LG is looking to stem Samsung’s entry-level touch phone dominance with the compact Pop GD510, set to take on the likes of the Genoa and Star. And from what we’ve experienced it's definitely a contender. 

Design

The GD510 is very compact, much more so than either of its Korean rival’s offerings, measuring a mere 97.8 x 49.5 x 11.2 mm and weighing in at just 87 g. It sports a 3" touch-screen (240 x 400 pixels) and much like the iPhone has a solitary physical button underneath the screen.

Unlike the iPhone’s button, the LG’s doesn’t take you to the home-screen, but to the call info display showing calls received, missed and made. It also changes colour depending on the mode it is in or the action you are currently performing.

When the phone is on and unlocked or when a user receives an incoming call the button is green. When making a call or opening an application the button will turn red to indicate that pressing it will end the call or close that app.

There is also a power button on top of the phone, a volume rocker on the left side and a button on the right which opens the phone’s camera interface, or with a quick press your favourite apps. In all a pretty decent design that compliments functionality despite the phone’s compact frame.   

User Interface

LG’s Pop sports the company’s S-class UI and, just like the Samsung Star with its TouchWiz UI, boasts three home-screens. Unlike the Star however users are not able to add all the widgets to the home-screens. Instead they are restricted to arranging chosen widgets (such as the music player and calender) on the first home-screen.

The second home-screen can’t be loaded with widgets, only allowing quick access to your favourite contacts. 

The final home-screen features a graphical interface that LG calls Livesquare which provides users with graphical representations of the people who contacted them throughout the day. These representations (Livecon avatars) can be changed from animated people to animals. It doesn’t just look nice, but is actually useful for quickly contacting or adding people to your phonebook.  

Complimenting the three home-screens are four icons located at the bottom of the screen which are for the phone’s onscreen dialler, contacts, messages and the main menu.

Main menu

The main menu groups the icon-based phone functions into four groups, which are Communication, Entertainment, Utilities and Settings. You can set-up your personal email (like Gmail and Yahoo! Mail) quite easily on the GD510.

Generally the UI is easy and intuitive and we felt more fun to use than the TouchWiz set-up of Samsung, although given the graphical nature of the interface it’s partial to a bit of lag here and there.

  

Final thoughts

Although it doesn’t have a flash for the camera, Edge connectivity or a 3.5 mm audio jack, the GD510 is a pretty good all-round touch-screen phone for the entry-level market, thanks to its spiffy UI and compact size. It retails for a decent R1 749.