![]() ![]() Near the top, 3 icons (contacts, house/home and star/favorites) allow you to switch between the 3 screens. The main screen has the time, date and carrier name (that means AT&T since AT&T masks roaming information). The Xenon features a 3 page home screen with a left/right/center metaphor. LG has added new features that make the phone more fun and easy to use, chief among these is the home screen. Things we like about the UI- good home screen Strangely, the web browser offers no on-screen keyboard whatsoever in landscape mode you must rotate the phone to portrait mode to bring up the keypad for T9 style entry. The email client runs only in landscape mode regardless of phone orientation or keyboard deployment, though it temporarily switches to portrait for text entry if the hardware keyboard is closed. There's no on-screen QWERTY keyboard, just a phone-style keypad with options for T9 and a copy/paste function. For these, you'll need to slide out the keyboard to get landscape mode and to enter text using the hardware QWERTY board rather than on-screen T9. It doesn't work in the home screen, programs menu, IM client, contacts or calendar. There's an accelerometer that rotates the screen when you turn the device on its side, but this works only in certain applications like the photo viewer and web browser. All icons do rotate and most applications run in both portrait and landscape modes. Open the keyboard and the phone automatically switches to landscape view, though the home screen background doesn't rotate (the same is true of the HTC Fuze with TouchFLO 3D and the Impression). The volume controls are on the left and the micro USB charge/headset jack is up top. The camera button and SDHC microSD card slot are also on the right. The screen lock/unlock button is on the right side and you have to press it twice to unlock the phone (the first press wakes it up and the second unlocks it). The front face has call send and end buttons and a task switcher button (yes, the phone does multi-task). It has haptic (vibration feedback) and you can set the intensity and select from 3 different vibrate patterns. The 2.8", 65,000 color touch screen is pleasant but doesn't wow us like the Impression's AMOLED display. You can set the display and keyboard backlit timing separately, and control the display brightness. The keys are backlit white and are easy to see in the dark. The keyboard slider is solid and the phone doesn't creak or flex. The phone is solid and nice looking, though it doesn't look chic or expensive. Shortcut keys for email, SMS, IM and contacts line the left edge of the keyboard and the layout is normal (no oddly located letters or punctuation).ĪT&T currently offers the Xenon in blue- a bright, zingy electric blue. Since there's no 5th row for numbers, they're embedded in the keyboard area and require an Fn key press when typing emails, URLs and messages but not when dialing from the home screen. The Impression strikes us as a bit too large, but if you're a really large-handed fella, you might prefer the Impression's keyboard. The Xenon has a 4 row hardware QWERTY keyboard that's just right in terms of size: neither too cramped nor so large that it's a stretch to reach the keys. And better yet, it's not just a warmed over LG Vu: the touch UI has evolved in good ways and there are several new features like widgets that we've seen on LG's more recent touch screen phones for Verizon. At 4.1 x 2.1 x 0.6 inches and 3.8 ounces, the LG is one of the more pocketable side-sliding QWERTY phones and it's much smaller than the Impression. The Xenon, released in April 2009 for $99 with contract after rebates, is half the price of the Samsung Impression, and it has a smaller and less fancy display as well as a lower resolution camera. Much like the dynamic duo of touch screen slab phones, the LG Vu and Samsung Eternity on AT&T, LG takes the lower road while Samsung the higher road in terms of price, features and casing. Just ask AT&T who released two very similar side-sliding QWERTY touch screen phones in the same week: the LG Xenon and the Samsung Impression. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |