LG enV (VX9900) Front

(Review) - After Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Treo and RIM, it’s time for LG to play the smartphones game with its newly announced enV (VX9900) smartphone, exclusively from Verizon Wireless. The LG enV is on its way to compete against T-Mobile’s SideKick series than dedicated smartphones for professionals even though the enV is packed with similar, if not more, features than the Treo and BlackBerry.

Despite having a lot of the same features as the aforementioned models for professionals, the enV sends a fun and more multimedia-oriented vibes than a device that would appeal to C-Level executives or professionals on the go. Take the outer appeal, for instance. It’s a very stylish candy-bar phone with a small display (128x160; 65k colors), standard alphanumeric and navigational buttons on the front. In addition, as you move along the outer edges, you’ll encounter the volume up/down and snap buttons that also work as basic controls for the 2.0-megapixel onboard camera. Not to mention, the color scheme is diligently professional with a silver and black theme.

LG enV (VX9900) QWERTY Keyboard

That’s not it, however. The "real" edge of the enV is attractively hidden from prying eyes with a full QWERTY keyboard once you open the unit from its side. The enV, if you are familiar with Nokia’s 9300i Communicator, has a similar thing going, which makes it possibly more appealing than the BlackBerry 8700g or the Treo 700p with their exposed keyboards. Again, you’ll notice the navigational buttons towards the right end of the keyboard with Clear and speakerphone slim keys right below the secondary display (240x320; 262k). You’ll also find another Call and End/Power buttons on the inside with a slew of other buttons. The keys were generally easy to use; they stood out from the surface and were square in shape, which is better than the oval keys on Palm’s Treo. Unfortunately, there was a minor offset that we noticed in our testing. The two small Space keys are on the left and right side of the keyboard, instead of being in the middle. That could pose to be a learning curve and a serious drawback if you are moving from the BlackBerry, Palm Treo series and a host of other smartphones that don’t tend to sway away from the normal QWERTY layout. Even though it’s great to have two Space keys, they really defeat the purpose.

Another awkward thing we noticed with the enV was its ability to let you talk on the phone (via speakerphone), while you have it flipped open. Honestly, that’s going to be awkward in a public setting. But hey, it could come in handy if you are discussing about the information you have stored on the enV and would like to retrieve it during the call.

LG enV (VX9900) Camera

After you get over the smartphone aspect of the enV, here’s the camera for the photographer in you. The 2.0-megapixel camera is built on the opposite end of the phone and comes with flash and auto focus and a lens cover. Thanks to LG for paying attention to such a minor detail. You can take photos in 1600x1200, 1280x960, 640x480 (default), 320x240 resolutions and record video (15 seconds or 1 hour with enough storage) in 3G2 video format. Of course, there’s also the music and video media players that will let you listen to and watch MP3, WMA, MP4, 3GP, 3G2 and WMV formats, respectively. Similarly, you have a host of other fun-filled features that you can take advantage of, such as turning your photos into your wallpaper, working with ringtones, instant messaging, custom camera configurations, Bluetooth capability and a ton of Verizon Wireless services, including V CAST music and video.

The phone quality of the enV is nearly perfect, though it could certainly use some work. In some calls, we noticed some static and not 100 percent clarity. As such, our test subjects claimed that they could tell we were on a cell phone, possibly even on a busy street. The speakerphone, however, was better in that static was almost nonexistent. According to LG, the battery life is expected to last for 4 hours and 30 minutes with standby time of 19 days and 4 hours. We confirmed the talk time to be 4 hours and 35 minutes, though we’ll have to trust LG with its standby time. The music playback was fine from the external stereo speakers as well as the headset. With that said, the video playback could certainly use some work. Verizon’s V CAST video playback wasn’t up to the par on the enV. It was pixilated and annoying (at best) to watch. Assuming there wasn’t a glitch with the service at the moment, LG could certainly work on making their phones V CAST compatible in the future to avoid such embarrassment. The camera quality was also surprisingly impressive with defined subjects and comparatively bright colors.

Other than what’s mentioned above, the enV (VX9900) is nicely glitch-free. The only thing we wonder is whether or not LG used Nokia’s 9300i Communicator as inspiration because the external displays were next to useless on both devices with a few other similarities.

If you are willing to sign-up for a new plan with Verizon Wireless, you can actually get the enV (VX9900) for free from Amazon.com. All in all, LG’s enV is an excellent product with expandable storage (microSD) to satisfy a multimedia appetite for users who looking for an unconventional phone to impress their friends with.

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