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SearchLG Renoir outshines European cameraphone rivals
The autumn traditionally sees the smartphone makers going on a marketing blitz ahead of the holiday buying season, but this year there is the hint of desperation, as vendors unleash their most sophisticated devices yet, but to a market that is likely to be significantly tougher than they envisaged during the development stage. Hard on the heels of Nokia Tube, Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 and HTC/T-Mobile G1 comes LG’s latest effort, the Renoir, and like many of the Korean supplier's high end products, it blows away most of the competition in its features and innovations, but will still have to struggle to make as much noise as Apple, Google or Nokia.
The Renoir, more officially known as the KC910, will debut in the UK and other European countries this month through multiple operators. It is a slim (under 14mm) touchscreen handset that matches the much vaunted eight megapixel camera in Samsung’s recently launched i850. The camera, and therefore imaging and video applications, are the key focus on the Renoir (the name chosen because of the famous painter's skill with light). Like Nokia with the N95/96, LG is surrounding its megapixels with fine photo features, putting clear water between its handset and the iPhone, which has only managed a mediocre camera. The Renoir will sport Schneider-Kreuznach certified optics, a Xenon flash, auto and manual focus, sensitivity up to ISO 1600 and geotagging. It also boasts a first in phones, the Touch Shot feature, which allows the user to focus on any object simply by touching it on the screen, with the shutter firing automatically once the finger is removed, reducing shake.
Other features include HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity plus Assisted-GPS. It is the successor to the Viewty, a image/mobile TV optimized model.The handset will ship in main European territories this month and in east Asia, Latin America and Russia in November, with China and the Middle East to follow in January. North American launches do not seem to be on the agenda.
What has not yet been previewed is the user interface for the Renoir, and this element is increasingly vital in differentiating a smartphone, regardless of its hardware gizmos, from its rivals. LG should benefit from the increasing importance of the UI, since it has invested large amounts of R&D in this area, and drawn on the experience of the highly advanced Korean mobile internet market. LG famously put a touchscreen into a mainstream smartphone before Apple did (and had some legal actions against the US company over alleged pilfering of technologies from the LG Prada touchscreen handset).
LG has had an uphill battle establishing its brand outside its traditional strongholds of CDMA and Korea, but has made major breakthroughs in Europe in the past few years, as operators like Vodafone look for the next big web optimized gadget. Worldwide, it regularly swaps places with Sony Ericsson for the fourth/fifth positions in the handset rankings, and like its larger rival Samsung, has Motorola in its sights.
