Introduction
I used to be a happy user of
Samsung Galaxy i5700 running
Android 2.2 before I got
LG E900 as a gift some time ago.It was right after
Microsoft introduced new operating system to the market -
Windows Phone 7. I heard lots of good opinions about the new Microsoft OS and I was very excited to check it out. The new OS was about to be totally different, fast and easy to use. And this is exactly how it is. In this review I am not going to focus on the OS but on the phone only.
The box
You cannot expect any extras there. You will get only basic set of accessories. Besides the phone and the battery you will have a microUSB cable, the charger, which works with the USB cable and the headset. There is also usual set of guides and that's it.
The construction
As you can read in the specification the phone is rather heavy. With 3.8'' display it's not a small phone at all. The good quality materials make this phone solid and that's exactly what most of us is looking for. The phone has round corners and looks really elegant.
The front
On the top there is an earpiece, which acts also as a loudspeaker. The quality of the sound is way below my expectations. Listening to the music or watching movies loud is not what you can do with this phone. On the left side of the speaker there are proximity and light sensors. Both work just fine. The screen of the
LG E900 spans 3.8” and has WVGA resolution. Thinking of all touchscreen sizes it's really above average. The screen is TFT LCD but in my opinion the quality of the image is very good from each angle. The high resolution screen has really nice colors and response. I can't complain about the sunlight legibility either. Sometimes the screen reflects too much light but still all is pretty much visible. Below the screen there are three buttons which are mandatory for each phone running
Windows Phone 7 - the back, windows and search. The buttons are made from matte plastic, they are nice, comfortable to use and size of them is exactly how it should be. At the beginning I was very excited about their quality. Few days later I got disappointed. You need to use some strength to get the button pressed, which might be very annoying.
The back
On the back there is the 5MP auto-focus camera with LED flash and a self portrait mirror. Picture quality is average. The camera lens is slightly recessed. This is the only protection against scratches it has. At the bottom back there is the battery cover latch. The back cover is made of nice brushed metal. You really have a feeling that this is good quality when touching it. Pressing the latch releases the back cover. It's very simple. Just one click.
The left & right
On the left side of
LG E900 you can find only the volume rocker. It's not really comfortable to use. It happens very often that you volume up instead of volume down. There is also one huge disadvantage due to
Windows Phone 7 limitation. You can't change the loudness separately for the ring and for the movies or music.
Believe me, it is really frustrating. The right side has the microUSB port covered with a protective flap and the camera shutter key. The really nice feature which comes with
Windows Phone 7 is a possibility to take a picture even when the phone is locked. You just need to press and hold a camera shutter key.
The top & bottom
On the top you can find only the 3.5mm standard audio jack without any cover on it and the power/lock key. The power key is a bit small but still ok to use and accidental presses are unlikely. For me it would be better if it was on the right side of the phone. It's just not very comfortable to lock the phone when this button is on the top. The only thing to mention about the bottom is the mouthpiece.
Battery
The battery proved reasonably good. When you are using the phone just for calling and writing text messages you can get it running up to four days. Enabling WiFi reduces the working time a little bit. When you hate charging the phone daily,
LG E900 is just perfect for you. Of course when you are using the phone heavily, especially the first days, don't expect it to be working on battery long.
Windows Phone 7
There are some limitations and disadvantages because of the operating system.
Windows Phone 7 is a great OS, believe me. Everything works fast and is very intuitive. But as it always is with new player on the market - it needs to catch up the competitors. These are the main disadvantages:
- Memory not expandable
- No front camera for video calls
- No USB mass storage mode
- Still low number of apps in in the Marketplace
- No Bluetooth file transfer
LG E900 is a great phone for new smartphone users 
