LG Prada 3.0 review

It really doesn't matter what LG and Prada do by way of fancy hardware and software skinning, if the LG Prada 3.0 can't handle contacts and calling, then we aren't interested in it.

So, the good news is that when you've signed into your Gmail, all your contacts come tumbling into the handset. It's irritating that SIM contacts get a double entry, though.

You can add Facebook and Twitter contacts too - just pop to the Add Accounts area and enter login details for Twitter, Facebook, Exchange and, rather oddly, old MySpace.

Twitter and Facebook data are used by LG Social+ too, so you need to authorise the app to use your accounts when you sign up. Data matching was pretty smart, with the LG Prada 3.0 working out double entries across our Twitter and Gmail accounts, and linking them automatically.

Rather nicely, the smartphone shows your contact history with each person, and links into their Google profile.

The phone boasts smart dialling support. Just pop into the dialler and start tapping out a name or a number.

There's room for one match at a time, so you have to hit the down arrow by the first match to see more. That's irritating, and with 4.3 inches of screen play with, we'd hoped for a more sophisticated system.

Call quality was really good, and this is in no small part thanks to the presence of two microphones, the second of which has a noise cancelling function.

We were told by people we spoke to that we sounded loud and clear - which we'd have expected given the importance placed by both brands on this phone working actually as a phone.

You've got really easy access to the call log from the Contacts screen, and there's a link on the dialler that takes you straight into SMS, which we found really handy.

We also like a lot that you can send a quick pre-defined text message to any incoming caller with a press of a button and selection of the appropriate message