Phone Review: LG Shine

After two years of burning, mauling, and using my ol' trusty Samsung phone as a bottle opener, it became time to renew my AT&T contract, and accept my phone upgrade.  After a couple nights of research, and making the decision of whether I wanted to be "that guy" carrying a Blackberry or not, I decided on taking a chance with the LG Shine.

My budget isn't huge, so I typically just pick up one of the free phones that come with a 2-yr contract, but the

states of Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania were good to me in my tax returns this year.  I began by kinda looking at what I typically use my phone for.  This included, well, texting and phone calls.  Period.  My bill is high enough already that I didn't need to bother with the extended media package, extended media plus, bonus internet extreme, or super bonus all-you-can-download packages.  Therefore, I figured I wouldn't even be able to use the pda/pocket pc sorts of phones to their full extent.  The reason I landed on the Shine is because a good friend of mine raved about the metal casing (indestructable is a huge plus in my book), the 2 MP camera (we'll see if I use it), and the mp3 player (after you buy a USB cable, memory card, and special ear phones...yea right).

So anyway, after using it a week, I have definitely noticed a few positives and negatives.  The first positive was the price.  This refurb phone ran me $30 (plus the new phone fee plus the contract renewal fee).  I didn't think that was too shabby considering what the price could have been.  Second, the slide phones are mad fun to slide open and closed (I won't get into this, but you'll see).  Third, there is a little "multitasking" button on the side.  If you are in the middle of a text and need to get a number, check something online, or change a setting, the push of that button will give you a whole new screen to work with (kind of like the multi-desktop feature offered with many operating systems).  Finally, the ability to get information on the internet has been helpful from time to time.  You can find the weather, sports scores, and email quickly and easily.  You can tell the phone isn't as suited for internet browsing as the iPhone, but it does a decent job.

Now for the downsides.  The navigation button thingy is a BITCH.  Its hard to get where you want to quickly, and I am constantly selecting items I don't want.  There's just not enough friction to get it to move where you want to. 

Second, the keypad is modeled after Motorola's Razr keypad, which if you have tried, can be reallllllly hard to tell what button you are on.  These things will take some time to get used to I suppose.  Also, the huge screen likes to collect dust, fingerprints, and everything else under the sun.  It has never been a huge deal, but I mean I like my screens perfectly clear.

All in all, I am liking the phone, but I will definitely need a few more weeks to play around with it (and to drop it on the floor).  A few of its rivals you might want to check out are the Samsung SGH-D807, and the LG Chocolate.