LG CU400 3.5G multimedia phone: Part2

Messaging - Good

With presets for AIM, MSN and Yahoo instant messaging and e-mail accounts, the LG CU400 makes for a capable messaging phone. The comfortable, nearly flat keypad has rows that curve slightly, making typing easy. The phone features a dedicated key for SMS messaging and another to IM, mapped with an icon printed on the four-way button. SMS messages displayed a healthy 162 characters, more than a full message worth. While sending messages, you can type your recipient's name, from your phonebook, into the ''To:'' field, though this causes the phone to plug in the first phone number listed, so if you want to send a text to your pal's second number, you're out of luck. We prefer the Palm OS solution: auto-completing the name and offering you a choice of numbers.

Multimedia - Poor

All around, the LG CU400 does not live up to its HSDPA (or even EV-DO) cousins when it comes to multimedia performance. Even the LG CU500, among the first 3.5G phones on the U.S. market, did a better job handling media, and especially audio content. The CU400 has no built-in audio player, though it does access streaming radio through MobiRadio. MobiRadio has a fine selection, but doesn't come close to XM or Sirius satellite radio programming. Beyond MobiRadio, the CU400 has no musical abilities, which is fine because it also lacks stereo headphones and a USB cable for data transfer. Streaming video is not up to par with Cingular's better offerings, such as the Samsung SGH-A707 ''SYNC.'' Buffer times seemed longer on the CU400, and the overall selection of video was sparse, with only a few Comedy Central clips providing original content. HBO mobile is available, but it costs extra beyond Cingular's MediaMax bundle.

The VGA camera on the CU400 takes poor quality photos that look as though they have been manipulated by Photoshop's ''Stylize:Sketch'' filter. There are no options for manipulating photos on the phone, and photos can only be transferred via Bluetooth 1.2 or MMS; the phone cannot send photos by e-mail. The Web browser is also a disappointment. It coughed a bit loading our own infoSync World homepage, sizing pictures strangely, and choked completely on The New York Times homepage. Finally, the phone lacks the GPS navigation we're growing more fond of every day.
1/6/2007 11:48:28 AM
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