Why You Can Trust CNET LG Helix review: LG Helix
LG Helix
LG Helix
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
LG has a strong phone presence with all four nationwide carriers as well as a handful of smaller regional ones, but it did not have a phone capable of supporting the AWS (Advanced Wireless Services) bandwidth, which adds the 1700Mhz spectrum to existing CDMA networks. That was until late last year when LG decided to release the LG Helix, the company's first AWS-capable phone, which went to Cricket Communications. The Helix is perhaps not the most exciting phone aside from that--it doesn't have 3G or a music player--but it's a decent basic phone. Too bad it doesn't have great call quality. The Helix is available for $119.99 after a discount without a contract.
Design
The LG Helix has a simple and traditional flip phone design. Measuring 3.6 inches long by 1.9 inches wide by 0.7 inch thick, the phone is slim and small enough to fit comfortably in a pocket. It is a little blocky and rectangular, with angled edges. It weighs around 3 ounces and is quite comfortable when held next to the ear.
On the front there's a small camera lens on top and a 1-inch 65,000-color external display, where you can see the date, time, signal strength, and battery status. You can change its wallpaper plus the appearance of the clock and calendar. You can also use the display to see incoming caller ID and a self-portrait camera viewfinder. On the left side is a 2.5mm headset jack, a volume rocker, and a charger jack; the camera button sits on the right.
Flip the phone open and you'll find a nice 2-inch 265,000-color display with 220x176-pixel resolution. It is colorful and bright, and the text is clear and legible. You can change the backlight time, the wallpaper, the appearance of the clock and calendar, the greeting banner, the menu style, and the font type. You can also adjust the style and size of the dialing font.
Underneath the display is the navigation array, which consists of two soft keys, a square toggle with a middle OK key, a dedicated speakerphone key, a dedicated voice command key, the Send key, the Clear key, and the End/Power key. The keys are quite flat to the surface, but there are enough delineations and dips in between them that we could still navigate easily. The number keypad is quite flat as well, though it feels spacious. The number keys are separated out into four rows, but there's no separation between the keys in each row, so it's difficult to dial by feel.
Features
The LG Helix has a 1,000-entry phone book with room in each entry for five numbers, two e-mail addresses, and a memo. You can then organize them into caller groups, pair them with a photo for caller ID, and add one of five polyphonic ringtones or one of two message tones. Other basic features include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, a calculator, an alarm clock, a calendar, a tip calculator, a notepad, a calculator, a world clock, a stopwatch, and a unit converter. You also get Bluetooth, voice command, and a basic WAP wireless Web browser.
There's also a 1.3-megapixel camera, which can take pictures in five resolutions (1,280x960, 640x480, 320x240, 176x144, and 160x120 pixels). Other options include three quality settings, zoom, brightness, a night mode, a self-timer, five white-balance presets, four color effects, multishot mode, templates, and four shutter sounds, plus a silent option. Photo quality was actually rather decent for a 1.3-megapixel camera. Colors looked good, and images were just slightly blurry.
You can personalize the phone with wallpaper and alert tones. You can download more from Cricket's online store. The Helix comes with a few games, like Super Street Fighter and Where's Waldo. There's also a few applications like MyBackup, a service that backs up your phone's address book remotely, and MyPerks, a service that lets you know about deals and discounts from national retailers.
Performance
We tested the LG Helix in San Francisco using Cricket's roaming service, because the Bay Area is not part of Cricket's home coverage. Call quality was not as good as we had hoped. On our end, we encountered some occasional choppiness where we couldn't hear every word clearly. When we could, it was nice and loud, but we wish the quality was more consistent.
On their end, callers reported inconsistent quality as well. Audio was a little crackly at times, and our voice did not sound natural, callers reported. Still, they could hear us well enough to carry on a conversation. Speakerphone quality, however, was not so good. Callers said we sounded quite muffled and fuzzy, even when we spoke loudly. On our end, the speakerphone quality was predictably tinny, but we still heard clearly.
The LG Helix has a rated battery life of 5 hours talk time and 18.3 days standby time. We got a talk time of 6 hours and 34 minutes from our tests. According to the FCC, the Helix has a digital SAR of 1.24 watts per kilogram.