LG Rumor Phone
May 19th, 2008
Moderate price is at $79.99 with a two-year service agreement and $50 mail-in rebate. A 1.3 megapixel camera/camcorder with a 2x digital zoom, an MP3 player, and Bluetooth technology are integrated, and a Sprint Music Manager software download is available for transferring unprotected songs from a PC to the LG Rumor, and manage songs on a PC. The cellphone includes a microSD memory card slot with 4GB card capability.
Available in two color options, white with silver or black with blue, this device offers one touch access to messaging through a softkey from the idle screen and it automatically populates the messaging menu when the slider is opened. With easy access to Sprint Mobile eMail to check and send mail from multiple accounts through familiar providers including Yahoo! AOL, Gmail and Microsoft Live, Rumor by LG, as already said, is the perfect device for anyone who needs to stay in touch on the go.
Sprint offers a latge assortment of messaging options beyond text including Voice SMS, which allows customers to record a voice message and send it to any mobile phone, email address, or landline phone just like a text message, and text to landline, which allows Sprint subscribers to send a text message to a landline phone where it is automatically converted to a voice message.
The number of Sprint customers using text messaging has increased by more than 20 percent since the beginning of this year. Sprint's unlimited text messaging plans are very affordable at just $10 for individuals or $20 for families.
To personalize the text messaging experience, Rumor by LG offers the ability to assign "text tones" to address book entries for audible identification of text message senders. Preloaded with Sprint Navigation, Rumor by LG provides full-feature GPS navigation including voice and on screen turn-by-turn driving directions and more than 10 million business listings.
Overall this phone is the best of the best in its class! The call quality is terrific, you can hear people on the other line with extreme clarity. So far the only thing the Rumor doesn't have is a flash for the camera and a few other adjustments that can be made to the photos. This phone is for surely good for teens, because it has endless possibilites to be customized, and for people who text alot. It's a magnificent phone and you must definitely like the color!
Technical Specifications:
Network: CDMA 800/1900
Form Factor: Slide
Dimensions: 109 x 51 x 18 mm
Main Screen: 262000 colors (TFT), 176 x 220 px
Weight: 117 g
Antenna: Internal
Navigation: QWERTY Keypad / 5-Way Keypad
Battery Type: 950 mAh Li-Ion
Talk Time: 4.50 hours
Camera: 1.3 MP / 1280 x 960 px / Zoom / Video Recorder
MP3 Player: MP3 / AAC / AAC+ / M4A
Expandable Memory: microSD / TransFlash
LG Venus VX8800
March 31st, 2008
The really special thing about the Venus, however, is its unique navigation interface. Measuring about 1.5 inches diagonally, the lower screen displays touch-sensitive navigation controls with different layouts depending on the application. For example, on the default standby page, the touch-screen layout has the Menu button in the middle with shortcuts to messaging, contacts, a shortcuts folder, and recent calls arranged around it. The shortcuts folder contains up to four user-defined shortcuts to different applications. On the menu interface page however, the onscreen layout changes to an OK button in the middle and up and down arrows positioned above and below it. Similarly, when the music player is activated, you will see music player controls on the display, and when the camera is activated, you will see camera controls instead.
Slide open the phone and you'll find a very spacious and tactile number keypad with the Send, Clear, and End/Power keys on the top row. The slider mechanism felt quite sturdy when opening and closing the phone as well. All keys are very well-spaced apart with a lovely raised curved texture that makes it quite easy to dial by feel. The keypad also has alternating colors, which we think is a nice touch. The volume rocker, voice recorder button, and headset and charger jacks sit on the left spine, while the right is home to a microSD card slot, a dedicated Music player key, and a dedicated camera key. On the back is the camera lens.
The LG Venus is more than just a pretty face; in fact, it has a very impressive feature set that complements its design nicely. But before we get to that, we'll start with the basics. The Venus has a 1,000-entry contacts list with room in each entry for five phone numbers and two e-mail addresses. You can organize them by caller groups, and pair them with a photo or any of 16 ringtones and five alert tones for caller ID. Other essentials include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, a calendar, an alarm clock, a world clock, a stopwatch, a notepad, a tip calculator, and a voice memo recorder, plus voice command support. On the higher end, there's also e-mail, PC syncing, USB mass storage, instant messaging, a wireless Web browser, and stereo Bluetooth. A nice departure from Verizon, the Bluetooth supports file transfer, object push, and dial-up networking protocols. In addition, the Venus has built-in GPS so you can use it with Verizon's own location-based service called VZ Navigator for turn-by-turn directions.
The Venus comes with 3G support in the form of built-in EV-DO. This gives the VX8800 access to the full stable of Verizon's broadband services like streaming video from V Cast Videos and the ability to download songs over the air from V Cast Music. The music player interface is nice and clean thanks to the onscreen music player controls, and you can view the album art when a song is playing. The songs are automatically organized by artist, genre, and album, and you can create and manage your own playlists if you wish. Other music player options include a shuffle and repeat mode, 11 different preset equalizer settings (or "sound effects"), plus a Music Only mode (also known as Airplane mode) which turns the cell phone RF off so you can use the phone to play music while in flight (It does not turn off Bluetooth, though, so you can still use your Bluetooth headset to listen to music). Another nice touch is that you can multitask while the music is playing--you can hide the player and continue browsing the Web or typing out text messages. The music player supports MP3, WMA, AAC, and AAC+ file formats, and 64MB of internal memory is dedicated to music storage. If you wish to add more storage, the Venus also has a microSD card slot that supports cards up to 8GB.
The Venus has a lovely 2-megapixel camera that can take pictures in four resolutions (1,600x1,200; 1,280x960; 640x480; 320x240), five white-balance settings, and five color effects. Other settings include spot metering, up to 2x zoom (not usable at the highest resolution), a brightness setting, a night mode, a self-timer, plus three different shutter sounds (with a silent option). There's also a built-in camcorder with two different video resolutions (320x240 and 176x144), and many of the editing options are similar to the still camera. Video recording time is limited to 30 seconds for multimedia messages and up to 1 hour for saving.
Personalization options with the Venus are plentiful--it comes with a variety of color themes, wallpaper, screen savers, alert tones, and more. Of course, you have the option to purchase more via the Venus's built-in Web browser. The Venus comes with one game called VZW Board Games, but you can always download more as well.
Product summary:
The LG Venus is a beautiful slider phone with a great feature set. It has a unique dual-screen design with onscreen navigation controls that change layout depending on the application, plus it has vibrating feedback when touched. It also comes with a wealth of multimedia features, EV-DO support, plus great performance. MicroSD slot located supports memory cards up to 8GB in capacity. Access to AOL, Windows Live, and Yahoo Web mail and instant messaging.
LG Shine CU720
February 22nd, 2008
The LG Shine CU720 is a very attractive slider handset with 3G support, a nice array of multimedia features, and good call quality. The LG Shine personifies its name perfectly. Not only does it shine, it positively gleams. It has a lovely polished-metal exterior and a downright sparkling mirror-finish display that exudes luxury and sophistication. In fact, you can use the display as a small compact mirror when the phone is in standby mode. Measuring 3.93 inches tall by 1.99 inches wide by 0.59 inch thick and weighing about 4.23 ounces, the Shine has a solid stainless steel body that makes it feel very sturdy in the hand. The Shine's slider mechanism feels solid as well, requiring a firm push so it can slide smoothly. The LG Shine CU720 has a rated talk time of three hours and a promised standby time of 10 days.
If you press any button on the phone, a beautiful 2.25-inch screen will appear underneath the mirrored finish of the display. With 262,000 color support, the screen is simply gorgeous, and images are rich with detail and color. Another nice thing with the display is that it has "multi-angle vision technology" that lets you view the display from almost any angle. You can adjust the dialing font style, the brightness, and the backlight time. The menu interface is pretty simple, plus you have a choice of either icon or list menu styles.
̉ۢhe Shine CU720 has a nice 1,000-entry contacts list with room in each entry for two numbers, an e-mail address, and a memo. You can also assign a contact to any caller group, a photo for caller ID, or one of 10 polyphonic ringtones. Other basic features include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calculator, a memo pad, a calendar, a calculator, a tip calculator, a world clock, a tasks list, a stopwatch, a unit converter, a date finder, and a d-day counter. More advanced features include voice-command support, a wireless Web browser, a voice recorder, e-mail, instant messaging (supports AOL, Windows Live, and Yahoo messaging services), a speakerphone, and stereo Bluetooth.
The quad-band and 3G support on the LG Shine CU720 is really what makes this so much better than the original KE970. It works worldwide and is compatible with AT&T's high-speed HSDPA network, allowing it access to AT&T's broadband services. They include AT&T's Cellular Video, which lets you watch streaming video clips from sources like CNN and ESPN, as well as AT&T's Mobile Music service that lets you download or stream songs from either Napster or Emusic, provided you have an existing account. The LG Shine is also compatible with AT&T's Video Share service that lets you stream live one-way video during a mobile-to-mobile call (provided the other phone is also compatible with AT&T's Video Share). Other Internet applications include MobiTV, which lets you stream live TV, and MySpace Mobile, which provides instant access to the popular social-networking site.
The LG Shine CU720 comes armed with the same Schneider Kreuznach lens and autofocus 2.0-megapixel camera as the KE970. It is definitely a fabulous camera, with great photo quality. Camera options include a range of resolutions, from 1,600x1,200 to 320x240 pixels. Other camera settings include a self-timer, three quality modes, four color effects, white balance settings, shutter sounds, and a multishot mode. There's also an included camcorder that shoots videos in two resolutions (128x96 and 176x144). The camcorder's editing options are similar to the still camera; plus you can use the zoom. Multimedia message video clips are limited to eight seconds, but otherwise you can shoot as much as available memory permits. Photo quality is fantastic, with sharp images, crisp detail, and rich colors.
This LG Shine makes people shine!
