LG Shine CU720
Average Ratings
Great at first, soo many issues later
I'm currently employed with AT&T and I was very excited upon the release of the shine late last year and purchased one
PROS:
- Great look: sleek, stylish
- Great Video camera
- Great image editing tools
- Good memory
- Good ring tone volume
- Bright display
- decent Keypad - I did not have a big issue with the keys, almost similar to RAZR, takes a getting used to while texting though
CONS:
- Bad reception: some places it barely makes edge
- Not a great 2MP camera: slightest shake can blur the picture
- Speaker phone is distorted
- Battery life: have to recharge it every night, even though I have days where I barely talk on it + if you use bluetooth, your battery will die less than 10 hours
- Bluetooth: this was a HUGE ISSUE for me, at first, it worked great, after 2 months, the phone's bluetooth WILL NOT PAIR WITH ANYTHING, I've tried different versions of bluetooths and different handsets, also attempted master reset..NOTHING WORKED, I had to send the phone for warranty, you can google this issue, and a lot of people are having it lately
The shine is simply a phone that surpasses its competitors in looks, but when it comes down to the required basics, the phone lacks performance and disappoints, I currently am using a blackberry curve, which gives me everything I need in a phone and more
Restricted!
Wow... and I thought VZW was bad with their firmware!
First let me say the good things about this phone since the list is a lot shorter. Screen. Beautiful, 2.2 inches and just simply gorgeous. build quality. I love the weight, size, and the sturdy feel of the phone. and now on to the cons
Viberate is weak. in my pocket I would often miss text messages (always set to viberate). and there is no reminder like there is on most models. however on a hard surface because the phone is aluminum. it's loud enough to wake you up.
Reception. Hard to say.. I live in an area where pretty much every phone has full 3g service (metro detroit). however at work where my old v9 would have full service the shine would only get about 2 bars.
Call Quality. Nothing to brag about. got pleanty loud enough to hear everything, but almost sounded muffled at full volume.
Battery life. I'd say normal to what im used to, but very buggy. It would be at 3 bars most of the day.. soon as it dropped to 2 bars the battery was almost dead. on 2 bars id make a call... 10 minutes into the call I would get the "low battery" message on the phone.
Text Messaging. This was the deal breaker for me. the phone has a huge 64mb of memory, but ATT only allocates like 1% of that for text messages. with the ATT firmware you can only hold 150 text. (75 sent and 75 received). There is no auto delete feature which makes it more of a pain in the butt. and..... YOU CAN'T LOCK IMPORTANT MESSAGES!. whoever thought that was a good idea should be slapped with a large fish.
Overall I returned the phone for the Samsung a737 (only because it was free and I plan on buying a v8 from ebay). but just from playing with the 737 it seems like most of the things that turned me off with the Shine have been corrected with the a737. however ive only owned it for 2 hours. so i'm not 100%. in no way is the samsung as pretty though.
awesome.
Pros:
- club-ready form factor
- multiple-band + 3G (works in Korea as well!)
- user interface is simple and intuitive
- feature-packed
Cons:
- ringtone volume! i missed a few calls because i couldn't hear it on max. volume.
- menu stays on whatever you had it on last when you close it-- it doesn't go back to the home screen like you would expect it to
currently i'm testing the battery live with Bluetooth on all day. looks like a sturdy, sexy phone. looking forward to checking my teeth after eating in the shiny half-mirror.
AWFUL!
DO NOT buy this phone!! This just once again proves what a crappy brand LG really is. I got this phone a few weeks after it came out and kind of figured it would be returned! AND IT WAS 2X's!
The first one i had worked great for about 20 days, but after that... it would shut on and off on and off for no reason, even if it was just lying on the table not being touched or moved. I took it back they talked me into just getting another... Yea.. right... Had that one for 4 days and day two i took it off the charger about 10 am after charging all night... made three phone calls and two text and got a low battery warnign!! My calls were all less than 10 minutes mind you, so i figured maybe something went wrong with my plug in... checked it when i got home charged until charge complete, made some calls... AND AGAIN!! I had it with that thing and took it back! There were already ALOT of issues that i wasnt feeling with this phone anyway... So now i am in a Samsung SLM and love it! I had a Sync before that and new i should have stayed with trusty Samsung!
Pros
Nice design...color, weight, slider, i mean
Big display...which is very clear
great camera
3G
Cons
VERY POOR battery life
VERY POOR signal
buttons are slow to respond
the toggle is VERY touchy
you cant set your own ringtone for text
gets dirty VERY easliy
no place to touch for slideing it up but the screen!
scratched EASILY
speaker is horrible
speaker phone is even worse! it cuts n and out and noone could understand me!
LG doesnt make a great phone... they never have and never will... Sure there intentions are great but there quality sucks!
LG Shine Looks Great But Not
The Shine looks great, and it has up side, but there are some major problems.
Pros
First off the phone looks GREAT and the menu is very functional with nice icons. The 2 mp camera is also very good, pictures came out very clear and crisp.
Cons
The buttons are VERY small and not responsive. If you like to text you will hate this phone. With the phone I had the 4 and 6 buttons were not responsive and I had to press the buttons multiple times for a response. Also the joy stick is terrible. When trying to move it directionally it is very easy to press down (which is the select button). On top of this the call quality is poor and washed out. While talking on the phone you can hear your voice in the ear piece.
Overall the phone looks good but is not functional. Call quality is poor and texting is terrible...I ended up trading this phone in for a Nokia N75 and love it.
Sleek and beautiful
The shine is a superbe sleek phone with incredible functionality. It's very easy to use, feels right in your hand. It's so slim it fits anywhere.
The reflective mirror finish looks really nice yet the full metal body gives the phone a good feeling of high quality.
The camera is really nice. It takes really good pictures. I like the fact it comes with a flash.
Only thing to say about this phone is the ringtones sound level, I wish I could turn it up a notch higher but it's not a big deal...
In the end, I am 100% satisfied and I totally recommend this phone.
Good phone except Ringtone volume TOO LOW
CONS:
1. ringtone volume is TOO LOW. I had to find the loudest possible ringtones and can't use the ones i made cuz they aren't loud enough on the phone.
2. Bluetooth took some time to pair and successfully send files at first (ok now).
3. ringtones have to be smaller than on other phones (so i had to resize ALL my old ones).
PROS:
1. Can make phone calls and talk/hear clearly even with speaker.
2. Can check my email and facebook very easily
3. The navigation toggle key is nice (once you adjust to its sensitivity).
4. The menu is standard but still nice.
LG 720
I hadn't purchased a phone in years and was still on the Analog system until Dec 2007 when in the mall spotted this LG Shine. The sales folks said latest and greatest. It was beautiful. I love this phone for it's sleekness, styling, cool factor and a very good camera resolution for a cell phone.
The sad experience I've so far had with this phone.
I'm on my third LG Shine. The phone has battery problems. Either poor battery contact or not enough battery power to drive this sophisticated phone. I do not talk on the phone much and find I still have to charge it every 24 hours. As mentioned in another scoop review the Volume is not all that loud. I have experienced poorer service (dropped calls and bad reception) since I went to this phone and the digital network but I'm not sure if that's just my ATT carrier or the phone.
I love this phone but can't live with having to charge it so much. I will probably be looking for a replacement before my 1 year warranty is up.
This Shine makes me shine!
The combination of a super sleek design with a great quality phone make the Shine a winner phone in my opinion.
Pros:
Slider is very smooth and sturdy
Design is so sleek
Full metal body gives this phone a solid high quality designer feel
Camera with flash takes great pictures
2.2â Wide Mirror LCD is unique
MobiTV works great
Cons:
louder ringtones
LG Shine (lu720)
CONS:
My biggest problem with this phone is the weak ringtone volume and weak text alert volume. The vibrate feature is also very average.
PROS:
Good reception.
Good pic quality.
Fits in pocket nicely.
Good picture quality.
Call quality is fine.
Battery life normal but not great (standard battery).
Overall:
I had a hard time getting used to the slider. My 12 yr old son loves the phone. I got rid of the phone and for a flip phone with a louder ring. I just missed too many calls due to the poor ring tone volume. The volume was the main reason I quit using this phone!
