Puleen Patel

This review is for the LG Eve / GW620R phone running Google Android Mobile OS. The phone is courtesy of Rogers Communications (@RogersMiranda). Most of you may or may not be aware that I currently use the HTC Magic, also powered by Google Android, from Rogers as my primary mobile phone. Initial thoughts of the LG Eve are as follows:

• Extremely quick boot up time compared to the Magic.
• The slide out QWERTY keyboard is a neat feature, this makes the phone a little bit bulkier compared to the HTC Magic. Would be interesting to compare this phone with the HTC Dream which also has a slide out full QWERTY keyboard.
• One of the biggest winning feature of the phone (compared to the Magic) is that it sports a 5.0 MP camera. This is great as it also comes with a 4GB MicroSD memory card to store all your pictures/videos, unlike the Magic’s 2GB card.
• Another thing which LG got right (HTC you should pay attention here) is they incorporated a regular 3.5mm headphone jack and not a mini-usb jack like the Magic.
• The device comes with loads of apps already installed out of the box:
  • Facebook, GMail, Google Maps, Google Talk, Linkbook, Moxier (calendar/contacts/mail/sync/tasks), MySpace, News, Stocks, TeleNav GPS Navigator, Video Editor and Weather
• Compared to the Magic, the Rogers My Account actually works and takes you to the mobile page, although there isn’t much to do there.
• In my opinion, the most awesome feature of the Eve is the FM Radio, which I have been listening to for the past hour, and have not noticed too much of a hit on the battery yet.
• The buttons on the front took me some time to get used to. The Magic in my opinion wins in this category, the front buttons are much more easier to tackle quickly the activity one wants to perform. With the Eve, there are three buttons: Home, Back and Menu. These three buttons provide simplicity to the design of the phone, however it makes the phone a little less user friendly.
• Call Costs, is another neat feature which LG put into the phone. This feature allows consumer to monitor the duration and cost for each call by initially setting the cost per call. Additionally, it allows for a limit/threshold to be configured as well. While this may not be useful to everyone, I think it is a neat feature and is something I would love to see incorporated within the Phonalyzr (available on the Market) app.
• The Moxier set of tools are interesting, specifically their Mail app which allows for synchronization with Exchange Server. I don’t have an Microsoft Exchange based email account, so I am unable to test this application for time being.
• One major thing which I find annoying right now with the Eve is the touch screen and its sensitivity level. Compared to the Magic, the touchscreen on the Eve is less sensitive and requires a much firm press rather than a tap to access an intent. (12/09/2009) The issue with the touch sensitivity is really frustrating. When trying to scroll through the list of applications simply touching the screen opens the application instead of scrolling. This to me is a huge nuisance.

What would a review with be without some pictures? For your viewing pleasure, some pictures snapped of the LG Eve and the various application screens follow.

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