LG L5100
Discontinued 18th September 2004
Megapixel phones are still pretty uncommon,
so new models are always welcome. The LG L5100 is an offering
from LG Electronics, exclusive to the T-Mobile network.
In fact T-Mobile have recently announced a whole set
of exclusive phones from many different manufacturers.
The
LG L5100 has a 1.3 megapixel camera and a twisting mechanism
that we first saw in the LG 7100. The primary display
is a 128x160 pixel unit in 262,000 colours, with a smaller
external display of a quite reasonable 96x96 pixels.
Like a lot of phones from East Asia, the L5100 is only
a dual band GSM phone, but it does have GPRS, a WAP
2.0 browser and an email client.
In many ways, the L5100 is similar to
the other recently announced T-Mobile exclusive phone,
the Siemens
SF65, which similarly swivels and has a 1.3 megapixel
camera. Although the Siemens unit arguable looks better
and seems to have a better swivelling function, the
LG has more memory (27Mb compared to 18Mb) and the benefit
of a secondary display. Both cameras are constrained
somewhat by the basic 128x160 pixel main displays and
lack of removable memory.
In fact, what the LG L5100 and Siemens
SF65 show us is that megapixel cameras are no longer
restricted to high-end devices. Or put another way..
megapixel class camera assemblies are now so cheap that
it's an inexpensive way to add value to a product. This
does raise the question though, if Siemens, LG and Benq
(who make the O2 X3) can
add megapixel cameras to mainstream phones like this,
then how come other manufacturers are still using VGA
resolution cameras?
The LG L5100 will be available from
T-Mobile Germany from October or November 2004, and
later in other regions.
Subscribe
to our newsletter for more news on
upcoming releases
|
LG
L5100 at a glance
|
Available:
|
Q4
2004
|
Network:
|
Dual-band
SGM
|
Data:
|
GPRS
|
Screen:
|
128x160
pixels, 262,000 colours
|
Camera:
|
1.3
megapixels
|
Size:
|
Medium
clamshell 103x48x26mm
/ 110 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
No
|
Infra-red:
|
Yes
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Yes
|
Battery
life:
|
2.5 hours talk / 8 days standby
|
|
|