LG enV2 (VX-9100)
Phone Scoop Review
May 2, 2008 by Eric M. Zeman
Successor to the popular enV, the enV2 pares down on the size and makes improvements on the hardware. The only thing preventing it from being a superb phone is the software. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
I love this phone!
I have had this phone for a little over a week now, and I love it. Its got everything on a phone that you could possibly want. Once I got it in my hand, it was so easy to figure out, that I was using it by the time I got to my truck! I dont have any complaints about the phone. Everything is awsome! Thanks LG you did it again!
good phone
I've just gotten this phone a couple days ago and being new to verizon and the lg product I'll have to say I'm very impressed with this phone. I needed a phone that had a nice qwerty keyboard layout, and my previous phone carrier did not offer this type of phone without it being a PDA, which I have not a whole lotta use for. But this LG Env2 fits the bill perfectly. It is great for texting, making calls, and checking my emails if and when I choose without having to have the big data plan as such with a PDA. As I said earlier, I've only had this phone for a few days.. tomorrow will be a week exactly and I've only had to charge the battery once, and that was the day after I got it, and it has not died yet... so very good battery. My suggestion to people is not to charge the battery every night, wait on it to go completely out, then give it a full charge. The size of this phone is perfect to, its not big and bulky as alot of the other phones I've seen. I've given this phone a 5 star rating because I've yet to find any fault with this phone. If your looking for a nice texting phone, you can't go wrong with this one.
PRO's: texting, easy to use, no need for big data plan, nice speakerphone, size of phone
CON's: none as of yet
Almost Perfect
Being that I work for VZW I got this phone when it first came out early summer 2008 and I have to say that over all I was very pleased with the phone. It is very easy to use and full of really great features. There are a couple things that you should know about the phone though.
(1) If you do a lot of multimedia on the device. . .carry a charger with you at ALL times! My battery would never last more than a day at a time!
(2) The front screen does almost nothing! It is used for just reading messages or making calls. (The music button on the front made no sense!)
Those are my main deals with the phone. So other than that I think it was a great phone that shows LG's ingenuity with making modern phones. Some of the things I liked about it are. . .
(1) Wonderful camera and LOTS of internal memory! (One thing thou when taking pictures your finger blocks the camera lens!) But when I went on Vacation the day after getting it I forgot my camera at home and I only used it the whole time and it worked out great!
(2) The phone isn't HUGE but the keyboard on it was more than big enough for any size hand! Not to big, not to small!
(3) Music player works REALLY well on it!
(4) I know VZW always says that phones have same signal strength but I don't believe it and with device I had AWSOME signal the whole time I was traveling. (From ND to S. California)
Overall I would of given this phone a five out of five if not for those few things with it but the phone is great I would recommend it to anyone who wants a regular cell phone but with a Qwerty keyboard and lots of multimedia and doesn't want or need the capabilities of a Blackberry!
Calls harder than texting or surfing?
The LG enV2 is pretty good unless you make phone calls. Then you have to cope with a weird keyless keypad made of smooth strips of flexible plastic, sensitive in different widths (the "2" is the narrowest) which you have to look at and use carefully with the tips of your fingernails (as a rep showed me), and with squinty, smaller fonts than necessary on the little 1.4" external screen, and a contact list that won't accept a note or memo or even a postal address for each entry to remind you why that unfamiliar contact is in there.
(I'm surprised that Consumer Reports gave this phone higher marks for ease of use than they did the original enV.)
Open it, though, and you'd think it's a different phone: There's a roomy keyboard (with flat keys, though), and a large screen, to say nothing of easily-read menus or contacts, in a good-sized font. Another rep said his wife uses the phone open until her call is ringing, when she closes the phone and puts it to her ear. Sorry, I think machines should conform to us, not us to them. Nice realistic listening quality, though.
After a couple of weeks, I was glad to revert to my old Kyocera KX444S, with legible fonts even on its small 1.3" screen, bulging keys I can feel and easily use accurately, and a flexible, accomodating contact list, even with less realistic sound quality and no Internet at all. (On the go, that's only two percent of my phone use anyway.)
Pleased with it.
I am very pleased with this phone. Call quality was a little quiet in loud areas and the speakerphone wasn't that loud, but it's a beautiful phone to text on. I got a lot of dropped calls but I'm sure that's either Verizon or the area I used to live in.
Picture quality for the 2.0 MP camera was pretty good! I was impressed. Bad in a dimly lit room, though. Video quality wasn't too bad either.
The front screen is tiny! You can't read long texts from the front screen and everyone complains that it looks like a calculator. Haha. It's true!
Construction is sturdy. The flip open part didn't feel flimsy or anything. Buttons were sturdy. The phone size wasn't too big or too small. Perfect!
I would have stuck with this phone longer but I switched to T-mobile so my brother owns it now. :)
I recommend it to anyone who loves to text. And no, the keys aren't too small to text on. I could text very fast on it.
enVious
Had the phone for just a couple days now, here are some thoughts.
Pros:
-Fantastic keyboard
-Inside screen is bright, good color
-Verizon UI works better here than most phones (still worst out there)
-Lots of easy access volume/vibrate options
-Camera takes great low-light pictures for no flash
-Battery Life
-Large numeric keypad on the front makes the phone usable (see Palms, Blackberries)
-Plenty of customizable shortcut menus
-Best speakers on a phone I've seen
Cons:
-Camera lens position is good for closed mode, bad for open mode
-Why does LG feel the need to "improve" on the mini-USB shape everyone else uses?
-2.5mm jack??? Whoever invented those never used one
-Poor suite of applications & games
Contrary to popular opinion, the spacebar(s) are actually in a great location. Imagine the same keypad with another row for a central spacebar, and all of a sudden the keys are too small to hit one at a time. The "send" and "end" should light up green and red, and the keypad should stay lit during a conversation. The front screen is small, but it works for all the major "phone" parts of the phone. Voice clarity is very good, no complaints from the other end. The phone lock should stay off when an application is in use. Service seems better than average.
My first non-Motorola in about 6 years, and I'm very happy I made the switch.
NO NO NO
Yes, its better than the enV. But in only a few ways. The camera is better, and the inside display. But that's about all. The problems that I had with the enV2, is it kept freezing-all the time too. So I got it May 28- as soon as I could when it came out. I was in love with it for about a month, then it started messing up severely. It would freeze when I was texting. So I overlooked it for a little while. Come July, it was doing it even more. So I got a replacement. Well with me having the maroon one, I couldn't just go to the local store and trade it in for another one, because they only had black. So I had to wait for a reimbursed one from UPS. It got here in a day. Pretty good, right? Well about 2 weeks later, it started freezing again. So I once more, got a new one. That's two since May. Then I got another one. When I got that one, it worked for about.. 5 days. It was worse than the other 2. When I would talk on the phone, it would freeze and disconnect me from my call. It used to only freeze when I was texting, and I didn't text or talk while it was on the charger. I had all my pictures on a memory card, and I didn't have any ringtones. It was a horrible phone, but a good network. I then went to the Alias, and I love it!
A+ Phone!
Ive owned this phone for over a month now, and it's by far one of the greatest phones I have ever had! I don't use my phone for music, as I own an ipod for that, so I can't really be a critic on that aspect. However;
Pros-
*Amazing Camera
*Very clear screen (internal)
*Audible ringtones
*Great reception
*Battery life
*Easy to navigate the menu
Cons-
*Can't do much with the external functions
*Stupid Graphics
*Can't use self recorded material as ringtones
Otherwise, it really is an amazing phone. I love my Env2!
HORRIBLE PHONE!!!
I bought this phone because i needed a new one and i had the old envy well come to find out it sucks. I have has 3 replacement phones and none of them work. The software on this phone is horrible. I went to the store today to find out what is wrong with my phone (for the 4th time, on the 4th replacement phone) and they said that the software in my ENV2 is made for a blackberry. Someone was clearly on something when they put these phones together.
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Pros:
Has a lot of features if the software and the phone would both work properly.
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Cons:
Battery life is horrible i charge it for an hour and it dies in about 3 hours.
Software is horrible
Always going into roaming mode
Always in data mode
Keys get stuck
Cant do anything from the front screen but text
Vibrate doesn't always work
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I would honestly not buy this phone there are just toooooooooooo many problems with the ENV2.
Great phone!
I've had this phone for 5 months, and i absolutely love it! It takes a little while to get fast at texting on the keyboard but other then that it's great!
Pros-
-Good camera
-Sound is good, on ear piece and speaker phone
-Small and light
-Easy to use
-Good battery life
-Holds a lot of pictures
-Inbox holds about 300 texts
Cons-
-Flash isn't very good on camera
-Can't zoom in on camera
-External screen is very small
Overall I love this phone, and I haven't had any problems with it. I would suggest this phone to people who text a lot or use their e-mail.
