LG Wave review (AX380, Alltel)

Features
The LG Wave has a number of features that would please anyone looking for a midrange phone. The address book holds about 5,000 contacts with room in each entry for five phone numbers, a couple of e-mail addresses, and a memo. They can also be categorized into groups, paired with a photo for caller ID, or one of 36 polyphonic ringtones. Other basics include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, a speakerphone, a memo pad, an alarm clock, a tip calculator, a notepad, a calculator, a stopwatch, a world clock, and a unit converter. For those who want a little more out of their phone, the LG Wave also has stereo Bluetooth, a voice recorder, voice command, PC syncing, USB mass storage, a wireless Web browser, and EV-DO support. The LG Wave also has built-in GPS for location access support.

As a multimedia phone, the Wave comes with both a 1.3-megapixel camera and a fairly basic digital music player. The camera is able to take pictures in five resolutions (1,280x960, 640x480, 320x240, 176x144, and 160x120) and three quality settings, with a slew of other settings that include 10x zoom, brightness, night mode, a self-timer, white balance, color effects, different shutter sounds (with a silent option), and multishot mode. Picture quality was decent, but with a slight overcast look and an orange tinge, so it wasn't too impressive. There's also a built-in camcorder with two different resolutions (176x144 and 128x96), plus brightness settings, white balance settings, up to 10x zoom, and two recording times (15 seconds for multimedia messages and 1 hour for regular recordings). Video quality was rather shaky and pixelated, with blurry images, but that's to be expected for a camera phone. Thankfully, there's a microSD card slot for additional storage.

The built-in music player is fairly basic, with a generic interface that displays the typical music controls plus an option for playlist creation. There's a music library, where songs are immediately organized by artist, genre, album, and recently played. We did like that it has a customizable equalizer with 6 preset equalizer modes. You can transfer music onto the phone via a microSD card. Other multimedia features include Alltel's Axcess TV and support for XM Satellite Radio.

Personalization options include a variety of wallpapers, screensavers, and the customization of the home screen with calendars and clocks. You can also download more graphics, alert tones, and sounds via Alltel's web browser.

Performance
We tested the dual-band (CDMA 800/1900; EV-DO) LG Wave in San Francisco using Alltel's service. Though call quality was pretty good, callers could still hear slight background noises, and reported that our voices sounded a little tinny. Speakerphone volume level was fine, though there was still an audible metallic echo effect. That said, we could still hear each other clearly. We paired the LG Wave with the Plantronics Voyager 520 without any problems.

The LG Wave has a rated battery life of 3 hours of talk time, which seems rather low. However, our tests did reveal a talk time of 4 hours. It has a rated standby time of 8 days. According to FCC radiation tests, the LG Wave has a maximum digital SAR rating of 1.08 watts per kilogram.