[product#126]
Overview
I have never been one to keep a secret (…especially in the Gadget world!), so when LG invited us to the launch of the LG Secret (LG KF750), this was one ‘Secret’ which I definitely couldn’t remain tight lipped about.
After a couple of weeks of rigorous testing, prodding and getting grips with this slick new handset I am now ready to reveal all to you on whether the new LG Secret phone can cut it in a world where mobile phones are born every second…
Review
Style
With the LG Secret's hugely popular big brothers, the LG Chocolate and Shine taking all the limelight for the past two years due to their stylish designs, you would think that the LG Secret would have needed to pull off something fancy to achieve a sleek and stylish finish to fit in with the family. Well, I am pleased to tell you that not only does it not disappoint but it exceeds our expectations.
In terms of style, the LG Secret is as 'tough as old boots'. The screen is made from tempered glass and the rear casing is made from a high grade carbon fibre. This will withstand most bumps and bruises allowing you to show off your phone with pride to all your friends rather than embarrassingly hiding it in a leather case.
With a high res 2.4" LCD (640 x 480 pixel) screen surrounded by a shiny chrome and leather textured plastic, it certainly feels like you've picked something up with bags of style. Unlike the Nokia N95, it really doesn't feel like a hollow plastic box but something that is of the highest quality. Even though I knew that the LG Secret was unlikely to be damaged I started to get a little over protective and couldn't help cleaning the phone to make sure that it would look its best at all times.
Its robust nature is not at all compromised by the design of the LG Secret as read on you’ll agree it’s features are pretty impressive for a mobile of this size..
Under the Bonnet…
If you thought that the team at LG have created a mobile 'bimbo', meaning pretty to look at but lacks substance, well think again! Claiming to be the slimmest 5 megapixel camera phone with extra features including 3G, ability to capture video at 120 fps at qvga, motion sensor and a whole bunch of other goodies, it does look as though this lucky bugger of a phone has it all, so does it really do what it says on the package?…
Camera and Video
The slimmest 5.0 megapixel camera phone in the world, it definitely worked like a dream apart from a few niggles such as the camera lagging. With 16x optical zoom (compared to the N95 which has only 10x optical zoom), ability to determine image size, white balance and ISO this camera can happily replace your digital camera.
The video has 120 fps video recording in QVGA or 30 fps in VGA, with DivX support to play files in high quality as well as having a secondary camera for video calling.
Touch Media or Touchscreen
The touchscreen on the phone allowed you to navigate to most of the media features in a breeze. If the Touch Media features are not to everyone's taste such as music, camera, games (M-Toy), documents or radio then the manual does say that you can activate the full touch screen but our pre-release model didn’t have this feature. My favourite part is when you press a key and it sends a small tingling vibration to your fingers. To add that extra va va voom, it comes with neon touch navigation, showing a calming neon ripple effect as you press the buttons. A significant improvement that LG have made is that they have added an ‘OK’ button which isn’t touch sensitive. It’s a great cure for those of you with touchscreen phones who’ll know how frustrating it can be at times where a small brush on the wrong keys can mean you send an unfinished message to the sender accidentally. However, I wish it was slightly bigger though because even with my tiny fingers I couldn’t help but press other surrounding neon buttons and as I did still manage to send a few emails that weren’t finished, but now I’m so used to it I can even blog on my new mobi (this is using the Google package not not a standard program).
I know I keep saying the old worn out phrase, 'LG are Kings of Touchscreen', well I'm going to have to say it again because with the Secret phone they have managed to integrate touchscreen and mechanical keys for those of you who don’t like touch screen very well.
M-Toy/ Motion Games
All I can say is Wow! This is my favourite bit. The phone comes with Nintendo Wii Sports pack style games which include Darts, Magic Ball, Maze, Homerun Derby and Fishing. Just like the Wii, it is not for real gamers but is highly addictive and a lot of fun. The only criticism I can give it is the Magic Ball game liked my friends more than me…but nonetheless it was still fun.
After Nintendo have seen the LG Secret M-Toy in action, it may not be long before we start seeing portable Wii devices. There is no TV-out on the M-toy feature but if it did we could enjoy this feature just like the Wii, I can see this being introduced very soon though. LG have promised more games in the future however in the meantime these should keep you going for a while. Just a cautionary note…don't let go of the phone as it's not the phone that’ll get hurt but maybe some poor person sat near you!
Auto Luminance Control and Smart Display
Another clever feature is the ambient brightness of the screen automatically adjusts depending on the brightness of the environment. A bonus is that it can apparently save battery life by about 20% on average. We would have tested the battery but come on…surely you don't think I’m that sad, so we'll let you be the judge of that!
The phone also comes with motion sensor where the screen adjusts its size depending on the viewing angle of the phone.
Music Player
The phone comes with a fairly sophisticated music player with bags of options of how to organise your music and setting playlists. What I loved the most was the media player on the LG Secret because by using the PC Suite you can subscribe to the latest podcasts and synchronise it with your phone.
Google Package
This depends on your network operator but my phone came installed with Yahoo so I had to install the Java apps myself which was fairly easy to do. As an email junkie, this was perfect to check my mail when I had a spare minute…but it isn’t advanced enough to replace my Blackberry as you have to refresh the page to check for new emails. And if you’re 'captain no sense of direction' then the Google maps might be able to come to your rescue but unlike the Nokia N95 there is no inbuilt GPS on this phone.
Memory
Although it only has a 4GB SD slot, it may be enough for most people but this is no comparison to the 8/16 GB Apple iPhone and 8 GB Nokia N95 for memory. However, this is not a huge limitation because since using my phone I haven’t even come close to using up this amount of memory.
The Gaj-It verdict
Design: 10/10
Usability: 9/10
Features: 9/10
Value: 9/10 (based on rumours that it’s free on contract)
We Say: The LG Secret phone is a real phone with exceptional style, the 5 megapixel camera means you can strike a pose and with the Wii style games the phone is bags of fun and more.
However, with phones like the 8GB Nokia N95, which had inbuilt GPS and the Apple iPhone 2.0, which is proposed to come with GPS shortly, this is what I feel makes the LG Secret fall short off the mark but I agree with LG’s comments that it wasn’t right so we didn’t use it. However, life is about compromises and for a phone of this size and quality you are definitely getting your money’s worth and for that it is likely to continue the legacy of its older black label siblings!
There maybe more to come from the LG Secret in the future but for now the LG’s best kept secret is out so watch this space when it is released in June!
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75 thoughts on “LG Secret LG-KF750 - The Secret's Out Now, Let's Spread the Word!”
Very interesting and indepth post Gaj. Can’t wait to get my hands on one soon and not to sound too sexist I can see this definitely a phone for the girls
I liked it but it sounds a bit girly so now I am getting worried.
lol, I love the phone. I think the phone will appeal to women the most because, they know a bit more about fashion than most blokes. This phone also doubles as a mirror if you clean the screen (okay i’m gonna get into trouble).
For me its all about having a really slick phone and not having to put it in a pouch. With this phone you don’t have to worry about scratches and it fits nicely into your pocket. It’s also feature packed (only thing I wish it had is GPS).
In terms of style the only contenders for this phone is the iPhone and Nokia 8800 Arte.
Apart from your sexist comments Gaj (I’ll let you off on that one!) it does sound like a really slick phone.
I’m just annoyed that you’ve been lucky enough to get your hands one rather than me!
I did have a look at the video and I did spot you in it but couldn’t hear a thing you we’re saying…just out of curiosity, what was the question you asked to the guy at LG?
I asked him if there is any plans to get GPS into the phones and he gave a really good answer but you’ll have to watch the whole thing to find out what he said :)
I also asked about the memory capacity which is a 4GB external memory too but that seems to have been cut out. I can’t remember his answer.
Now you’ve given away my identity – don’t you hate hearing your own voice.
Can someone please tell me if it is possible to download Java/ Java games. I know the phone uses M-Toy but is it also possible to have Java games on it?
Yeah, I am using google mobile apps on it and they are java based.
Hope that helps.
Thanx!! I also wanted to know if the text tones are customisable i.e can u set mp3 as a text tone or are you limited to the choices given by the phones?
Hey there,
Nice review, very all encompassing and suchlike. I love my Secret too, so I’m in full agreement!
Where did you download your apps from? I have the same Yahoo software installed by default and would love the google package I see advertised everywhere.
Cheers
Dave
Kayy,
They are customisable and I think you should be able to do this on most new phones now. The problem I have is that I don’t have the full LG PC suite so I can’t actually download mp3s to it but it is possible.
Dave,
You can send yourself a text here
http://www.google.co.uk/mobile/mail/stp-js.html#
or on your phone visit
googlemail.com/app
Dave have you used your LG PC suite and how do you find it?
Cheers,
Gaj
I’ve just got my new LG KF750 and the PC suite won’t install properly on my computer. I have WIndows XP… It was the installation of the USB where the problem started!
Any ideas?
Thanks
Hi Jo,
I had the pre-release phone so unfortunately I never had a working version of the software. What exactly is the error that you are getting?
I have asked LG for it and they told me they will upload to the website soon however it is a very large file so I couldn’t be sent it which is a problem.
Anybody else having this problem? if you are, can you post a comment (make sure ‘subscribe to comments’ is checked) or register to the forum and post your problems and we will keep you informed/ assist you with any problems.
My computer isn’t registering the USB software as valid… and as a result won’t acknowledge that the phone is attached! Then I uninstalled the software but that didn’t work either… I wondered if I was because I have XP but realise now that people seem to be having problems with Vista, not XP!
same problem here: the PC suite doesn’t work on XP.
during installation PC warn that software is not officially accepted by Windows.
But sotware was inside the package, together with phone…
Disappointing, really disappointing!
I was wndering how to set up GPRS on the phone.coz im on o2 and the set-up instrctions they gave me do not work. do you have any idea what could be wrong?
With regards to everyone problems on the software I’m really sorry but I haven’t heard or found anything that can help you yet.
Kayy, in order to get my GPRS I just called Orange and they sent me a Sim Update. Hope that helps you.
Cheers,
Gaj
Hi Guys,
I have just got my Secret and LOVE LOVE LOVE it.
I have heard that the battery life is not that great on the mobile, and I have to say that mine did die quite quickly, although I was playing with it!!
On another review I read you can get another battery which has a better life span, so I was just wondering if this was true? Don’t suppose you can help at all can you?
Thanks guys.
Hi, im having issues with the software too i get “Feature Transfer Error” something about NoniaPlayer and Data Error (cyclic redundancy check) whatever that means!!!
Help! Super slick phone am loving it to pieces but the software is letting it down!
Im also on XP
Amy, I haven’t had any problems with the battery life and to be honest the reviews I have read have rated it very high. I have heard/read problems with the actual power indicator which is said to be misleading and one second you have full bars and the next its on one bar.
When playing games and playing music on loud speak you will notice that the battery will run dry pretty quickly but this is to be expected. For an average phone user I think the battery should last a few days.
For all of you having problems with the PC software has anybody had any luck, I certainly haven’t heard anything or found a fix. I will try and see if I can get it to work with some of the earlier software.
Hi Amy,
to answer your question about an extra long life battery for the secret, as far as i know there sadly isn’t any commercial ones available. To help you the standard battery is a 800mAh, Li-Ion. Your best bet is to check out eBay (I found a 1000mAh, Li-Ion one there for £7inc p.p) or our local markets :D
Hope this help!
Coja
I did have problems installing the PC suite as well, but here’s the steps I took to fix it (on Win XP x64):
1 – Install PC suite as far as it goes
2 – Attach phone through USB cable
3 – Open your windows Device Manager and look up the unidentified phone (mine said LGKF75x with a yellow question mark)
4 – Right click, update driver and make it search on the driver CD
5 – Though most (if not all) drivers are unsigned, they work, so click your way through the numerous warning boxes.
6 – Have fun!
I personally have a problem with a T-Mobile branded version, I can’t change the shortcut key bindings on the main screen.
Hey Coja,
Thanks for the advice (And you too Gaj). I maybe being a bit blonde (Don’t really understand this technology game….) But I have had a look on Ebay and am not able to find the battery you are going on about.
I don’t play games on my phone, and I am an average user, but I think its the bluetooth that does it, as I have it connected for my car (I drive a lot!). At the moment, I have it turned off and the battery is lasting me longer, but this is not really practical for me.
I know i’m being a pain but if someone could give me a link I would be really really pleased.
Loving the phone though, best one I have had in YEARS!!
Thanks!
Amy
Hi THIJS, i too managed to do this so my computer recognises my KF750 but how did you get the software to load after that? im assuming there is actually some synchro software on that tine wee disk somewhere but i cant get it to install?????
Dan,
I was able to install the suite itself in the first place, but I don’t know if that works on a “normal” 32-bits version of XP.
The suite launches and connects just fine now on my 64-bits version of Windows XP.
So, short version, I just installed the suite, clicked through all driver warnings, and did an “update drivers” on the unrecognized phone in device manager.
oh i c, mine wont install the pc suite itself. Thanks for your help anyway!
When syncing ur secret you need to go into settings, connectivity,USB connections then change to what you want to do ie. music sync, mass storgage etc. if you don’t set the phone up it won’t work!!
Hi Amy,
Sorry for the late reply! I have found another battery for you on ebay its Item number: 160260731351, to find it just copy and paste the number into ebays search bar and it will bring up the item :)
hope this helps!
(this time i have checked my spelling and grammar ‘i think’ :D )
I installed the PC Suite II software to MS Vista 32-bit properly and when I use the connection wizard it keeps saying that the phone model is: Music Sync Player. What am I doing wrong? Is it me, my PC, the phone itself or the software?
Help!!!
Hello, Gaj !
You said : “My favourite part is when you press a key and it sends a small TINGLING vibration to your fingers. To add that extra va va voom, it comes with neon touch navigation, showing a calming neon ripple effect as you press the buttons”
What tinglin and hove did you get that ?
Thanks
@marex,
by tingling I meant the small vibration when you press on the neon navigation, is this not working for you?
Thanks,
hi, johnnyB you are a legend!! all you have to do is go to connectivity and usb options (on the phone). ive set mine to mass storage device and will use it just like a usb stick.
only got my phone today, so still figuring out all its tricks. but so far im liking it!
Great review of the LG Secret.
Don’t forget on the memory front that neither the iPhone or 8GB Nokia have expandable memory and with 4GB Micro SD cards going for just £13 at places like MyMemory, the Secret in some ways is superior and more flexible than the other two phones.
Oh and you predicted correctly as it is free on a pay monthly contract. :)
I had the same trouble with the LG PC Suite II software and it didn’t work but then suddenly it did. I wish I knew what I did differently but I honestly don’t know I’m afraid!
My problem now is that I can only play videos back through the LG PC Suite once they’re uploaded onto my PC, not on Quicktime or Real Player and in Windows Media Player it just plays the sound with no picture.
Any idea why this is and how it can be resolved? Is it because they are saved in a “.3g” file format? I want to upload my videos online but there’s no point if I won’t be able to watch them!
@Kat,
If you take this into the forum we should be able to help you. I need to understand properly what your problem is as I don’t think there is enough information in your question to be sure.
https://www.gaj-it.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3
Thanks,
Gaj
@ Gaj !
Yeah it does actualy. Had it taken of in my setings.
Thanks for reply, wery nice and useful page :)
@marex,
Glad you got it working and thanks for your comment. Please keep coming back.
cheers,
Gaj
i have recently upgraded to lg secret , loving the phone but its a night mare installing the pc suite..have treid evrything…even went to the 0870 number..no luck ..help
Hi there – if any of you guys are still experiencing battery problems with the Secret then you could try turning on ‘Auto Luminance Control’ to reduce the battery consumption by the screen (if it’s not already on) which allows it to adjust the contrast of the screen in line with the light levels outside the device. This can be turned on by going in to the settings menu then selecting ‘Display Settings’ and finally option number 5 called ‘Backlight’ – in this menu it allows you to select something called ‘Auto Brightness’ – this needs to be turned on and then the phone itself automatically adjusts the contrast and brightness of the screen dependent on the ambient light levels around the device at that time – thus reducing battery consumption levels.
For those of you with problems with the PC suite – please check that your PC meets the specifications on page 66 of the manual. Also make sure your phone when connecting has the correct USB mode selected under the ‘Connectivity’ menu in the phone. If your PC is recognising the phone but cannot sync then some software has already been installed from the CD, but something isn’t quite right with the sync settings – so check pages 64-66 of the manual to make sure you have the right setup.
Hi!
Will the Secret remain a secret???
I am experiencing problems with the PC suite as well.
Vista doesn’t install all drivers (“driver not correctly installed>>pls contact manufacturer” According to the device manager (thx Thijs), device is working correctly. (right…Not!!) On the LG website, there is no way of dowloading correct software either as the website doesn’t recognize the EMEI or S/N codes :-/ Also my phone seems ‘connected’ according to the PC suite but isn’t… (Aaaaarrgghhh!!!) Who has the ultimate solution??? I am so looking forward to find it after numerous failed installs!!! Also good news on the memory subject: The Secret does accept a 8GB SD card!! (despite the mention of a 4 GB limit)
to Chris at LG my laptop meets all the req’s on page 66 but im getting a box come up around half way through the installation saying Data error (cyclic redundancy check) any ideas whats going on and what i can do to change this??? cheers
Also chris i dont know if this is relevant but i tried to copy the LG PC Suite II cd to my usb stick, dont know what i thought i’d acheive but im geting impatient! it started fine as with the installation but then gave me the same ‘Data error (cyclic redundancy check) message? i dont know if this will help you help me but i hope it does!
Update on the installation problem:
Both Customer Services at LG (mailto:bncic@lge.com) and Dynafix After Sales Services in Holland support.helpdesk@dynafix.com) are stating that I should send in the phone for repair!!!
In their message, they recommend I should store all data from my phone on simcard or PC (which I can’t because I can’t connect!
The problem is in the installation, not the phone!!!
Chris, if you are reading this, please send me the pages you talk about(I got a brand new computer with Vista which would normally meet all HW requirements). (Besides: the requirements on the LG website I do meet) In the dutch and french manual that came with the phone there is no page 66 or other containing the specs you mention….(on the cover it says ‘English version’ too, but that comprises only a couple of pages about features, that’s all. I would love to hear from you! Thanx!
@MArjolein, I agree I think the problem is with the software and not your phone but its confusing how it is working for some people and not others. I wonder if it is conflicting with certain pieces of software. Have you got all the latest windows updates on your PC? Somebody mentioned they had problems with it conflicting with windows media player. Although I really can’t see the relavance of these everything is worth a try at this stage..
@DanDan, A ‘cyclic redundancy check’ implies that the software is corrupt. You might need a new copy of the software. (Please let me know if you find out where to get it from)
DanDan, in response to your 8GB SD card it will work fine but you may have problems as you use more than 4GB as the phone I was told is programmed only to able to cope with 4GB. (for a phone of this size you have to make some comprimises I suppose).
@Chris, thanks for popping over and helping out.
@ Gaj, i’ve tried the LG website to see if i can get a new software CD but their site it horrificly unhelpful! if you know how i can get a new one and it works i’ll refer to you from this day on as King Gaj!
Cheers!
DanDan, lol…I like that title so lets see what I can do. Firstly is there anybody here who has a working CD that they could kindly send me a copy of and I’ll forward it on DanDan…
Don’t worry DanDan if nobody has it here then I’ll try elsewhere.
Cheers,
Gaj
just a few questions as im really considering buying this phone:
1) is the supplied headset the “ear-in” earphones?
2) how good is the sound quality via headset (esp. bass
wise) as we cant manually adjust the equalizer.
3) exactly how good is the 5MP camera
4) is it possible to switch off the menu and camera shutter sound (perhaps silent mode)?
thanks in adavance.
great review BTW! :D
Hi Gaj (or should I refer to you as King Gaj?;-)
Yes, latest Windows updates are installed. WMP is installed too (but like you I’m missing the relevance here…) The only relevance I can think of is Vista Dutch version not being compatible which might explain why others don’t seem to have this problem.
I am gonna pay a visit to the Phone House where I got the phone from with my laptop and see if we can get another phone working before I send it in.
It’s worth a try I guess. Fingers crossed!
I’ll let you guys know the outcome.
Thanx!
Marjolein
Hey Gaj
I’m also experiencing problems with setting up the driver and pc suite. I’m on XP also but my computer has been saying that the software does not comply with XP and completion of installation could result in problems now or in the future. Do think it would be safe to complete installation?
melissa.
I have this phone, it was free on contract.
£22 a month, that’s unlimeted text, 600 minutes and free internet. I previously owned the LG Shine and although I do miss the mirror, I do think this phone is just as good! I never normally play phone games but for this one I have made the exeption (:. The only problem I had was uploading images onto my PC, I still have not managed to do this.
ok guys, i just purchased the phone and i have to admit…im really enjoying :)
i did install the LG PC Suite and everything went well. all i did was
1) install PC suite
2) then connect PC to phone (via USB) and installed drivers.
3) use software.
:)
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