LG CG225 review (AT&T)

The CG300's camera is fully equipped with a flash and a self-portrait mirror.

While the LG CG300 comes equipped with a disappointing VGA camera, it was a nice change from the previous Cingular PTT phones that ditched cameras completely. You can take photos in 640x480, 320x240, and 160x120 resolutions. Other camera options include a brightness setting; Auto, Daylight, Incandescent, Cloudy, and Fluorescent white-balance options; three color effects (Color, Sepia, Mono); a 5- and 10-second self-timer; a multishot feature of up to 3 shots; and three different shutter sounds (there's also a silent option). The camera's flash is simply a bright flashlight that you can turn or off. Photos were predictably washed out and grainy but fairly standard for those of a VGA camera. The CG300 comes with 7.9MB of built-in memory, which is fine for a few snapshots, but you might quickly fill it up if you have a camera trigger finger.

The CG300's image quality was typical of VGA cameras.

You can personalize the LG CG300 with a variety of wallpaper and graphics, with the option to download more from Cingular. There are also multiple key tones, as well as ring and message-alert sounds. You can choose how you wish to answer calls by flipping open the phone, pressing any key, or pressing the Send/Talk key only. As for Java (J2ME) games, you get a demo version of Tetris and BlockBreaker.

We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; GPRS) LG CG300 world phone in San Francisco using Cingular's service. While there was some minor static and interference typical of a cell phone call, callers could hear us loud and clear and vice versa. The speakerphone had similarly good audio quality, with almost no difference when compared to the speakerphone from a landline phone. The GPRS Media Net Web browser was predictably poky, taking a long time to connect and disconnect in between sessions.

The LG CG300 has a rated talk time of 3 hours, with an exceptional tested time of 4.5 hours. The rated standby time is 10 days, but we got only 6 days in our tests. According to FCC radiation tests, the LG CG300 has a digital SAR rating of 1.04 watts per kilogram.

While the LG CG300 may have a mediocre design and a low-resolution display, it does have great audio quality; plus, it's a quad-band world phone. Sure, the VGA camera may be a turnoff to some, but it's the only Cingular PTT phone with a camera, making it slightly better than the other two. Overall, the LG CG300 makes for a decent cell phone if you are into push-to-talk technology, want a simple camera for quick snapshots, and need a world phone to use abroad.