LG CU500v Reviewer's Comments
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The “TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award” winning music phone is a deceptive little device that packs a punch. Although LG’s CU500v looks like your standard flip phone, this small cell phone can play all common music files, integrates with AT&T’s high speed 3G network and has the ability to utilize five types of Bluetooth. It includes 3D sound, an equalizer, handy control buttons on the front panel and a 180-degree rotating camera for video calling.
Although the CU500v is a powerful phone, we found its deficient internal memory and 1.3 mega pixel camera to be disappointing.LG CU500v Screenshots. Click to Enlarge
Music Features:
The LG CU500v takes full advantage of AT&T’s music network. It supports several file types and you can download songs from many popular music sites like eMusic, Yahoo! Music, iTunes and more. Additionally you can subscribe to MobiTV and MobiRadio and receive streaming music and video.
The phone includes dual speakers and an equalizer. AT&T’s Music ID service allows you request the name and artist of thousands of songs by texting the service and holding your phone to a speaker. MusicID will return with a text displaying the song and artist. However, this will charge .99 to your bill every time you use it.
This phone’s biggest downfall is the miniscule amount of available hard drive space. There is only about 16MB available; therefore, you need to buy a microSD expansion card to use this phone to its full potential.
Voice/ Text Features:
The CU500v is a quad-band world phone and makes excellent use of AT&T’s 3G network, supporting HSDPA 850 and 1900. You can do 3-way calling, conference calling and, with the rotating camera, video calling. Additionally, you can send text messages and multimedia messages. However, it does not have voice command for voice dialing.
Internet Features:
Unlike the top two choices, the LG CU500v does not have full Internet access. It only supports WAP technology. However, with WAP you can still send and view emails and IMs. Additionally, the CU500v supports five types of Bluetooth.
The best way to utilize this phone’s Internet features is to use AT&T’s MEdiaNet service. This gives you access to various AT&T sites specifically designed for WAP technology. With this, you can still buy ringtones, ringbacks and songs.
Lifestyle Tools:
This cellular music phone incorporates all the basics like a calculator, alarm clock and more. You can download and run games using J2ME (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition). These games are designed specifically for mobile devices. Additionally, the CU 500v had an airplane mode, which allows you to listen to music or play games while on a plane without using the phone features.
It includes a 1.3 mega pixel rotating camera, which allows for video talk. The camera has a 4X zoom, self-timer and video recorder. However, at 1.3 mega pixels, the camera is slightly below par.
Technical Specifications:
The LG CU500v is a standard flip phone. It includes an internal and external LCD screen both with 65K color. The internal screen is 2 in. and has a 176 x 220 resolution. Average talk time is about five hours.
This phone does include a memory expansion slot; however, it is located beneath the battery and may take long fingernails to insert or extract.
Wow Score:
Visually, this phone is not particularly special. It looks like a standard, wafer thin flip phone. Its sleek design makes it comparable to the Motorola RAZR. We found one of the most convenient features to be the audio control buttons located on the front of the phone.
Summary:
Although the LG CU500v isn’t particularly special to look at, it is a powerful, featureful cellular music phone that enables its users to download, stream and record. That is if you have the additional memory card.
©2008 TopTenREVIEWS, Inc.
