Introduction
The LG GT505 came out in the second half of 2009, more like a mid-range smartphone, aimed at people who really wanted something practical, affordable, and still able to handle multimedia stuff plus the basic smartphone needs. It was basically meant as a do-everyday thing handset, with a touch based interface but also a bunch of connectivity options and built-in media tools, so it could stand up to other mid-range models that were everywhere at the time.
Around that period LG was also pushing harder in the mobile phone market, and they had a whole lineup, for different types of buyers. The GT505 fit into that plan, to pull in users who wanted a more entry level smartphone experience without paying flagship prices, you know. This review will dig into the LG GT505 in a detailed way, from its design, hardware, and software, to performance and the general day-to-day feel, then also mention what it meant for the market and how it’s remembered or left a mark later on.
Design and Build Quality
The very first thing you notice on the LG GT505 is the design. With dimensions of 107 x 54.5 x 11.8 mm and a weight of only 98 grams it is a small , and light phone, so it sits nicely in your hand, and using it one handed is pretty manageable. The look is kind of simple but it still works, an understated and quiet sort of elegance, and even though it is mostly plastic, the overall structure feels firm and reliable.
The front of the device was mostly all about its 3.0-inch TFT touchscreen, which was capacitive, and yeah kind of a more advanced thing for mid-range smartphones back then. Under the screen you got three physical buttons—the Call , End and Back keys—so you still got that tactile feel, and it made the whole thing easier to operate, not just touchy and guessy. On the sides there was a volume rocker along with a dedicated camera button, plus a micro USB port for charging and data transfer. On the rear, the phone held a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash and then a speaker grille too.
Overall the build quality of the LG GT505 was pretty solid, honestly decent especially if you look at the price range. The plastic didn’t give off that cheap vibe, and the device could handle day to day use without rapidly falling apart or looking really worn. The back cover was removable, so you could reach the battery, the SIM card slot, and the microSD card slot, for extra storage expansion.
Display
The LG GT505 showed up with a 3.0-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen, and the resolution was 240 x 400 pixels, which comes out to about 155 ppi. To be fair , the display sharpness was kind of modest compared to the best-of-the-best smartphones from that era. Still, it handled most everyday needs like web browsing, photo viewing, and even video watching pretty well.
When it comes to color output, it did a decent job, with bright hues and solid contrast for a TFT panel. Yet the viewing angles were a bit narrow, and in direct sunlight the screen could feel annoying to read because of the glossy , reflective look and the comparatively low brightness.
Touch response felt generally quick and reliable, so moving through the device interface wasn’t too much trouble. But if someone was coming from more premium gadgets , with higher resolution and smoother touch behavior, the GT505 might feel slightly underwhelming on the display front. Even so, for a mid-range phone, the screen remained fine and gave a pretty reasonable daily experience.
Not only the touch screen interface with Flash interface interface can simulate the multi-touch operation, “rookie” GW525 also adds convenience by the QWERTY keyboard …
Not only the touch screen interface with Flash interface masks capable of simulating multi-touch operations first appeared on the KP500 (cookie: A904_78), “rookie” GW525 also added Convenience with the built-in QWERTY keyboard for KS360. When you push the lid to the right, the keyboard with the large buttons will appear, and the screen automatically switches to the horizontal display.
On the 2.8″ (256K colors) screen, Test Lab can easily flip the host interface into two basic displays, the icons of commonly used applications or recent communication logs. The bottom row of the screen is four icons with four main features, including the system settings menu. The GW525’s interface is intuitive, but navigating through the menu, finger cursor is a bit inconvenient because the machine does not have a stylus, while the sensitivity of the touch screen is not excellent – although the ” Vibration “works well. The machine only arranged in front of 3 main control buttons; Screen lock button and quick snapshot are located on the right side – above the microSD card slot (supports up to 8GB, 40MB of internal memory).
The GW525 can work on quad-band GSM, offers full Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP), GPRS and WAP connectivity, plus support for standard POP3 / IMAP4 email or popular email services such as Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail, even Mail for Exchange. Tested to receive mail from Yahoo, Gmail and internal email accounts at Test Lab via GPRS connection for good results, simple configuration and accurate download. The GW525 allows quick attachment of documents, spreadsheets, presentations and pictures. Test Lab also noted the GW525 effort by offering the Push Email feature (in the Applications menu) which automatically connects to the e-mail server (as specified by the user) for updating and loading. About the new email and then notify the user. Unfortunately, Test Lab can not determine the “wave” cycle of this feature.
In addition, GW525 also supports 3G, so you see the secondary camera (VGA resolution) arranged on the front to make video calls. However, Test Lab has not tested this feature because the 3G service at the time of writing is not really stable. Voice and SMS with 3G good quality.
With the Send / Receive SMS feature, the GW525 gives users the pleasure of chatting when they can “collect” messages corresponding to each phone number / directory and then display them all in the form of “Circuit” in a master message. The QWERTY keyboard with the character keys commonly used when composing messages or emails of LG recharged power on the GW525.
LG GW525 Callisto GSM Quadband Phone (Unlocked) Silver: Buy it now
LG Unlocked GW525 Calisto Quad-band Cell Phone – White/Silver – International Version No Warranty: Buy it now
The GW525 features a 3 megapixel camera with flash but does not support autofocus. Traditionally, the GW525 also supports night, color, white balance, exposure compensation and continuous shooting of 3/6/9 images (resolution will automatically decrease and the 2x digital zoom feature is enabled). At the same time, the zoom feature is always on when recording (VGA). It also supports fast photo editing, photo uploads to Blogger and short videos from the photo library with Muvee Studio.
The web surfing test on the GW525 shows that the GPRS connectivity is strong, the browser display is full and clear. However, if you do not push the keyboard to the side, the screen automatically rotates as the user moves the camera while browsing the web or viewing photos / movies, while the main menu or home screen remains ” few”.
Of course, the machine is indispensable entertainment feature, provides music player and movie player, integrated FM radio and recording features efficiently. The loudspeaker is quite loud, clear and loud. The calendar feature, notes, calendar, alarm clock, and Google search engine are easy to find and easy to use – you can set one-touch icons for commonly used features on the host interface.
The handset supports motion-sensing gaming, offers lost phone bookmarking and the ability to sync data with your PC from the included software.
Software and User Interface
The LG GT505 ran on a proprietary operating system, with a custom user interface made by LG . It was basically intuitive, in the sense that it was easy to wander through, with big icons and a simple layout, which fit the touchscreen pretty well, overall. The home screen could be tweaked using widgets shortcuts and wallpapers, so users could personalize things a bit more than nothing, but not completely.
The main menu was split into categories like Communication , Multimedia, Applications, and Settings, so you could reach the phone features without too much hunting. There was also a pull-down notification bar, which, you know, was getting more common on smartphones around that period.
A big part of the software experience, was social networking integration. The phone was shipped with apps for Facebook and Twitter, right out of the box so staying connected happened from the device itself. The built-in email client handled multiple accounts, and it worked with mainstream email providers like Gmail , Yahoo, and Microsoft Exchange.
Even though the user interface worked fine and it felt easy, it didn’t quite have the polish , or the broader feature set you’d see on stronger operating systems, such as Symbian , Android and iOS. The smaller app ecosystem, plus the fact that there wasn’t a real dedicated app store, meant users were kinda stuck with what was preloaded, and they couldn’t simply add more third party software whenever they wanted.
Performance
The LG GT505 ran on a modest processor (LG didn’t clearly list the exact chipset, or at least not in the materials I saw) and it came with 128MB of RAM. I mean, these specs sound pretty basic compared to newer phones, but in practice they were ok for what the device was meant to do.
Day to day stuff worked, like placing calls, sending text messages, doing casual web browsing, and using social media apps. The user interface felt mostly responsive, and apps opened with out huge waiting times. Still, the limited processing muscle and the small memory space started to show, especially if you tried multitasking , or if you pushed it with heavier games and more demanding tools.
On the web, the experience was fine, but it was not exactly smooth. The built-in browser could handle basic web standards and display most sites, yet pages packed with media or dense content often took longer to load and move through. And since it lacked support for newer web features—like Flash or JavaScript—browsing could feel a bit restricted, like it was always missing pieces.
The phone’s multimedia showing was fairly good for a mid-range device. Music playback was kinda one of the GT505’s strong points, with a capable music player that handled many audio formats, like MP3, AAC, and WMA . The FM radio felt like a nice extra too, especially for folks who like live broadcasts while moving around.
Video playback was more or less constrained by the phone hardware and its screen resolution. Sure the GT505 could play standard-definition videos, but the overall feel got slowed down by the small display , and the low resolution made everything look a bit flat. Higher-resolution content wasn’t supported either ,and the phone had trouble with video files that carried higher bitrates or used more complex encoding.
For gaming, the GT505 could manage basic titles, though it wasn’t built for any serious, high-performance gaming. The restricted processing power and graphics abilities meant you were mostly going for simple, low intensity games, not the heavy stuff.
Connectivity and Network Support
The LG GT505 came with a solid set of connection features, so it worked as a pretty flexible device for staying in touch. It supported quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and dual-band 3G (900/2100 MHz) , which usually gives decent coverage for calls and data services in most areas.
The phone’s 3G connectivity helped with a kinda decent mobile internet, but yeah the speeds were still held back compared to the newer 4G , and 5G networks. On the LG GT505, HSDPA was supported and the download rate could go as high as about 3.6 Mbps, and that was enough for the usual stuff, like light web browsing, checking email, and using social platforms.
Besides 3G, the GT505 also had Wi‑Fi on board, which was a useful extra, especially if someone wanted to surf through local wireless networks. The Wi‑Fi performance stayed pretty steady, and the phone managed to join most common Wi‑Fi connections without much fuss .
Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP meant the device could link wirelessly with compatible gadgets, including Bluetooth headsets, speakers, and even other phones. It also included a micro USB port for charging plus data transfer, and then there was a 3.5mm headphone jack for audio output.
Another thing people noticed on the LG GT505 was the built-in GPS receiver, so the handset could handle navigation and location based services. It came with a basic navigation app, and users could add more maps and location focused applications too, as long as they matched the phone’s compatibility.
Tech Reviewer & Product Analyst
Định Bia has spent over 10 years testing consumer electronics with a focus on smart technology. He work as a product advisor at Biareview where he helped customers find the right devices for their needs. He personally tests every product featured on this site using a consistent evaluation framework covering quality, durability, and value. All reviews are based on experience, not influenced by the manufacturer.