LG EnV Touch user reviews (Verizon Wireless)

5.0 stars

"So much better than I ever expected." on June 16, 2009 by livotarkmas

Pros: Large (beautiful resolution) external and internal displays. Touch screen adequately responsive, & accurate. Call reception, volume, & clarity are good. Image & video quality are excellent. Features & tools are superrrb. Keyboard well-spac

Cons: Glitch with "beautify" photo editing tool makes phone restart. A bit heavy. Battery life could be better. No "clear entry field" option. Only 2 display themes. Slight text lag. Sometimes internal screen "blacks out" & requires prompting to re-appear.

Summary: I wanted to make sure I actually got used to this phone so that I could write an educated, experienced review. I've had this phone for about a week, and I have never been so pleased with a cellphone.

So where do I even begin? Bare in mind that my previous phone was an EnV. Fancy little gadgets and knick-knacks were just things that OTHER people had on their phones. Not me. So I'm probably impressed with things that most people are already used to - forgive me. I honestly shunned touch screens before this phone. The actual reason I wanted this phone in the first place was for the animated wallpaper - the night sky one equipped with twinkling, and shooting stars, trees that sway in the wind, and fireflies. The exterior is nice - the "chrome" is attractive. I've read complaints about the texture at the bottom of the phone on the front where the buttons are, and that it holds fingerprints - honestly, i don't notice it. besides, with a case, you don't have to worry about it. I do wish they had made this phone in a couple more colors. I liked the blue buttons on the Env3. Anyway, let's get to the juicy details. The touch screen is great. I find myself constantly playing with the little "curtain" which unveils the screen. It's very entertaining for those easily amused. I like that you can keep this little "curtain" down and still view the date and time. The transparency and "glow" when this curtain is down is nice. The curtain unveils a BEAUTIFUL touch screen. The shortcuts at the bottom of the screen are nice. One of the best things about this screen is that (aside from the "locked" shortcuts at the bottom) you can move any widgets anywhere on the screen. The MEMO widget is GREAT. You can make a little note, and then place it right on your screen so you see it every time you unveil your front screen. It's just like a little sticky note. Very convenient. You can also move the time and date icon to wherever you want on the screen. The DRAWING tool is fantastic. Extremely similar to the iPhone's. I also like how the notepad tool displays your note on a lined paper background. It's just very fancy. The functionality of the touch screen is excellent. It's adequately accurate and responsive, and the vibration as you touch is nice. It's nice that you can adjust how strong, and how long that vibration is.
I'm a huge texter, so that was one of my priorities with this phone. I love being able to open the phone to use the keyboard, but to be honest, I probably use the front screen almost as much. I like to use the regular keypad and use T9. It's also nice to be able to use a keyboard on the front if wanted, just by flipping the phone on it's side. I love the layout of the messages. It's nice to display messages by contact, it's like looking at an Instant Message conversation. The photo ID that accompanies each message is just awesome. The internal keyboard itself is very nicely spaced out, and the keys have a nice give.
I do wish there were more display themes other than the 2 offered. Neither are all that great.
What IS great is the starry sky animated wallpaper. I said to myself that this phone was made for me as soon as I saw it.
& the games are EPIC. Tilting your phone to steer the car in Need For Speed RULES.

Anyway, moving on. The CAMERA on this phone is superior. It takes very crisp photos. Looking at photos on the external touch screen is a blast. You can scroll through them in the same manner as the iPhone. The slide show option is great. The options to edit the photos are also wonderful. Looking at photos internally is also nicely done. I love the ability to adjust an image before setting it as your wallpaper. Video quality is also good.
The actual call quality on this phone is great. Loud, and clear.
I do have a few complaints. When trying to use the "beautify" photo editing tool, the phone restarts. I've Googled, and discovered it isn't just my phone. Not a big deal. The phone is a little heavy for my preference. Again, not a show stopper. The battery life is MEH, not the best. Sometimes there's a lag when I text internally (could just be I text too dang fast). Occasionally the internal screen is black for a moment, and I have to hit a bunch of keys before it re-appears.
& one complaint i've always had with phones is the inability to "clear entry field" of a text. It is annoying to have to start a whole new message when sending multiple page texts to non-verizon people.
I will say this - I had to return my first phone because the right side of the screen ended up completely malfunctioning, but Verizon quickly replaced it. Honestly, I have no qualms about it. This phone is new. There are going to be glitches that are going to happen, and it will take time before software upgrades come out. It's normal.

I wish I had more room, but, in conclusion, I continue to discover things with this phone that assure me it was the right choice for my upgrade, and that I'll certainly be happy with it for the next 2 years.

5.0 stars

"excellent phone" on June 6, 2009 by ScorpioKing1990

Pros: Excellent screen. Very good camera. Responsive interface. Fast accelerometer. Very good build quality/construction. Nice keyboard. Very versatile and works how you want it to. Combines the best of the Dare and the Voyager to make one awesome phone.

Cons: Battery life coul be better (it is NOT bad...it just could be better...I'll explain more below). The Tetris game SUCKS because of one realy stupid oversight. The I/M client hasn't been updated in forever (Verizon's fault realy, not LG's).

Summary: I absolutely love this phone. Last summer I got a Dare when it came out. I realy wanted the Voyager...but it's screen was smaller, the camera didn't even have a flash, the touch screen wasn't as responsive, I didn't like it's UI as much (even though they were very similar), the keyboard was good overall but had a few quirks, it didn't support as many Bluetooth profiles. I could go on and on. It was the phone you realy wanted to love but just couldn't. The Dare had mostly everything I wanted except for the physical QWERTY. I fell in love with the Dare and I still think it's a realy good phone. But LG has seemingly built my dream phone...and voila the LG enV Touch. Gone is Mobile TV, but I never planned on using that anyway (the Dare doesn't have it either). This, of course is probably to make way for all the other wonderful things about it. It's thinner, has a camera with the same specs as the Dare, yet offers even more features software-wise (the Dare was already one of the best Verizon camera phones out there), it has a screen even more responsive than the Dare, an updated interface and some cool new features up it's sleeve. One that I didn't have room for in the "Pros" section is...THREADED TEXT MESSAGING! Yes, this phone does threaded text messaging. I've hardly seen this talked about anywhere....I've wanted it forever and now I got it. Sweetness. There's just so much good stuff to say about this phone. LG clearly spent a lot of time working on the details. Everything seems to be in a certain place for a reason, every angle of the phone has a clearly defined shape. Closing the phone gives a nice gentle yet solid "snap effect' which makes it feel high-end...and the phone specificaly has little notches in just the right places so that even if you snapped it shut realy hard, it wouldn't hurt the screen. There are lots of little details like this that just make me enjoy owning this phone....I don't know how else to describe it. As you can tell, I love the phone....but what about the bad things? Well, first off the battery life isn't spectactular. There is a REASON for this though. This phone is quite thin for having two 3.0 inch screens, a QWERTY keyboard, and a camera...plus all the other electronics (Bluetooth, cell radio, microprocessor, etc.). As a result it comes with a 950 mAH battery, which is fairly low-capacity. THAT is the reason for the poor battery life. The phone is actualy quite efficient and uses the battery capacity quite well. Plus, I'm sure you can get an extended-life battery if you realy need one. When the Dare came out, it had good battery life...then LG released a software update and it's battery life increased dramaticaly and became amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if something similar happens this time around too. From what I understand, LG has a history of this and did the same thing with the Voyager. But again, just to stress this, the battery life isn't bad...just not amazing. So what else? Okay, well here's my biggest gripe personaly (wimply because of it's shear stupidity)....the Tetris game. Everyone knows what tetris is. You have a vertical box in which shapes drop down and you have to position them and rotate them in such a way that they fit together to complete a row. The game is simple, fun, and addictive. I love Tetris on my Dare, it worked beautifuly. Not so on the enV Touch. So what exactly is wrong with it? Well, the game is oriented in the stupidest way possible....horizontaly....and it doesn't listen to the accelerometer. Basicaly, it wastes a lot of screen real estate and becomes a small box because the box itself is vertical, yet is displayed horizontaly. The closest thing I can think of to describe this is watching 4:3 content on a widescreen....with no enlargement, so that there are black bars on either side. But in the game, it's just blue from the surrounding tetris background. Yes, this is how the game is....and no, believe me, it does NOT listen to the accelerometer. I have complained about this to Verizon and hopefuly their technical guys will fix it soon. But it realy sucks because I love Tetris and it's a perfect game for a cell phone. The third thing that bothers me is the I/M client....specificaly the fact that the thing looks like it was designed for Windows 95. Alas, this I can not realy blame on LG...it's not their doing, it's Verizon's. Still, I wish it wasn't so. Not the phones fault, but still disappointing.

So yeah that's about it. I realy love the phone, definitely recommnd it. I got it for $120...not a bad deal at all. Feel free to ask any questions.

~Seth

4.5 stars

"On the fence on which Verizon phone to get?" on June 20, 2009 by nunleyjjk

Pros: 1. Excellent keyboard phone.
2. Great touch phone. Improved response and feel.
3. Smart easy to use interface.
4. Decent battery life.
5. Threaded text messaging is great!
6. Decent HTML browser.
7. Music

Cons: 1. Slightly chubby.
2. Only 2 themes. They're both great but the ability to incorporate variety over a 2 year contract is a MUST have for a device.
3. Overpriced BREW games vs .99cent Iphone apps Verizon, come on!

Summary: Of all the phones listed in my summary the enV Touch stands just a little taller than even the offered smart phones and is vastly superior to the "dumb phones" in Verizon's current lineup.
This phone is a great mix of the Dare and the older Voyager. It is not as thin as the Dare and lacks the Voyager's ability to view Verizon television but the gains far outweigh the losses.
If you are on the fence with your next upgrade or purchase, take the advice of a certifiable phone junkie and go with the enV Touch. Unless you NEED the smartphone capabilities you will not be disappointed.

Small touches like the proximity sensor, threaded text messaging, great camera and having a physical keyboard may seem like fluff but try going without them in any of Verizon's other phones and you'll be glad you purchased this phone, I know I am.

3.5 stars

"The next logical step in the enV line of phones" on June 20, 2009 by shawnshine

Pros: Touch Screen + physical qwerty keyboard make for a versatile experience for all sorts of situations. Phone layout is intuitive and easy to navigate. Both screens are bright and vibrant. USB cable for charging. 3.2mp camera.

Cons: The phone is considerably narrower than the previous V, enV and enV 2 making it much less comfortable to type on the physical qwerty keyboard. The battery life is much less as well. Can't remove the charger connection cover (permanatly attached).

Summary: I owned the LG V (vx9800) for over 3 years and really loved it. It was very hardy phone enduring all sorts of misery. My hope is that the enV touch will perform just as admirably. Having had the phone now for just over a week, I can say that it is a very nice phone, with very good call quality and many fun and useful features. I found the functionality to be just as good as my previous phone, if not slightly improved. Both screens are bright and vibrant delivering excellent picture quality. The sound quality of the internal stereo speakers is also slightly improved over the previous versions (but only slightly). And the phone still supports all of the apps of the previous generation. But that brings me to probably the biggest beef I have with the phone. And it's really not so much a problem with the phone as it is with the way Verizon is marketing the phone. I've seen half a dozen online banners from Verizon sporting how this phone is supposed to be some "App" powerhouse. Sorry Verizon, I've been a long time customer and love your service, but this "App" store is weak. Apple has thousands of Apps for the IPhone developed both inhouse and by homebrew developers. Verizon's App store for this phone sports the same 12 or so apps that were available with my 3 year old V. Games.......are a different story. Lots and lots of games (Most priced at $3.99 for a per-month subscription or $7.99 outright). But lots of games do not an App store make. I can only hope they plan to add additional apps in the near future. I have two other small gripes, which for me in no way detract from the overall phone quality. The first is that the charging port cover on the bottom of the phone is not removable and is permanently attached. I have always preferred to remove these as they tend to annoy me when I'm trying to quickly plug in for a quick charge. And the second is that because of the new narrower form the phone does not fit in my hands nearly as well when texting as the previous (but much bulkier V and enV). However, it is a worthwhile trade off to have it be as light as it is. I quickly became acclimated to the new layout of the keyboard and I am typing just as quickly as before. I am some what disappointed with the battery life between charges but the new USB data cable / charger is really welcome. For my previous phone, I spent almost Fifty dollars to get an extra wall charging cable and separate data cable (had to buy the expensive VCAST music essentials kit to get it). This is so much more versatile. Plus, this time, I spent less then $10 for an extra cable online so I can have one in my desk drawer at work. I do find though that I have to charge it quite a bit more often than I had expected. The battery is almost dead by the end of the day and goes on the charger each night. This may be an issue for long trips where outlets or USB ports are unavailable. Here again, though, there are car travel adapters for less then $10 available online. Anytime you can pick up essential phone accessories for less than 10 bucks is an occasion to smile. As far as the touch screen, well, it's a touch screen. It's better than some, not quite as good as others. It takes a bit of acclamation, but it is generally responsive and mostly accurate. As well, up to this point the accelerometer has been a very pleasant surprise and is very quick. I will rave a little over the 3.2 megapixal camera. The quality is there and it's what made this phone a dealmaker for me. I'm just thrilled that LG has finally brought a phone with this level of picture quality to market. Add to that the fact you can now use the camera as a full camcorder as opposed to the near useless little 15 second clips of previous generations, really ups the ante. Overall, I am very happy with the call quality, the functionality, appearance and general feel of the phone. It feels like the next logical step in the enV line (or Voyager line, depending on how you look at it). I played with both the Andriod G1 and the BlackBerry Storm and, for me at least, this phone just comes in ahead. It's feature rich and suffers none from it's few shortcomings. Hopefully it will be as faithful for me over the next 3 years as my old LG V has been over the previous 3.

Updated on Jun 20, 2009

Totally forgot to mention 3.5mm Head Phone jack! Thank You LG for getting that right. bummer that I can't use my older expensive proprietary 2.5mm Verizon head phones, but now I have a huge choice of 3rd party head phones to choose from. Choice is good. Thumbs up on that.