LG Prada 3.0 review

LG and Prada have history. Back in 2007 the pair got together and spawned a mobile phone called, well, the LG Prada. Two years later, there was a second outing, in the shape of the LG KF900 Prada.

Almost like clockwork - albeit a rather slow clock - two years later and we have a third LG Prada handset, the PRADA Phone by LG 3.0.

We know, the name PRADA Phone by LG 3.0 doesn't really trip off the tongue, does it? We're going to call it the LG Prada 3.0 like, we suspect, most will do.

Obviously, the LG Prada 3.0 has a lot of emphasis on stylish hardware design. There's also a rather nifty interface skin that's been applied to Android 2.3, and the general specs aren't too shabby either.

At first glance, this is a handset that ticks a lot of boxes. Dig deep, and we find there is a little bit of style over substance creeping in. But we'll come to that.

The Prada Phone by LG 3.0 is a big, really neatly designed handset. With a 4.3-inch screen and seriously big top and bottom screen bezels, this is a sizable phone for your pocket. Most people will have trouble reaching across the screen for one-handed use.

The all-black front hides four application shortcut buttons that are briefly lit up when you press the area below the screen.

It's one of two usability annoyances that these buttons don't stay backlit for very long. You have to remember their order - Menu, Home, Back, Search, if you are to get what you want with a single screen tap. It might take you a little while to do this.

The other annoyance is that the very, very stylish on/off button on the top of the chassis is a bit of a fiddle to use. It's a small, round affair, on the far-right of the top edge.

It's not marked with an icon, and there's another identical button that launches the camera app and takes photos and videos.

That lack of marking isn't really what irritates us, though. It's that the buttons are both a bit small and sit flush to the chassis. You have to press rather hard to activate them, and they're not that easy to locate by touch.

The top edge is also the location of the USB connector and headset connector. The former has a sliding cover that we really do like. It protects the connector from dust and just looks very cool.

LG has played the minimalist game as far as the rest of the edges are concerned, with a couple of teensy volume buttons on the left-hand edge - again very small and flush to the chassis, and absolutely clean bottom and right edges.

This is significant, because the LG Prada 3.0 is super, super thin. At just 8.5mm thick, it looks every inch the starved catwalk model, except that in this case the slimness is good.

For a handset measuring 127.5 x 69 x 8.5mm, that thinness really stands out.

The other thing that stands out is the leather-like patterning to the backplate - Prada's Saffiano pattern, although it's clearly made from plastic here, and possibly isn't quite able to deliver the sleekness Prada was looking for.

Still, it's a design that's distinctive, and it helps with grip. We're not sure we need both LG and Prada logos on the back though, and the latter looks particularly OTT since it's also on the front above the screen.

There's quite a lot to like on the specs front, with a 1GHz dual core processor supported by 1GB of RAM, 8GB of user storage and a microSD card, 8 megapixel main camera and 1 megapixel front camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, DLNA, NFC, that tweaked user interface and a fair range of add-on applications to get your teeth into.

For a UK price of around £430 and costing around $650 in the US, we think a faster processor might have been preferred, and an HDMI output would not have gone amiss either. But all in all, it looks like there's a lot to sink your teeth into here.The LG Prada 3.0 has a striking black and white interface that hits you between the eyes as soon as you switch the designer smartphone on.

Navigating through the seven home screens reveals some really good looking widgets that take full advantage of the black and white colour scheme.

Beneath any home screen, an array of four buttons afford access to the dialler, contacts, messaging and applications.

Hit the Applications shortcut and again black and white is the name of the game, with some sleek icon design thrown into the mix. Take a look at the Contacts icon, for example. We think it's super.

However, the LG Prada 3.0's black and white theme can only be taken so far.

Scroll down the applications list and you come to the Google Services. The shortcut icons here are in colour.

Switch to a screen with Android widgets on board and colour again rears its head.

Run apps, and again colour inevitably starts to seep in. What you get depends in part on how much control LG has been able to exercise in the skinning process.

The calendar app is black and white, but there's a green call icon on the dial pad, which we find quite acceptable.

Nip onto the web, or into the Android Market, for example, and of course, full colour prevails.

It really doesn't matter what LG and Prada do by way of fancy hardware and software skinning, if the LG Prada 3.0 can't handle contacts and calling, then we aren't interested in it.

So, the good news is that when you've signed into your Gmail, all your contacts come tumbling into the handset. It's irritating that SIM contacts get a double entry, though.

You can add Facebook and Twitter contacts too - just pop to the Add Accounts area and enter login details for Twitter, Facebook, Exchange and, rather oddly, old MySpace.

Twitter and Facebook data are used by LG Social+ too, so you need to authorise the app to use your accounts when you sign up. Data matching was pretty smart, with the LG Prada 3.0 working out double entries across our Twitter and Gmail accounts, and linking them automatically.

Rather nicely, the smartphone shows your contact history with each person, and links into their Google profile.

The phone boasts smart dialling support. Just pop into the dialler and start tapping out a name or a number.

There's room for one match at a time, so you have to hit the down arrow by the first match to see more. That's irritating, and with 4.3 inches of screen play with, we'd hoped for a more sophisticated system.

Call quality was really good, and this is in no small part thanks to the presence of two microphones, the second of which has a noise cancelling function.

We were told by people we spoke to that we sounded loud and clear - which we'd have expected given the importance placed by both brands on this phone working actually as a phone.

You've got really easy access to the call log from the Contacts screen, and there's a link on the dialler that takes you straight into SMS, which we found really handy.

We also like a lot that you can send a quick pre-defined text message to any incoming caller with a press of a button and selection of the appropriate messageSocial networking is integrated into the LG Prada 3.0, and LG Social+ takes advantage of that. Social+ is a widget that gives you quick access to your social networks.

You have to authorise it for each of your social media accounts. It takes up a whole home screen, and actually, oddly enough, against the black background it does look a bit messy.

On the other hand, it's really easy to use.

For Twitter it enables you to tweet, see your DMs and @ replies just by tapping a tab on the widget, and if you hit your own icon you can drop right into the website, so everything is very accessible.

For Facebook it enables you to update your status, see messages and friend requests, and again drop into the website.

You switch between social networks using a small, quite difficult to hit tab on the screen. We really like Social+ since it's easy to use and shows plenty of data, but not if you love jumping between platforms.

To save on bandwidth, you can change the interval at which Social+ refreshes data - an added bonus in our view.

Writing text for SMS and email ought to be very straightforward on the 4.3-inch screen, since it should cater for large keyboards in both portrait and landscape orientations.

And indeed you do get pretty large keyboards.

SMS messages are shown in an attractive black and white conversation view.

However, there are a few niggles. There's no press to hold for second functions such as '!' or'?' on the keyboard. Only for numbers. So there is a bit of skipping about into a secondary keyboard. And there's a dedicated smiley key, but only for the standard smiley face, not for the myriad variants.

Overall, messaging on the LG Prada 3.0 all pretty easy to get to grips with. We like that the full text of SMS messages is shown in the notification bar, so you don't even have to open the messaging app unless you want to reply.