Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Reviews, Features, Originals
I have spent a few weeks trying out the LG Sentio on T-Mobile and it is a pretty solid featurephone even with its limited hardware. It doesn't come with any earth-shattering features, but it does what you would expect from a normal phone - call, text, and limited web options.
What is it?
The LG Sentio features a 3 inch touch screen with a virtual QWERTY keyboard, web access through T-Mobile's web2go browser, 3G connection, slim profile, weighs only 3.26 ounces, 3MP camera, video capture, and can play a variety of audio formats. The LG Sentio comes in a navy blue finish and features T-Mobile's Social Buzz which aggregates social networking feeds. The LG Sentio is currently available with T-Mobile for $69.99 on a new two-year contract.
The Good
The LG Sentio fits comfortably in my hand pocket due to its slim form factor and compact 3 inch touch screen. The phone can be used easily with one hand and it displays weather, calendar, and other apps of your choosing on the home screen. On the bottom of the screen are four different buttons - Dialer, Contacts, web2go, and Menu. The home screen is completely customizable in terms of apps, but the icons on the bottom row are there permanently. There are only three physical buttons - call, back, and end. Unfortunately, T-Mobile doesn't have the best service in my area so web browsing is pretty slow. If you are reading an article or checking on your favorite website, the web2go browser will be able to handle the task, but the web browser is pretty basic since it's a featurephone.
The phone comes with a pair of earbuds specifically designed for the phone and it works well when listening to music. I popped in my microSD card from my other phone and was able to listen to music using the phone's speaker and the earbuds.
In terms of messaging, the phone separates texts based on the contact and it organizes texts within a thread the way an iPhone does. It's easy to switch from T9 to QWERTY just by holding the phone horizontally. For those who prefer virtual keyboards to phyiscal ones, the LG Sentio offers a nice, compact virtual QWERTY keyboard and T9 keypad.
It offers a Social Buzz app which allows you to sign into various social networking accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace. For a basic featurephone, it gets the job done of managing social networking, but I find a smartphone handles this task much more efficiently and effectively.
The camera (3MP) and camcorder both load up fast when touched and there is a switch that you move up or down to switch between camera and camcorder. Lastly, the battery life is impressive and easily gets through the day with the normal amount of calls, texts, and web browsing.
The Bad
It doesn't come with a 3.5 mm headphone jack, so you have to use T-Mobile's native earbuds. The lack of WiFi is disappointing, especially because I don't have strong T-Mobile service in my area and web browsing would have been much better with WiFi. The HTML web browser doesn't load websites as well as I would like, so I wouldn't recommend getting a data plan on this phone - save it for a smartphone.Sometimes I type faster than the keyboard is able to respond so it delays in messaging from time to time. I think the phone is a bit pricey considering its hardware, I’d like to see it available for free on a new family plan or at least under $30 with a two year contract.
The Crux
It’s refreshing to see manufacturers still create featurephones for those who don’t want/need a smartphone. If the price was lowered a little bit, it would be a great phone for anyone who needs a simple, yet capable phone. However, if you don’t mind spending $70 for a quality, low spec’d phone, I would still recommend the LG Sentio on T-Mobile.
Check it out [T-Mobile]
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones
It looks like T-Mobile may launch the BlackBerry Curve 9300 by RIM because the latest leaked image features the BlackBerry device complete with T-Mobile branding. Unfortunately, the RIM smartphone will most likely not feature BlackBerry 6 because it does not contain enough RAM.
Some of the specs for the device include 3G data, GPS, WiFi, 2MP camera, OS 5, 256MB RAM, and a 624MHz processor. If we hear anything official from T-Mobile, we’ll keep you updated.
Via [BBGeeks]
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones
If you’re like me, you probably know CTIA mostly because of the cell phone trade shows the organization put on. Turns out CTIA also does phone certification, and represents phone companies in disputes. The organizations latest move, suing the city of San Francisco, looks to fall into the latter category.
The lawsuit against San Francisco has to do with the city’s “Right to Know” law regarding phone’s SAR ratings. SAR ratings are essentially rating that say how much RF radiation comes out of phones. Turns out, the FCC does SAR testing on every cell phone that comes into the US already. Those that are FCC approved are deemed as safe for use. CTIA is arguing that displaying a SAR rating at the point-of-sale on cell phones would not be fair to manufacturers. All phones are deemed safe already, and saying on “safe” phone if “safer” than another by showing a rating is unfair to those with higher SAR ratings. To make it even better, the FCC doesn’t find any significant health problems or benefits based on the SAR rating within the approved safe limits.
To further protest the law, the CTIA has decided to cancel it’s fall trade show in San Francisco.
Read [Phone Scoop] via [MobileCrunch]
Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones
In an attempt to drag as many smartphones into Apple’s “self-made debacle” as possible, the Cupertino giant recently added the Motorola Droid X to its growing list of imperfect smartphones. Apple uploaded a video to YouTube showing how gripping the Motorola Droid X in a certain manner will cause the device to lose all its signal strength. In the image above you can see a summarized version of the video, but the video can be viewed below if you’d rather see it for yourself.
I haven’t heard a lot of stories about customers complaining about signal reception as much as iPhone 4 users complained about their situation. Perhaps Apple is trying to make something out of nothing, and until a lot of users begin to report signal issues, I’m sure most people will continue to purchase the Droid X.
Read [Apple]
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones
One of the highly anticipated Android devices for the Sprint network, the Samsung Epic 4G, is rumored to launch August 20. Basically, Samsung uploads a promotional video on Samsung's Galaxy S On Demand Live Show for every Galaxy S phone that launches. Samsung launched a video for the Samsung Vibrant on July 21 (because that was the official launch date before moving up) and for the Samsung Captivate on July 19 (the first business day after its Sunday launch). Therefore, we have good reason to believe the video debut for the Epic 4G will, in fact, be its actual launch date. So far, Samsung plans to air the Epic 4G video on August 20, implying the smartphone has a strong chance of launching on that Friday.
In addition, Samsung has tweeted a message saying the device is arriving in a few weeks. The tweet can be seen below, but here is what the text states:
@mitchgray try seeing comparisons. http://ow.ly/2fOfg also keep in mind the Sprint Epic 4G is arriving in a few weeks. It’s the 4G #GalaxyS
While the tweet alone doesn’t confirm much, we have another Samsung tweet calling for a summer release. August 20 is towards the end of summer by American standards, so if history repeats itself, Android enthusiasts should plan on the Epic 4G arriving on August 20.
Read [Samsung]
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
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