After a month of furiously shopping gifts for your friends and family, you might want to get a small gift to yourself, a cellphone on the budget. Hi-Mobile sent us in for a review two extremely affordable cellphones that don't lack features. The first one is the popular Motorola SLVR L7 (just $140) and the other one is the less popular --but with 3G and web capabilities-- LG U8500 (aka U880, just $180).
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Member since:
2005-08-12
Just got the L7 after having my other Motorola stolen (some flip POS). I was absolutely convinced that the phone's mp3-ability was a price inflating gimic and planned to remove the app as soon as I plugged the phone in. In what has to be the most pleasant surprise in months, I now find myself using it, along with a 2gb microsd card, daily in my car. "iTunes" turns out to be a poorly named port of the system software they use on iPods (and, come on, who doesn't like the iPod interface?). That's a swift upgrade from my 1gb SanDisk.
It is a /gorgeous/ phone: beautiful, high-res display, glossy sleek metal case and "laser etched" keypad. There's even a light sensor to control the intensity of the subtle blue ambiance of the keypad. AND IT'S THIN! Sure, there's no qwerty keypad, but I also don't feel like I'm carrying an overheating pocket bible where ever I go.
Call quality is great. It gets better reception and drops less than my old phone. And as for software locks (iTunes 100 song, limited video record time, etc): all taken care of within an hour of ownership. Easy if you know what you're doing.
I can't say enough. I really have never been happier with a phone. $90 if you have Cingular and know the right place to look.
Member since:
2006-03-06
I have the lg for cingular (LG CU500) and i just recived it recently, and so far i love it, i just tried 3g tonight and was amazed, i wish i had coverage in my house. Its a decent upgrade from my SE W600i
the mp3 functions are nice, i can hold more on my 1 gig sd mini card, which is better than the 256 on the se, but the card is in a hard to reach place and i dont have the usb cable.
my only grips are you cant just use any mp3 as a ringer, it has to be a certin size, and that you cant set a custom ringer for text messages. if anyone knows how to do it could they tell me?
Member since:
2005-07-11
Member since:
2005-07-06
Member since:
2005-09-17
Pardon the rudeness, but after becoming dependent on the synching feature of my two year old 100 N-Gage with almost all fields of Mac OS X's iCal & Address Book, a phone review that does not mention how the phone performs in that aspect, what it allows (or if it allows synching at all), has missed the point for me.
Member since:2005-06-28
The L7 syncs fine with iSync, don't forget that this is the second iTunes-capable phone released, so it didn't require extra thought to know this.
The LG phone doesn't work with iSync. It only works with the Address Book, Bluetoothing addresses one by one -- multiple addresses sent via Bluetooth results in one mashed-up address, so avoid.
Edited 2006-12-27 10:39
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-09-17
> You bought an NGage? I'm sorry 
You are kidding, right? S60 Symbian OS, with excellent sync features, full IMAP and POP E-mail support, and gazillions of apps compatible with it (among which there indeed happen to exist some useful ones, Opera, TomTom city maps, etc)., FM radio, MMC card slot, MP3 support, blah, blah TWO YEARS AGO for 100!? And that was when Nokia had already retired it
The fact that it is an utter crap for gaming (which would have disappointed if I was ignorant about that when I got it, which I was not) only reveals how Nokia was so wrong at marketing it as such. It was the ultimate cheap smart phone.
Edited 2006-12-29 16:50
Member since:2005-07-06
But that is just me.
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Member since:2006-01-16
Hey, this is lots better than "another boring view on the minimum req. for windows vista", "let's have a closer look at all the different vista versions", "there are two BRAND-new screenshots of OS X showing a dropdown box with filesystem names in it", "is this the year of linux on the desktop, while it is not ready yet with gnome 2.x?", ...
Don't blame OSNews for variety in topics, if the matter is good.
Member since:
2006-01-25
Member since:2005-07-09
Member since:2005-06-28
Member since:
2005-06-30
Member since:2005-07-09
Member since:2005-06-30
Member since:2005-10-12
I like the StarTrk too, but a StarTrk without a plan costs over 3x more than the SLVR (the title of the article is "Cellphones on a BUDGET" afterall).
I've had a number of smartphones, and with the typical battery lives I've had to put up with, I'm seriously considering a basic cellphone. As long as: I don't have to charge it EVERYDAY, and it has superior reception, I'll consider it. I think the Motorola SCPL (sp?) has a standby time measured in weeks rather than hours... sounds tempting.
Member since:2005-06-28
Member since:2005-10-12
Thanks for the recommendations. I'd been looking at the Ming/A1200, but it looks like a marginally faster A780 (limited software and crappy developer support).
Right now I have an iPaq 6515 because I like the GPS features, but it's a piss-poor phone.
The E61 looks good, as well as the StarTrk. 
Member since:
2005-07-06
