LG CU500
Average Ratings
Pretty good phone.
I just got this phone, coming from a Sony Ericsson W600i. compared to the SE, its pretty nice. The phone looks really cool, on the outside you have a really nice color display and music buttons. Once opened, the phone is a bit large, and the key bad looks a bit odd, nothing ugly though. The swivel camera is a nice touch, to get good pictures I suggest being outside, or in a very well lit room. not having a flash for the camera isn't that big of a deal, I don't think flash on a camera phone makes that big of a difference. The phone is very light, I have had people ask me if it was a razr, its just as thin.
Pros:
nice design, very thin and light.
both screes are big and bright
swivel camera is really cool
all my calls so far have been loud and clear
volume is very loud for ringers
menu is set up well
cingular video and radio, 3g services
good choice of ring-tones
good voice recording quality can be used as ring-tone also
Cons:
phone is awkward to hold
doesn't come with usb cable, memory card or stereo ear buds
screen is only 65,536 colors
camera isn't good in low light
theres only 5 wallpapers, all have cingular logos
my biggest gripe with this phone was the lack of accessories, nothing included to transfer music.
for 150 $ on a 2yr contract for a 3g phone,...its the best LG I have ever seen.
Its the little things...
I have owned this phone going on three weeks now and if it weren't for the little glitches I would love this phone!
I'll list Pro's first
-Awsome speed for both tethering via bluetooth AND sending messages
-Nice screen size and clarity for both inner and outer screens
-keys are separated (can be a con too)
-Media buttons on the outside face
-swivel camera, very handy!
-Excellent menu structure, I love the options button that is customizable.
-Standard headset jack for those who don't want to use bluetooth all the time
-Excellent speaker phone
-Excellent reception in rural areas!
Now the Con's
-Call quality could be better, speaker sounds crackly
-Buttons do not always register when pushed (this is especially annoying when texting!)
-During a text message using T9 you can use the next button to select a correct word, hit send and when you re read what actually got sent, the phone had changed the word to a previous word. VERY CONFUSING!
-Keys are too flat to the phone kinda hard to differentiate between them when texting by feel
-NO AUTO DELETE option for inbox of text messages! Inbox just starts rejecting messages when full with no real warning.
-Warning messages such as message failed or inbox full stay on screen for like 2 seconds not long enough to actually read and decipher the problem.
Over all I love the speed and things with this phone but the glitches with the text meassaging and the lack of warnings being at least readable are just clinchers. I thought I could deal with it and just muddle through but I just text too much for this handset to work for me with these glitches. This phone will be exchanged as soon as possible.
Too bad cuz LG has hit a homer with the speed thing on this phone!
This thing does Everything!
I got this phone around 6 months ago. I chose it over all the phones in my Cingular Store.
Pros:
Really Good Camera.
Super Fast Internet speeds.
Can use as modem for laptop.
10.0 on the coolness scale.
mp3 Player is great.
Holds up to 1gb! External micro sd mem.
Cons:
You can only play mp3's in the external display.
Charging port cover was always coming off and eventually broke recently.
That's pretty much all.
just got it, and love it
well, i just got this phone dec 31st, and to tell you the truth, i love this thing. for those of you who are complaining about voice dialing... why? you would like to use that to talk while driving, yes? you shouldn't really talk on the phone and drive anyways, it's dangerous for you and other motorists.
PRO's
-better signal than with my other phone (House is a black hole for that)
-pictures are wonderful quality
-LOVE the swivel camera. very useful
-nice and thin, not bulky and bulgy like old cell phone
-both inner and outer displays are both large and bright and excellent quality
-i really like how the things are organized
-haven't listened to music (YET) but i like the fact that the buttons for that are also on the outside of the phone.
-i like that when you send a text, it will be sending it while you can still multitask on your phone, and then when it's sent, it will tell you. no more sitting there with the phone open wasting precious time waiting for your message to send.
-i like the fact that you can assign buttons right off the beginning under options.
CONs
-the whole, transferring stuff to my computer is a little sketchy, but i think i've got that figured out
-protective flap over port to charge and such seems a bit flimsy. why have it there? but it makes it look nicer i suppose
-the ringers are a little.... yuck, but you can record voice and noises and set that as your ringtone. and if you dont like the ringtones the phone has, then download some.
i love this phone. i haven't dropped it yet, but when i do (which it happens... we're human) i'll see what it can stand up to. it looks much like the RAZR, but i believe it's most likely a better phone, because i think it would be able to stand up to a lot more. i've heard bad things about the razrs, about them breaking and such.
over all i give this phone a 5 out of 5 because the good strongly outweighs the bad. get the phone. you'll be happy.
Nice looks, poor performance and features
This phone looks and feels fantastic, however it's feature set and performance are sub-par by today's standards.
I had no issues moving between 3G and GSM/GPRS areas while on the phone, I didn't drop any calls.
I am ultimately returning the phone due to unexpectedly spotty Cingular coverage at home.
PROs:
- Great Looks!
- Front/Side/Keypad buttons work well, just the right feel & firmness
- Screen is large & bright, fonts are easy to read & crisp
- Loud ear piece, very easy to hear
- Fast Camera, the rotating lens is great as are the advanced controls and ability to vertically "flip" the image
- Excellent PC Sync software, I was able to import contacts from a CSV and sync via Bluetooth in no time
- Excellent UI, coming from Motorola phones I found this to very intuitive and have had no trouble using it
CONs:
- Spotty reception, side by side w/ 2 other cingular phones this had the worst reception indicator
- Headset and Charger ports are covered by flimsy plastic doors
- NO VOICE DIALING! If you currently use it, you will sorely miss it with this phone
- Inablity to queue multiple MMS', you have to wait for each one to complete before sending the next
- Spotty ability to send MMS', often I would get "random" and non-descript error messages when trying to send MMS', even in high-reception areas
- Default ring tones are limited, having at least 4-5 "bell" type ring tones should be given these days, this has 1, and it stinks
- Battery Life is subpar, sending 4 pictures and talking for 20 minutes will knock off one bar
Great phone, but . . .
I have been using this phone for a month, since it first came out. I think this is a great phone, it does everything I expected except I cannot find a program to synchronize my PC calendar with the phone. I would like to hear from anyone who has calendar program that works.
Pros - nice look, calls are very clear, screen is large enough to see everything well. Music is easy to load and play.
Cons - no calendar synchronization (yet), requires special USB cable.
Sleek & Solid - LG stands for Life's Good!
Just purchased the phone at the cingular store $149.99 minus $50 mail-in.
Best phone for Cingular....hands down.
- Disagree with others on internet posts about hinge. The phone is solid. The hinge gives a little so the phone goes 180 degrees. Don't worry, it won't break!
- My last phone was SE 520Z. It was plagued with software lock-up, dropped calls, flimsy plastic, no red button to end calls, etc. Sony-designed planned obsolecense.
- The LG CU500 is rock solid, industrial design, bright reflective screen, great intuitive & fast UI, tactical buttons, loud earpiece and speakerphone, pairs up with my plantronics 320 explorer with clarity and loudness w/very little crackling, fast internet tethered to bluetooth laptop, clear voicecalls on the other end.
LIFE IS GOOD with LG CU500.
The Only Relevant Review...
This phone is AS ADVERTISED. The Data speeds on this phone are breath taking. Even on EDGE this phone is still excellent. Reception and call quality on the 3G network is good, however the in-ability to go from 2G to 3G during a voice call can be a little annoying, basically the call drops.
The MobiTV, MobiRadio & Cingular Video on this phone is amazing. The LG rep in my market even said it himself "...Vcast has nothing on this." MobiTV looks like you are watching it in your living room.
The secondary function of the phone (mp3 player) is alot better than even I could have hoped for. The sound quality of the speaker is very, very good. You can control the music without opening the phone, and despite the absence of an external speaker the music sounds just as clear and loud closed as it does open.
Bluetooth works as expected, to swap files and use BT headsets.
The phone is a little bigger than I had expected, and it's a little ugly. But I'm more into substance than style so It doesn't bother me.
Battery life if fair. With any 3G phone the battery is going to be a little suspect but over the past few days I haven't been able to kill it in one day no matter how hard I try.
Overall, this phone is definitely a step up from the CU320, and I was a huge fan the CU320. I'm really becoming a fan of LG, slowly but surely I'm becoming a believer.
Great Media Device... Very Poor Phone
Review of two LG CU500's on the Cingular 3G network in Phoenix, Arizona
Pro's
- Fast Internet. 3G is amazing if you have it in your city.
- Stylish. I liked the phone's style. My fiance' thought it was bulky compared to the Razr.
- Bright internal and external screens. Great color depth.
- Buttons were easy to push and overall build quality was top notch.
This is a great media device but unfortunately I believe it fails at its primary purpose.
Cons
- Poor battery life. Simple tinkering drained this thing in less than a day.
- Ascending ring tones. If you hear your phone ringing from the other room, it is already to late. Be prepared to spend all of your minutes on voice mail.
- Reception is average. But this phone takes too long to switch from 3G to Edge or GPRS. In some cases I could not dial for several minutes because the phone was switching to another tower.
- Finally voice quality. This phone is on its way back to Cingular for this very reason. So this thing plays mp3's and I can stream video... great. But be warned if you attempt to actually make a phone call. Since I had two CU500's in my possession I was able to ensure that both handsets exhibited the same problems. First the voice quality sounds heavily compressed with sporadic pops and hisses. It felt like I was talking to someone on a dialup Internet connection using VOIP. Second, the volume on voice calls kept wavering. For the 30 or so phone calls I made, I had to have the phone pressed to my ear with my fingers constantly adjusting the volume just to understand the other person. I had 4 bars of reception at the time and tested this theory on both phones. This is a big problem and has been discussed here and in other forums. This is the worse voice quality I have ever heard on a cell phone before. I thought my Razr was bad but compared to the CU500 my RAZR sounded like a land-line.
1.5 for media functions
0.0 for cell phone quality
Stay Away!
CU500 works wonderfully.
I love this phone. It was easy for me to get used to when I first got it, and it's also very sleek. Alright, pros and cons:
PROS
- Cingular Video, which is entertaining.
- Ascending ringtone.
- External Display is useful, and allow me to easily play music.
- Photo and Video (and voice recording) tools are accurate and never fuzzy, and hardly have bad quality.
CONS
- Music player may go off on its own if button is accidentally pressed twice
- Easily smudges and leaves fingerprints
- Annoying confirmation sound that only silences when I have my phone on vibrate
- I STILL HAVEN'T FIGURED OUT HOW TO CONNECT MY PHONE TO MY COMPUTER.
It is worth the money. But I really do need to figure out how to connect my phone to my comp. as soon as possible.
