LG Neon - white (AT&T)
Manufacturer: LG Electronics U.S.A. Part number: 3790232
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Product series
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Despite a few quirks, the LG Neon is a good simple messaging phone from AT&T.
Read more
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CNET editors' review
LG Neon - white (AT&T) price range: $0.00 - $249.99
- Reviewed by: Nicole Lee
- Reviewed on: 06/11/2009
The good: The LG Neon is stylish and compact, with a spacious keyboard, a music player, a megapixel camera, and good call quality. It's affordable as well.
The bad: The LG Neon's display is a touch screen, but only for the phone dialer application. It only has tri-band GSM, the photo quality is average, and the EDGE speed is too slow for over-the-air music downloads.
The bottom line: Despite a few quirks, the LG Neon is a good simple messaging phone from AT&T.
The LG Xenon was LG's first messaging phone for AT&T, and not only does it have a full QWERTY keyboard, it has a 2.8-inch touch screen and 3G support. If you want something smaller and simpler, LG has another messaging phone for AT&T, dubbed the LG Neon. It has a full QWERTY keyboard like the Xenon, but it's more compact, is only a tri-band phone, and doesn't have 3G. Unusually, the Neon does have a touch screen, but only for the phone dialer, which we found weird. Its quirks aside, the Neon is just fine for those looking for a simple messaging phone. We weren't thrilled with the latter, but for a simple messaging phone, the Neon works just fine. The LG Neon is available for $29.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate.
Design
The LG Neon is an attractive phone, with smooth rounded corners, clean lines, and a compact form factor. Measuring 4 inches long by 2 inches wide by 0.66 inch thick, the Neon is quite lightweight at 3.81 ounces. It's slim enough to fit in the pocket and feels good in the hand. The sliding mechanism is smooth yet sturdy.
On the front of the phone is a glossy black finish featuring a lovely 2.4-inch display with support for 262,000 colors and a 240x320 resolution. Images look great on it and the text is very legible as well. You can adjust the backlight time, the brightness, the font size of the menu text and the dialing digits, the menu styles, and the appearance of the clock on the home screen.
The most unusual thing about the Neon's display is that it is a touch screen--but only for the phone dialer application. When you press a phone dialer key on the navigation array, a virtual number keypad will show up on the display. You can then dial a number by tapping the digits on the screen. You can also set it so that the phone vibrates whenever your touch registers, plus you can adjust the intensity of the vibration. As we said, though, the display is only a touch screen for dialing numbers; all other functions need to be done via physical keys. We weren't so pleased with this--we would rather have a full touch-screen interface, or a real physical number keypad, not something in between.
Underneath the display is the navigation array, which consists of two soft keys, a four-way toggle with a middle confirmation key, the Send and End/Power keys, the Clear/Back key, and the aforementioned phone dialer key. The toggle can be mapped to four user-defined shortcuts, and the middle confirmation key brings up the Web browser when in standby mode. On the left spine of the phone is the volume rocker and dedicated camera key, while the microSD card slot and headset/charger jack sit on the right spine. On the back is the camera lens and self-portrait mirror.
Turn the phone 90 degrees to your right, slide the phone up, and you'll find a full QWERTY keyboard. The screen will automatically change orientation from portrait to landscape mode. The keyboard has two soft keys on the far left and right side, an orange Function key, a Symbol key, plus an OK/Back button on the bottom right. Even though the keys are laid out in only three rows as opposed to the four rows of keys on the LG Xenon, the Neon keyboard still felt spacious with plenty of room between each key. The keys are all raised above the surface and feel easy to type.
Features
The LG Neon has a generous 1,000-entry phone book with room in each entry for four numbers, an e-mail address, a memo, and an anniversary reminder. You can then assign your contacts to caller groups, a photo for caller ID, or one of eight polyphonic ringtones. Other basic features include a vibrate mode, speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, a calendar, an alarm clock, a notepad, a calculator, a world clock, a unit converter, and a stopwatch. The Neon also has Answer Tones, where your callers will hear a song or a phrase when they call you.
More advanced features include instant messaging (AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger), a wireless Web browser, and stereo Bluetooth. There's also mobile e-mail, but it only supports a few service providers. They include AOL, Yahoo, AIM, Windows Live Hotmail, AT&T Yahoo, Bellsouth, Comcast, Earthlink, Juno, Mindspring, and NetZero. We weren't able to use Gmail because it doesn't support POP or IMAP.
The LG Neon comes with a simple music player that supports AAC, AAC+, MP3, and WMA. Even though the Neon only has EDGE and no 3G, it still supports AT&T Mobile Music, where you can purchase and download music courtesy of Napster. However, because it takes so long to download a song, we would recommend loading music via a microSD instead. There's also Shazam--a song ID service, access to XM Radio Mobile, MobiVJ, and a ringtone maker. The music player interface is a bit boring, but there are still the typical music player controls like repeat and shuffle mode, plus you can create and edit playlists. The Neon has 14MB of internal memory, but it can also support up to 4GB of expandable memory via microSD cards.
The Neon has a simple 2-megapixel camera. You can take pictures in four resolutions (1,600x1,200, 1,280x960, 640x480, 320x240), three quality settings, five color effects, and five white balance presets. Other camera settings include 4x zoom, a self-timer, brightness, and the choice of three shutter tones, plus a silent option. Photo quality is average. Images seemed overcast, especially in low-light situations, and they're not as sharp as we would like. There's also a camcorder, which can record in two resolutions (320x240 and 176x144) with similar options to the still camera. You can record in either short or longer lengths--shorter clips are for MMS, and longer clips are for saving to the microSD card.
You can personalize the LG Neon with a variety of wallpaper, display themes, alert tones, and more. The LG Neon also comes with a Mobile Banking application, and games like Ms. Pac-Man and Bubble Bash. You can always get more options from AT&T's Media Net online store.
Performance
We tested the tri-band (GSM 850/1800/1900, EDGE) LG Neon in San Francisco using AT&T's service. We were impressed with the call quality. We experienced no static or interference on our side, and callers said they could hear us loud and clear as well. They said they could still we were on a cell phone due to the slightly robotic quality to our voice, but that's nothing unusual.
Speakerphone quality did not fare as well--their voices sounded tinny over the phone's speakers, and callers said there was a lot more echo effect in this mode. Music played over the phone's speakers weren't good, either--the audio sounded tinny and light on bass. We would recommend using a stereo headset for listening to music instead.
Even though you can download music over the air, we wouldn't recommend it. It took around 12 minutes just to download a 1MB song. Loading Web pages was quite slow as well.
The LG Neon has a rated battery life of three hours talk time and 10.1 days standby time. We were very impressed with the 8 hours and 41 minute talk time in our tests. According to the FCC, the LG Neon has a SAR rating of 0.998 watt per kilogram.
User reviews
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Making calls = Mess-ups!
by michelletech on September 8, 2009
Pros: Texts get saved as thread conversations so it's easy to review text convos. It's pretty- I like seeing it sitting next to me on the table. The screen is big, so nice to look at photos.
Cons: After 2 months I had to get a replacement- when I made calls, half the time the person couldn't hear me for 10 secs, tho I could hear them, so lots of hang ups. Then phone died- couldn't use AT ALL. Replacement phone has SAME problem w making calls.
Summary: When I make any call, about 50% of the time there is a 5 to 10 second delay in the person hearing me, though I can hear them saying "hello? ...
Summary: When I make any call, about 50% of the time there is a 5 to 10 second delay in the person hearing me, though I can hear them saying "hello? hello? hello?" I get hung up on every single time I call my work- my phone never works to call work for some reason- they have a land line, they don't have caller ID to know it's me and wait out the lag time, so I have to borrow phones any time I want to call my work, which no one can explain to me. A week ago I sent for a replacement phone bc I have a one-year warranty and I can't stand this poor connecting quality. While I was waiting for the new one, the one I had actually completely died- the screen went black, couldn't receive or make calls or texts- the people in the AT&T store had no clue and said to wait for the new one.
I got the replacement LG Neon and it had the exact same problem connecting my calls. I still can't call my work 100% of the time for some reason and half my other calls begin with confusion as I can hear them but they cannot hear me for 5 to 10 seconds. I called AT&T to try and get a different phone since I don't trust this one at all now, and the supervisor told me he could not exchange my phone for a different one. When I asked if I would have to just keep sending for a replacement LG Neon indefinitely if this problem is reoccurring, he actually answered me "no maybe 5 or 6 replacements and we'd consider exchanging for a different phone. This is just your first replacement." Then he mumbled something about how he understood it was frustrating.
This phone is pretty good for texting (though I kind of miss the old T9 function of my old phone, which helped keep my spelling correct and allowed me to change between puntuation and letters more easily) but I find this outgoing call problem to be VERY FRUSTRATING and dissapointing to have happen in BOTH of the LG Neons I've now owned in the first 2 months of purchasing it new.2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Not the best
by blahxxx on July 15, 2009
Pros: Great keyboard, perfect texting phone, nice camera, small, cute, green, touch screen for dialing
Cons: Turns itself off, screen can mess up if you close it too fast, doesnt ring when you call someone, little memory, low battery life
Summary: If your looking for a cute phone with a nice keyboard, this is the phone for you. If you want battery life, and want to here the phone ring when ...
Summary: If your looking for a cute phone with a nice keyboard, this is the phone for you. If you want battery life, and want to here the phone ring when you call someone, get a different phone. Oh, and it takes FOREVER to start up compared to my old phone. This can get annoying when your phone turns off all the time.
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Ok unless you want to make calls or check voicemail
by JinLIC on October 13, 2009
Pros: texts recorded as conversation, QWERTY keyboard, large screen
Cons: calls don't connect quickly enough; checking voicemail is a hassle; have to slide open the phone even to choose a contact to make a call unless you want to scroll all the way through
Summary: This phone is only good for texting. It takes a long time for calls to connect, so whoever you call is left saying "hello? hello?" before you can say anything. ...
Summary: This phone is only good for texting. It takes a long time for calls to connect, so whoever you call is left saying "hello? hello?" before you can say anything. The worst part is that when you check your voicemail, it doesn't connect until halfway through the message, so you have to flip the phone open in order to listen to the message again. I am over the 30 day mark, so I will have to pay to get a new phone, but it is worth it. This phone is awful.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Stylish &customizable, but with ANNOYING quirks.
by Jaxieee on September 6, 2009
Pros: NICE looking phone... very stylish! Customizable buttons. Full QWERTY keyboard felt nice and was comfortable to use. Neat touch-screen for dialing. Conversation-bubble style text messages were very cool.
Cons: SLOW phone-a lot of time to think for each button press. Very weak speakerphone. At mercy of QWERTY for texting. You always have to open the keyboard up to do anything with the phone (set an alarm, call someone using address book, calender entries).
Summary: When I first got the Neon, I was really impressed with how cool it appeared. The touch-screen for dialing has a good feel and is easy to use. The phone ...
Summary: When I first got the Neon, I was really impressed with how cool it appeared. The touch-screen for dialing has a good feel and is easy to use. The phone looks very stylish. The full keyboard is comfortable and feels nice. Also, as with all LG phones, the software is wonderful and the buttons are customizable for your comfort. All that being said, however, there were also MANY quirks with this phone that I just could not get past-- causing me to eventually trade the phone in after 3 weeks for the Pantech Matrix (which I love!).
Here are the quirks I found most irritating:
(1) You almost always have to open the keyboard up to do anything with the phone (set an alarm, call someone using address book, calender entries)-- there is very little you can do with the phone using only the outside buttons, aside perhaps from reading text messages. As a result, you can very seldom use your phone one-handed-- I always had to use 2 hands to do anything with the danged thing!
(2) The outside touch screen for dialing has some glitches. For example, it doesn't go away once you dial someone, so my cheek would press all the buttons when I was having a conversation! Very irritating. Might be a setting to disable that, but I never found it.
(3) Speaker phone was so weak that it was practically useless. No one on the other end could hear me, although I could hear them. I pretty much was never able to use it.
(4) Any texts must be written with the full keyboard-- there is no numerical-keypad option for texting. Which once again means you are obliged to constantly use the phone two-handed.
(5) Phone is SLOWWWWWWWWW. Every button press had a 2 second lag. Doesn't sound like much, but gets annoying if you're like me and are addicted to checking your text messages every few minutes.
I hate to sound so negative, as the phone is conceptually quite nice and perhaps I simply had a lemon. In general, I have always been pleased with LG phones and I would suggest anyone who is interested to go check this device out at a ATT store. However, as I mentioned I wound up having to trade my phone in for the Pantech Matrix (a similar style phone with a better design and almost no glitches).
Hope this helps!1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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LG TE365 is a toy not a messaging phone.
by RUSTYLOVER on September 4, 2009
Pros: I do like the idea behind the phones abilities. The slide out qwerty keypad is very easy to use and makes messaging fast and hassle free. Other features of the phone like the FM radio, MP3 and dial touch screen are nice perks.
Cons: Very cheaply made, grainy screen, shut itself off, doesn't ring when called, hours between receiving messages, no communication between same phones, speaker phone is inaudible, old technology, very slow, keyboard locks up and does not follow text.
Summary: All in all this product is not to be taken seriously as a messaging phone, it is more of a cute toy than anything else. The conclusion I have come ...
Summary: All in all this product is not to be taken seriously as a messaging phone, it is more of a cute toy than anything else. The conclusion I have come to about this product is that the idea behind it's capabilities is a very good one but the manufacture can not produce such a product for the price it is sold at. With that being said, you get what you pay for. It is a very good design but the technology and expense put into the function of the LG is very very poor. I have never been as frustrated with a cell phone as I have been with the LG. I have had this phone for almost four months and the issues I have had with it were minimum in the beginning but as time goes on I have encountered enough issues that I have ordered a real phone to replace it. Friend's of mine who have the same phone have experienced some or all of the issues I have encountered and when seeing if the product needed repair we were all told there was nothing wrong with the phones and that they operated properly as per manufacture spec. If you like toys, this is a great one. If you want a real messaging phone look else where and trust me, it's worth the extra few dollars not to be as frustrated as you will be with the LG.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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3 STRIKES AND LG'S OUT!
by nhocpte365 on August 19, 2009
Pros: Cool, fun, stylish and full keyboard phone.
Cons: I'm on my third LG Neon TE365 and it has the same problems as the first: phone often restarts itself, rings on vibrate, and doesn't ring when someone calls.
Summary: Whoever is considering this phone change your mind because all it will cause you is frustration and problems. The phone is full of latent defects! Furthermore, it is impossible to ...
Summary: Whoever is considering this phone change your mind because all it will cause you is frustration and problems. The phone is full of latent defects! Furthermore, it is impossible to deal with LG customer service. What's a Lemon in disguise? An LG Neon TE365!
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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The phone is a small, totaly cute phone.i <3 the screen
by avril757 on July 7, 2009
Pros: It's a fast phone,It's easy to handle,you can fit it in your pocket vert easaly and the keyboard is so spacious so it makes it really easy to text and send e-mails.I would recomend this phone to anyone who is looking for an on the go organized phone.
Cons: There Isnt alot of things that are bad about the lg neon exept it takes a while to downloading music
Summary: I really like this lg neon phone because I am an organized person and this phone keeps me organized.
Summary: I really like this lg neon phone because I am an organized person and this phone keeps me organized.
1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Love this phone!
by Emily817 on June 12, 2009
Pros: Texting is awesome!
Phone is simple, but perfect.
Unique design
Can use mp3s for messaging tones, not just ringtones...hard to find in a lot of phones.Cons: Texting conversations resemble the iPhone's comic strip/word bubble format, and if someone replys back within the minute, it will show before the one you send, so it's easy to miss. I loooove this phone & that is the only thing I don't really like!
Summary: Cute phone, perfect for those of us who want something cute but without the frills (or the $$$ *cough* iPhone). I loooove this phone.
Summary: Cute phone, perfect for those of us who want something cute but without the frills (or the $$$ *cough* iPhone). I loooove this phone.
1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Simple, Good phone.
by xgrillixx on November 5, 2009
Pros: Slim design, Bright display and cool touch dial interface.
Cons: The keyboard is a bit unconfortable when it comes to sending messages, and the internal phone memory doesn't support ringtones larger than 300 Kb.
Summary: First, I bought this phone thinking more on the color and style rather than anything else. After purchasing it, I noticed all the bad reviews it had, but to my ...
Summary: First, I bought this phone thinking more on the color and style rather than anything else. After purchasing it, I noticed all the bad reviews it had, but to my surprise, it has worked just fine. I'm not so delicate when it comes to cell phones, and this one did the trick. It's slim, I have no worries with the touch screen breaking and not having a working phone, and even with the internal memory filled up, works just fine. Overall, It's a good phone if what you are looking for is something simple and easy to use. Great for kids.
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This phone is cool, but critically flawed.
Pros: Nice looking, good size, good menu design and software features.
Cons: I have been thru three of these at this point. All of them have had problems placing calls (the other person can't hear you speak). Navigating the phone's menus also slows WAY down over time. The phone also likes to turn off at random times.
Summary: I bought two of these this summer for my kids. After months of fighting problems with them, I have replaced both of them with the Nokia Surge. It's not ...
Summary: I bought two of these this summer for my kids. After months of fighting problems with them, I have replaced both of them with the Nokia Surge. It's not a pretty phone, but working is a bit more important at this point.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: LG Electronics U.S.A.
- Part number: 3790232
- Bottom Line: Despite a few quirks, the LG Neon is a good simple messaging phone from AT&T.
General
- Product Type Cellular phone With digital camera / digital player
- Service Provider AT&T
- Width 2 in
- Depth 0.7 in
- Height 4 in
- Weight 3.8 oz
- Body Color White
Cellular
- Technology GSM
- Band GSM 850/1800/1900 (Tri-Band)
- Phone Design Slider
- Antenna Internal
- Vibrating Alert Yes
- Polyphonic Ringer Yes
- Call Timer Yes
- Conference Call Capability Yes
- Voice Recorder Yes
- Caller ID Yes
- Speakerphone Yes
- Wireless Interface Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
- Additional Features TTY compatible, QWERTY keyboard layout
Communicator Features
- User Memory 14 MB
Phone Memory
- Phone Book Capacity 1000 names & numbers
Messaging & Data Services
- Short Messaging Service (SMS) Yes
- Messaging Services Yahoo! Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger Service (AIM), Windows Live Messenger (MSN Messenger)
- Mobile Email Yes
- GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) Yes
- EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates For Global Evolution) Yes
- Internet Browser Yes
- Platforms Supported Java MIDP 2.0
- Included Services AT&T Music
- JAVA applications Yes
- Messaging / Data Features Text messages, Multimedia messages (MMS), Picture messages, E-Mail
Multimedia Features
- Playback Digital Video Formats 3gp, MPEG-4
- Downloadable Content Games, Ring tones, Wallpapers, Audio files, Video files
Digital Camera
- Camera highlights With a resolution of 2 megapixels, this model will give you higher quality pictures than other phones.
- Sensor Resolution 2 megapixels
- Still Image Resolutions 320 x 240, 640 x 480, 1280 x 960, 1600 x 1200
- Video Recorder Resolutions 176 x 144 (QCIF), 320 x 240 (QVGA)
- Features Video recording, Self-portrait mirror
Organizer
- Alarm Clock Yes
- Calendar Yes
- Reminder Yes
- Calculator Basic
- Conversion Metric, Currency
- Additional Timer Functions Stopwatch
Display
- Type LCD display
- Technology TFT
- Display Resolution 240 x 320 pixels
- Diagonal Size 2.4 in
- Color Support Color
- Color Depth 18-bit (262000 Colors)
- Features LCD touch screen
Digital Player (Recorder)
- Supported Digital Audio Standards AAC, MP3, WMA
Miscellaneous
- Included Accessories desktop charger, Battery
Power
- Type Power adapter
Battery
- Capacity 800 mAh
- Talk Time Up to 180 min
Product series
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Manufacturer: LG Electronics U.S.A.
Specs: GSM 850/1800/1900 (Tri-Band), Up to 180 min, With digital camera / digital player, 3.8 oz
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Manufacturer: LG Electronics U.S.A.
Specs: GSM 850/1800/1900 (Tri-band), Up to 180 min, With digital camera / digital player / FM radio, 0.2 lbs
Accessories
- LG HBM-760 (32902637)11.49 - 14.99
- LG HBM-560 (32688178)31.36 - 45.71
- LG HBM-755 (32850751)29.00
- Sony Ericsson HBH-IS800 Wireless Stereo Headphone (33528991)109.99
- Plantronics Voyager 855 Bluetooth headset (32600914)31.49 - 99.59
- A-Data Speedy Series flash memory card - 2 GB - microSD (33795596)
- ATP SD Trio Professional PLUS card adapter - flash: microSD - Hi-Speed USB (32128464)17.00
- Centon 2GBRSD3-1 - flash memory card - 2 GB - microSD (33503634)8.99 - 11.84
- Centon flash memory card - 4 GB - microSD (33362243)11.48 - 16.64
Manufacturer info
- LG Electronics U.S.A.
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse LG Electronics U.S.A. products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://us.lge.com/
- Address:
1000 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632
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