Budget touchscreen phones are all the rage, but despite the competition LG isn’t letting the HTC Tattoo and T-Mobile Pulse give it any grief. No way. The recently outed LG GD510 Pop is stepping up and ready to rumble. Weighing in at a lean £99.95, LG’s 3-inch touchscreen pocket rocket is spoiling for a fight. But can it go the distance? Read our LG GD 510 Pop review for the verdict.
The LG GD510 Pop lives up to its name alright – like an over-groomed hyped-up X-Factor star the phone is all about style over substance. It doesn’t boast a 3G connection, Wi-Fi or true smartphone skills but the little beauty sure has the looks. With its neat design, single button for skipping back and accessing menus, and easy-to-use interface, the LG GD510 Pop, like most of our favourite pop-stars, is slender and simple.
Getting down with the kids doesn’t end there though, as the LG GD510 Pop features cuddly avatars for your BFFs and even a virtual farmyard to keep them on courtesy of the same basic interface found on its other budget blowers.
The pocket-money friendly price tag further raises the LG Pop’s playground status. The slender blower is built for social networking with quick links to Facebook, Twitter and MySpace via one touch access. It’s a move bound to get social networking teens in a frenzy, and it works like a dream once you’ve tapped in your deets.
Read our HTC Tattoo review now
However, you can’t shake the feeling that the LG Pop is a boy in a man’s world. Like a grumpy teenager the touchscreen is sluggish and unresponsive. Texting is a chore and a simple scroll is enough to bring out the little monster’s over-sensitive side. You’ll either end up prodding for ages or sweeping past the page or contact you want. The convenience of the LG Pop’s interface is hampered by the screen too, making swiping between homescreens a chore.
Admittedly this is a cheap phone, but we’ve toyed with better at the same price point. As for that friend farmyard homescreen, it’s more like a graveyard as your mates avatars pile up on top of one another. You can shake the phone to arrange the icons, but load the screen up with more than five or six and it looks more cluttered than a teenager’s bedroom.
LG is upping its green credentials with the Pop too. It comes minimally dressed in an eco-friendly cardboard box, with no plastic in sight. You’ll have to shell out extra cash for it’s much hyped solar-power battery charging cover, which at the time of writing is yet to be priced. Unlike its rival the Samsung Blue Earth it doesn’t do solar-charging as standard.
It’s not all doom and gloom, but no amount of sunshine would fix the LG Pop’s infuriating imperfections. It might want to be the most popular kid in school but ultimately this is a child that few could claim to really love.
