LG IQ GW825 User Reviews

naturalhealer posted on 08 Dec 2010, 14:37

1

Not a user friendly phone, smart phone can't do what dumb phone can already do

naturalhealer has owned it for less than month before publishing this review

1) Cannot record phone calls during a call, confirmed by Telus AND by LG. What a dumb phone that can't even do a simple voice recording of a phone call.
2) Cannot do a memo recording, also confirmed by Telus AND by LG technical support Seve, a very rude tech support BTW.
3) NO where in the user guide says HOW to activate the Voice Command and Even Telus tech support can't figure it out.
4) Called LG tech support and got a RUDE reply citing exactly what's on page 78 of the manual and NONE more. He said the phone is JUST a standard voice activated phone that you could only use the word "call" and nothing else. Well, my old nokia phone could do voice memo, phone recording AND I could say "call", "redial", "what's my ...." but EVEN the LG technical support doesn't have a list of "standard" list of all voice commands recognized by LG IQ / GW825 phone !!

What a user -unfriendly dumb phone LG and Telus are selling as a SMART phone !

Build quality 2/10

Reception 5/10

Call quality 5/10

Internet 5/10

Multimedia 5/10

Camera 5/10

UI speed 5/10

Everyday usage 2/10

Text input 2/10

Display 5/10

Battery 5/10

Pros

• seems to have many features

Cons

• can't even record phone calls
• can't record voice memos
• Manual doesn't show how to activate voice commands
• Nowhere shows a list of "voice commands" such as "call" or "redial" or "show" etc.
• LG Tech support is very RUDE

samuel posted on 28 Nov 2010, 01:09

1

Frozen screen, frozen phone, frozen everything

samuel has owned it for less than month before publishing this review

When downloading a little bit bigger file to this phone with only internal memory without microsd memory, the entire phone got STUCK and froze ! No buttons, even the Power button, could change this. I had to remove battery to unfreeze it. Then it worked once. The second time it happened to me again, but removing battery could not unfreeze the screen stuck at Microsoft Orange color Window's logo screen. Even after a soft reset button above the battery could get pass the MS Logo screen. Hard reset by external combination of 4 buttons still could not reset the phone back to manufacturer's state ! It just got STUCK there forever ! and I only had it for less than two weeks !!
Being a computer programmer myself I can't believe how easy it is to "freeze" this phone and there seems to be NO WAY to unfreeze it, not even the Power Button could turn off the phone ! So I called Telus tech repair to return it for good !

Build quality 6/10

Reception 10/10

Call quality 10/10

Internet 9/10

Multimedia 9/10

Camera 9/10

UI speed 6/10

Everyday usage 6/10

Text input 6/10

Display 8/10

Battery 6/10

Pros

• lots of features

Cons

• phone easily gets FROZEN during download

mnbvczxc posted on 16 Jun 2010, 01:49

8

All Business a little play

I've only had this phone for a few days now but overall I am impressed with it. The Camera is actually the most impressive camera that I've ever seen from a phone, it's 5mp but it performs better than some 12mp cameras (like my Optio W60) The movie mode is ok, but 480 X 640 is all that it will do at 30fps. Though, the screen is just a tad bigger than that at 800 X 480 so a movie rolls along filling up the screen nicely. I actually am not sure if it's running 30fps, it seems more like 20. The manual is poorly written (Telus Mobility) which doesn't really matter that much because this smart phone is fairly intuitive and is best learned with wanderings through it's icons and using the various input methods until an input method is found that works for you. The Home screen items should be carefully considered (Start/Settings/Today/items>) because some of the items completely change the way this phone will interact with you...seriously. The Processor is fast enough at 1 ghz to not have any lagging issues and the screen can be adjusted all the way up to insanely bright which is a first for me, actually just a note, the phone software states that it has 24 bit colour, which conflicts with many reviews. I personally have not had any problems with the battery consumption where my typical day so far has used only 1/3 of the battery for a 9 hour business day. Though I'm not a serious data user but I do use alot of phone time and some data entry as well...  

I've only had this phone for a few days now but overall I am impressed with it. The Camera is actually the most impressive camera that I've ever seen from a phone, it's 5mp but it performs better than some 12mp cameras (like my Optio W60) The movie mode is ok, but 480 X 640 is all that it will do at 30fps. Though, the screen is just a tad bigger than that at 800 X 480 so a movie rolls along filling up the screen nicely. I actually am not sure if it's running 30fps, it seems more like 20. The manual is poorly written (Telus Mobility) which doesn't really matter that much because this smart phone is fairly intuitive and is best learned with wanderings through it's icons and using the various input methods until an input method is found that works for you. The Home screen items should be carefully considered (Start/Settings/Today/items>) because some of the items completely change the way this phone will interact with you...seriously. The Processor is fast enough at 1 ghz to not have any lagging issues and the screen can be adjusted all the way up to insanely bright which is a first for me, actually just a note, the phone software states that it has 24 bit colour, which conflicts with many reviews. I personally have not had any problems with the battery consumption where my typical day so far has used only 1/3 of the battery for a 9 hour business day. Though I'm not a serious data user but I do use alot of phone time and some data entry as well as mobile invoice printing to an old Canon Pixma ip90 using bluetooth. The sound is great and I am able to stream Youtube music videos through the WiFi connection at my local cafe without hickups. Though best done with the provided wired headset. This LG GW825 (LG IQ) is quite small in comparison to most smartphones that I've owned so the keyboard surprisingly doesn't make it feel bulky. I also really like the fact that it can take an easily removed Micro SD card (32G max class 2 recommended). I saw that some reviews said that the voice commands were not included, but they are and they are best used through a BT headset. I also programmed one of the front buttons for activating this feature so that dialing whilst driving would be a breeze. Wireless surfing is actually quite nice with a full QWERTY keyboard because entering bits of text means that the screen is not sacrificed for keyboard space. Every review should have some dislikes so... The screen is really nice but it really should have been 4 inches, there's just some space that is still usable on the front that LG never capitalized on. The broken English in the users manual has been mentioned, which is funny in todays world with incredibly sophisticated gadgetry. I guess every company has to cut corners somewheres which reminds me, the software developer may have been the lowest bidder. The software is done in true Windows style with a quick release of some what tainted software. What this means is that even though I've only spent 3 days with this smart phone, I've spoted at least a half dozen little quirks that were missed by the R & D department at Microsoft. Anyhow, I really do like this phone and the software glitches are not deal breakers by any means because most of the little quirks can be worked around, wait did I mention that the screen isn't as easily flicked as I would have wished, I guess the finger print pad does that job sorta. It's funny but there is so much technology in this phone and yet the manual is only 120 pages long, it hints at the fact that they didn't really explain everything. Another interesting note is that WM 6.5 does have a simple 1 click icon that takes you to the Windows Marketplace store front. It's kinda like the Apple istore, well except that instead of 100,000 apps there are really only about 350 as of now, but that wouldn't be a big deal if there were even 20 apps that rated at least 4 stars out of 5. The quality of the apps is reflected in the fact that there is no real serious competition in the Windows Market place. I'm hoping that perhaps another 6 months will change that. Another little problem is that there are actually too many buttons around the edge of the phone where most people will tend to grab it when taking a call so it's best to consider how you will hold the device so as not to open the camera or change the volume or ? while talking on the phone. Yea, there are some serious issues but most of us tend to adjust to the things that we love.

Design 8/10

Features 8/10

Performance 8/10

Pros

• Fast, 32G removable Micro SD, 480 X 800 pixel screen, QWERTY keyboard, Amazing 5 MP camera with VGA movie, Really Really bright display, Finger print security lock. 1Ghz Snap dragon processor, well priced

Cons

• too many buttons on the edges, styus on a lanyard, 3.2inch screen should be larger