LG Rumor2 (black, Sprint)

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LG Rumor2

Though a flood of messaging phones hit the market in the latter half of 2008, the trend really began a year earlier with Sprint's original LG Rumor. The handset offered a lot to like, including a roomy keyboard and respectable features, and while it wasn't the first messaging-focused handset with a full QWERTY keyboard, the presence of one did much to kick the phone into high gear.

Now, a year and half since the original Rumor's debut, Sprint and LG offer the Rumor2. Like its predecessor, it remains an accessible and easy-to-use phone; the keyboard is equally spacious, the messaging app is intuitive and the call quality was unchanged. Yet, we were disappointed that LG didn't take this opportunity to expand the phone's feature set. It's not an EV-DO device, and the camera resolution remains a low-res 1.3 megapixels. Indeed, the only new feature is access to some Outlook and Lotus Notes corporate e-mail. While that's a noteworthy addition, it makes the Rumor2 definitely new, but only partially improved. You can get it for just $49.99 with service and a mail-in rebate.

Design
The Rumor2's design is based on its predecessor, and when placed side-by-side, the two phones resemble one another. Both have an elongated candy bar shape with the smooth lines and rounded corners. And of course, the front face slides to the left to expose the full keyboard. But even as it shows many similarities, the Rumor2 also shows a few differences from the original Rumor. It's available in only one color (basic black), and its skin is a little glossier. It also has a more vivid display and is slightly bigger (4.4 inches tall by 2.1 inches wide by 0.7 inch deep) and heavier (4.2 ounces).

As we mentioned, the Rumor2's display is improved from the first incarnation of the handset. Though it also supports 262,144 colors, it has more pixels (240 x 320 pixels) for a higher resolution. Colors are bright and vibrant, graphics are sharp, and the simple menus are easy to navigate. You can change the font size and the backlighting time. The display also shows photo caller ID.

The navigation array is slightly redesigned, but not for the better. Instead of the circular toggle that's on the Rumor, the Rumor2 has a square toggle that feels slick and more cramped. The same is true for the surround controls, which include two soft keys, a dedicated speakerphone control, a back button, and the Talk and End/power controls. On the upside, the buttons and toggle are raised above the surface of the phone, but we liked the Rumor's controls better.

The numeric keypad buttons are slick as well, but we could dial quickly without any issues. Texting wasn't a problem, either, though we have no reason to text on the nine-digit keypad when the phone has a QWERTY keyboard. The keys are raised, and they have backlighting for dialing in the dark.

The Rumor2 has a roomy, spacious keyboard.

The slider mechanism is well-constructed--it's sturdy without being too stiff. Like on the Rumor, two keys next to the display serve as soft keys when the phone is open. The keyboard has four rows of keys instead of three, but it manages to be just as roomy as on the Rumor. We could text quickly with the tactile keys. With the extra row you get dedicated number keys--a nice touch--and a dedicated smiley key. Other additions include arrow keys for moving through the menus and a single key for periods and question marks. The shift, function, back and enter keys remain, and the space bar is well-positioned in the center of the bottom row. The only thing you lose is the symbol key, but it's not needed, since symbols are now surfaced on the alphabetic keys.

The remaining controls are a volume rocker and a camera shutter on the left spine and a microSD card slot and a headset jack on the right spine. The latter is 2.5mm, which is disappointing on a phone with a music player. On the bottom you'll find the mini-USB port, which is used for both data transfer and the charger.

Features
The Rumor2's phone book holds 600 contacts, with room in each entry for six phone numbers, an e-mail address, an instant-message handle, a URL, and notes. You can also choose to hide the contacts with a pass code. The Rumor2 supports caller groups and photo caller ID. You also can pair contacts with one of 33 polyphonic ringtones.

Basic features include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calendar, a calculator, a voice recorder, voice dialing, wireless phone book backup, a unit converter, and a notepad. You'll also find PC syncing, USB mass storage, a memory card manager, GPS with support for Sprint Navigation, Sprint's Family Locater service, stereo Bluetooth, and instant messaging.

With the e-mail app you can access many POP3 accounts including AOL, AIM, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail. Once you've activated an account, your messages download directly to the phone--you don't have to go through a clunky Web browser interface to access your messages. Sprint PCS Mail access does require the Web browser, but it was the exception.

Syncing on a Yahoo account wasn't always automatic. Sent messages didn't show up in the in-box until we refreshed, and when we deleted a message from our account on a PC, we had to refresh the phone to see the message disappear from the Rumor's in-box. The reverse was also true: when we deleted a message on the phone, it didn't drop instantly from our PC inbox. On the other hand, when we sent a message on the phone, it did appear in our PC's "sent" folder right away. You can read but not edit attachments.