As regular readers will know I picked up an Arena at an LG event 5 weeks ago. First impressions were good but I promised to write a full review when I’d spent some time with the phone. I’ve used the Arena in place of my Sony Ericsson W980 and now it’s time to tell you what I think of it. This is one feature packed phone and so I’ll limit myself to talking about the highs and lows of the phone rather than get bogged down in too much detail. The full specification and feature list can be found here.

Touch screen and User Interface

The S-Class User Interface is one of the Arena’s major selling points but is it any good? LG have done a great job with the touch screen UI and it’s almost as precise and responsive as the iPod Touch which is high praise indeed. Yes the rotating cube is a bit gimmicky but it does at least give easy access to the four shortcut screens and can also be used to impress you mates down the pub.

The screen is bright and clear but in common with most colour screens it can be difficult to use in bright sunlight. Touch the status bar at the top of the phone screen and a neat shortcut menu drops down giving instant access to: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Alarm, Music Player, Calendar items and Phone Profile functions.

The Haptic feedback level can be changed or turned off if you don’t like it. I wasn’t a fan at first but I’ve come to like the feedback it gives me.

The UI can occasionally slow down when pressed; for instance when displaying the Multimedia favourites screen. Actually I’m only talking around 6 seconds to display the screen but compared to the speed of the rest of the phone’s UI this feels sluggish. Perhaps this is why you’re limited to just 15 favourite songs and 15 favourite videos/pictures. Your 30 favourite contacts are listed in the order they were initially selected in rather than alphabetic as you might expect.

Messaging

SMS, MMS and Email messaging are all present on the LG as you’d expect. POP3, IMAP and Microsoft Exchange email are catered for. Push Email isn’t supported however so you’ll need to keep hold of your Blackberry for now at least.

Text entry is fast and responsive helped along by a dedicated key that switches text entry in and out of T9 mode. Turning the phone on its side changes the phone keypad into a QWERTY keyboard but unfortunately the keys are then a little small for my fingers making for unreliable text entry.

SMS messaging has a Threaded Inbox view which displays messages too and from a person as a thread. This is a very useful view and it’s a shame LG don’t include this same view for email as well.

Multimedia

Video picture quality is excellent on the bright 3” WVGA (480 x800) tempered glass screen making TV shows and films very watchable. LG supply a free copy of the Mobile DIVX Convertor software to make conversion of your favourite video quick and easy.

Dolby Mobile handles volume levelling automatically so you don’t have to constantly change the volume from track to track. Music and video sound quality from the Arena’s speakers is very good allowing you to inflict your playlist on people whenever you like. The in-ear headphones are also unusually good for a mobile and remind me of my CX-300’s.

When using the music player the display can be in landscape or portrait however the menu is only available in portrait mode and not landscape. When listening from the multimedia favourites the display can only be viewed in portrait mode and no menu is available. This inconsistency means I rarely use the Favourites screen to listen to music. There is a random play/shuffle function but as it’s hidden away under a submenu I didn’t find it until recently (who reads manuals anyway?) so I’ve not been using it.

Camera

The 5MP camera is just about OK in bright light but gives turgid results in low light conditions. The LED flash does nothing to help this situation and is next to useless. If you want a good LG camera phone then you’d be better off picking up the LG Renoir.

LG have implemented a DSLR style settings dial which is a bit of fun and allows you to change settings for both the still and video cameras. Pictures can be edited on the handset but as you have to use you finger on the touch interface this is never very precise. It is however a lot of fun allowing you to add effects, colours and text to your photos. Precision editing will need to be carried out on the PC though.

Video Camera

The video camera can shoot at half, full, double and quadruple speed giving you the opportunity to shoot some interesting footage. Again results are OK in bright light but very muddy in low light conditions. Beware though the zoom level can’t be changed once you start shooting so make sure it’s set correctly before you press the record button.

Phone Lock

The Arena’s dedicated call pick-up and end call buttons are unlocked when a call arrives and this makes it very easy to hit one and hang up on someone as you pull it out of your pocket. Also when an alarm goes off the phone screen unlocks itself leading to alarms accidentally being snoozed or turned off without you realising.

Battery Life

Battery life is reasonable although it obviously suffers when Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or video playback is used. When simply using the Arena as a phone I find myself charging it every third day as I do with my W980. This falls to every day and a half if Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are left on all the time. The battery meter is only made up of three blocks making it hard to judge how much battery life is remaining. Coupled with this that final block does seem to disappear in a big hurry.

To put the battery life into some perspective I’m a light to medium phone user. The standard battery is only 1000mAh and heavy users will wish LG had supplied a higher capacity battery.

Using video playback continuously will display the low battery warning in a little over 3 hours so you’d better keep a charger or spare battery around if you like to watch a lot of video content.

Conclusion

The Arena’s been in my pocket with no cover or screen protector for the entire period of the test and it still looks as good as new with no obvious blemishes or scratches. This bodes well for the longevity of the Arena.

The Arena isn’t perfect but it is a good solid multimedia phone that’ll keep you entertained on the commute and impress your mates in the pub. LG tell us that the Arena is targeted at that all important 16 to 24 age group. It certainly impressed the people in that age range that used the phone. The only negative comments were on the quality of the games that are shipped with it.

Pros

• · Stylish looks and good build quality.
• · Call and multimedia sound quality is very good through both the speakers and standard headphones.
• · The neat Shortcut menu means you can easily turn Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on and off at will and save that battery.
• · Good keypad for number and text entry.
• · 8 GB of built in memory expandable up to 32GB’s with a Micro SD card.
• · Video quality is top notch.
• · Slide cover over the PC/Charging port

Cons

• · The screen is difficult to see in full sunlight.
• · Weak vibration alert makes missed calls a possibility.
• · Phone lock can lead to lost calls and alarms.
• · Inconsistent UI in places.
• · Occasional lock-ups.
• · Very occasionally a DIVX fails to play but will then play on the second try.