LG Esteem
Average Ratings
LG ESTEEM or LG BRYCE
Simply great phone, from metropcs it's first high end phone hope too see more high end cel like this one, speed is great 4G dual camera and processor. on the battery not bad. also you can get a extender battery for more extra hours. overall is a great phone with all the Features.
Great Phone!
This phone is fantastic. The look of it, the size of the screen, the durability compared to other fragile phones and so much more. It takes some time to find out how to get the phone customized to "your" tastes and also to find out how to work out any issues your phone may come with. My phone has never had the problem of recycling, but I had issues with sending and receiving MMS. I finally figured out how to fix that and now I just LOVE this phone. I don't know if I can ever get used to a "small" screen again, even my iPod Touch seems small to me now. If you want media, this phone rocks. Great with Netflix, games, music, texting, HDMI, pictures; it does it all, even has flash. Internet is quick and I can actually read the web pages so much easier due to size of screen. I see no reason to upgrade from my Esteem for quite a long time. I hope it stays strong. Definitely a great phone!!!
My Reliable Pal
I lucked up last year and purchased this phone "brand new" from a dissatisfied customer at a bargain price less than $300 in October 2011 (same week of Metro PCS' LG Esteem release). I still have it and and use most of its features. The phone still works like the very first day. The seller's ignorance was my gain.
Seller's complaints were: poor battery life, phone is heavy.
Poor battery life? It did, until I changed the settings and used "Kill the App" application that helps preserve battery life by its closing unused background-running applications. I never changed the original battery and I have variable 6-8 hours of phone usage between charges depending on app or call usage. I do charge it when its idle whenever I can.
The phone is heavy? Heavier than a fragile touchscreen phone that will crack when dropped. It's heavy duty construction including Corning face hasn't chipped or cracked after dozens of falls (escalators, etc.) --not even internal damage (software or hardware repair --never!)
More features I enjoy:
The GPS on this phone performs better than my 2012 car's built-in GPS system.
Netflix perfect HD picture --perfection takes about 30 seconds to load. Be patient people!
Touchscreen is very responsive to Swype and tap touch texting and accessing of phone's features.
Text to talk responds pretty accurately.
The game apps are super fun for my son. Great response (Running Fred, Angry Birds, etc.)
Beautiful ring tone features.
Con (Service not Phone): MetroPCS blocks text blasts or dial-in to conference calls that are impeding my ability to communicate with my partners in my new business. I'm looking at another service provider and my LG Esteem isn't compatible with other service providers (to my knowledge).
I read some of the other reviews (which prompted me to write this one) and was surprised to hear some of the complaints. Maybe they ended up with bad, damaged phones. I bought my phone USED and it works.
LG Esteem
This has been the best phone I have purchased from Metro-Pcs. AT first it had some issues where it would continue to recycle itself with no warnings but after I went to the LG site and updated the software for it; it has been working great! So far no issues again. I even purchased another one for a birthday gift for a friend and it would also recycle itself over and over but like I said...after the software update...no problem...great phone! love the screen size...i hope they come out with more screens that size!....
iluvthisphone
i simply love this phoe! it is ultra fast with 4g lte which is blazyn fast! snapdragon processor makes it a fast phone and it will rarely freeze. it might take 1 min and a half to turn on but it is worth the wait because once u turn it on, u will love having it on for its life. netflix works great. my carrier is metropcs and it uses verizons towers for the 4g which makes it fast. face 2 face chat is great... and the hdmi micro is amazing, so u can hook it up to the tv and u have a crystal clear picture/video with the 720p recording.
Unbiased Review of the LG ESTEEM
Overall the LG Esteem is a solid phone. I was lucky enough to get the newest release from LG that came with the software update ending in ZVC and HW Version Rev. 1.1 which to this date (I've had it almost a month) has yet to power cycle on me.
Pros:
Extended Battery Available for Device
Charging Dock available for device in which both standard and extended battery's can be charged.
HDMI Output
720p HD recording
Gingerbread 2.3.4
Great Sound Quality
Good Screen Quality
1.3 front facing Camera instead of a VGA camera
Built in Task Manager
Decent 4g Speed
Doesn't have the pre-loaded BING bloatware like its Verizon Wireless cousin.
Gorilla Glass, meaning the screen is a little more resistant to cracking/shattering when dropped.
4GB of Internal Memory plus can read up to a 32GB Micro SD Card so you have plenty of room for your pictures/music/video's and other media
Cons
No way to shut off the My Metro App without rooting the device
Slightly heavy with extended battery
No cases available to protect device with an extended battery on it
Indicator light doesn't change color when device is charging. Will stay on red and you won't know you have a missed call/text/email until you press the power button and check your notifications.
Vibrate feature could vibrate a little harder.
Phone has some serious issues
This phone is packed full of features, has the best internal memory of any metro android headsets, and has an amazing camera. The screen size is also great if your looking for something to stream media on. overall the phone is feature packed.
BUYER BEWARE: this phone has some serious power cycling issues, which is the only reason why it got such a low score. i have a handful of customers whose phones power cycle 20+ times a day, and LG has not come up with a repair for the problem.
THE NEW UPDATE RELEASED FOR THIS PHONE IS FAULTY. INSTALLING THE NEW UPDATE WILL NOT FIX ANY ISSUES YOU CURRENTLY HAVE, IT WILL ONLY MAKE THEM WORSE.
Excellent phone - some software bugs
This is the best phone i've ever had. The quality is really good physically. Photos are great, it's fast (for about a day or two, then it gets slow). However I made an app to fix that problem so it's all good now. I've actually added some new features as well.
Ed. note: removed link
Horrible Phone
Cons:
Everything from reboots itself randomly to sends and receives sms messages 10+ times and mms it takes 2-3 days to send or receive properly.
Battery life is the worst ever!
Call clarity is horrid
Pros:
The amount of space available to you on the phone.
5mp camera w/flash is very good
