MWC 2009
Updated: see new S-Class video below.
LG Introduced a new user interface (UI) at MWC this year: "S-Class". For the most part it looks like other finger-touch interfaces, but it does have a few tricks.
First is the 3D cube. It's just what it sounds like: a 3D cube, that you can spin with your finger to choose one of four faces, which loads a screen: Contacts, Widgets, Media, and Shortcuts. The animation is slick, fast and fun, but it's a bit of a gimmick. Flicking left/right through four pages would probably be more efficient.
There are other aspects of the UI that are neat-looking and fun, but not entirely practical, such as the alarm clock with an analog clock face; you drag the hour an minute hand around the circle to set the alarm time. Then there's the FM radio, with a scrub wheel you drag left/right to tune to a station. It's all fun, but not as practical as it could be.
LG was also proud of the rolodex-like interfaces for scrolling through music, video, and contacts. It's fine, but hardly a new innovation. (The Gallery app on Nokia S60 phones and Apple's CoverFlow come to mind.)
The main menu however, is quite practical and I daresay innovative. It's divided up into four rows of icons, each with a category: Communication, Multimedia, Utilities, and Settings. You can then individually swipe each row left or right to reveal more icons in that row. Turning the phone sideways switches the screen to a landscape view that shows all icons (smaller) at one time. This seems like a clever and useful way to organize a lot of icons onto a single phone screen.
Another thing I liked was the gallery application, which lets you flip through photos and videos (together) by swiping left and right - as you'd expect - but also groups them by day captured, and swiping up and down moves through days. This seems quite useful.
However, the overall usability isn't quite as good as it could be. Just having the cube and the separate main menu is somewhat confusing; which is the "top" level of the interface? I wasn't sure. Some might consider the cube the "main menu".
NEW:
Here is our hands-on video tour of S-Class on the Arena:
Also, here is a demo of the S-Class interface from the LG press conference:
LG plans to launch ten devices with S-Class this year. The first will be the Arena KM900. The FCC has already approved a version supporting US 3G networks, so there's a real chance we could see this in the US.
The Arena has a solid hardware feature set, including HSDPA 7.2 data, 3-inch WVGA display, 5-megapixel auto-focus camera with Schneider-Kreuznach lens, 8 GB of internal memory, and support for memory cards up to 32 GB.
It has a good solid feel to it, thanks to a metal casing. The touch screen is responsive and the display looks great. The three keys below the display are the touch type, which is annoying; physical keys would be easier to feel and press. In general, though, it seems like a good device.
LG is also bringing keys aspects of S-Class to its new Windows Mobile devices. The units we tried were definitely pre-production; what you see here is not how the final version of S-Class for Windows Mobile will look. For example, there was no 3D cube in the version we saw; in its place was a weird 5-option thing that looked like crop circles and didn't seem to work. LG's marketing materials specifically say the 3D cube should be on S-Class for Windows Mobile, so we expect that's coming before release.
LG S-Class on Windows Mobile (on GM730)
However, enough of the interface was complete and working that we could see that LG has gone down more than one level to replace various aspects of Windows Mobile 6.1 and make it more user-friendly and finger-friendly. So S-Class for Windows Mobile isn't just a top layer; it's a full-on attempt to improve on Windows Mobile, just like HTC's TouchFlo and what Samsung did with the Omnia. It looked nice and seemed to work quite well, although we didn't have much time with it.
The first Windows Mobile device with S-Class will be the GM730. It's impressively small, and also thin at 11.9mm. It looks and feels nice, with our only complaint being the three touch keys at the bottom like the Arena. There's no sign yet that it will come to the US, which is a shame because it seems worlds better than the Incite.
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