LG KM500 review

LG KM500 is the first music phone of the company and the first product from their new “M” line. According to LG, the KM 500 is supposed to possess superior sound quality and stand out from other similar devices.

You notice that at least some of this is true right away, as KM500 is the first phone from LG which has a 3.5 mm audio jack for connecting headphones without the need for any adapters. Regrettably, it is located at the bottom left of the phone, and when headphones are connected the wire dangles on the side awkwardly. Another downside that should be noted is the memory card slot being located under the battery.

The location of the 3.5 mm audio jack is somewhat inconvenient:

When talking about regular phone functions, the KM500 is nothing special – a typical LG device, really. The music capabilities of this phone are much more interesting, however. The music really sounds quite good; granted, it’s nothing amazing, but for an LG phone it could even be considered a breakthrough.

The player is easy to use and functional enough, but there are some drawbacks. For example, there is no equalizer – a pretty strange fact, especially considering that a fashion phone like LG Secret has it. There is, however, a sound enhancer called Natural Sound.

The menu and default applications of KM500 will look familiar to the owners of other LG phones, except perhaps for the slightly improved player:

The navigational buttons can be used for controlling the player; they also show light effects when a track is playing. Album Arts is supported, but you will need to both put the image file into according folder and add a tag for the song.

When you first access the player after inserting a new memory card, the phone will require some time to update the playlist.

You can block the keyboard of the phone no matter which menu are you browsing currently – a nice and useful feature.

Your KM-500 will display some interesting light effects when you listen to music:

The phone does look great when the keyboard backlight is on:

LG KM-500 is a nice mid-sized music phone with plastic case (except for the battery cover which is metallic). The quality of the sound it produces is on-par with gadgets from other companies. Even though It doesn’t sound as good as Nokia’s N91 or Motorola’s ROKR E8, it’s still a viable choice for your next music phone purchase.

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Posted on 02 Aug 08 - Filed in LG, reviews - Comments - Written by Alex and Andrius

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