LG EnV3 user reviews (slate blue, Verizon Wireless)

Pros Very attractive design. Fits nicely in the hand. Dual texting options (numeric or QWERTY). Loaded with features.

Cons T9 doesn't store custom words. Outside screen is rather small with very limited menu options and it has low resolution. Vibration is kind of weak. I wish it came in black (but the blue is very nice). Charging cable is too short.

Summary I originally wrote a much longer review for this phone, but it exceeded CNET's character limit, so here is my slimmed-down review.


OUTSIDE

The outside keypad: I read a lot of other reviews about this phone concerning the T9 function. They said that the T9 wouldn't "remember" their custom words. Unfortunately, this is true. At first, the T9 remembered every one of my custom words. But it seems that after I turned the phone off and back on, that custom memory was cleared. This was HIGHLY disappointing for me. But they did add a text-to-speech option for the text messages.

The outside screen: When tilting the phone towards you, the screen becomes too dark, when tilting away from you, it becomes too bright, so you have to be looking straight at it to view the screen properly. For some reason, you cannot view the pictures that came with the phone FULLY from the outside screen (but you can with your own pictures). You may view portions of the factory-shipped pictures, but not the whole thing so if you set one of them as your background, you won't see the entire picture. This isn't an issue with pictures that YOU put on the phone, personally. It'll show your personal pictures in their entirety but they will most likely have black empty space on both sides (depending on the shape of your pictures). When viewing the picture menu, it shows three at a time. And I like the way they designed them to move. In menu mode, when you click left or right, it shows the effect of swiping, and when you HOLD left or right, it speeds through your pictures. In single photo mode, when you click left or right, it does the swiping effect to the next picture (if you click in quick succession, the swiping effect stops and it just shows you the next picture), and if you HOLD left or right, a film strip comes up showing three at a time, and whatever picture you stop on in that scrolling, that's the one that will become full screen without you having to press OK.

The outside menu options: You have to press OK once to unlock the menu (this can be changed to click twice if you prefer). The keyguard timer can be set to Always Off, 7 Seconds, 15 Seconds, or 30 Seconds. When unlocked, your menu options are Key Guard, Contacts, Messaging, Recent Calls, My Pictures, My Music, and Bluetooth. Messaging can only be text and you can only put one recipient so if you want to send something other than text, or to multiple recipients at once (or both), the phone needs to be opened. As for the shortcut keys on the front, left is for pictures, up is for music, right is for bluetooth, and down is for messaging (this cannot be changed). The clear button serves as a voice command button, and when held, it shortcuts to the voice recorder.

The outside buttons: On the left you have the dedicated camera key right above the master volume controls (up and down). On the right side, there are no buttons, there are only ports for the 2.5mm headphone jack (above), and the micro SD card slot (below). There's nothing on the top of the phone. The bottom is where the charger goes. I was a bit disappointed when I found that it wasn't using mini USB, but something similar to it. Well at least the charger doubles as a USB connector so I guess that really doesn't matter.

The charger/USB connector: Instead of two separate wires, the USB-end of the wire plugs into the adapter, and the other end into your phone. When I plugged this into my computer, it said it couldn't intall so I can't tell you anything about that (because it didn't work). And the phone didn't come with a disk so I don't know what they want me to do. My computer is running on Windows XP, but I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

The overall feel of the phone is nice, but it kind of feels like there's something missing on the left side, only because the camera and volume keys are recessed into the side of the phone so it feels incomplete. I think I know why they did it though. It might be because these buttons might get in the way of the screen being opened, but when I look closely at it, it doesn't seem like it would. So I guess I wish they would've just made them normally, instead of recessed into the side, but maybe I'm just being picky.


INSIDE

The inside screen: It can be tilted open to 135 degrees, or 180 degrees. Unlike the front screen, there's none of that too-bright/ too-dark positioning that you have to go through. I also love the auto-brightness feature which changes according to your surrounding light conditions. So if you wake up to a new message at night, the light is dim for you. Conversely, if your outside on a bright sunny day, this phone will adjust to it and you'll still be able to see everything on your screen. And, if you prefer, this feature can be turned off and you can set whatever level you like best to be there all the time.

This is where I run out of room for the review, sorry.

Updated on Jun 14, 2009

I couldn't fit this in with my submitted review, so I'm posting it as an update.

The inside keyboard: I like to use proper English when texting people (instead of the abbreviated texting language), so punctuation symbols mean a lot to me. I noticed myself hitting the shift key a lot when trying to get to a symbol because I'm so used to a normal keyboard that I keep forgetting to use the symbol key. This isn't really a problem but I thought it was worth mentioning. Something they could fix is to capitalize the first letter of a new message (so I wouldn't have to press shift each time). They added copy and paste, which is a great time saver -- especially for contact entries. The spacebar behaves like the clear key on the front of the phone (press for voice command, hold for voice memo). The favorites key is pretty cool. You can store up to ten favorite contacts. There are two rubber stoppers at the bottom of the keyboard to prevent the buttons from ever touching the screen.

Pros * Very attractive design
* Awesome for texting and messaging!
* Great call quality
* Speakers have great sound.
* Setting up Blue tooth is a snap.
* Plenty of options when phone is closed.
* Camera takes decent pictures.

Cons I found nothing wrong with the phone.

Summary This is a very nifty phone. It is very stylish and it's lightweight. It's a great multimedia phone - does plenty of awesome things and if you have the features available on your plan, you have access to a lot of web-based content including facebook, myspace, etc.

The call quality is great. It doesn't sound "tinny" or "hollow" like some phones. I have never had a problem with dropped calls in the past (Thanks to the Verizon network), and have yet to have a problem with this phone.

The speakers have really great sound! When you play music from the music player, it's crisp, clear, and very decent quality. Pair it up with a 2.5 mm headset and you have a really nice MP3 player. (Just buy a microSD card to hold your music files.)

Setting up the blue tooth was a snap! I put my device in discover mode, followed the on-screen phone instructions, and it "discovered" m y device in seconds. The voice controls are great too - awesome for hands free calling.

I love that you still have a lot of options available when phone is closed (My Pictures, My Music, Bluetooth, Key Guard, Contacts, Messaging, Recent Calls). Those giving the phone a negative rating due to lack of features from the outside just can't be pleased. This is a multimedia phone, and to access all available features, you must OPEN the phone.

Beyond some of the ratings, the camera actually takes pretty decent photos. A lot of people said that the quality is blurry and grainy. If you upload them to your PC, you have a pretty decent 3 megapixel photo. If you want better quality, buy a digital camera.

Bottom line? You're really going to like this phone. My husband and I both got it and have no complaints.

Pros Sorta of a candy bar which is great. I can answer phone without opening it since I have been waiting for a basic candy bar phone & wanting to go w blackberry and pay $30 more a mth for data plan.
Loud ringer. You can set more than 3 alarm.

Cons Have to open the phone to do most stuff. Was hoping that being a some what of a candy bar, I could avoid having to open the phone as much.

Very very weak vibrate.

Summary Not sure if it is just my phone. The volume goes up and down without me adjusting it. Some time even when it set to lowest it can all of a sudden get so loud it heard my ear. Also, when I am on the phone, I heard a click which sounded like the other person have hang up or like I are using a walkie talkie. I have to keep asking the other party to see if they are still on.

You can add a new number/contact without opening the phone but you can't erase it or edit it.

Speaker phone sounded clear and loud with no feedback indoor. Bit soft on a noisy street.

Stayed with LG cause they have one of the best in terms of audio for phone conversation. it's always loud enough or with this one, too loud. Previous LG 8100, 8300, 8350, 5300 models, I can hear the other caller even if I am in a loud environment like a bar or club.

I was hoping that if I don't have to open the phone as much as my other LG 8350 & 5300 the hinges won't break that quickly. Both my LG 8350 & 8360 hinges broke. Wish I could prgram the front direction keys to do what i needed most and it would have been great.

Would have went with the glance since it is so thin and no flip or slide meaning less breakable parts. Ended up with this when i try it out at the store cause the felt more comfortable with the front directional keys on env3 than glance and the ringer on this phone is loud enough. Glance have a weak ringer.
Both phone are very very week when it comes to vibrate.

Directional keys in the front are set and can't be changed. Eg. Would be great if I can set my alarms without having to open the phone.

Can only use speaker phone with the phone open.

You can turn on the camera from with the phone close but aside from a zoom, anything else have to be set with opening the phone. Have to hold the phone in a very odd position to take pictures when the phone is open so that my finger won't block the lense.

Pros Except for the major problem of shutting down spontaneously all the time, it's not a bad phone.

Cons Terrible. We have two of these phones and they both shot off spontaneously at random times. Verizon is sending me two replacements, but I doubt they will be any better.