LG CU400 3.5G multimedia phone

LG's followup to the first US 3.5G phone, the CU500, improves the design of the original. Do its multimedia features keep up, or does it belong in the bargain basement?

Design

Where the LG CU500's boxy design placed it squarely in the last generation of phones, the LG CU400 is much more modern, with distinctive design cues such as the glossy black external screen on the matte black finish, and the slightly rounded curve of the keypad. The phones claps shut securely with hardly a millimeter between the two clamshells. It is overall a light, simple phone, with no side buttons except for a volume rocker, camera button and a push-to-talk button.

Calling - Good

Good call quality is certainly the saving grace of the LG CU400. In our lower Manhattan offices, we generally got about four bars of ''3G'' service from Cingular, and calls never suffered from static or disruption. The earpiece was among the loudest we've heard, uncomfortable at its highest volumes, and the speakerphone was satisfyingly clear as well. The phone handles Bluetooth headset and hands-free profiles, and setup was simple enough. Conference calling could have been easier; it required some menu digging, but nothing we haven't seen. The contact list makes room for just five numbers and an e-mail address -- fewer fields than we would have liked -- and while the CU400 allows for while-you-type searching, the phone lacks any voice dialing options. Talk time was better than average, at about four-and-a-quarter hours, but still fell short of the manufacturer's promise of five hours.

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