Enlightened. November 21, 2011

Reviewer:  Frank Lockwood  (NJ United States) -

This is my first Droid phone, and my umpteenth LG phone. I've had it for over a month now.

Calls: Call quality is EXCELLENT, better than any other phone I've had. I can hear every word perfectly, and the speakerphone on it is very loud. I love this phone for its volume. Haven't had a single dropped call.

Texting: Superb. I hate touch screen texting, and it has that option if you're so inclined. The slide out keyboard is great. It does take some getting used to, as the bottom row of the qwerty is to the left and right of the space bar. That took about a week to get the hang of. Now I don't need to even look at the keyboard to type at all. The buttons have a very nice feel to them. And the screen does a good job knowing when to rotate the screen for you.

Web: It's fast, what can I say. I'm spoiled when it comes to internet speed, and although this doesn't instantaneously display webpages (takes a few seconds to load pages that are heavy on graphics) it's great enough for me. The youtube app is really quick, too.

Screen: Very responsive. I did purchase a screen protector and hard case for it, looked pretty slick. For the record, I'm a clumsy fool, and I've dropped this phone three times (all before I got the case.) One time, it fell off the hand rail at the side of the toilet at work (oops) and hit the floor face down, screen first, about 4 feet. I thought for sure it was a goner. Not a single scratch! And it works perfectly. (As I'm typing this, I glanced at the phone, and the paint on the extra hard case I bought is starting to peel. Eff this cheap stuff, I need to get a new case. Not the phone's fault of course. :)

Navigation: No issues whatsoever. The front page is easy to set up, I have all my icons organized very neatly, and everything is within easy reach.

Camera: Meh. It takes pics just fine in the daylight. But with only 3.2 mp, and no flash, it leaves a lot to be desired (especially when compared to the camera on the iphone.) The video recording is actually pretty good for a phone, although again, no flash. I'm not taking stars away for this though -- just know what you're purchasing!

Battery: Started off pretty abysmal. After some tweaks, it's miraculous now. On a full charge, I can go between 12 and 24 hours without having to charge it, which for a smart phone, I think it outstanding. Here's some tips for prolonging the battery life:

1. Decrease screen brightness to 20%. It's still SO SO bright at that level, I have no problems seeing the screen in sunlight.

2. Shut off all that GPS crap in the settings, and make sure auto synch is OFF. This is such a huge battery drain. When you need to use the GPS, it takes two clicks to enable it, use GPS, and then disable it again. Very simple.

3. Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT install the Facebook application from the Android market! First of all, it's GARBAGE, even more so than the cake from Black Swan. A lot of the features are disabled, it's clunky, and it freezes up a lot. Bookmark facebook.com on the phone and use the internet to access the page that way. Trust me, it's fantastic. You can do everything you can normally do on facebook, it's super fast, and super easy. The mobile version of the facebook website is spectacular. Also, if you download the facebook app, it wastes a LOT of battery life constantly scanning to see if you get new facebook updates, etc. If you need to know that badly that your friend from high school 20 years ago that you never talk to had a baby with that guy you always hated but secretly loved, then you also need to move on with your life. I check my facebook when I'm bored through the website, it's fast, it's easy, and it consumes so much less battery life.

4. Turn off the sounds that play every time you hit a key or a button. It's annoying anyway, and just wastes more battery.

All in all, I am extremely happy I got this phone. It's the best one I've ever owned, and ironically, the cheapest.

inJOY!

UPDATE 1/4/2012: Almost 3 months and the phone still amazes me. I love it so much. I really do wish it had a flash for the camera, but other than that I'm incredibly happy I went with it. I came to Amazon to use my gift card to buy myself a 32gig Micro SD Card. Can't wait for the extra memory!

UPDATE 10/3/2012: It's almost been a whole year since I wrote this review (and rereading it made me giggle lol - I'm funny sometimes) and I gotta say I am still very happy with the phone. As I said before, the camera sucks, but I don't use my phone as a camera so for me, it doesn't take away from the rating. One gripe has come up, however: you cannot leave text message threads in there if there's over 500 of em. For example, if you've been texting with someone back and forth, and you have over 500 texts in that thread, it WILL slow down the phone (older processor and all.) So I usually just erase a text thread if I see it go over 200 texts or so. I like things neat anyway, so it doesn't bug me doing it. Otherwise, I've dropped the phone another 10 times and the damn thing just won't break. Sometimes if I see it's starting to slow down a bit, like switching between apps, I just shut the phone off and restart it. Reset the RAM (I'm assuming) and everything's great again. (I literally have to do that like once a month.) Again, great entry level phone. My favorite aspect has been the incredible call volume and clarity, the speakerphone, and the keyboard. Please keep in mind: my friend got this phone too, and she hates it. She has no patience when it comes to technology however, so when she mashes three keys 22 times each because her brain is moving faster than her fingers which are moving faster than the phone's processor, the cellphone has a meltdown and she has the nerve to blame it. Thought it worth mentioning. ;)

Enlightened, and Very Pleased November 28, 2011

Reviewer:  Carmen L. Williams "eclectic book lover"  (Midwest, USA) -

This phone really does the job for me. I can go online, keep up with my e-mail, check the weather forecast, use Google for navigation, take pictures, and add apps. Plus it has a slide-out keyboard for texting if you're clumsy typing on the touchscreen like I am! My phone conversations sound good, and the ringtones can be turned up quite loud so I can hear the phone when it's in my purse in a noisy store, or when I forget it in another room at home. (I favor the chime ringtones.) I'm selecting a hard case for it on Amazon now, to help protect it from breaking if I drop it. There are so many pretty cases that it's hard to choose one!

Love this phone December 6, 2011

Reviewer:  Happy Shopper "Love AMAZON.COM"  (PRINCE GEORGE , VA) -

I upgraded to this phone a few months ago. I did have a Samsung Rouge. I liked my Rouge very much but wanted a smart phone after having the Rouge for over two year & some of the keys had started sticking on my keyboard. When I got the Enlighten I fell in love all over again. Not one thing I don't like yet. It works for me.

Horrible battery life, very little memory. Stay away! August 6, 2012

Reviewer:  Peter "Pete"  (Madison, AL USA) -

My wife got this phone and we had great hopes for it. It has great potential, but the horrible battery and lack of memory are killers. The camera is pretty bad too. Details below.

Pros:
1) Slider keyboard
2) Nice screen

Cons:
1) The battery generally will not make it through a day, even if you disable most of the smart phone features like background data and location. Carry a charger. This alone is a killer. What good is a phone if it is dead every time you need it?

2) There is almost no memory for apps. Yes, you can put some on the SD card, but not if you use it with a widget or any type of background activity. The required google apps that you can't get rid of or move eat most of what little there is. And when it runs out, you can't even send and receive txt messages until you delete some apps.

3) The camera is sad. Poor pictures and no flash limit its utility.

We have 2 other android phones in the family, and this is the only one that is so poor.

totally disappointed February 3, 2012

Reviewer:  Magnolia Mrs 

When I got this phone, I was due for an upgrade from my previous Droid origional. It was easy for me to activate and figure out, but the picture quality is awful. It doesn't even have a flash, and most of your pre-paid phones do. I also noticed that it takes FOREVER to charge and the battery hardly lasts 8 hrs after it's been fully charged. I have NO storage space at all, and no matter how many times I kill programs, they mysteriously pop back up out of nowhere. All in all I am severely disappointed in this phone and am desperately wishing for my old Droid or even an old fashioned flip phone! Whatever you do DO NOT waste your money on this phone!!!

Not worth a flip!!! May 21, 2013

Reviewer:  ATyler 

At first I liked it. It was new, blemish free and was user friendly. It got old fast... and what made that even worse was how slow it became when trying to use an app of only 9MB... and it cuts off and on all by itself... it'll start playing songs on my media player at random times. Just worthless!

Don't buy this phone. March 21, 2013

Reviewer:  Axerth  (San Diego, California) -

I've had more issues with this phone than with any smartphone I've ever owned before. There is so little space on the internal storage that you can't have many apps at all - Facebook alone takes up 1/5 of the space on the thing and a lot of apps can't be uninstalled or moved to the SD card to save space. This phone takes so long to charge and has such bad battery life that it dies within 8 hours if you're NOT using it and 5 hours if you are. And the best part is, if you try to charge it you can be certain it will restart itself six times before you give up and let the battery life run out, turn it off to charge it, or toss it into the street and go buy yourself a real phone. Don't waste your time or money. Get something - anything - else.

Great Android Phone! March 1, 2013

Reviewer:  Jenn Surprenant "Jenn"  (Arlington, MA) -

I have had this phone for a year now. I really like it. I love how it offers both the touch screen and keypad options. It is a great phone for people who are not familiar with all the technology but would like a android smartphone. It is very easy to use, and has great apps available. The camera is not the best, however not the worst either. It is perfect to use if you need to snap a few photos. However I would not use it to take picture of important events. Finally, the only reason that I did not give 5 stars is because of the lack of storage space for apps. Yes it does come with an SD card, however a lot of the apps that I use personally can't be moved to the card and therefore take up room. Most of the time I have to uninstall one app to use another, then when I am done I re-install the first one. That is my only big complaint about this phone...it needs more internal storage space.

Great Phone ,Works well with Ford Sync equipped cars August 17, 2012

Reviewer:  JohnnyD  (PA) -

Phone call clarity is great . In a matter of minutes I had my phone paired with my Ford Sync . Phone book downloaded without a problem and text messages are received and transmitted via SYNC. If you have a problem with the battery, buy the extended version.

Seen Better November 22, 2012

Reviewer:  Other Guy 

My wife has this phone and it has had several problems. Sometimes if has trouble with text messages, where they won't send or receive. Other times it won't download media text, just says "downloading." And the worst thing that happens is the battery is constantly draining much quicker than it should. We stopped at a verizon dealer but all he said was, "the problem can't be reproduced so I can't help you." I can understand that but the battery takes a day to drain, on standby. Should last much longer because we live in an area covered by verizon signals but the battery only lasts about a day before needing charge. Either way, we will avoid LG phones in the future and do more research before getting our next one.