Why You Can Trust CNET LG LX370 - silver (Sprint) review: LG LX370 - silver (Sprint)
LG LX370 - silver (Sprint)
LG LX370 - silver (Sprint)
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Recent LG phones for Sprint like the LG Rumor 2 and the LG Lotus have been very messaging-centric, but that doesn't mean LG doesn't have other designs up its Sprint sleeve. The LG LX370 has a far more traditional slider style, and not in an unattractive way either. We liked the new Sprint One Click interface, as well as features like a 2.0-megapixel camera, GPS, and EV-DO Rev. 0. That combined with great performance and call quality make the LG LX370 a pretty good midtier handset for Sprint customers. The LG LX370 is available for $99.99 after a two-year contract.
Design
Measuring 4.06 inches long by 1.89 inches wide by 0.63 inch thick, the LG LX370 has a fairly standard slider design. It is smooth and sleek, with curved corners and an all-silver color scheme. The front surface is very reflective and can be used as a mirror, and the back surface is covered in tiny dotted bumps for texture and extra grip. The slider mechanism feels sturdy, and it's quite lightweight at 3.7 ounces.
It has a really nice 2-inch display with 262,000 colors and a 240x320-pixel QVGA resolution. The screen is rich and vibrant with color, and we like how it shows off the menu's animated icons. You can adjust the screen's backlight time, plus the font size for messages, the browser, and the notepad.
Along the bottom row of the home screen is a special screen-navigation interface called One Click, a custom interface found only on Sprint phones. It consists of eight shortcut tiles, which can be customized with any of 14 applications or functions. As you flip through the tiles, a menu of each application's options will pop up. You can have shortcuts to the messaging menu, the Web browser, e-mail, Sprint Navigation, Sprint TV, plus a menu for even more shortcuts. There's even a Google shortcut that gives you instant access to Search, Google Maps, Gmail, and YouTube. You can also add a "bubble" to the home screen with special ticker information like financial updates, brief news headlines, or your latest horoscope.
Underneath the display is the navigation array, which consists of two soft keys, a circular navigation toggle with a middle Menu/OK key, the Talk key, the Back key, and the End/Power key. The volume rocker and charger jack are on the left spine, and the camera key, a voice command key, the microSD card slot, and the headset jack are on the right. The voice command key also brings up the recent calls list with a short press. Turn the phone around and you'll find the camera lens and external speaker on the back.
Slide the phone up and you'll reveal the number keypad. The keypad is quite roomy, and even though the keys are flat, they're separated by raised lines, so we could still dial by feel. The keys also have a nice give when pressed.
Features
The LX370 has a 600-entry phone book with room in each entry for six phone numbers, two e-mail addresses, a memo, a Web address, and an instant messenger ID. You can then save them to groups, pair them with a photo for caller ID, or one of 33 polyphonic ringtones. You can also pair them with one of four vibration types. Other basic features include text and multimedia messaging, voice messaging, a speakerphone, a vibrate mode, an alarm clock, a calendar, a world clock, a calculator, a notepad, and a unit converter.
More-advanced users will like the memory card manager, a wireless Web browser, instant messaging (AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo Messenger), stereo Bluetooth, USB-syncing mode, voice command, and a voice memo recorder. You can also get e-mail from a variety of sources like AOL Mail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, and any POP or IMAP account. You can also get your work e-mail sent to the phone, provided your company uses Outlook Web Access. There's also GPS functionality with support for Sprint Navigation and Sprint Family Locator.
The LX370 comes with EV-DO Rev. 0, which is a huge boost when accessing Sprint's broadband services like Sprint TV, which provides streaming video clips from content providers like CBS and ESPN, and Sprint Music, which allows you to purchase and download songs directly to the phone for 99 cents each. The music player interface is similar to other Sprint Music phones, with basic settings like repeat, shuffle, and the ability to create and edit playlists. The LX370 supports up to 16GB microSD cards for additional storage.
The 2.0-megapixel camera on the LX370 can take pictures in four resolutions (1,600x1,200, 1,280x960, 640x480, and 320x240), three quality settings, and four color tones. Other settings include night mode, fun frames, brightness, white balance, a self-timer, and four shutter tones with a silent option. Photo quality was mediocre. The colors were overcast and dark, and the image itself was slightly blurry. There's also a built-in camcorder that can record videos in either video mail or long video length, and in either high or low resolutions. The camcorder settings are similar to the still camera's options.
You can personalize the LX370 with a variety of wallpaper, graphics, and alert tones. It also comes with a few games like demo versions of Galaga, Tetris Pop, and The Oregon Trail. To get full versions of these games, and to get more graphics and sounds, you can download them via the Sprint mobile store on the wireless Web browser.
Performance
We tested the LG LX370 in San Francisco using Sprint's network. We were very impressed with the call quality overall. Callers said our voice sounded natural, loud, and clear. Similarly, we could hear our callers loud and clear as well. Speakerphone calls were just as good--callers could hardly tell we were on speakerphone. The speakers did sound a little tinny, but that's to be expected. For music playback, we would recommend using a stereo headset for the best audio fidelity.
We were also pleased with the EV-DO Rev. 0 speeds. Downloading a 1.4MB song took around 30 seconds, and there was hardly any buffering when loading streaming video.
The LG LX370 has a rated battery life of 6 hours talk time. It has a tested talk time of 4 hours and 18 minutes. According to FCC radiation tests, the LG LX370 has a digital SAR of 1.41 watts per kilogram.