The week I spent harboring a Secret was one when I couldn’t help but reveal that same Secret to everyone I met – family, friends, strangers. Sensationally slim, the LG KF750 Secret backs up lust-inducing looks with a heftiness and performance that gives other cellphones, in most product categories, a run for their money.

The LG KF750 is the third of the Black Series to come out from LG’s design works, solidifying their position as one of the premier providers of high-end cellphones. Whereas as recently as one year ago LG did not seem a likely candidate as such, LG is gunning for a market position and brand recognition that will put “LG cellphones” in the same recognizable strata as Nokia or Samsung here in the Philippines. After the Chocolate and the Shine phones from the same series, LG has obviously hit their stride after listening to customer feedback and refining their interface, performance, ease-of-use, and aesthetics in the Secret.

To whit – the Secret’s claim to fame is its slim form factor – 11.8mm – the slimmest cellphone with a 5MP camera on the market today. At the same time, the aforementioned heftiness shows itself immediately after you pick it up. Weighing in at 116grams, this little slice of circuitry actually packs in more weight in a smaller volume than say, your average wallet. This “packed-solid” feeling makes the Secret a very solid piece of equipment to hold and carry around – banishing worries of delicate and frail devices typical of most slim cellphones.

Its slimness is only the beginning for the looks department – a combination of a very tough, impact and scratch resistant glass screen, a carbon fibre backplate, faux, leather-look plastic, and suede and aluminum accents at strategic places make it seem lifted from an expensive car’s dashboard. This is the main reason I found every reason to whip out the Secret for anyone willing to take a look – which is nearly everyone. Then again, after a week or so that I got used to how it looks, the Secret hooked me again with its thoughtful improvements and worthy features obviously derived from previous phones – with LG improving on nearly all aspects of its previous products.

A good example is the touch-screen, and how it is now complemented by 4 oh-so-solid buttons near the base of the device. Now I appreciate a good touch screen as much as the next guy, but putting the important “red & green” – call and cancel buttons, a clear button, and a “Confirm” button on the phone multiplies usability a hundred fold – especially combined with the vibration feedback and visual cues when you press a button on the touchscreen. This way, you can be sure you actually actuated the button, plus leave the super essential, always used buttons to good old mechanical buttons – a throwback, but a good and logical one.

Another big difference in this third release of the Black Series is the fact that the Secret is a slider – made more surprising due to its slimness. The keypad buttons are not compromised however – good feedback and large, well separated keys make it only a bit more difficult to text on than my trusty (and chunky) 6230. Software wise, there’s not much difference from previous releases, except perhaps for the Google pack of software for internet  and the included games which utilize the Secret’s motion sensor for some very interactive gaming. This includes placing a fishing line, swinging a bat, throwing darts, and rolling a ball around a maze by tilting the whole phone. Just be careful not to let go.

A little bit of disappointment awaited me with the camera. This 5MP unit did not boast of any big-name association to a famous lens maker, which shouldn’t bother me normally– except for my previous experience with a Nokia N95 unit, which boasts of Carl Zeiss lens. Performance is leaps and bounds away from the Secret’s with autofocus that worked quickly with no lag, a xenon flash, and noise-free results regardless of the ISO setting – which can’t be said for the LG Secret. Do note however that performance is still above average as compared to median 5MP cameraphone performance, just not as good as the stellar camera on the N95. Video performance is quite good though, with 30fps and 120fps modes for super slow-motion playback, at a decent resolution.

As LG’s new flagship model, it’s surprising to find the LG SRP’d at only P24,800 -  a price more than competitive with Nokia and Samsung’s best. The lack of WiFi and its not-quite-excellent camera performance notwithstanding, the Secret collects a bagfull of plus points in its construction, features, slimness and style, and will be a prime choice for buyers in all phone categories. As was mentioned during the launch event, the Secret is out, you’d better tell everybody!