so on. It has pretty good viewing angles too, and you'll only get inverted colours or weird hue shifts at extreme angles.

With a bit of care, the LCD is readable in bright sunlight too. And last, but not least, it's pretty resistant to fingerprints, which is a big plus in my book.

Performance

Generally the Optimus One feels snappy enough. You won't spend much time waiting for apps to open or for thumbnail galleries to be displayed.

However, you will see the odd stutter or two when there's a lot happening on screen, like when you're browsing through thumbnails or scrolling through web pages.

It's particularly noticeable when playing games. Or at least when I tried Angry Birds, which is the only game I tested on the Optimus One.

The frame rate tends to shift between okay to slideshow-slow for no apparent reason.

Even killing off other processes and apps with the bundled TasKiller app doesn't solve the problem. I'm thinking that the slightly anaemic 600MHz processor has something to do with it.

Battery life is pretty good. Didn't do any scientific tests, but it will easily last a couple of days of furious Web surfing, text messaging, GPS navigating, photo taking and game playing, with some juice to spare.

Like most smartphones, it charges via its USB port, which is cool.

GPS navigation

The A-GPS unit in the Optimus One is quick enough to get an initial satellite lock within seconds, though it sometimes lags for close to a minute if you're sandwiched between tall buildings or are seated beneath a tree.

The Optimus One comes preloaded with a navigation app called NDrive, which comes with maps for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

It's an okay navigation system, though it sometimes comes up with really weird routes and its voiced directions can sometimes be confusing.

It's a bit hard to use too, and it insists that you use its own non-Qwerty keyboard to input addresses, which is annoying. Here's hoping that Google Maps Navigation gets official support in Malaysia soon.

POINT AND SHOOT: The 3-megapixel camera has an autofocus lens.

Multimedia

The Optimus One has a 3-megapixel autofocus camera on its back. It takes fairly decent photographs in daylight (for a phone), though it definitely wouldn't replace your dedicated point-and-shoot.

It's fine for Facebook uploads and small 4R prints, but the narrow dynamic range results in easily clipped highlights and photos that look a little too contrasty. Autofocusing is a little on the slow side too.

In other words, it's a typical phone camera. It also shoots video at VGA (640 x 480-pixel) resolution though at a weird, choppy frame rate of 18 fps.

Audio is encoded in 8KHz AMR compression, so it sounds rather low fidelity too. So, no, it won't replace your camcorder either.

Conclusion

So there you have it. The LG Optimus One P500 is decent, budget Android phone that may not set the world on fire, but does its job competently and without any major annoyances.

And thanks to Android 2.2 (Froyo), it's got quite a lot of nice usability touches going for it.

Pros: Affordable; long battery life; feature-packed; Froyo; good word-prediction with LG software keyboard; decent LCD.

Cons: Sluggish performance for games; screen a little small for keyboard in portrait mode; camera could be better.

Optimus One LG-P500
(LG)
Smartphone
Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA 900/2100
CPU: 600MHz
OPERATING SYSTEM: Android 2.2 (Froyo) DISPLAY: 3.2in capacitive touchscreen (320 x 480-pixels)
CAMERA: 3-megapixels with autofocus; VGA-quality video recording (640 x 480-pixels, MPEG4 at 18fps)
CONNECTIVITY: Bluetooth, WiFi, USB 2.0
MEMORY: 512MB SDRAM; 170MB Flash memory
EXPANSION SLOT: MicroSD (2GB included)
STANDBY/TALK TIME: 550 hours/7.5 hours
OTHER FEATURES: A-GPS; FM radio tuner
DIMENSIONS (W x D x H): 59 x 113.5 x 13.3mm
WEIGHT: 129g