My Review Of The Verizon LG EnV Touch

PROS:
1. Same Great LG VX-9800 Fold-Open Tiny Laptop Design.
2. EV-DO Rev. A Data Speeds.
3. Improved VCast Video Quality.
4. Customizable Widget Icons.
5. Media/Music Player. I Have Been Able To Transfer iTunes Music To My EnV Touch Using The VCast Rhapsody Software.
6. Built-In Flash Web Browser Player.
7. Voice Features; Like Voice Dialing, Verbal Caller ID, Ect.
8. 3.5MM Headset Jack.
9. 3.2MP Camera, With Flash And Other Advanced Features.
10. PDF EBook Reader.
11. RSS News Feed Reader.
12. High Resolution Screens (800 x 480 pixels).
13. Expendable External RAM Upto 16GB's.

CONS:
1. Browser Is Still Unstable And Crashes A Lot.
2. Still Can't Add Many Favorites To The Browser's Bookmark List. And Since The Browser Comes With Bookmarks That Can't Be Deleted; You then Get Even Less Room For Bookmarks.
3. While There Is A Flash Player, The Browser Is So Unstable That Viewing Some Flash Content Isn't Possible Without The Phone Resetting.
4. Like The LG Voyager, The Screen Will Lock And Go Dark During Some Calls And Will Not Turn Back On Until The Phone Is Opened.
5. Still No Support For MP3 Music Streams.
6. Due To The Large Screen Size (800 x 480 pixels); Youtube Videos Are Pixelated And/Or Too Small To Enjoy.
7. Battery Life Still Suffering. The Phone Should Have Come With An Extended Battery.
8. Most Games (ONLY) Play On The External Screen; Making Playing Games Annoying And Hard To Control.
9. Still Only 2 Themes To Choose From. It Would Have Been Nice To Get Several Theme Options.
10. While VCast Videos Are In Windows Media Format; The Phone's Media Player Can Only Play MP4's and 3GP's.
11. The Virtual Keyboard Is Hard To Use, Because The Keys Are So Small And The (CLR) Key Is Right Above The (Enter) Key. So You End Up Pressing CLR, When Your Trying To Press Enter. This Causes You To Keep Deleting Letters And Having To Re-Type Them.


The EnV Touch is a great update over the LG Voyager, but it still seems to suffer from the same problems as earlier phones. The Browser is still weak and overloads easily. Also, even though the browser does supports HTML; the Browser will load the WAP version of major sites instead. This is a problem, because your not given the option to load the full site. So your left using the limited Mobile version of sites like Gmail; instead of getting to use the full HTML version. The built-in Flash player is nice, but trying to load sites with Flash can cause the phone to reset itself. The Web Browser still only lets you add a limited number of Bookmarks, which is a problem I thought LG would have fixed by now. Even though the Browser is faulty and limited; I think the addition of a RSS News Feed option is a great new feature to have access to. But the RSS Reader is also limited by the number of Bookmarks that can be added. I just don't understand why LG couldn't have gone with a different company to make their web browser; a company that would allow for 30+ Bookmarks. But I guess LG thinks most users only Bookmark a few sites. For all the flaws the EnV Touch does have; the updates do make it worth while. I love the fact that the Widgets are more customizable then they are with other Widget phones I have used (ie: Samsung's TouchWiz). You can save Music, Pictures, Web Bookmarks or Applications as Widget icons, then drag them onto the home screen on the Outer Display. There is a Response problem with the Widget icons though. Often times I have had to click the icons more then once to get a response out of them. This is because the icons move easily and even the slightest movement will cause the phone to think your trying to move the icons; instead of trying to activate them. You have to press very lightly in order to activate the icon without moving it. The EnV Touch also comes with a PDF EBook Reader, but you can't download PDF's directly from the Internet. You have to transfer them onto a memory card in order to view them. And still no support for MP3 Music Streams, but I think this is still a limitation imposed but Verizon Wireless and not so much by LG. There is also a problem with streaming videos from sites like Youtube. Because the EnV Touch has such a large screen (800 x 480 pixels); the videos will play in 3 different settings. The Clearest setting (Which Makes The Videos Tiny) also makes the videos almost Unrecognizable. The other 2 settings make the videos larger, but Pixelated and also Unrecognizable. So streaming videos from sites like Youtube is not as enjoyable as they were on the LG Voyager.

So in all, the EnV Touch is truly a great phone. I would say the best Feature-Phone I have ever used. Yes, there is flaws, but there is also a lot of updates and new features that make getting this phone well worth the money. I just wish LG & Verizon would have fixed some of these problems and limitations before they decided to start selling the phone. Maybe with future updates these issues will be corrected, but for now though the EnV Touch is still an improvement over previous VX-9800 designs.

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› See More: My Review Of The Verizon LG EnV Touch

kool. looks neat. thanks alot

i just recently got a dare, but got to look at the env touch in the verizon store. i didn't realize all the features it had, but in the end i think i would prefer the dare over the env touch just because it's more my style. i'm not very good with the flip out keyboards and don't really need one. but it seems like a great phone for people who like that.

I agree. The web browsing experience is a major step back. Otherwise, a good quality phone.

The Lg env touch is a good phone with a lot custom options. But it uses a lot of battery life which is the only downfall.

This is a great phone. I looked at it for my wife, but she decided to go with a cheaper phone. The sales rep also had good things to say about this phone.

nice !!

In my experience with it the battery lasts a long time unless you're actively browsing the web. However if you are texting when the battery is low it will shut off and not turn back on, so if you have to tell someone your phone is dying do it as soon as it starts to beep for a low battery. Also the camera stops working as soon as you get a low battery.

As far as the browsing experience itself I was definitely a little bit disappointed with how easily the browser overloads and crashes. With a little patience, avoiding huge sites and utilizing mobile versions I've gotten around most of the issues with that.

Originally I got it because I text a lot and thought I would use the flip out keyboard all the time, and liked the much larger size of the touch screen than the screens on the enV3. As it turns out I rarely use the flip out keyboard because the touch keyboard on the exterior of the phone actually works surprisingly well.

When I started messing around with the phone I was pleasantly surprised to discover the 3.2 mega-pixel camera with auto-focus and a flash. I had not realized that the phone had this when I was looking at because I was mainly focused on text, web & email capabilities.

I am however a somewhat disappointed in the mobile email application because I cannot seem to figure out how to add one of my email accounts to it, though the other two work well. The only other complaint I have with the app is that when checking my gmail account there isn't a way to archive emails or add labels, or at least I haven't figured it out. :

The music capabilities surprised me in the relative ease I had syncing music onto it, the quality of the speakers when the phone is open, and good the 'sound effect' equalizers in it. I was disappointed to realize that Pandora does not support this phone however, though I am eagerly awaiting them to listen to my suggestions and do so!

I love the free VCAST Song ID app and it works really well, though it is clearly a marketing tool for VCAST Music because it offers you ring tones, ring backs, and songs for purchase through Rhapsody once it identifies the song. However it also offers you the option to email the song info to yourself or a friend to purchase or pirate at your leisure.

I also love the widget options. I have widget icons on my home screen for my calendar, to-do list, notes, alarm clock, mobile email, a couple of apps, and a few web bookmarks I use frequently, and I use all of these on a daily basis!

Overall, I love my enV Touch for some of the reasons I bought it and for some unexpected bonuses. I wish the browser worked a bit better and that the email app had more options. I wish there were more free apps (because I am a poor college student) but I am in love with the touch screen despite the occasional freeze (which is usually fixed simply by opening and closing the phone) and I am very impressed with the camera and the music player.

Go LG! Now if only they got together with the Android people...

nice review