Having recently updated to an LG viewty, i thought my shine days were over. However, the problem with a touchscreen phone is that when the screen breaks, its essentially game over. After a touching farewell service (on ebay) i am now back to my lovely little shine.
Im not disappointed though. The shine really is a lovely phone. I thought id show homage to it with a little review, so people who are thinking about getting a new phone but dont want to spend a complete fortune would add it to their list of maybes.
Style? ~~~~~~
To look at, this phone is very stylish. (much prettier than the Viewty in my opinion) Slightly smaller and thinner, this phone slides to reveal a brushed metal keypad. The bulk of the phone is metal or metal plated, which looks fantastic but on the downside makes it a little heavier than full plastic models of a similar size.
However, the coolest feature of this phone has to be the mirrored screen. I have never seen this on a mobile before and is fantastic for that lipgloss top up on the train for the girls, or a quick check of the hair for the boys. push up the mirrored screen to reveal a lovely large and bright screen.
When the keypad is opened, the buttons glow LED blue between the metal. Honestly, silver and blue LED lights is my FAVOURITE. I really think this is a pretty pretty phone. However, being an LG they need to put a feature on the phone which if it breaks, renders the rest of the handset completely useless (only a little tinge of bitterness there!) and in the shine this is the rollbar on the screen. Very sweet feature, but can become frustrated as the phone starts to age or if you spill jam in it (dont ask, i have a poor track record with technology)
The basics ~~~~~~~~
I think with any new phone, its of primary importance that the new features don't gloss you to the essential basics of any phone, aka - Texting and calls. If that doesn't work, you essentially end up with something pretty, but useless!
As far as this LG goes, the calls are simple, and the sound quality is good and decently loud. The phone has a loudspeaker for hands free calls which seems to be fairly receptive. As for texts, this phone is adequate for people who have a degree of texting practice, but as the front it essentially a big metal plate, it might take a little getting used to. For predictive text, you use the scroll bar to go through letters or words.
Features? ~~~~~~~
As for features, this phone boasts a decent 2 megapixel camera, short clip video camera, mp3 player and a voice recorder. There is a quick link button to the camera and you can hold the phone sideways as with a normal camera. I dont want to sound negative, but if you have had a higher range phone you may be a little bit disappointed with the quality (the 'flash' is a light which you put on) but if this is an upgrade it is of a decent quality. I dont want to put anyone off what i do think is a very good phone, but i think people need to know everything before they consider buying.
The phone has quite a low memory but you can easily top this up with a mini-SD card. Good sound quality and you could get a large card and use this as a primary mp3 player. Though you will need to get a headphone adapter (as with the higher range LG models) Also has a quick button to the MP3 and a volume control on the side.
But... this one has games!!! unlike its viewty brother, this one has bubblesoccer <3 and Fishing mania. Both of which are wildly addictive and well worth the cost :) Of course, you can use the wap to download new games if you fancy it.
Speaking of downloads, the phone does have a basic WAP 2.0 Obigo browser. Myself, ive never really got to grips with wap, but if you only want a basic browser on your phone this is more than adequate.
One final sidenote, beware of the charger. Typically for LG, its a little fiddly and proan to break if you aren't very gentle with it.
Overall ~~~~~
If you are looking for a mid range update, this is a lovely phone. I was a big fan of the viewty, but this phone is hardier, and much better looking. with its metal case, i think this one might even survive me for quite a while to come! :)
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