- Sleek, redesigned clamshell phone in blue opens to reveal QWERTY keyboard and large 2.6-inch screen
- Access V Cast Music (with Rhapsody) and Video servicse via fast EV-DO data network; GPS-enabled for turn-by-turn directions; Visual Voice Mail
- 3-megapixel camera/camcorder; Bluetooth stereo music; MicroSD expansion to 16 GB; access to personal email and instant messaging
- Up to 4.45 hours of talk time, up to 460 hours (19+ days) of standby time
- What’s in the Box: handset, battery, charger, quick reference guide, user manual
Amazon.com Product Description
Perfect for power texters, the sleekly redesigned LG enV3 for Verizon Wireless looks like a nicely compact candybar-style phone with standard alpha-numeric keypad and 1.5-inch display on its face. However, it has a hinged side that opens up to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard and additional 2.6-inch screen–perfect for all your on-the-go text messaging and email needs. It also offers a Text Instant Reply feature, enabling you to automatically start a reply m… More >>
DON’T DO IT! Just turn around and walk away! Forget you ever saw this thing! I’ve had two of these. Both constantly shut off. They turn off in your pocket, when you press the back of the battery, when you close the face plate, when you put the phone down, sometimes even just when you look at it wrong. Verizon replaced my first one after about 4 months. They gave me a whole new ENV 3. The second started doing the same thing a month later. It has something to do with the way the batter contacts connect. You can clean the battery contacts once a week and that will help but only for a while. It’s only a stop-gap. Eventually nothing will help and you’ll find your phone has been off for hours and you didn’t even know it. Despite what Verizon says, this is not an update problem. All of them have this problem. Just read the reviews! Both my phones had the full update and both did the same thing. This is a design flaw!! They didn’t just get a bad batch and even if LG is aware of the problem they’ve done nothing about it in a year. You’ll be stuck with this phone for two years unless you buy another one outright. I bought a Droid and love it. Don’t buy this!! Look elsewhere.
Rating: 1 / 5
I completely agree with Anonymous’ review regarding the cons of this phone. To recap:
Cons:
Can’t transfer photos or other non-music files by USB cable
Can’t sync calendar with MS Outlook
Verizon’s app selection is poor and overpriced
2.5 mm headphone jack requires a very specific adapter that neither LG nor Verizon sells
For myself:
- The one PRO of this phone, for me, is the battery life. I’ve left this phone on in my car over weekends and have been able to use it afterwards for a couple calls. I like that. It doesn’t take long for the phone’s battery to charge. I like that.
- Half a PRO is the quality of the photos and video the phone takes. They’re very nice and there are some neat little editing tools included.
- I like some of the settings options — I don’t believe those settings options go far enough.
The CONS way outweight the PROS, however.
- The ‘OK’ button inside the flip feels flimsy. I knew when I chose the phone that people had reported serious problems with the ‘OK’ button, where the button either stopped working or it fell off. It wasn’t a deal breaker for me as long as Verizon quickly replaced broken parts on their phones. Unfortunately, for me the flimsiness of the ‘OK’ button and the direction buttons on the right-hand side of the flip make me feel uncomfortable when playing games with the phone…. and the direction keys on the left hand side of the phone are worse, because I am right-handed and some game applications ignore the left-hand direction keys to come up with their own configurations. I have not found a way to remap the keys for such games! Maple Story is ok. Ms. Pac-Man is impossible for me. Solitaire is the easiet to deal with.
You can forget using the left hand directional keys to navigate the app window. You are forced to use numbers to get where you want, if you don’t want to use the right hand directional keys.
- The buttons themselves are great for small hands. Not so great for thick fingers like my own. Whoever can come up with a phone for people like me who aren’t built like an asian (slender and tiny) will have my product devotion for life. I’ll probably be waiting a long time, since Asia is where the innovation is at, not here.
- TTY Mode: I don’t know what ‘tty mode’ is on this phone, but it sure as heck is NOT the ability to use the phone as a TTY. Disappointing. Perhaps other deafies and hearing impaired persons can help me understand how to use this phone without buying a $200 cell phone attachment. I know the Sidekick has the ability to act as a true TTY. It would have been nice if this phone, lauded for its ability to be used for texting, had that ability, too.
- SETTINGS: Ability to set menu options and display themes and wallpaper is easy to do. The ability to permanently change settings within applications themselves is hit and miss.
- SPEAKERPHONE: is great in a quiet car, I suppose. I don’t own a quiet car. I wouldn’t recommend using the speakerphone in any setting that involves more noise than just you and the person you’re calling. No crowds. No outdoors. No noisy cars with the A/C on. I maxed out the volume and still had a hard time hearing some calls. It would be nice if this were a handsfree set one didn’t have to use a headset for, in environments that weren’t quiet. Maybe that’s a nitpick.
- HEADPHONE JACK: being different for the sake of being different, in this case, is completely unacceptable.
- APP SELECTION: overpriced. sparse in comparison with the iPhone.
- ALARM CLOCK: I don’t even bother. I keep my old Kyocera, which was simpler and louder. I don’t know how a manufacturer could screw up the ability to program an Alarm Clock, but LG and Verizon did. Sometimes a person just wants to hit snooze, not spend 5 minutes programming multiple alarm clock options.
- TRANSFERING PHOTOS & VIDEO: If you don’t own a microSD reader, you’re SOL. If you don’t bother with Bluetooth, you’re SOL. If you don’t have an unlimited data plan with Verizon, you’re SOL. If you don’t mind paying extra for these items, then it’s no big deal. I don’t believe it’s necessary to put out extra money for things which should be available for ‘free’, no matter how ‘cheap’ it is to work around. The USB cable is apparently provided so one can charge the phone using one’s computer (that may be a necessity for many people), or so that one can sync one’s music if one has the Rhapsody service. I don’t use my phone to play music, I bought it for pictures and video, and being unable to easily transfer the photos and videos I create to my laptop is the dealbreaker for me regarding this phone.
- TEXT MESSAGES: You can sort by time (which separates voice mails into two folders — received and sent) or by contact (which can be an epiphany or a hot mess). At least messages are easy to read, and easy to follow in contact mode, though you do NOT have the option to change fonts and colors specifically for this application.
Overall, it’s an ok phone. It’s a great phone. There are better phones out there, with better carriers.
ONE STAR: just because I’m that p.o.’d regarding the inability to transfer photos and videos easily using a USB cord.
Rating: 1 / 5
This phone turns off randomly and contacts disappear. Bad software. Bad hardware. Do not buy this phone!
Rating: 1 / 5
I’ve had mine for about 10 days. It’s not a bad phone, but it’s got some very surprising quirks that will probably cause me to ditch it in favor of a Blackberry. Or I may revert to my 2-yr old LG VX-4500.
Apparent Quirks (if there are workarounds, please Comment):
Speakerphone:
(a) Phone must be opened to use the speakerphone? Sometimes, if I *voice* dial with it closed, the voice seems louder than if I speed- or finger-dialed.
(b) No volume control (other than on/off)?
Calendar:
(a) Again, phone must be opened to use it.
(b) When phone is closed, the calendar alert flashes on the external screen but only tells you to open the phone for details. Very annoying!
(c) I entered 3 events for October (all starting with “Gig”). When I search for “Gig” they display in the following order: 10/10, 10/31, 10/16 (yes, the years are all 2009). This is not a deal breaker, but very peculiar.
So those are some things I think should be different. I use a phone primarily for talking, calendar management, and checking e-mail. You could probably do better than this phone for those purposes. Might be fine for heavy texters and others who wouldn’t mind having the phone open most of the time. YMMV.
Rating: 3 / 5
I understand that this is not a “smart phone,” and that really was not my expectation. I’ve had two smart phones, but did not have the need for all of the applications. This seemed like exactly what I wanted, in terms of style and features. It is not over-the-top with media toys, but has lots of media capabilities and seems less fragile than the touch-screens that seem to be taking over the world. It is email-ready, and I love the visual voice-mail (subscription feature) that allows you to see a written summary of voicemail without having to access the voicemail box and wait through less-important messages to find the one you’re after.
It is perfect for teenagers or people who don’t really have “data responsibilities.” First, the contact list is limited: one field for each type of data (no auxiliary work phones, no birthdays or miscellaneous space to keep anniversaries, membership passwords, points-of-interest). Second, the Microsoft Outlook Sync application (which was easy to find and install) will ONLY IMPORT PHONE NUMBERS AND EMAIL ADDRESSES, NOT MAILING/STREET ADDRESSES to contacts and LIMITS THE TYPES OF DATA WHICH CAN IMPORT TO THE CALENDAR, which means that those fields would have to be entered manually, defeating the purpose of the synchronization. Where my relatives’ birthdays are in Outlook as Contact data (which Outlook cross-references into the calendar), as opposed to calendar data, they cannot be pulled into the calendar properly. As the information hub of my family unit, I cannot be without these little, easily-forgotten pieces of information.
My teenage son received the same phone at the same time, and he loves it. I don’t find fault with the phone for what it is. I simply wish to inform that there are a few limitations.
PROS: rugged, stylish, great sound/image quality, very comfortable hand-feel and key-placement, great camera with flash, email capabilities, visual voice-mail capabilities, Micro-SD expandable, sensible menus and navigation
CONS: limited data capabilities
Rating: 3 / 5