When we first saw the LG Xenon at CTIA 2009, we had only a very brief few minutes with the phone and couldn't quite get a proper feel for the device. Now that we've had it for a few days, we have to say that the
The QWERTY keyboard has four lines of keys, making it feel roomy and tactile. It also has dedicated keys for messaging, a dedicated @ key, and a ".com" key. The touch-screen display, though small at 2.8 inches diagonally, is easy to use. It comes with customizable standby screens, which you can populate with your favorite contacts, widgets, or your favorite application shortcuts. There's also a curious drop-down menu LG is calling the "Annunciator," which really just provides you quick access to the music player, the different messaging options, the Bluetooth toggle, and simple settings like that.
Features are decent as well, but nothing we haven't seen before. There's a 2.0-megapixel camera and camcorder, stereo Bluetooth, a music player, 3G, and quad-band support. There's also a full HTML browser in which you can switch between browser windows. We were disappointed that the mobile e-mail wasn't that great; it only supports certain e-mail providers and not POP or IMAP.
Overall, we think the Xenon succeeds as a messaging phone and we like the touch-screen interface. The LG Xenon is available now for $99.99 with a two-year service agreement from AT&T. Check out