| For a market looking for upscalish touchscreen | | | | in any class have one or two of these features, not all. |
| handsets minus the hefty price tag, there's every | | | | There's no geo-tagging of course, as it has no GPS |
| reason to rejoice once the new LG GM360 Bali hits | | | | receiver. |
| the market. At a glance it looks like a deadringer for | | | | WiFi should now be standard on even the least costly |
| the earlier GT505 released in August last year. | | | | mobile phones; either that or it has 3G. The Bali has |
| Hardware-wise the similarities are spot on except fro | | | | no 3G but retains the WiFi 802.11b/g on the GT505 |
| a couple of features that had been taken out to bring | | | | which makes surfing at 54 Mbps even better in |
| it to more affordable price levels. Unveiled at the | | | | hotspots rather than on 3G. It's still the same quad |
| recently concluded 2010 CeBIT in Hanover, the | | | | band GSM facilitating international roaming on 2G and |
| handset's name may conjure up images of the exotic | | | | has class 10 GPRS/EDGE which also makes surfing |
| tourist destination resort in Indonesia. | | | | fast. But a WiFi data plan should give you |
| But if the data sheet on the previous GT505 is any | | | | unparalleled surfing experience instead. |
| indication of its similar capabilities, the Bali is one feature | | | | Eroding the Smartphone/Dumbphone Divide |
| phone that basically does two things apart from | | | | And secondly, the LG GM360 Bali can shame some |
| targeting the low end market with a feature phone | | | | of the more prestigious smartphones on the market. |
| than can embarrass high end smartphones. | | | | About the only distinguishing mark of a smartphone is |
| Redefining the Standards of Affordability | | | | a PC-like Operating System which the markets rarely |
| First, it redefines what a low end touchscreen should | | | | think about when using a mobile phone. And when |
| be. No more 3 megapixel cameras or 2.5-inch | | | | you have a dumbphone that looks, acts and behaves |
| displays. You get a 3-inch TFT LCD resistive | | | | like a smartphone as the Bali does, what else is there |
| touchscreen display with Wide-QVGA resolution and | | | | to buy a smartphone for? |
| 256k colors. Not bad when you consider that many | | | | Just about all the features are found in both – a |
| mid-range smartphones have the same display | | | | point-and-shoot camera, touchscreen, SatNav (though |
| technology. LG obviously has pushed the envelope | | | | the Bali doesn't have one), multimedia support, FM |
| and from now on, it would be difficult to win the low | | | | radio, Bluetooth with A2DP, WiFi, 3G (not the Bali) and |
| end markets with a touchscreen with more modest | | | | apps you can upload to the phone. |
| display features. | | | | But if there's anything else that distinguishes a |
| Then there's the imaging function that can embarrass | | | | smartphone from a dumbphone is the price. You get |
| even high end smartphones with only 3.2 megapixel | | | | to pay more for a smartphone thanks to the royalties |
| cameras. This one has it at 5 megapixel resolution | | | | or the cost of using a PC-like OS for the same set of |
| with autofocus and LED flash. Most camera phones | | | | features. |