LG enV2 Cell Phone

Background: Why the Env2 appealed to me
What is this touch screen craze that has taken over everyone who is close to me?  Personally, I can't stand the touch screen because I can't type accurately on it, and always select the wrong thing on the screen.  Then, in order to fix my mistake, I have to hit another portion of the screen accurately.  This causes me to grow quite impatient.  I have small, delicate fingers so I'm at a loss for how my dad, for example, is able to use this.  To each his own, I suppose, but I fear this fad threatens to overtake the cell phone industry.

The typical alternative for touch-screen-o-phobes like me is the blackberry, but I've got no love for blackberries as phones.  Lacking a "phone" sort of keypad, they are annoying to dial while multitasking.  I need my whole palm to hold it up to my ear, and feel stupid talking on it.  Plus, the keys lack any sort of correspondence between letters and digits - so when I want to dial 1-800-FLOWERS or something, I plain old can't do it without scratch paper.

So for months, even with Verizon's nagging and nervous reminders that I was due for a free phone (they probably worried I was an iphone defector - NEVER!) I refused to upgrade from my old Samsung flip until I found the perfect model, which would have a full sized telephone keypad that I could dial without looking at it; AND a qwerty keyboard.  These were really, really, the only two things I was looking for, and you would be surprised at how impossible it is to find this. 

I saw the Env2 when it first came out during a trip to a verizon store after months of fruitless searching.  Because with nice big number keys in front and a qwerty keyboard inside, it looked to be my dream phone, I ordered it online almost immediately. 

Aesthetics: 4.5 stars
The Env2 is pretty unobjectionable, appearance-wise.  When closed, it's a little black or maroon rectangle with a small landscape rectangle display above the keys.  Default talk mode is candy-bar style, which is something I had to get used to after my flip phone.  See, ideally, I had wanted something that flips BOTH ways, vertically to talk on it as a flip phone and horizontally to text.  Although the Samsung Alias basically does just this, you have use the same keypad for texting and dialing, which presents the same problem as I discussed in dissing blackberries, above.  By contrast, the Env2 closed interface has a very simple keypad with nice big numbers.  I like the sans serif font for the numbers, as well. 

I think the "open" display is nearly perfect.  First, you can snap open the lid to 135 degrees or 180 degrees, which provides flexibility while holding or setting it down.  There are speaker panels to each side of the roughly 1.5 by 2.5 inch display.  The display could stand to be a little bigger for the width of the phone itself, but it is quite big enough for me.  It looks like a little adorable computer when you open it up and set it on the table, and for some reason I love this. 

My only real beef with the way the phone looks is that I wish it came in more colors than black and maroon.  I really don't care for black, which is what I ended up getting, but maroon is pretty much my least favorite color.  I would have gotten this phone in pretty much any other color they made it in - silver, slate, white, red, pink, teal, orange, green, purple...

Reception: 5 stars
I really can't complain - My phone generally beats out my friends' phones for reception, though that may have more to do with verizon than anything. 

Call quality: 4 stars
It's not perfect and occasionally I'll hear this little buzzing, but it's good enough for me.  Speakerphone seems fine to me and I've never had anyone say they can't hear me when I use it.

Default ringtones: 2 stars
Less and less to choose from with each phone it seems, but I don't usually get too creative with these.  I use a doorbell for text messages and a pretty normal telephone-style ring for my phone.  The default "you have a voicemail" tone is g-dawful. Change it immediately.

Battery Life: 3 stars
I charge my phone most nights, but it can go a couple of nights without charge during normal usage.  But once it hits low battery, there is not much juice left!

Using the number keypad: 4 stars
As I explained, I actively sought out a number keypad nearly identical to the Env2's.  So what disappoints me about it, in the end?  It's mostly minor annoyances, but they warrant a warning.

My nice big keys, including the "Send" button, tend to press themselves without my consent.  Also, you pretty much can't pick up the phone without pressing a button.  To guard against the repercussions of this, the Env2 locks after a few seconds.  You have to press "OK" to unlock it (twice, really, because the first "OK" is assumed to be an accident - or you can press any key and then "OK").  Generally, I think this is necessary and has largely avoided the dreaded pocket phone call.  But it took some getting used to, and I still find it irritating.  Plus, the phone locks even while I'm in the middle of doing something.  Yes, I could change the number of seconds it waits before unlocking, but that would basically neutralize the prevention of pocket-calling, and I'm thinking it would happen a LOT.  Mainly, I just don't see why the phone has to lock while I'm in the middle of doing something, like giving a voice command.

So, above the keypad is what looks like a propellor, with "OK" in the middle, "Send" on the left propellor wing, "End/Pwr" on the right propellor wing, and up and down arrows on the propellor base (which is circular).  I simply do not understand why they felt compelled to make the arrows look like a circle - it disrupts the otherwise rectangular flow of the display and increases user error (mainly as to the "2" key, whose space the circle intrudes upon).  Plus, the use of a circle here misleadingly suggests that the up and down arrows are part of a "wheel" that also contains left and right arrows.  Except, there are no left and right arrows, just up and down, send and end.  The lack of left and right arrows is not a problem except where entering text.  So I don't mind per se the fact that there are no left and right arrows (though I would just as soon have included them), but I *do* mind that the interface suggests left and right arrows and they're not there. 

The only other buttons besides the 12-digit number keypad and the propellor are a "Clr/microphone" button on the top right and a "music" button on the top left.  I do not store much music on my phone, so the large "MUSIC" button is a bit of a waste for me.  I could see it as quite useful for someone who did use their phone as a music device, however. 

The "Clr" button is for backspacing while dialing or texting.  If you're not dialing or texting, you can use this button to activate the voice recognition software, which is amazingly helpful when it works properly.  If you hold the button down while not dialing or texting, you will activate the voice recorder, which allows you to leave yourself a little note that I have no idea how to access in the future. 

Now that you understand the buttons while the phone is closed, it's onto...

"Closed" display functionality: 3 stars
The scant front display bugs a lot of people, but does not bother me in and of itself.  I kind of like it, in fact.  I don't really need to see my friends' pictures when they call.  I also don't have trouble reading text on it or typing, or texting.  I like the fonts and the large block text clock on the front, and I have the perfect long picture to use as a wallpaper.  The problem a lot of people have is that it's only 2 lines of text, but I don't care about this.  If I want to see my whole message, I can easily open the phone.

My only problem is that there is a finite and limited subset of features that you can use while the phone is closed, most of which are accessible from what I'll call the mini-menu, accessible by hitting the "OK" button twice.  Basically you can 1) call and see your dialed and received calls, 2) add or change your contact list, 3) text, 4) listen to music, 5) activate a bluetooth device, 6) use the camera (although there's no way to see the full extent of what you're actually taking a picture of), 7) turn the volume up, down, to vibrate, or off, and 8) record a voice note that, like I said, I can't figure out how to access later.

OK, honestly this is probably all a normal person would want to do with this phone closed.  But I *loved* how my old phone allowed you to have a hotkey link to a frequently used feature such as calendar or alarm clock.  More specifically I don't see a good reason why I should not be able to use the alarm clock with my phone closed and am grouchy that I cannot.  I have now owned Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, and LG phones, and the Samsung phones are the only ones that prioritize the alarm clock function to my satisfaction.  This is the only absent feature from closed mode that bothers me, ever.

-Closed display contact list: So, let me just start off by saying that when I just have to dial a phone number I'm reading off somewhere, I love my phone.  I easily type in the buttons and hit send.  No, fuss, no muss. It's great. But dealing with your contacts in closed mode is not smooth.  First, it is somewhat annoying in that there is no way to input a number and then add it to your contacts without dialing it.  The quickest way is to hit "ok" to get to the mini-menu, then hit "ok" again for "Contacts," then hit "ok" again to input the person's NAME first.  Second, when you want to call someone from your contacts, you can use the up arrow as a shortcut, then use ABC entry mode to select the appropriate contact - but I tend to forget this shortcut is there.  The most hassle-free way to dial a contact is generally just to use my recent calls to find the person or use voice recognition (which I'll discuss later).    

-Closed display texting: No major problems here.  I read most texts from closed phone and often write short replies using "Word" mode.  It just annoys me that I can't even preview long incoming texts in closed mode (it will just tell you to open your phone).  There's a shortcut to text using the down arrow key, which I always forget about.

Voice commands: 4 stars
The voice recognition feature was a mostly pleasant surprise on this phone.  Basically, you hit the clear button and you are instructed: "Please say a command."  There are a number of commands listed, and I experimented with most of them to write this review, but I only really use it to call people.  You do this by saying "Call Kelly."  If it's not sure what you said, it will ask you, "Did you say call Kelly?" to which you say "yes," or "no."  I will say that if she gets it wrong on the first try, she's probably not going to get it right.  If Kelly has more than one number, you will be asked "Call mobile," to which you say "yes" or "no."  (by the way, you can skip this by just saying "Call Kelly Mobile" the first time). 

The voice recognition is pretty decent, actually.  The problem is that when it gets something wrong, you can't make it stop what it's doing because the keys are locked (see above) - you have to hit ok and THEN end.  And it doesn't ALWAYS ask you - if it feels sure it knows what you're saying it will just tell you "Calling Kelly" without asking.  This has gotten me into trouble.

As for the other commands, they're of minimal use with the possible exception of "Contacts" (to which she says "Please Choose" and you say "Create New").  It's kind of cool that you can tell it to "Check phone status" and hear all these facts like, 75% battery, 3 bars of signal, etc., but not really necessary.

Side keys: 5 stars
On the side there is a camera button and a set of up/down volume buttons. The way the phone opens, you can access these buttons whether the phone is open or closed, which is great. 

Volume: 4 stars
I love that you can change the volume using the side keys open or closed, I love that it has an "alarm only" volume setting, but I do NOT love that you have to hit "ok" to save your setting.  This has caused me major problems when I think I have turned my phone back on from silent, but have not, and vice versa.  As a result, I usually just go back and forth from vibrate by holding down the pound key.  Note also that the vibrate setting is quite inaudible, as vibrate should be.

Camera: 3 stars
I never wanted to use my phone as my camera, but I actually don't have a camera, so it would have been nice if this one were great.  Unfortunately, it's never actually taken a picture I can use for anything other than showing people on my phone.  The camera is very skittish about lighting and movement, so all my shots are dark and blurry.  I think though, if you practiced, you could get better at using the env2 as a camera.  The camera button is positioned so that if you open the camera all the way, you can almost pretend it's a real (really thin and hard to hold) camera.  You can in theory use the camera while closed, but it's basically a half-blind shot, as the rectangle won't show you all of what you're taking a picture of.

Using the QWERTY keyboard: 4.5 stars
For the most part, the keyboard does not disappoint.  It's easy and fun to use, and my typing is accurate even while multitasking.  There are two space keys, which is cool.

If I were to nitpick, it would just be about the non-alphanumeric keys.  The send and end buttons are the same size as the letters and not distinguished by color or anything.  I would have put the shift key below the "symbols" key. The all-important "OK" key seems like it should be in between the two soft keys above the keyboard (because that's where the function corresponding to the "OK" key appears on the display), but it's really on the right, next to your thumb - which makes sense but takes some getting used to.  Also, the "OK" key is sometimes hard to hit, because it is entirely ensconsed within a set of arrow keys.  There's also a function key in the top left corner (basically consisting of a menu of user-defined shortcuts) and a speaker key in the lower right corner that turns on and off speakerphone.

Open display functionality: 4 stars
This phone is pretty easy to use, and it can do all kinds of things. When you open it, your wallpaper appears, and you get to the menu by pressing the "OK" key.  Alternatively, you can go straight to "messaging" by using the left softkey and "contacts" using the right softkey.  The default menu is a grid of 9 icons (ringtones, messaging, recent calls, contacts, media center, e-mail, vznavigator, mobile IM, and tools and settings), which you can access using the arrow keys or by number.

My main gripe about the open display is that it always seems that I have to go through an inordinate number of menus to get to what I want.  For example, the "message" shortcut (left softkey) takes me to a menu where I have to select "new message," then I have to select "text message" (as opposed to picture or video message).  And heaven help you if you want to set your alarm.  Go to Menu, then settings and tools, then tools, then alarm clock. 

But if you're savvy enough to customize your display, you have to deal with virtually none of this garbage.  You can assign 3 arrow key shortcuts (one keystroke) and a whopping ten function keys (two keystrokes).  Note that my Function key shortcut to Vcast videos often results in an error message for some reason. My arrow key shortcuts are set to my favorite game, the alarm clock, and VZ Navigator.  Plus, they have a "QWERTY shortcut," which you can set so that it automatically starts typing a new text message whenever you start typing from a blank screen.

However, figuring out how to change the settings is not necessarily intuitive and can be a pain.  The tools & settings menu is annoying to work from, for example, and it's usually easier to try to use the keys you want to change and there's a setting to change them within that menu somewhere.

Texting: 5 stars
Texting from open mode is great.  I can use my lovely qwerty keyboard, the inbox is pretty well designed, I can manage the inbox, sort it by sender, and then check off the ones I want to erase so I don't have to erase one by one or all at once. 

Media: 4.5 stars
I have been pleased with the media offerings of the env2.  I wish more programmers would program for verizon phones/Verizon would make it easier for them to go that route, because this phone has a lot of potential for being as widely application-friendly as the iphone!  I subscribe to VCast videos (though I will quit if they stop offering the Daily Show and Colbert - also not a beef with the phone). That said:

-there are more games offered than you would ever be able to play (my personal favorite is the Katamari game!) and the display makes them look great
-the VZ Nav GPS system is so helpful, and this phone facilitates it well (I have separate comments on this, but I will refrain in this particular review)
-the VCast videos are great for passing time at airports, etc., and this is a good little phone to watch TV on.  Occasionally they will pause to buffer, and even less frequently will give an error message "unable to play clip," but I haven't had too many problems.
-Re: music, I have never looked for a song and not found it.  Which is helpful when I say, need to memorize a song on the fly for an a cappella singing gig (something I don't really think applies to most people).  But I've only downloaded 2 songs, because the music doesn't seem easily transferable in either direction and is quite expensive on a per song basis.  So I don't really see how anyone would build up a library aside from CDs they own, rip, and transfer to the phone.
-I set up mobile banking, and use it pretty regularly.

When you want to get back to an application you've downloaded, you sort of have to pretend like you're going to download it again unless you have set up a shortcut for it.  That is obnoxious.  And I have to re-learn how to download something new every time I want to.  Bottom line: It's sometimes annoying to *get to* what you want, but once you find it, it generally works quite well.

Settings & Tools: 3.5 stars
I think that "Settings and Tools" might be too big of a bucket - there is just too much shoved into this one icon. At the very least, I think there should be a separate "Accessories" icon that contains the calculator, the "EZ tip calculator," the calendar, the alarm clock, the world clock, the notepad, and the stopwatch - these things are currently housed under "tools," which does not seem to capture it for me.  But if you don't know where something is and it came pre-installed into the phone, it is most likely in there somewhere.  I'm not pretending I know everything about what the phone can do, but here are some highlights of what you can do in Settings and Tools:

-Turn your keypad volume off without affecting the master volume
-Choose your "display theme" from one of four options (I use "Wave")
-Turn on and off a personal banner
-Set the number of seconds for keypad and display backlight

And so on.  There have been a couple of occasions where I wanted to do something and it took me awhile to figure out how - for example, I wanted to play a game on my phone while flying, but wanted to turn the wireless off.  You can do that by using "standalone mode" under "phone settings."  Nothing too major.

Internet and e-mail: 4 stars (disclaimer - extremely rare use)
The couple of times I have wanted to log onto AIM or check e-mail it has worked fine, but I don't use internet regularly on this device because I have a blackberry for work.

MicroSD slot and computer-phone transfer: 2 stars
I specifically bought a microSD card for use with this phone and have been pretty disappointed with it.  The whole thing is pretty cloogey - if you're using it on a computer you have to put things in certain directories for them to show up.  And I could not figure out how to get pictures from this card to actually show up on my phone.  Perhaps I am dumb, but these phones are meant for dummies like me, right?

Bluetooth functionality: 3.5 stars
Aside from the fact that I got a stupid headset (which I will try to review separately), the bluetooth functions are pretty good, and you can actually move a fair distance from the phone before it starts to break up.  The problem is that if you don't specifically turn the bluetooth "off" (which I don't always remember to do) your bluetooth headset will answer if it's within range of your phone, and you won't be able to hear or speak to anyone on the actual phone if they call.

Random phone turning off: 1 star!
Lately my phone has started turning off randomly - not due to battery or anything else.  Often, but not always, it happens when I close the phone.  Clearly this is troublesome.  I'm not sure if it's just my phone or a general problem in this design.  Luckily it doesn't take a long time to boot, so not a really big deal right now.  But if I don't notice it, I miss calls.

If there is anything I have forgotten, I will edit - feel free to ask questions.