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Lets start with some quick pros and cons to give you a quick idea:

Pros:
Excellent value
Great Qwerty keyboard
FM radio

Cons:
Relatively small screen
Touch sensitive buttons annoy
Uses Android 1.5

Verdict: Currently the best ultra-budget Android phone with a Qwerty keyboard, the GW620 is a great buy held back by a few irritating niggles

LG GW620 Revies:

LG’s GW620 joins the T-Mobile Pulse and HTC Tattoo as one of a relatively small – but growing – number of budget-oriented Android phones.

These kinds of phones occasionally end up being overshadowed by older Android mobiles that have slipped down the price scale, such as the HTC Magic, but that doesn’t invalidate their existence.

However, the GW620 does bear some traits that highlight its budget origins. The first is its resistive touchscreen. For more on the differences between the touchscreen technologies check out our feature on the subject, but to sum up touchscreen navigation requires a press rather than a light touch.

That the GW620 does not feature a stylus suggests that this is a budgeting issue rather than a design choice. For a resistive touchscreen, it’s commendably responsive but still a cut below the capacitive model used in the T-Mobile Pulse.


The second obvious cut corner of the LG GW620 is its screen size. At 3-inches, the screen is smaller than almost all other Android phones currently hanging around your local phone shop – although not by all that much.

As long as you’re not planning on watching movies regularly on your mobile, the GW620’s screen is more than adequate. And it uses the resolution as top smartphones like the HTC Hero and iPhone.

The screen has its ups and downs then, but the slide-out Qwerty is the star of the LG GW620. Each key is subtly contoured, and while the key spacing isn’t at all dynamic the keyboard is a pleasure to use. A clear layout, sponge-free click response and fairly large keys belie the GW620’s price point.

There’s no virtual Qwerty – just a virtual T9 numerical pad – when the slide-out is slid in though, so make sure you’re happy to use a physical keyboard for any text tasks. Our only concrete disappointment in GW620’s navigation is with its touch sensitive soft keys. Unlike the touchscreen they’re capacitive, but real buttons would have been preferable.

The bevelled edge of these buttons makes them more susceptible to being set off by your leg – while in your pocket – leading to those irritating accidental calls.

From a purely aesthetic perspective, this rolled-off edge softens the otherwise simple all-black look. The GW620’s design lacks the personality of the HTC Hero or HTC Magic, but is functionally admirable.

The USB and micoSD slots are discreet but easy to access while the 3.5mm jack sits exactly where it should be – on top of the device. Plus, unlike close rival the T-Mobile Pulse, the headphone jack doesn’t require an adaptor. Like all the features we like most about the GW620, it’s simple, it’s sensible, it’s good.

Where this style reaps the most rewards is in the OS itself. Although the GW620 uses a 528Mhz processor, offering similar levels of power to the earliest Android phones, it’s still a speedy device. This is because LG hasn’t burdened it with an over-modified version of the vanilla Android OS.

The GW620 runs the behind-the-times 1.5 cupcake OS, and there’s freely switchable custom S-Class-style interface that you can use too. However, all this adds is a handy dock of icons at the bottom of the home screen and a slightly different apps menu. No lumbering adornments here.

Other Android variants have been notorious for slowing down the phone, but this slight S-Class version works perfectly. And, if you don’t like it you can just switch back to vanilla 1.5 from the Settings menu. Once again: simple, sensible, good.

The built-in five-megapixel camera is only recommended for fairly casual use, but the autofocus is quicker than other budget Androids and the flash – while far from a proper Xenon – improves low-light performance significantly.

Feature tweaks like these, and the increasingly rare FM radio, make the GW620 a seriously competent phone. Still, the advantages of a capacitive touchscreen and larger display can’t be buried entirely.

If you’re on a budget and after an Android, the GW620 is an excellent choice, but the competition is only getting hotter with every passing month. The Samsung Galaxy Portal offers a slightly larger screen and a capacitive touchscreen, while the T-Mobile Pulse offers even more screen space. Still, if you can’t do without a Qwerty, the GW620 represents stunning value.