LG LX 150 (Sprint) review: LG LX 150 (Sprint)

If you're one of the many consumers who shun complicated cell phones in favor of simple cell phones that make and receive calls, the new LG LX150 from Sprint should serve you well. Sporting a minimalist yet attractive design and basic features, the LX150 concentrates on what a cell phone should do best. And in that regard, it succeeds; we're pleased that LG added Bluetooth to such a functional handset. You can get it for a very reasonable $29 with service rebates, but the LX150 will cost you $179 if you pay full price.

If you're bored (like we are) with basic phones in black and silver, you'll be pleased to know that the LX150 comes in an attractive blue finish. Distinctive without being ostentatious, the LX150 is pleasing to the eye, not only for its color scheme but also for its curved lines. At 3.46x1.85x0.82 inches and 3.17 ounces, the compact LX150 may be too small for bigger hands, but we found it had a comfortable feel. The front and back covers are composed of a slightly cheap-feeling plastic, but the hinge mechanism was solid. There's also no external antenna.

Flip phones are pointless without an external display, but fortunately the LX150 doesn't fall into that camp. Though it's no bigger than a postage stamp (96x64 pixels), the LX150's four-line external screen shows the date, time, battery life, signal strength, and caller ID. What's more, because it's monochrome, it remains visible even when the backlighting is off. You can reactivate the backlighting with a flick of the volume rocker, but you should be careful about doing this too often as it could affect the overall battery life.

A small blinking LED light sits above the display, but you can turn it off. The aforementioned volume rocker sits on the left spine just above a voice dialing control, while a covered headset jack and a covered charger port sit on the right spine.

The LX150's internal display measures 1.75 inches (128x160 pixels) and shows 10 lines of text. Color resolution is 262,000 hues, which is above average for a phone of this caliber. You can change the backlight time and the font size, but not the brightness. Also, we recommend the list menu style; the grid option is rather busy for our tastes.

Below the display is a traditional navigation array consisting of a four-way toggle with a central OK button, two soft keys, the Talk and End/Power controls and a Back button. There's also a dedicated speakerphone button (nice) and a unique Text key that serves as a shortcut to the messaging menu. And speaking of shortcuts, the toggle can be set to give one-touch access to four user-defined functions.

We liked the LX150's keypad.

The keypad buttons are raised ever so slightly above the surface of the phone, which makes for tactile dialing. We also liked that the central column of keys has a slightly darker color. All the buttons are backlit for easy dialing by feel.

The LX150 includes all the essential features you've come to expect from a cell phone. The phone book holds 500 contacts with room in each entry for five phone numbers, an e-mail address, a Web address, and notes. Callers can be organized into groups, and you can assign them one of 24 (32-chord) polyphonic ringtones as well. You also can pair them with a photo, but you'll need to get photos on the phone your own way since there's no camera. Other basics include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, voice dialing, instant messaging and POP3 e-mail, a scheduler, an alarm clock, a voice memo, a notepad, a calculator, a world clock, and the handy LG tip calculator. The LX150 also supports Bluetooth and a full duplex speakerphone, both of which are nice to see on such a low-end model.

You can personalize the LX150 with a variety of alert tones, screensavers, and color skins. If you're bored with the integrated options, you always can download more choices with the WAP 2.0 wireless Web browser. Other applications are slim; you get demo versions of four games (Midnight Pool, Pac-Man, Tetris, and Zuma) and trial versions of MobiTV and Sprint Radio.

We tested the dual-band, dual-mode (CDMA 800/1900; AMPS 800) LG LX150 in San Francisco using Sprint's service. Call quality was decent with clear conversations marred only occasionally by some slight scratchiness. Volume was loud enough, and though callers could tell we were using a cell phone, they reported no significant problems. With the speakerphone, calls were tinny, so we didn't want to use it too often. On the other hand, Bluetooth calls were satisfactory. The LG LX150 has a tested talk time of 3 hours and 53 minutes. According to FCC radiation tests, the LX150 has a digital 0.76 SAR rating of watts per kilogram and an analog SAR rating of 0.96 watts per kilogram.