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>> Welcome to another episode of Prizefight. I'm Veronica Belmont and this is the show where two gadgets are judged blow by blow to determine a champion. Today we have a returning contender, the LG enV saw victory over the Sidekick three awhile back and it's here today to fend off another crowd favorite, the Samsung SCHU740. But first, some feedback from our last battle between the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Dear Miss Belmont, you are a stupid [ bleeping noise ] and you don't know anything about video games. The PS3 rules. Aw, thank you. I always love constructive criticism. But moving on let's see which phone can go the distance. First round is sexiness. We were gaga over the design of the enV the last time around and I still like how you can flip this up to reveal the keyboard. It looks like a pretty standard candy bar model when it's just in call mode. But the U740 and this one could definitely use a sexier name, has an even better secret. It has a dual hinge so it can be opened like this, or like this. Fancy huh? It also is a little bit smaller than the enV and lighter. The displays on the front are both bright and colorful but I feel like the enV could've made better use of the space when you flip it open. I mean seriously, there's a lot of room here. And unlike the standard silver finish of the enV the U740 is champagne colored. That's sexy right? Oh yeah. For the first round, I'm giving the U740 a five and the enV a four. The enV is looking a little dazed but he's not down for the count yet. Round two is next, features. All the gloves are off now. I could go on and on about the features that include EV-DO, calendar, instant messaging, email, voice commands, alarm clocks, but they're mostly the same. They also both have wireless sync. That lets you synchronize your personal or business emails. There are also dedicated camera buttons on the sides of the phone so you can easily take snapshots. Let's make this round a tie. Each gets a five because if there's one thing in the world that I don't have, it's feature fatigue. The U740 is still up by one but it's still much too early to make the call. Up next is navigation. Both phones address navigation in a slightly different way than most. The buttons on the enV are nicely spread out but the actual navigation controls can be a little bit confusing. This directional pad here on the right especially. It took me awhile when I first opened the U740 to figure out what was going on. Getting used to looking at the keyboard vertically and horizontally was kind of weird, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly. A block of twelve keys here on the top double as the number key pad and they're great to stand out against the other keys. And while there are some neat music controls on the front of the U740 the enV makes better use of its design by having all the basic phone features right here on the front where they're easy to access. All in all, I thought the Samsung U740 tried very hard to fit in a lot of buttons with different functions in a very small space. But the enV was just plain easier to use. For this round, the enV gets a five and the U740 gets a four. All these babies are deadlocked, let's see how the multimedia round suits them. Since they're both from Verizon, they each have access to V-Cast video and V-Cast music services. The EV-DO makes streaming videos quick and easy. Now the enV has a two megapixel camera and the difference shows when compared to the U740?s one point three megapixel camera as you can see here. And the camcorder videos also look better on the enV as well. Plus you can edit them right there on the camera. There's sixty four megabytes of storage built into the enV, but I would suggest getting a Micro SD card to put into this slot right here, especially if you're planning on taking a lot of photos or videos. Plus the videos and photos look pretty good in low light situations. Perfect for snapping shots of your friends at the bar for example, they'll love you for that. The U740 can also be expanded with Micro SD and it also has a neat little feature, it'll give you a countdown for taking photos, here listen.
>> One, two, three.
>> Hmm, very cool but I don't think it'll make up for lackluster photos. One point all for the U740 and the enV gets another five. The tide is changing. Will call quality decide who has the glass jaw? Features are great and all but a phone still needs to sound good. In calls the enV was pretty decent, mostly a cell phone, little tinny sounding, a little bit of hiss, but not bad. The U740 was also clearly a cell phone, not a land line, but the calls were clearer than that of the enV. Since they're both on Verizon, we can't use bad service as an excuse this time. The U740 gets a five, while the enV gets a four. Well we have a tie. Each phone gets a twenty three, which means that each phone is pretty smoking. This seems to be a case where you're just going to have to see these phones in person to decide which is right for you. If you have comments or want to make suggestions for the show, you can email me at prizefight at CNET.com. I'm Veronica Belmont, I'll see you next time.
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