LG KF900 Prada review: Messenger wears Prada

For the original LG Prada the best way to travel in style was to travel light. But this time around it's carrying a full QWERTY suitcase packed with goodies. Top of the line functionality and an updated interface sound just the right kind of luggage to us. But good enough won't do if it's not glam enough. The new LG KF900 Prada may seem like the missing link between the techie high end and exclusive fashionware. But will HSDPA, Wi-Fi, QWERTY and DivX ring the right bell with the target audience?

Last week we saw Samsung ride on the Emporio Armani youth appeal and now we're back by the catwalk with the more moderate, perhaps even conservative, but nonetheless attractive, new Prada phone by LG.



And we've got loads to cover. Are the changed form factor and the QWERTY keyboard likely to backfire, and will performance ever be make or break for the fashion savvy? Rarely has a designer package promised so much action, so let's roll.
Key features: 
3-inch 262K-color capacitive touchscreen display of WQVGA resolution 
Comfortable QWERTY keyboard 
5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash 
D1 (720x480) resolution video recording at 30fps 
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support 
Dual band 3G with HSDPA support 
Wi-Fi 
Responsive Flash-based interface with multi-touch support 
Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and USB v2.0 
Stylish and generous retail package 
microSD memory card slot (verified to work with 16GB cards) 
FM radio with RDS 
Accelerometer sensor for screen auto rotate 
TV-out 
Office document viewer 
DivX video support 
Fashion-related content preloaded 
Main disadvantages:
Two-year-old design 
The large waistline doesn't match the fashionable image (but is OK for a QWERTY messenger) 
Plastic build 
No GPS (LG Renoir has it) 
No XviD video support (LG Renoir has it) 
Multi-touch has rather limited use 
No Flash support in the web browser 
Video recording is a letdown 
High cost-to-features ratio (but OK for a premium fashion handset) 

It was about time the first Prada phone by LG got an update, no doubt about that. Data transfers, connectivity, multimedia and user interface upgrades are spot on, but a hardware QWERTY keyboard was hardly essential. It's the Prada phone after all, and it probably needs all those buttons as much as the Sonim rugged phones need a Dolce & Gabbana carrying case. 

Oh well, all-in-one QWERTY touchscreens are obviously the new black. Or so the LG KF900 Prada believes. Keen to find a niche within the niche, it lands right in the middle of not so friendly smartphone crowd. It's got the features to stand up to the XPERIA, HTC and the likes but it's kinda hard to imagine the ruthless WinMo machine melting with pity for the adorable, helpless, irresistible Prada. 

Anyway, we think we'd be better off skipping our traditional round of window shopping this time. After all comparing the Prada to the smart messengers running Symbian or Windows Mobile will be irrelevant and unfair. There will be of course references to equally equipped messengers as we go, for both performance and looks, but that will be all.