LG enV3 VX9200 Cell Phone

The LG enV3 VX 9200 has been a frustration over the past four months.  The versatility and form of the product is quite good, but with a growing list of electronic failures I can’t rate this as highly as I would like.

The phone is a standard size and includes a wonderful flip-open internal screen with a QWERTY keyboard.  This has been ideal for texting.  The screen is a sizeable 2.6”, plenty large enough for me to read the messages and my responses even without reading glasses. The keys are spaced appropriately; my large “Man Hands” have quickly learned to navigate the keys (although it is mostly a two-thumb operation).  Texts are composed quickly and easily. The phone also connects and sends messages very fast.  When composing a message, it is rather awkward to have to differentiate between a “Symbol” (exclamation marks, parenthesis, and so forth) from a “Shift” function which is strictly capital letters.  For an old-timer like me, too many years of typing have made the “Shift” the default choice when choosing between the 9 and the right parenthesis and this is not the way the enV3 works.  I am learning, though, and the QWERTY keyboard is a vast improvement over using T9 Word or other primitive texting methods.

I also appreciate the fact that the enV3 has a separate internal screen, instead of using the external screen for double duty.  Having seen the way cell phones are handled by both adults and teens makes me very wary of having a phone with only one screen.  Too many drops or some clumsy footwork can too easily break these delicate instruments; an internal screen is far more protected from damage which would render the user unable to communicate.

One feature that is quite handy, although not as well executed as I would hope, is the “Text to Speech” option of the messaging feature.  After the alert lets you know that you have a text message, the phone will read it to you.   That way if you can’t look at the phone at that moment (say, for instance, you are eating a burger and quaffing a drink at the same time) you can just wait for the phone to read your message to you. However, the consonants are not clearly enunciated by the computer-like female voice that the enV3 uses, so it is often hard to figure out exactly what the message is.  Still, I would rate this as a positive feature.

On the outside, the phone has a nice interface and a sleek design.  It has a durable finish on both the body and the keys, although the covers for the external ports seem quite flimsy. Using the menus, the phone can be set to lock the keys lightly or securely by choosing to have one or two pushes of the main button activate the keys.  As a reformed Pocket Dialer and Pocket Photographer, I appreciate the Two Push setting.  The phone has a spot for an a micro SD card which allows almost limitless RAM memory; the card that I use was purchased separately for about $10 and has a capacity of 1 GB.  I direct the phone to save all of my photos, sounds, and music to this memory card and that has worked flawlessly.  If I really want more memory, cards of up to 16 GB are available.

The 3 mega pixel camera works well, although it is too easy to accidentally choose the movie function when turning it on.  Also, when outside, it is not possible to see the image on either screen; this is a problem with any LCD screen, however, so it is not an enV3 complaint.  Downloading the pictures and other data from the phone is a snap with the combination USB/AC Power Cord. 

As a phone, the enV3 is certainly adequate.  The ear hole is rather small and the phone smooth and sleek, so it is at times hard to place it correctly on my ear for the best voice quality.  I have yet to have anyone complain about being able to hear my voice when using this phone.  Reception has been markedly better than the phone that it replaced, which was a two-year old LG product.  The battery life is quite good; I often turn off my phone at night and easily go three days between charges.

After such a detailed list of what is right about the phone, it is unfortunate that I also have a list of complaints.  First off would be the depth of some of the menus; it takes far too many keystrokes get into such tools as the calculator or the calendar.  That said, it is also fairly easy to set either of these as a shortcut at the expense of another shortcut, such as access to My Music.  The biggest problem I have had involves the reliability of the product.  The first phone had a tendency to turn itself off for no apparent reason; it would be in a protected environment with adequate reception, but the phone would just turn off.  It did not seem to power down with the “Turn Off” tune that is standard, but it just stopped working.  When I called my service provider, they tried some techno-magic to no avail, and had to replace the phone.  The technician also mentioned that they have had numerous complaints about this problem. The second phone had an internal screen that at one point stopped working, as if the switch was defective; the external screen turned off when the phone was opened, but the internal screen did not turn on.  I am now on my third phone in 4 months.  This is not good.  On the other hand, my wife also got an enV3 at the same time and has not experienced any problems...yet.

In this review, I will admit that I would recommend the phone to a friend, but only with reservations.