Not heard of LG? Me either.

What do you do when your mobile phone starts going wrong? Buy a new one? Well you would think so wouldn't you - 6 months I have been waiting for my hubby to fulfil his promise and replace my ailing phone. Christmas came and went still no phone in sight, until last Saturday when he suddenly decided it was time to do something about it!

We trundled into town, he with a vision of picking up the cheapest pay-as-you-go he could find, me with a vision of a lovely sparkly new camera phone, this I thought, could be tough going.

We finally went back into the T Mobile shop to look (again) at their pay-as-you go phones (because I was insistent we didn't leave town without one, fearing another 6 month wait). He decided on the basic LG (no camera L ) but I stuck to my guns and told him I wanted a little fun in my life, I wanted a NICE phone and he relented.

It took no time to set up, the sim card and battery fitted within seconds and once it was charging I could sit and play to my hearts content. 5 minutes later I had called T Mobile (150) to set up my swipe card and put credit onto the phone.

It has a window on the front of the phone that tells you at a glance, the time, the signal strength, battery level, and what profile you are in, i.e. silent, car (for hands free), or headphone. When you get an incoming call the number, or if set up the caller details scroll across the screen telling you immediately who is calling.

Also on the front is the camera lense and a tiny silver disk, apparently for you to take self portraits with. It does actually work, point the camera at yourself, line your face up in the mirrored surface and you will get a perfect picture.

The Menu Screen is easy to navigate with the central arrow keys. Each section is defined by a picture, as you click on each one the text at the top of the screen tells you what it is for. When you open the phone it defaults to My Media where you can view your pictures, listen to your sounds and play games.

The Settings Icon is what it says, allows you to put in date and time, and adjust internet, or phone settings to your own requirements.

Other Icons on the main screen are Settings, T Zones, Profiles, SMS messaging (text), organiser (alarm clock and scheduler), tools and Interactive. Each have their own menu and can be set to your own preferences.

The ring tones that come with the phone are a little disappointing but then it's not a top of the range phone. You can change background colours etc., to your own liking, and can set up different sounds for keyboard, message receipt etc., but that's pretty standard stuff nowadays.

All in all I like my phone, it has brought me up to the 21st century and I am no longer ashamed to answer the phone when out in public.