LG Aloha (LX140, Virgin Mobile)
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CNET Editors' Review
The good: The Virgin Mobile Aloha is a simple, user-friendly phone with voice dialing.
The bad: The Virgin Mobile Aloha's design feels somewhat cheap, and the phone's call quality wasn't reliable. Also, it lacks an external display and external volume buttons.
The bottom line: The Virgin Mobile Aloha is a functional, basic phone, but there are better such handsets in Virgin Mobile's lineup.
Design
We're not sure about the Aloha moniker, as there's little about it to suggest the 50th state or even a welcoming spirit for that matter. The handset's design is so minimalist that it might even cause the late Mies van der Roe to wince. Clad in white and gray with clean lines and rounded edges, the Aloha is so devoid of outside features that even an external display and a volume rocker are absent. Normally, we're not fond of flip phones that have no external displays. While we realize that its lack of a screen helps account for the Aloha's low price, we still miss being able to check a caller's identity without opening the handset. That leaves just a headset jack on the left spine, a charger port on the Aloha's bottom end, and a small red light that shows through the front flap. It blinks to let you know the Aloha is on, but you can turn the light off if you prefer.
At 3.5x1.9x0.9 inches, the Aloha is average size for a flip phone, but at 2.7 ounces, it's quite light. It rested comfortably in the hand, but the hinge mechanism was a tad loose. Also, the plastic shell felt cheap.
The internal display is relatively small for the phone's size (1.5 inches; 128x128 pixels). It supports just eight lines of text, so you have to do a fair amount of scrolling though the simple menus (grid and list styles are also available). Also, the 65,000-color resolution means that graphics aren't very rich. But really, that's to be expected on a basic phone. You can change the backlight and the font size.
The keypad buttons have a standard design with a four-way toggle, a central OK button, two soft keys, talk and end/power buttons, and a back key. All the keys are easy to use; they're tactile and quite large. Additionally, the toggle doubles as a shortcut to the Web browser, the recent calls list, the messaging in-box, and the My Account feature. The backlit keypad buttons are tactile as well, and they are separated from each other.
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As a senior managing editor for CNET, Kent German heads up the CNET Reviews team in San Francisco. Formerly a cell phone reviewer, he still blogs about wireless news and offers his take on the wireless industry. When not at work, he's planning his next trip to Australia, going for a run, or watching planes land at the airport (yes, really).
User Reviews
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"Simple device!!!" By narn3049
Pros: Good tough phone,
Cons: just mad it doesnt have video or pic option to it
"A great basic phone." By kingslandga
Pros: This has been a super phone for my purposes. Easy to use, very light and fits comfortably in my pocket. I have always had very good call quality. My wife upgraded to the LG rumor touch. I kept her old Aloha in case mine ever breaks.
Cons: No camera ( I didn't want one). No qwerty keyboard. Texting is somewhat laborious as it only has a standard phone number keypad. If I were to change one thing on the phone it would be to include a slide out qwerty keyboard.
Summary: If you are looking for a basic phone and you don't need a camera and don't need a qwerty keyboard, this phone is a great deal.
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