LG GD510 Pop is something really new in the world of smartphones. The back cover houses a solar panel, so you will never run out of battery, wherever you are. At least, in theory, and Sunlight is a must to prove the theory.
LG Pop is an eco friendly device for those who want to save the planet, one smartphone at a time. Also, it’s on the cheap side, a product for the masses, the new Cookie if you like, with a cool unisex design and an affordable price tag. In terms of specs, we have a midrange smartphone with no Wi Fi and a fixed focus camera. Let’s take a closer look:
Key features:
• 3.0" 256K-color TFT LCD touchscreen display (240x400 pixels)
• 3.15 megapixel fixed focus camera, QVGA video @ 15fps
• Quad-band GSM support
• Bluetooth with A2DP and microUSB v2.0
• micro SD card memory expansion
• Standard microUSB port
• FM radio with RDS
• Widget interface and LiveSquare homescreen
• Accelerometer sensor for automatic screen rotation and turn-to-mute
• Landscape on-screen QWERTY keyboard
• Office document viewer
• Smart dialing
• Nice battery life
• Optional solar panel battery cover
• Allegedly affordable price
View the full list of specifications and features of LG GD510 Pop
LG GD510 Pop stands at 97.8 x 49.5 x 11.2mm. There is only color available for the casing, which is silver.
These dimensions make the phone easier to hold. Even one-hand use is easy, unlike on phones that reach 60 mm wide. The casing is all plastic but by no means plasticky, it seems solid and well built, the Pop's compact appearance and feel will surely be appreciated, it even has a business like appearance.
The front is dominated by the 3-inch touch screen. Below the screen is a single hardware button, which serves different purposes depending on context. For example, you can use it to start or close a call. Above the screen is the speaker. No camera for video calls and no ambient light sensor here.
The left side of the phone houses the volume keys and the micro USB port, used for both charging and connecting the phone to a computer.
Unfortunately the headphones connect to the same port, which means you can not use headphones other than the standard ones.
The back of the phone features the solar panel. Not all specimens have solar panel; you can opt for a battery cover with or without this accessory. The solar panel is said to provide over 2 minutes of talk time or 180 minutes of standby time per every 10 minutes of sunlight exposure, which sound quite efficient.
Whether you opt for the solar panel or not, the back of the phone houses a 3.2 megapixel fixed focus camera without flash. The battery is 900 mAh. Under the battery cover we also find the hot-swappable micro SD card slot. The device lasts for 4-5 days with moderate use which is not bad at all.
LG GD510 Pop uses S-Class user interface. The processor is powerful enough so the interface is running fluid and without interruption. Transition effects and animations look very nice.
The 3" screen has a thin blue frame and mirror-like finish. Pop GD510’s touch screen of 3 inches TFT is offering a WQVGA resolution (240 x 400 pixels) and 256,000 colors. The screen responds well and accurately to the touch, the picture quality is good indoors, but bright sunlight makes it almost unreadable.
The phone features a task manager that allows you to alternate between applications and close them.
In terms of telephony, everything is alright, it handles phone calls trouble-free, no voice quality or reception issues. There is Smart Dialing, and Speed dialing is supported. The sound of the speaker is loud and clear, even in crowded and noisy places I could carry on a conversation without problems. Signal strength is also good, even if you're in the subway station.
The 50 MB of internal memory are certainly not enough for multimedia files, but you can add a micro SD card.
The music player is very good. It features a cool interface and configuration options are rich. You can display album art while listening to a song. It has a graphic equalizer so you can optimize the sound according to your preferences. You can sort songs by artist, album, genre, or date added. A dedicated widget allows you to control it from the standby screen.
The video player is not very good due to the lack of DivX and XviD support. It only supports 3GP and MP4 formats. Videos can run in both portrait and landscape mode.
Pop GD510 has an FM radio with RDS. You can listen to your favorite radio station on either headphones or the speaker. You can store the frequencies of up to 50 radio stations. The radio can run in the background, controlled by a widget.
The camera has 3.2 megapixels but no autofocus or flash, it takes pictures with a maximum image resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. The phone design enables you to take photos easily with one hand. There are several camera settings such as exposure, shooting mode (single picture / more pictures) and others. Photo quality is very good, the colors are vivid, and the noise level is acceptable.
The handset captures video in QVGA resolution at 15 fps. With enough handsets around shooting WVGA@30fps this is hardly a commendable achievement by today's standards.
Also, in terms of connectivity, LG GD510 Pop does not shine, there’s no 3G or Wi-Fi. You can only connect to the Internet via GPRS or EDGE; the other connectivity options include Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and USB v2.0. Actually, for the price tag of the device, these things do not come as a surprise.
The web browser looks very nice, with good touch response and a decent amount of features. Zooming and scrolling is fast enough.
I was pleasantly surprised by the preinstalled Quick Office app. You can view Word, Excel or PowerPoint files. There is also a viewer for PDF files. Zoom and navigate through these documents is trouble free.
LG GD510 comes with some pre-installed games. You can also download games and other applications in Java format.
Final words: LG GD510 Pop is a very good phone for the price tag, it has a reasonable amount of features, looks stylish and well built, it even appeals to the green heart public with that cool solar panel but by all means, it’s not a multimedia rocket or a business phone.
You can have one here on a monthly contract deal.
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