LG enV2 Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls
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Alfredo Padilla Published on May 09, 2008 Comment on this |
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Dialing a number on the LG enV2 was very fast, and the ring volume was reasonably loud. We wish you could use your own music as ring tones, however. |
Dialing a number on the LG enV2 was very quick at an average of 2.42 seconds. You can see from the chart below that this is significantly faster than average and the best score amongst our comparison phones by a decent amount. The enV2 is helped out by the fact that the new external keypad is large and comfortable to use, we had no problems accidentally hitting the wrong number. Dialing with the number keys above the QWERTY keyboard whent he phone is opened is a slower process, taking about four seconds. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Send and End Buttons (7.0)
There are two sets of send and end buttons on the LG enV2. The ones on the exterior of the device, which you'll probably be using more often, are large and comfortable to use. They could use a little more key travel, tactile feedback and differentiation from surrounding keys, but this is made up for by their large size. The send and end buttons on the interior of the device are two small chiclet buttons that sit above the D-Pad found to the right of the QWERTY. These buttons are better differentiated from the surrounding buttons, but their small size means they're harder to hit. We feel that most users will find themselves using the external send and end keys far more so we decided to score based on our impressions of them. If we had scored the internal buttons they would have received a 4.0.
Call Management (6.0)
As we expect to see in a lot of places ont he LG enV2 the call management features are sharply different when you access it via the external interface via the internal one. Using the external controls you can bring up a list of all your recent calls by hitting the send button. The small size of the external display means you can only see about one and a half item at a time and you don't have any sorting options since the external controls only allow you to move up/down. All you can do from here is select the item you want and hit the send key again to dial the number.
interior call history
Opening the phone up gives you access to a more fully featured call history. Here you can move left/right with the D-Pad to filter the call history by missed and dialed calls. You can use the left soft key to send a message to that number and the right soft key opens a menu where you can do things like save the number to your contacts, erase the history or view your timers. The call timers are very good with information about all, last, received, dialed and roaming calls. There are also counters for data available.
exterior call history
During a call you also have different experiences depending on whether the phone is closed or open. When closed you can access options by pressing up to access your contacts, down to create a new message or go to your inbox or hit the OK button to open an options menu. Here there are six options: Mute, Messaging, Contact List, Recent Calls, Bluetooth Menu and DTMF tones. If you open the phone up mute is assigned to the left soft key while the right soft key opens an options menu with a couple of additional options like recent calls, notepad and voice record.
When scoring this we decided to score the LG enV2 on it's full feature set but deducted a point because many of the options are not available when the phone is closed.
Startup to Call (6.10)
The LG enV2 was very quick to start up and make a call, an important feature for anyone who turns their phone off a lot but need to be able to get it out and make a call quickly if needed. It took the enV2 only 16.4 seconds to do this, less than half the time of our average phone and significantly faster than any of our comparison phones. We were quite happy with the enV2's performance in this test. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Ring Volume (9.52)
We measured the LG enV2's maximum ring volume at 95.2 decibels. You can see from the chart below that this is just about average. Similarly amongst our comparison phones the Samsung SLM and M520 both did worse than the enV2 while the other phones performed better. 95.2 decibels should be sufficiently high that you probably won't miss the ring tone when a call comes in, unless you're at a rock concert or something.
Ringtones (0.0)
Unfortunately the LG enV2 does not allow you to use your own music files as ring tones, instead you'll have purchase additional ring tones from Verizon.
Non Audio Alerts (6.5)
The LG enV2's vibration alert is pretty good. You'll notice it easily in your pocket and you'll even have a good chance of noticing it in a bag or jacket pocket. Unfortunately the on-screen display is not as good, mostly because it's so small, you aren't gauranteed of seeing it even if you happen to be looking at the phone at the time.
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