LG Glimmer
The LG Glimmer is a touchscreen phone that seems to be unable to fully rid itself of traditional buttons. Unlike some of the other touchscreen phones on the market that offer the touchscreen as the primary way to access all of the available features, the LG Glimmer keeps a traditional numeric keypad and buttons for some controls. This begs the question as to what market the LG Glimmer is going for. It is certainly an attractive device, and has enough features to appeal to the average user – but it misses the mark for those interested in a high tech device. It seems that LG was simply forced to develop a touch screen phone to compete with the iPhone.
Announced in March 2008, the LG Glimmer is a dual band CDMA phone. This means that it can be used only in the United States and a few other places in the world. However, because the LG Glimmer takes advantage of the CDMA network, it can also access data at high speeds thanks to the EVDO rev.0 support the device offers. These 3G data speeds come in handy when sending files, watching videos, or browsing the Internet.
Measuring in at approximately four inches by two inches by a half of an inch, the LG Glimmer is a fairly large device. It also weighs a hefty 127 grams, making it smartphone size without many of the traditional smartphone features.
Expect to get terrible battery life with the LG Glimmer. The phone provides about three and a half hours of talk time or 168 hours of standby time. For a phone in a highly competitive sector, these figures are far from impressive.
The main display is a huge 2.8 inch touchscreen capable of displaying 240 pixels by 400 pixels. Unfortunately, LG decided to cheap out on their device and allow the screen to display only 262k colors.
The LG Glimmer also features a 2.0 megapixel digital camera built into the device. It features video recording, a flash, and 5 times digital zoom.
Multimedia features are plentiful on the LG Glimmer. The video player supports a number of formats. You can also store and play a variety of different types of music files. Although there is only 128 MB of built in memory, the device’s memory can be expanded via microSD cards. One major drawback of the multimedia features on the LG Glimmer is the lack of a full HTML browser, limiting the user to browsing the web as if using a lesser cell phone.
Other features include the following:
- Support for Bluetooth 1.2
- 500 name capacity phone book
- Alarm
- Calendar
- Notepad
- Clock
- A unit converter
- Calculator
- A number of voice features
- Voice recorder
- Speakerphone
- Email support
- GPS support
Pros
- Lots of features
- Very attractive
- 3G and GPS support
Cons
- Features are subpar compared to other phones in this price range
Overall
On the surface, the LG Glimmer seems like great competition to the Apple iPhone and the growing number of other touchscreen consumer-level phones on the market. However, after examining the device, it is clear that LG didn’t quite know what they wanted this phone to be. It has both touchscreen dialing and a numeric keypad. It has tons of multimedia support, but doesn’t offer a full HTML browser. The touchscreen is highly versatile, but there is a poorly coded typing feature. All in all, do yourself a favor and check out the iPhone, the LG Vu and the dozens of other touchscreen phones before you sink your money on the LG Glimmer.
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