LG Cosmos Touch Phone (Verizon Wireless)

One of Verizon/LG's worst mistakes August 1, 2011

Reviewer:  Jonathan B. "Jon"  (California) -

My wife stuck with her previous phone - the LG Dare - as long as she could because she really liked it. After 4+ years of use, it finally gave up, so she needed an upgrade and wanted another touchscreen phone. We had no need for a data plan, so we looked at Verizon's basic phone lineup. Unfortunately, the Cosmos Touch was the only touchscreen basic phone Verizon offered - and it is horrible.

First, the good. The phone is small enough not to be a bother in a pocket. The screen, while small, works well enough. Some complain about inaccuracy of the touchscreen, but after calibrating it, we've had no problems with that. The slide-out keyboard slides smoothly and feels more solid than some other cheap phone keyboards I've used. Call quality and reliability seems typical, as does battery life. Not spectacular, but not poor.

Now the bad. I'll get straight to the point. Pop-up ads. Yes, on a basic phone. At random times. And you can do NOTHING about it. Sleeping at 3 a.m.? You must be interested in VZ Navigator more than your nightly rest. Typing a text message? Some Media Center apps must be for you... you didn't *really* need to finish that text anyway. Apparently this is due to an application called "Daily Scoop." This application pops up VOICE advertisements for various paid service features at random times, and there is nothing you can do about it. We have even applied a data block to the phone, and it still pops up these ads. You can imagine how happy we are to be awakened in the middle of the night to learn more about paid phone data services. You cannot uninstall, remove, or block Daily Scoop.

Research online shows that this is a common problem for seemingly every owner of this phone. It is absolutely unacceptable, and what I would consider even fraudulent. That flaw alone makes this phone absolutely not worth owning, although it's not the only problem. Lack of a video camera - a widely standard feature in all phones these days - is also a negative.

While the ridiculous lack of basic phone options is a problem with Verizon, this phone is absolutely not worth getting - period. My suggestion would be to look online for a phone you like that is compatible with Verizon's network, and buy that. Verizon should be offering free replacements to anyone who was suckered into buying this piece of trash.

It's a keeper... February 20, 2011

Reviewer:  K Blair 

I wanted a touch phone but didn't need or want a data plan. Finally Verizon started offering one. I've had my LG CT for about 3 months and love it. I use it moderately for calls and texts only. The battery life is very good. I can usually go about 10 days between charges. I did charge it fully, as instructed, as soon as I got it. Getting the feel of the touch feature was part my learning curve. It's not as responsive as my iPad which is heat rather pressure sensitive. Adjusting to the difference, it's not a problem now.. It's very easy to use/navigate and should even be fine for my husband's large fingers. Only con is camera - 1.3 vs. 3.0 with my 3-4 yr old LG. Have no idea why they went backwards; you expect improvement with newer models. I've not experienced any of the problems that Mary reported.

Ehh, decide for yourself. Half and half here. July 3, 2011

Reviewer:  Austin  (Virginia, USA) -

Half and half why you say? I'll explain why... actually I'm gonna review the phone and let you decide why.

I have two reviews: a long detailed one below, and a short quick one at the the bottom. Along with a pros and cons list.

Long:
This is a great phone, touch screen, qwerty keyboard... what more could you want for texting? Yes, I use this phone for texting and making calls. I don't have internet cause I don't need it. That's why I got this phone. No extra monthly fees. Now to the phone itself:

It is equipped with a plastic pressure sensitive touch screen. Not heat sensitive, so yes you can use a pen for the screen. As the photos pictured above it has a slide-out qwerty keyboard. For the size of the phone (it's smaller than the regular cosmos) the keyboard feels great. It has rubber keys, I don't get how it's slippery. It doesn't feel cramped, just right. Great for texting. If you're familiar with the LG Cosmos keyboard layout, it hasn't changed.

The phone is not a smart phone, and requires apps and games to be downloaded from Verizon only. Even if you have internet the apps won't work cause the phone apps are brew based. Although, it does have some cool features on it's own: A drawing pad, text to speech (like microsoft Ann), and more. It has widgets that can be brought to the home screen for quick access. Let's say you have a calender in the widgets menu, you can touch and drag it to your home screen.

One thing to note- it has a complete fully functional mp3 player! It has all mp3 player features, repeat, shuffle, albums, playlists, and alot more. It is also equipped with a 3.5 millimeter head phone jack. So no more adapters for your headphones! That is my favorite feature. The phones also accepts micro SD cards up to 16gb only. No 32gb unfortunately. The screen is fully touch functional and can be calibrated.

It has great connection and picks up in most dead zones my regular cosmos couldn't. The battery is great for a phone of this magnitude. Some people may not realize it, but look at the battery size (it uses the same exact battery of the LG Accolade... yes the Accolade) and look at the screen size. The screen (once on) is emitting a strong backlight and the keyboard also emits light. That uses up your battery, and if you need more power, lower your lighting, or stay off heavy apps like big games.

As far as call quality, I really haven't made any calls much. Although the ones I have the call quality seems good. Voices were loud and clear. The camera only takes pictures not video recording, If I remember correctly it's a 1.3mp camera. Not the best, but the pictures I took turned out nicely. Clear, bright, and colorful. The phone does not support video playback... big loss for me. The phone came with one game... Sudoku Deluxe. I'm not much of a puzzler but for those who are I'm sure you might enjoy it.

The phone has three home screens. Middle (main) screen is your regular phone screen. Your wallpaper, clock, etc. Scroll to the left and you have your message center and social network shortcuts. Scroll to the right and you have your favorites menu and you can add up to 11 of your favorite contacts.

The phone slides open smoothly and the keyboard looks nice. I like the black and silver color, reminds me of the old school LG Rumor. I have a body glove case for my phone and I highly recommend that case. I recommend this phone as well. One thing I dislike about it, is that it can become slow loading up pictures, even with a small amount. Plus it seems the text lags when you type really fast. Not a big deal for me. Also when zooming at pre-took photos the system lags very badly, I have no clue why.

Overall great phone, no monthly fees, touch screen, keyboard and compact. I like it and use it for calling and texting and it fills that position wonderfully.

Short:
A nice data-plan free cell phone with a perfect keyboard and touchscreen. The phone masters at messaging and handles call great. Battery life is good, especially considering it uses a small Accolade battery. It has a soft touch paint job for a nice grip feeling. It slides nicely and has a pressure sensitive touchscreen, so yes it requires a little pressure to open up menus. The keyboard is laid out just like the regular Cosmos and the new Cosmos 2. It has cool pre installed apps like the drawing pad and text-to-speech. Apps are BREW based and apps offline can't be installed due to the stinginess of Verizon letting us use a data-plan free phone. Has a micro SD slot for additional memory. The phone is compact and has a great weight. The phone lags at very fast texting speeds and the loading times get irritating at first. No big problem. The camera only takes photos and can't playback video files let alone record videos... :( It has a lock button on the side for a quick screen lockdown. Call quality is nice and texting is great. The phone features a 3.5mm head phone jack and a MP3 player! The widgets menu is also a nice addition along with the 3 home screens. For more in-depth information read my long review.

Yes, you guys knew it was coming and here is my infamous PROS vs. CONS list:

Pros:
Compact
Keyboard/Touchscreen
MP3 Player
3 Home screens
Battery
Features
Soft Paint
Nice call quality
Great texting machine
Micro SD slot
Lock button
Camera
1000 Contacts limit along with picture ID
3.5mm headphone jack yay!
Widgets
Fast loading when playing games
NO DATA PLAN
...Many more guys

Cons:
Tends to lag at high speed texting.
Zoom on pre-took photos ridiculously lags
1.3 Mega Pixel camera
No video record or playback
Verizon's stupid apps take up most of the main menu
Slow loading pictures up
Daily Scoop is totally annoying and can only be removed by contacting Mobile Posse. Even when it's deleted from your phone you still get updates. This is one of Verizon's sneaky scams and they will deny it's their app. Which it is only a Verizon compatible app. Yea it may be cool getting the 5 day forecast... until you see your bill for data usages.
Eh, that's all I can think of at the moment.

Verdict: A great touch/qwerty phone that doesn't require a data-plan, with minor quirks. My recommendation: Go for it.

Update:
The Verizon Media Store only has a few games that are capable of being played on the LG Cosmos Touch. With plenty of time on my hands and the killer urge to have games on my phone, I searched until I found some. Here's a list with some descriptions and my recommendations.

*Sim City Deluxe- Great fun and addictive gameplay. Create a city and run it how you want. If the Sims are annoying you, throw in a tornado to shut them up. I highly recommend this game.
*Splatter House- Horror game... don't waste your money. It's extremely hard and just terribly made.
*Deer Hunter 3D- Awesome! Hunt deer, bears, and I think it's elk as well. It's also in '3D'. I highly recommend this game too.
*GuitarHero 5- Oh yeah, my favorite mobile game. If you don't get service/signal at your house don't get this game. It requires you to download songs (may cost internet usage fees). It's super fun and very addicting. I highly recommend this game.
*Gangstar Miami Vindication- GTA gameplay, hard controls but easy to learn. Very fun to kill people, steal cars, and fly helicopters. I'd highly recommend this if you get bored alot.
*Oregon Trail- Game based on luck, I enjoy it alot. You travel to California for gold and try to survive the trail. I'd recommend this if you like suspense.

Annoying phone August 7, 2011

Reviewer:  Realistic in GA 

I have had this phone for about 4 months now. The main problem with the phone is that it randomly loads the browse and download page automatically A LOT. Almost everytime I go to use the phone I have to dismiss that page. The page also makes the phone come on until you dismiss it, which runs down the battery much faster. In addition, the phone randomly comes on in the middle of the night with a voice talking to you about some feature you haven't yet downloaded. Its a huge issue with this phone, and there are no fixes as of yet. Search the issue online and see for yourself how many people are experiencing this frustrating issue with this phone. Stay away. It isn't worth the frustration.

Just What I Wanted May 24, 2011

Reviewer:  squag 

The LG Cosmos Touch is an "almost" smart phone without the price or data plan. It is everything that I needed and wanted. I almost didn't purchase it after reading some of the reviews, but I'm glad I bought it. I've been using it for several months and will list the pro's and con's that I've noticed so far.

Cons:

A few random pocket dials- if you put it in your pocket without locking it up it will surely pocket dial someone or will at least end up on some random screen.

The buttons on the keyboard are slightly small for my stubby fingers, although I can text just fine - minor complaint

Touch pad is not as sensitive as a smart phone, so you have to put a little pressure on the phone to move things around, which can cause an accidental selection of something.

Pros:

No data plan!

Very capable MP3 player-possibly the best feature of the phone. I'm not sure what other reviewers were complaining about (there might have been an earlier version of the phone that didn't have a decent MP3 player). I can download MP3 files to the phone with no problem. I can categorize by: songs, playlists, artists, genres, and albums. It functions great!

Very good speaker for listening to music in the office or whatever - it sounds much better than the relatively cheap external speaker I bought.

Micro SD card.

Headphone Jack.

Mostly intuitive.

If you want an "almost" smart phone without the added fees, this is a great choice. Once you get used to the idiosyncrasies (touch pad pressure, avoiding pocket dialing) this is a great phone with a good keyboard, MP3 player, great battery life (so far), and a great feel.