LG Neon - white (AT&T)
Manufacturer: LG 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.
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CNET editors' review
LG Neon - white (AT&T) price range: $56.93
- 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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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.
4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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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.4 out of 4 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.
4 out of 4 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.
4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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You call this peice of crap a phone?
by sarah128128 on December 20, 2009
Pros: Small, cute, and comes in great colors. Full keyboard. Yippie.
Cons: -Freezes constantly, sometimes up to 10 minutes long.
-When I call a person, they can hear me but I cant hear them
-Takes 5 minutes to turn on
-Runs out of battery in an hour
-Very slow internet
I would continue, but they only give me 250 charsSummary: When I first got this phone, I absolutly loved it. I'm a texting sort of person, and this was my first full keyboard phone, so of course I was ...
Summary: When I first got this phone, I absolutly loved it. I'm a texting sort of person, and this was my first full keyboard phone, so of course I was crazy about that. It had the cutest colors. It was white so I never lost it.
2 days later:
I tried calling my friend. She answered, but for some reason I couldnt hear her. I told her to call me back and then hung up. She called and I tried answering, but just then my phone freezed. We had to end up texting eachother, a 30 minute conversation that could've taken 5 minutes. And that was just the begining. Soon my phone was freezing all the time. 2 months ago I got lucky sometimes and if I called some one I might actually hear them, but now I cant hear anything at all, no matter what. Even if somebody calls me, I cant even hear them. The battery lasts about an hour. The internet is sooo slow. I ran out of memory in the first week and had to buy a memory card. If I record something, I can't set it as my ringtone like normal phones. Sometimes when I want to text somebody and go to the contacts list to select the person I want to send that message to, instead of insert it says weird things like "Weee g2g" or "She's weird" and wont let me text that person.
The bottom line:
Dont get this phone. It's a waste of money, a peice of crap.3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Do NOT like it!
by peaches97470 on October 9, 2010
Pros: Screen/picure quality. qwerty keypad
Cons: Freezes, limited memory, read below for the rest!
Summary: I have had this phone for about a year. It freezes, shuts off on its own, takes forever to connect to calls (even voicemail) I can call somebody and they ...
Summary: I have had this phone for about a year. It freezes, shuts off on its own, takes forever to connect to calls (even voicemail) I can call somebody and they could have already answered and I still hear nothing. Voicemails will start playing and I hear nothing.When texting, sometimes what ever I am texting will end up on the line or 2 above the line I am texting on and I'll have to go and delete and re text on the correct line. Call quality is not very good, people sound muffled alot of times. Have had many dropped or un answered calls. All of these things started happening within 3 mos of having the phone! It is a little bulky. I do not like the position of the web browser button...oh thats another thing! Sometimes this phone will connect to the internet when I didn't ask it to! I do like that I can pretty quickly check my email. But its pretty basic. No photos will oad etc etc. When i DO wish to use the internet it takes FOREVER to connect (which is why I don't use the internet on this phone except for checking email, the email connects pretty quickly) Wish I could get a new phone but since AT&T have mostly smartphones I'll stick with this cuz i don't wanna pay for the data plan. Wish I woulda stuck with Verizon! BUT its IS a phone and better than nothing I guess
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Cool phone, Not very functional at all
by alliedamusical on September 29, 2010
Pros: Stylish, easy to text because of the QWERTY keyboard, holds a charge relatively well
Cons: Won't let me make calls or check voicemail, very slow, freezes often, shuts off randomly
Summary: I love this phone, but would love it a LOT more if it actually worked. It's a cool-looking phone, and I am a huge fan of QWERTY keyboards. But ...
Summary: I love this phone, but would love it a LOT more if it actually worked. It's a cool-looking phone, and I am a huge fan of QWERTY keyboards. But I can never make calls or check voicemail. The phone is extremely slow, freezes often, and shuts off at random times, even at full charge. I have gone through three LG Neon phones in less than a year. I call AT&T often, complaining of the same problems each time, but AT&T refuses to give me a different phone. Each time, they just send a new LG Neon, which always ends up being just as bad as the last.
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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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 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great Phone
by becky_lawerence on January 20, 2012
Pros: Long Battery Life
Cons: Can't think of any
Summary: I bought this phone used for my daughter so it's already a couple years old but it works great! It is nothing fancy but for just your basic cell ...
Summary: I bought this phone used for my daughter so it's already a couple years old but it works great! It is nothing fancy but for just your basic cell phone for texting, web browsing etc it is perfect. Never have had any problems with it. It can hold a charge forever!
Specifications
- Manufacturer: LG
- Part number: 3790232
- Description: Brighten your day and night with the brilliant LG Neon. It's the fun, flirty, compact, colorful texting phone that lets you stay connected whenever, wherever! Use the external touch screen to dial, or slide out the full QWERTY keyboard for quick, easy messaging. Snap pix or video with the 2 MP camera/camcorder... and share your snapshots in a snap. Listen to your favorite tunes! The LG Neon... turn it on!
General
- Product Type Cellular phone
- Form Factor Slider - Full keyboard,
Touch screen - Phone Design Slider
- Integrated Components Digital camera,
Digital player,
Voice recorder - Antenna Internal
- 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)
- Service Provider AT&T
- Software Platforms Supported Java,
Java MIDP 2.0 - Input Device(s) QWERTY keyboard,
Touch sensitive screen Messaging & Internet
- Instant Messaging Services Yahoo! Messenger,
AOL Instant Messenger Service (AIM),
Windows Live Messenger (MSN Messenger) - Messaging & Data Features Text messages,
Multimedia messages (MMS),
Picture messages,
E-Mail - Downloadable Content Audio files,
Video files,
Ring tones,
Wallpapers,
Games - Mobile Services AT&T Music
Communications
- Data Transmission GPRS,
EDGE - Wireless Interface Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
- Bluetooth Profiles Object Push Profile (OPP),
Hands Free Profile (HFP),
Headset Profile (HSP),
Dial-up Networking Profile (DUN),
File Transfer Profile (FTP),
Basic Printing Profile (BPP),
Phonebook Access Profile (PBAP),
Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP),
Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) - Communication Features Internet browser,
Mobile Email client Phone Features
- Phone Functions Call timer,
Conference call,
Speakerphone,
Vibrating alert - Polyphonic Ringer Yes
- Additional Features TTY compatible
Organizer
- Personal Information Management Calendar,
Calculator,
Unit conversion,
Reminder,
Currency conversion,
Alarm clock - Phone Book Entries Qty 1000
Media Player
- Supported Digital Audio Standards MP3,
WMA,
AAC - Supported Digital Video Standards MPEG-4,
3GP Memory
- Bult-in Memory 14 MB
- Supported Flash Memory Cards microSD
Digital Camera
- 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 Display
- Type LCD display - Color
- Technology TFT
- Diagonal Size 2.4 in
- Display Resolution 240 x 320 pixels
- Color Depth 18-bit (262000 Colors)
- Features LCD touch screen
Battery
- Capacity 800 mAh
- Run Time Details Talk - up to 180 min,
Standby - up to 244 hour(s) Miscellaneous
- Included Accessories Power adapter , Power adapter
Product series
-
Manufacturer: LG
Specs: AT&T,
GSM,
Upto 180 min,
With digital camera / digital player,
3.8 oz,
2 megapixels,
2.4 in -
LG Neon GoPhone - green (AT&T) - refurbished
Manufacturer: LG
Specs: AT&T,
GSM,
Up to 180 min,
With digital camera / digital player,
3.8 oz,
2 megapixels,
2.4 in
Accessories
Manufacturer info
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse LG products on Shopper.com
-
- Manufacturer:LG
- Address:
1000 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632
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