Review: LG enV3
About two months ago, i purchased the LG EnV3. I purchased it with a two year contract, so it was a reasonable 80 bucks at the verizon store. This phone is the follow-up to the LG EnV3, and was brought out with the LG EnV Touch, which is basically the Voyager 2. The phone brings an upgrade in the camera, 2mp to 3mp, a larger external screen, and a redesigned layout of the internal qwerty keypad and external number pad. I also really like the buttons on the side for adjustigng the volume for nopises, which makes it very easy to tuen the sounds off for when you bring it into school, or a place where you don"t want to be rude.
Design: The design of this product is perfect. The clamshell design is perfect for texting, making it easy to open and close quickly. The dialpad on the outside is very large, and very easy to press. The phone also feels nice when holding it up to talk. The internal screen is a large 2.6" with a nice 320 by 240 screen resolution, which is the same ppi as the iPhone, at 160ppi. The qwerty keypad is very comefortable, and i don't find my fingers tripping up over each other. There are two very handy little buttons on the side, one where you can bring up a list of up to ten favorites, which an be edited, and you can call up all stored information about your communication with them. The other allows you to quickly jump right into a new text message. The only thing i don't like about the keypad, is there is a little button for turning the speaker on, which is located right next to the clear button, under the d-pad. I find that after making a mistake while texting, i will press this button often when going to press the clear button, and i find it annoying because you have to pausem, turn it off, and then fix your mistake, or else it will drain your battery.
Software: The software for this phone is very simple, and easy to use. The external menu is very simplified, only allowing you to access bluetooth, the key gaurd, contacts, meassaging, recent calls, pictures, and music. The keygaurd i find very necessary, because if you, like me, are moving around alot, and standing and sitting often, you will find that you will accidentally press buttons in your pocket. There is an option to have it for one click or two clicks of the "ok" button to turn it off, but only having it on one I have found to not be enough. As far as using the phone with the flip open, it is much more expansive, in customization and features. As with almost all phones now, there are those two little buttons at the top of the keypad, that you can customize as a shortcut to open to a something you want. When you open up the phones menu, you can set it to open up in a 3x3 grid, a list, or as tabs. With the grid, you can set the menu for two functionallities, for messaging or for entertainment, i believe, but i cannot check as you have to reset the menu positions to select this option. But, these two options will have a few locked icons that you cannot remove, and the rest you can erplace with whatever you want. You can also move around the positions of each items, which is very easy. While charging, you can have a digital clock, or a calender. The clock is useful as a bedside clock while you are charging it. There are four internal display themes, and two external. You can also choose between 3 basic font styles. As far as tool, you have the basic ones, voice commands, calculator, tip calc, alarm clock, calender, stopwatch, world clock, note pad, and the one thing that is special, the option to make it into a USB mass storage device. Verizon should of included atl east one full game, but all they include are two limited trial games, tetris and pac man.
Camera: The 3.0mp camera on this phone is very nice. The camera application is full of features, such as a very handy 3 picture panorama mode, smile detection, color effects, and white balance adjustment. You can also change the shutter sound from a normal shutter, to "say cheese!" to "ready! 1..2..3!". The camera does not take great low light pictures, with a good bit of noise, but it gets by. You can also go in and edit pictures after they are taken, right on the phone. You can crop it, change the blur, brightness, contrast, and sharpness. IF it can detect a face, it can make it into a funny face, and it will "beautify the face", not really sure about that one, you can add a frame, and you can put a stamp on it. The video recorder is not great as far as resolution, and the microphone is very bad at cancelling out background noise. But it will do at recording short clips, such as the Red Sox winning a game. Also, when closed, using the external button for the camera, you can hold the phone like you would a normal point and shoot camera, making it very easy to use. the external display will show you the center of the picture, so you can get a rough idea of what you are actually taking a picture of. Here are some examples of some pictures I have taken with it.
Okay, now that I have written way too much about this phone, i must leave you to ponder weather or not you like this phone and would consider purchasing it. I love this phone and would give it a 9 out of 10 stars.
Jamie Carlson Sep 21, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Reader Comments (2)
I have this phone and it is amazing! It is the first mid-high standard phone I've ever used, and I'm definitely glad I have it. Everybody at my school has the Env2, and they're all jealous of me! :3
Haha yah.. its no iphone killer, but as far as your average texting phone, it is definitely above average! The camera is much better than i could of expected, with all the features packed in