LG CE500

LG CE500

Recently I had to switch my wireless phone carrier because I needed a better network than T-Mobile that covered southern Illinois. My two choices were Cingular and Verizon. I first tried Verizon with the Motorola E815 phone. I very quickly switched to Cingular because of Verizon's extremely restrictive data access policies (they try to make it impossible for you to copy your own ringtones/wallpapers to the phone) and because they disabled most of the Bluetooth profiles for the E815 (only allowed use of mono headsets).

Anyway, to make a long story short, I stuck with Cingular and traded in my original Cingular Motorola RAZR for the LG CE500 when it came out about 3 weeks ago. I did this because I really wanted a good MP3 player function on my phone.

In short, the LG CE500 is a good phone that could have been a great phone. If you need, or just really want, a phone with Bluetooth, a good quality camera, and/or with speakerphone capabilities, then you should NOT consider the CE500...you'll be disappointed. However, if those features do not matter much to you, and you want a phone with good voice call quality and reception and with a very good MP3 player, the you may want to seriously consider this phone.

Currently, the CE500 is only available through Best Buy with a Cingular plan. You may be able to find one on Ebay, but I'm not sure if it can be unlocked from the Cingular carrier just yet.

THE GOOD:

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1. The CE500's best feature by far is the MP3 player. I'm somewhat of an audiophile and I was impressed with the quality of the sound through the supplied stereo headphones. I feel that is as good, or better, than most of the "dedicated" MP3 players/portable CD players that I have owned. The player has 7 EQ presets, but only 3 of them sound good: Off, Country, and 3-D Effect. The best of these is the Country EQ setting. It provides the best sound quality at all ranges (high, mid-range, and bass). The music is very clear at the high end, and with the right songs, it packs a bit of a punch with the bass. Be careful with the volume, because you can turn up the volume loud enough to damage your ears. You can also listen to the music through the phones external speakers, including simulated surround sound. However, as would be expected, the sound through the external speakers is ok, but is a bit "tinny" and has little or no bass due to the very small size of the speakers. I purchased a 512 GB Transflash card for the music, which holds about 110 - 125 songs at 128kbs or better. I've read other reviews that state the sound quality on the CE500 is superior to (blows away) the sound quality on the new Motorola ROKR phone.

2. The voice call sound quality through the handset is very good, except at the highest volume level (5) where there is a little bit of distortion. I'm able to hear the caller clearly at the second highest volume level (4) even in a relatively crowded area.

3. The signal reception of this phone is one of the best of all the cell phones that I've owned (mostly Motorola phones and 1 Audiovox and one Sprint Touchpoint) in the area where I live (suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri). I have not yet experienced a dropped call or completely lost signal. It continues to keep at least one bar or better of signal strength where the Motorola RAZR or V551 completely lost the signal. The signal reception is very close to that of the Motorola E815, which is reputed to have one of the best signal reception ratings for a cell phone. Unfortunately, the antenna is not removeable or replaceable on the CE500. However, it will probably never be an issue with me unless I have to move to an area where the Cingular signal is weak.

4. The EDGE GPRS is 3 to 5 times faster than the plain old GPRS. This is still slower than the newer EV-DO protocol (which is not offered by Cingular), but is fine for WAP surfing, checking email, and downloads.

5. The internal screen is larger than most clamshell phones and is very bright and easy to see. It also has a fairly high resolution of 262k colors. The only drawback is that you cannot change the level of brightness. The external screen is among the better in my experience. It's 96px by 96px size with 64k colors is also easy to view, especially with a darker background wallpaper.

THE BAD:

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1. You would think that with the CE500 having external speakers and the ability to record short voice memos, that it would have speakerphone capabilities...but it does not. This means that there is NO voice dialing capability for this phone. This is the biggest disappointment to me.

2. The integrated VGA camera/camcorder is an absolute joke. First of all, most of the newer phones have at least a 1MP camera, not the tired old VGA resolution. Most of the shots I took turned out very overexposed (even when turning the "brightness" to the lowest level) and most of them are slightly fuzzy. I can never seem to get a good, clean, sharp shot under any lighting conditions. I've owned multiple SLRs and digital cameras, so I know about exposure, shutter speeds, etc. and I know how to take decent photos. This feature was not a "deal-breaker" for me since I would rarely have used the phone to take pictures anyway. I've not yet really tried the camcorder feature, which only allows you to take 15 second "movies". However, I'm sure it will be as disappointing as the camera.

3. The CE500 does NOT have integrated Bluetooth. However, if you want to add Bluetooth functionality, Jabra sells a product that adds Bluetooth functionality to mobile phones without integrated Bluetooth. The unit costs around $60 at Best Buy and is a small box (with an internal rechargeable batter) that you can plug your cell phone into and use Bluetooth headsets, etc.

BATTERY LIFE:

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The specs state that the phone has a 9 day standby and 7 hour talk time battery life. My personal experience is as follows:

1. Continuous MP3 player usage at low to moderate volume = 4 to 4.5 hours.

2. Playing games or keeping the backlight screen on for other functions uses up power more quickly. I'd estimate the battery life at 2.5 to 3.0 hours if you continuously played games or played with the camera, etc.

3. I get about 5 to 5.5 hours per charge with my average usage, which includes: 1-2 hours MP3 player usage, 5-10 voice calls of varying time length, 30+ minutes of game playing, checking my Email 4-5 times per day, and occassional WAP internet surfing.

OVERALL:

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The LG CE500 is a good phone that could have been a great phone. The excellent MP3 player, good voice call quality, and good signal reception are this phones major selling points. However, the lack of Bluetooth and speakerphone capability, along with the very poor integrated camera hold it back to a 7 out of 10 at best.

At $79.00 (with a 2 year Cingular contract), this phone is a pretty good deal (unless you require the features mentioned above that are lacking on the phone), especially considering that a decent 512mb MP3 player alone will cost you that much or more.

I remain pretty happy with the phone because I primarily wanted a phone with a good MP3 player (and this one ROCKS!), good voice quality, and good signal reception in the areas where I need it most. The phone fulfills those requirements quite well. My biggest disappointment is the lack of speakerphone functionality.

So as far as recommending the phone: a definite yes if a good mp3 phone with good voice call quality and good signal reception are your primary requirements. However, if you want or need speakerphone capability, Bluetooth, and/or a good camera, I'd recommend you avoid this phone and look elsewhere.