LG Xenon GR500 Review

Introduction:

Touch screen phones combining a QWERTY keyboard are becoming more common nowadays. This offers consumers a wider range of capabilities which appeal to text messengers. The LG Vu has been around for quite some time now on AT&T's lineup which gave the Prada-like appeal to U.S. consumers. Building upon the success of the Vu, the LG Xenon GR500 tried to take it to another level by offering a QWERTY and updated interface. All the while, it retains similar dimensions to make it a compact device without adding too much bulk to its frame. It is targeted those who want a QWERTY and like the ease of navigating via touch screen, but it not the successor to the Vu which is a little bit more stylish appeal.

The package contains:

• LG Xenon
• Charger
• USB Cable
• Quick Start Guide

Design:

We’re glad to see that the size of the LG Xenon GR500 to be similar to the Vu in terms of overall dimensions even with a slide-out QWERTY. This is great because you would generally see an overall size increase when additions are made to an existing device. Corners are rounded with a chrome border outlining the outside of the phone that gives it a nice contrast. Although the blue plastic material used for the body of the Xenon does not feel as cheap as the Vu, it feels durable due to the added weight (3.81 oz). And you won’t notice any bulge if you place it in your pocket because it almost has the same thickness (0.62”).




You can compare the LG Xenon GR500 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

One of the few things that the LG Xenon GR500 scales back on this phone is the screen size. The 2.8” resistive touch screen has a resolution of 240x400 pixels with 262k colors. It’s quite responsive and we did not find ourselves to be constantly pressing something to perform an action. Colors are pretty well differentiated, although black levels are nowhere close to what some recent AMOLED screens produce. You can see whatever is on screen clearly when we placed the brightness to the highest setting even in direct sunlight.



The three buttons found below the screen are the send, end, and task manager menu button. They are flush with the surface, well sized, and have a good tactile feel making easy to press. Turning the volume up or down can be accomplished by the volume rocker which is found on the left side. Holding down the volume down key will place the phone on vibrate mode. You can lock the Xenon to prevent random button presses from occurring with the key on the right side. The dedicated camera button and microSD card slot are also located on the same side. We’re glad to see that LG decided to go with a microUSB port for charging and connecting to a computer. It’s even better because the USB cable packed in the box can charge the Xenon through a computer or plug adapter. On the back, you’ll find the 2-megapixel camera with an LED flash and the speaker phone next to it. Finally, removing the back cover reveals the battery (950 mAh) and SIM card slot.



You can find the four row QWERTY keyboard by sliding the phone from left to right. It’s a little cramped with no spacing in between each rectangular shaped keys, but they do provide a decent tactile feel. The navigation keys on the keyboard can’t be used to guide through the menus except to move the cursor when typing text. There are a bunch of dedicated buttons found on the QWERTY to quickly launch certain applications such as the phonebook, IM client, mobile e-mail, and web browser. We did not have any problems using the keyboard, but people with larger fingers may find it too small.

Software and Features:

At its core, the LG Xenon GR500 has the same interface that is found on the Vu with some additions to the home screen. It's still not as good looking as the new S-Class interface that LG uses in their European counterparts. There are three icons on the top portion of the display that changes the layout of the home screen. You’ll find the contacts list, launcher for you favorite applications, and the default home screen. Widgets have become a staple; and the Xenon is yet another phone to make use of them. There are a total of only six widgets that you can drag onto the default home screen.: the analog clock, media player, memo pad, picture viewer, calendar, and world clock. Although not quite as polished as the TouchWiz interface found on Samsung phones, it gets the job done by giving it a personalized look. There isn’t too much room on the screen for all the widgets to be on at the same time; so you'll need to pick and choose wisely. When placing one onto the default home screen, it has this jerky movement as you drag it. There are four icons on the bottom side of the display that are stationary. Pressing them will get you to your phone dialer, address book, messaging, and main menu. Once you select the main menu icon, it will give you the tabbed interface found on the Vu. Some animations are accompanied after you press a tab, but its nothing fancy looking about it. Navigating through the menus will be a breeze for just about anyone without any sacrifice in experience. Some applications will run only in landscape view like the mobile email program.




Somewhat less than some other similar phones, the Xenon can save up to 500 contacts. We were a little disappointed to see that you can’t store other pertinent information when you make a new contact. You’re only limited to a handful of things such as two phone numbers, an email address, and a short memo.



One of the main draws of the phone is its keyboard for messaging. Typing up a message can be completed by using the generic virtual keypad with or without the aid of T9 predictive texting. Unfortunately, there is no option for a virtual QWERTY if you place the phone in landscape. It’s not too much of a problem because the QWERTY does a fine job. The only problem we had with it was the lack of a shift button which means you have to constantly press the caps button instead.



Just like other non-smart phones we’ve seen recently, you’ll be able to set up specific email accounts. Providers such as Yahoo, AOL, and Windows Live Hotmail are some of the big names supported on the phone. If your specific provider is not listed on the application, such as Gmail, you won’t be able to use it.



Camera and Multimedia:

We were hoping to see LG upgrade the camera on the LG Xenon GR500, but it is stuck with the same 2-megapixel one found on the Vu. The interface is a simple one with four icons on the right side used to view the album, take a photo, turn on/off the flash, and options menu. You can modify some items such as the image size (320x240, 640x480, 1280x960, 1600x1200), brightness, color effects, and white balance. Images taken in low lit areas came out with bland colors, fuzziness, and poor detail. We were expecting photos taken in well lit outdoor areas to produce better results. Unfortunately, colors were still not reproduced accurately with a slight haze over the image.




Videos recorded on the Xenon had similar results to the photos. The maximum video capture resolution is 320x240; making it useful for MMS. For some odd reason, audio from the video had a slight buzzing noise to it. The Xenon is a video share capable device, but we were unable to test this feature out.

Three different audio players can be used to listen to music – you can use the widget based player, music player, or audio player. The music and audio players utilize a similar interface displaying the artist, track name, and a time lapse bar. It is pretty easy to use with three icons on the bottom used to reverse, play/pause, or forward a song. The only difference is that the music player will display the album cover while the audio player will have a visual equalizer running as the song plays. Additionally, exiting out of the audio player will cause the music to stop while the standard music player will continue to play. Finally, the widget based music player will run in the background and also have a bar style equalizer running. You’ll find the usual set of AT&T music programs such as MusicID, XM Radio, and Make UR Tones on the phone.



Audio quality from the speaker came out surprisingly well without any crackling when volume was set to its highest. It was distinct, but lacked any serious bass to give it some much needed power. We like how the phone uses the microUSB port for charging and connection, but it’s not friendly when it comes to using headphones. LG did not pack an adapter in the box to convert it to a 3.5mm port, so you’ll have to purchase one if you plan on using your own pair. Luckily it supports stereo Bluetooth so you can have a wireless option if you prefer.

We were impressed by the video playback on the LG Xenon GR500. After loading a movie trailer clip in 320x144 H.263 format, we watched in amazement how it played perfectly and without any slow down. The quality was equally impressive with great detail and color levels. The audio produced from the speaker was vibrant and audible. The accelerometer will turn the video in either portrait or landscape view if you rotate the phone. The interface is basically the same that is found with the music player. You can even take a snapshot of any part of a video and save it as a photo or set it as your wallpaper.

Internet and Software:

The LG Xenon GR500 is a quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and dual-band UMTS (850/1900 MHz). You’ll be able to make phone calls if you take it out of the country, but does not support 3G access overseas.

Checking out web pages on the phone was a breeze thanks to its snappy web browser. Mobile sites load up very quickly while more complex sites like ours loaded up after a minute. Once it has completely downloaded everything, you can scroll smoothly in any direction. Pages are rendered correctly like what you would see on a computer. You are given an overall page view of a web site at first, but can zoom in by pressing the associated icon on screen. Additionally, you can open up two different windows and alternate between each. There wasn’t much slowdown when scrolling through longer sites, but you will notice the phone start to lag if you have both windows loading up large sites at the same time. You’ll be able to change the settings to an optimized display for single column viewing to eliminate the need to scroll horizontally.



For travelers on the go, using AT&T Navigator will provide good turn-by-turn directions while offering plenty of local points of interests. The Xenon’s IM client allows you to choose from AIM, Windows Live Messenger, or Yahoo Messenger. Just with other recent phones, you can jump back to the home screen while the IM application runs in the background.

Out of the box, the LG Xenon GR500 comes with 74MB of free memory out of 180MB. Fortunately, it supports microSD cards with capacity of up to 16GB for memory expansion.

Performance:

Call quality on the LG Xenon GR500 was a decent experience with most conversations through the phone being easily understood. Although, there were times when voices sounded almost hollow with some slight background static noise. On the other end, callers said that they had no problems hearing our voice. Using the speaker phone also produced some distortion when there was silence, but we were still able to hear callers perfectly when placed on the highest volume. Callers did say that there was a slight echo when we talked and our voices sounded a little bit on the low side.

The Xenon is rated for 4 hours of talk-time and about 264 hours of standby. Surprisingly, those specs are better than the Vu which had a slightly larger battery. While testing out the phone, we had the brightness of the screen set to the highest setting. We managed to get out over 7 days of normal use before the battery was completely drained.

Conclusion:

So here we are again with another QWERTY phone. It works pretty well as a touch screen phone and as messaging device. The small form factor of the Xenon is great when pitting against larger ones like the Samsung Impression or AT&T Quickfire. With the inclusion of a widget based home screen and an eclectic mix of personalization options,  the LG Xenon GR500 does make some improvements over the Vu all the while retaining a similar design. It may be enough for some to consider buying, but it just does not warrant anything revolutionary. If LG bumped up some of the specs of the phone such as the camera and fine tuned the new interface; it could have been a stellar device for the U.S. market. Luckily though, it gets the job done in terms of being a good touch screen and messaging phone.