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GIZMO GALLERY: LG's new launch Chocolate aka KG800, Benq-Siemens' E61 and Fly Mobiles SL500M are new cellphones on the block but have their limitations.

Mobile phones get launched every week but there are a few that really drive revenues for the company.

Amidst popping of champagne corks and an excited bunch of LG execs, Chocolate (it epitomises the goodness and sensousness of a chocolate, reasons LG) "� a slider phone with a touch pad for menu navigation "� was launched in India a few weeks back. If one were to go by numbers, LG has every right be optimistic, as the Korean giant claims to have sold almost four lakh Chocolate handsets globally.

The phone has impressive stats of 9.5 x 4.8 x 1.5 cm and weighs only 85 grams. If looks was the sole criterion, then LG's KG800 would be a clincher. Annoying bit is that it is quite easy to leave fingerprints all over the shiny front screen, which looks like it has the potential to get scratched easily.

The touch pad gets locked while receiving a call, so any accidental presses are excluded. Chocolate's numeric keypad is exceptionally good with well-spaced keys that make texting easy. The manufacturer advises not to touch the touch pad with metallic objects and never to use it with wet fingers lest it damages the sensors.

A 1.3 mega pixel camera is dissapointing on a phone that retails at Rs 16,000. Video playback on the 256 K screen (resolution of 176 x 220 pixels) is decent and can handle music videos up to three minutes. It supports MP3, WMA and AAC and delivers satisfactory sounds. But the earphones/handsfree kit that are bundled along are gross "� the sound lacks bass elements and the minimal volume level is way too loud.

The interface connector is positioned on the top and is compatible with the USB-cable, charger and stereo-handset, which lends interchangeability "� be it chargers or headphones. It has no memory card slot or FM radio.

Good music phone
On the other hand, Benq-Siemen's E61 is a good music phone. A block form factor (wedge shaped) might not be too innovative a design, but it works just fine. Since it is positioned as a music phone, the controls for the MP3 player have been positioned conveniently on the top of the handset.

The audio playback facilities are not too bad (it's not a Sony Walkman that costs upwards of Rs 15,000) even if you have no access to synchronisation software.

However, the E61 does not take in adaptor that can plug in normal headphones. This phone comes with 1 MB of built-in memory and is supported by a supplied 128MB MiniSD card that slots under the battery "� hardly the most easily accessible location. But one look at the price, which is only Rs 7,990, one can think of buying a miniSD card of upto 1GB of memory to pull up the capacity.

This means over 200 songs can be easily stored in the E61! The phone's camera features are best limited to still shots as the maximum resolution is 640 x 480 pixels on an 1.8 inch TFT screen, but then it is not meant to double up as a camera. And there's no Bluetooth, infrared port or video (which can be trifle annoying).

On the fly
Fly Mobile "� name of the handset brand from UK- based Meridian Telecom that showcases its products through Mallika Arora Khan "� introduced SL500M with the intent to capture buyers who are looking for a Razr-like style but at lower prices. It's a slider phone which is quite thin at 16 mm only.

SL500M is equipped with a TFT screen that gives a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels (looks rather smudgy) and a 1.3 megapixel camera with the maximal resolution 1280 x 1024 pixels is wasted on this one.

At least it allows video recording (up to 176 x 144 pixels), and has Bluetooth and infra red, and is thus one up against the E61. With an inbuilt memory of Fly SL500M is 60 MB, it also bundles an additional memory by means of microSD slot.

At Rs 10,990, it is almost the price of a Razr, which is far better an option than SL500M, both design and functionality wise. If the British company intends to sell its wares in India, it must stick to its thought of 'cheap colour phones'.

Matching up
Battery life of the E61 is better than KG800. The former can juice up for 6-7 hours while the latter weans out completely after five hours. Despite being low on multimedia features, the SL500M could slug it out for only 3.5 hours.

The integrated WAP browser of the trio, E61, KG800 and SL500M, can support only simple HTML pages such as Google. Usage of a regular WAP browser makes one concede that the selling point of the either phones cannot be its multimedia or connectivity capabilities.