Mobile phones are the latest gizmos to latch on to music in a big way. And what better way to test a new model than to get it worked by a gadget savvy, music loving teen?

I was all set to review LG's new offering - the KM710, which is an updated version of the LG KM500 and decided it would be better to hand the phone over to my soon-to-be-13 year old son Mishaal to test out. A music lover, a young kid who loves gizmos, who likes to give everything the torture test, and if it passes his strictest inspection, and use and abuse, then surely it must be an A grade product.

And Mishaal's verdict is that the KM710 rocks. He loved the central rotary I-pod kind silver jog dial or wheel, which allowed him to navigate the phone's features,  check his messages, choose his songs and play list, take his calls. In fact his immediate plea was Dad  can I keep it. And, at Rs 12,500 I thought it clearly is worth a buy. I would be buying a Mercedes at the price of a Toyota. Yes, the KM710 is not a full screen touch phone like the 3G I phone, but for those wanting the I-pod experience and more with communication, messaging, imaging, requirements it is clearly worth considering.

The good points: the KM710 is a slider phone, and it looks slick, well designed as it is with lighting effects when used. The front has a glossy finish while the back has a leather one  The central silver jog dial has a 128x128 colour display in the centre has a touch screen which lights up when pressed and has extremely pleasing visual graphics. A touch pad with four sensitive keys around the centre dial, provide you with quick short cuts like getting directly to your Mp3 player, to your menu, to your messages, to your contacts. While I found it to be a little cumbersome to use as it was too touch sensitive, Mishaal was more than happy with the touch pad's functioning.

Above that is the 2 inch TFT LCD display with 240x320 pixel resolution and with 262K color display, and Mishaal was experimental enough to store some videos and watch them and seemed pleased as punch. Allowable video formats include: H.264, WMA, MPEG4, WMV, AVI, DivX in VGA resolution (640 x 480 pixels)

Only 15.4 mm thin, the phone comes with 15-MB of internal shared memory and features a microSD Memory Card Slot for expanded memory with maximum of 4-GB storage space. That could prove a limitation for the heavy track burning music phreaks wanting to store a large part of their music video library and audio music catalogue on their phone; LG could have allowed the expandable storage to be up to at least 16 GB 

The phonebook allows for limited entries in the contact book  – just 1000 – when I have to juggle with the contacts of my 1500 associates in my Nokia E63 contacts. The number of  storable SMS storable could also be higher; 500 is too small a number for me. So for me as a an editorial owner with a large number of contacts the KM710 will prove only partially useful. What is pleasing, however,  is the number of  dialled, missed and received call records it stores at 40 each..

Where the KM710 scores most is in its utility as a music phone. What blows you away is the sound quality emerging from the headset, and from the speaker phone, though the latter tends to jar and shriek when at full volume. And when you choose the option of Natural Sound by Mark :Levinson from your mp3 player options, it only serves to enhance your music listening experience.

The company says it has an advanced integrated MP3 media player which supports AAC, AAC+, AAC+ Enhanced, MP3, Midi, AMR, MPEG4, H.263, WMA Audio formats. The mp3 software – provided by Gracenote - allows music files sorting and browing on various parameters like artist, album, type (blues, classical, pop) etc and offers many equalizer presets like virtual bass, clear, live performance, rock, jazz, classical, pop, low music etc.  In facr, in my case the Gracenote technology automatically categorized all my songs according to the tags that were inserted in them.

The LG KM710 also offers a 3.5 mm audio output port compatible with standard stereo audio headphones instead of having to use custom USB based LG headphones for wired audio connection. In addition, users can use compatible wireless bluetooth headphones with the phone using its integrated bluetooth +A2DP connectivity.

The FM Radio option however does not allow for auto scan which proved an irritant, though I could record directly from the radio stations onto the phone.

The camera allows for images to be shot at 320x240 reaolution to as high as 2048x1536 resolution, hence you can chose how large you want your image file to be The 3 megapixel autofocus camera yielded good quality pictures; the only shortcoming was the lack of a flash. Hence it appeared to be more useful in well lit conditions for photography. The videos also were of a reasonable standard.

The phone's battery lasts for just about a day if used as a music listening device and on standby mode. With talk time, the battery lasted for just about 3 hours. Clearly a limitation.

LG KM710 Slider Mobile phone Features

Triband GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900 MHz

2.0-inch, 262K colors, 240 x 320 pixels resolution QVGA display

Slide-up design

15-MB internal shared memory

microSD Memory Card Slot (max 4-GB)

40 dialed, 40 missed, 40 received call records

1000 Entries Phonebook

500 SMS memory

100 MMS memory

GPRS Class 10, 32 - 48 kbps

EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps

Bluetooth v2.0+A2DP Wireless Connection

Mini USB v2.0/1.2 Port

WAP 2.0/xHTML Browser

3.15 Megapixels Camera, maximum 2048 x 1536 pixels resolution, Schneider-Kreuznach optics, 4X Digital Zoom, Night Mode, Multi Shot, Autofocus, Self timer, Brightness Adjustment, White Balance, built-in flash

Video recording and playback, 176 x 144 and 320 x 240 pixels resolution, Flash, White Balance, Color Effects, Supports MP4, and 3GP formats

MP3 Media Player, Supports AAC, AAC+, AAC+ Enhanced, MP3, Midi, AMR, MPEG4, H.263, WMA Audio formats

Video Playback - H.264, WMA, MPEG4, WMV, AVI, DivX in VGA resolution (640 x 480 pixels)

FM Radio with 20 preset stations, Scheduled FM recorder, FM Alarm, FM on Speakerphone

3.5mm Audio Out Port

Polyphonic Ringtones (64 channels), MP3, AAC+,AAC++, MIDI, SMAF

Voice Recording, Call conversation recording

Video Caller ID

SMS, EMS, MMS and Email, Bluetooth Message

Yahoo mail, Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo Address Book

Anti-theft Mobile Tracker

Hindi SMS and Menu

In-Flight Mode

Handsfree Speakerphone

Games (5)- LG Racing, LG Cricket, OnStrike, BraveKnight, Flipper

Utilities - Data Wallet, Health Chart, NDTV Active

Applications - Memo, Alarm Clock, Calculator, Clock, To-do-list, Voice Memo, Secret Memo, Calender, World Clock, Unit Converter

Document Viewer for Microsoft Office (word, excel, ppt), PDF Viewer

Standard Li-Ion 800 mAh Battery

Stand-by: Up to 250 hrs

Talk time: Up to 3 hrs

Dimensions - 103 x 48 x 15.4 mm

Weight - 118 gms

The new LG KM710 Slider-up music phone featuring 3.15 MP camera, MP3 player, FM Radio tuner with recording, Anti-theft Mobile Tracker, 3.5mm audio out port and support for microSD memory slot is available in India for price of Rs. 12,500 with one year warranty and it comes with the free stereophonic headset kit and USB Data Cable. Visit www.in.lge.com for more details.