LG CG225 (AT&T)

Pros: Decent built-in camera

Cons: Too many to list

Summary: Most cell phones have their plusses and minuses. This is the only phone I've ever owned that I truly, completely, HATED. This thing is a nightmare. Let's start with the Push-To-Talk button on the side, which triggers just about every time I open the hinge and asks me if I want to do PTT for an extra charge. It is one of many things on this phone that constantly get triggered when I don't want them to and offer me junk for extra fees. The navigation is terrible... consistently, features you want (like reading incoming mail messages), require a lot of manipulation to get to, wheras things you rarely want (like the Cingular shopping mall) are engaged with one accidental button-push and you have to wait for them to load so you can dismiss them. The sound quality for hearing your phone conversation is minimally acceptable. The mic on my phone frequently drops out... I have often had people unable to hear me when we were trying to talk, to the point where they gave up and hung up. The speakerphone is ok for a cell phone but when you close the lid thinking you're hanging up, the phone doesn't turn off. You have to open the phone again and hit the red button inside. Battery life is not very good. If the battery happens to run out completely, the phone will not turn on again after recharge without popping off the back and jiggering the battery around while you press the green button on the keypad. Sometimes I've wasted a good 20 minutes screwing with the battery before I got the phone to turn on again. It came with a free bluetooth headset, but neither me, my wife, or the guy at the store could get that working. The only thing going for this phone is the built-in camera, but allegedly it has a little LED flash which never worked. I get the pics off the camera by emailing them to myself (which you can only do 2 pics at a time or the message won't send) because there doesn't seem to be any other method. I'm surprised this phone is fairly well-reviewed by cnet and other sites because it is absolutely the worst cell phone I've ever had the misfortune to be stuck with. I've kept it only because it's so expensive to replace a cell phone when you're under a contract, but I will be only too glad to be rid of it as soon as the contract expires. My wife has the same phone and it completely died--unfortunately under the contract they replaced it with the same model. Now her replacement phone already has problems with some of the keys not working. My wife and I both hate, hate, hate this phone and we will never buy LG again.