my LG TU500 review:

[Treatz]

I've been using a Rogers Retail LG TU500 now for about 2 weeks so it's review time!

Quick Specs
Quadband voice 850/900/1800/1900
Dualband HSDPA 850/1900
1.3mix camera
176x220 Screen
MicroSD expandable storage
1 gig on 3 year contracts with current memory promo
Rogers Vision branded
MobiV
Video
Radio
Video calling

Reception
The TU500 was actually quite decent in my trials. It had a few frame rate errors here and there but nothing major. I’m of the mindset that the few frame rate errors I had was because of the phone’s preference to camp on the 1900 band (primary HSDPA deployment) being that it’s a 3G phone. There would be situations where the TU500 would have low service compared to my w580 for example as the w580 would camp on the 850 band. This was a non issue though since the calls would get through and the TU500 drops down to 850 as needed anyway.

The TU500 handled the driving test* quite admirably as most modern phones these days seem to. I don’t know if the phones themselves have gotten better or if it’s the network. IT Could very well be a bit of both to be honest, I haven’t decided as of yet.

*The drive by test is:
Yonge and 16th, east on 16th to woodbine. North on woodbine to 19th. West on 19th to Yonge. North on Yonge to Bloomington. East on bloomington to Bayview.
South on bayview to Stouffville sideroad. East on Stoufville sideroad to Leslie and Leslie back to the Hill



Sound Quality
Incoming
The Incoming sound quality was good. It’s a loud phone. Although there is some hissing in the background, it’s a decent offering for those that are looking for something on the loud end. I was also unable to detect any transmitter buzz in the earpiece in the weaker areas that would be using GSM850

Outgoing
No complaints from my callers. The outgoing quality was good, very little background noise becase of the clamshell design and worked well for my needs.

volume
The ringtone volume itself was actually quite loud. I was also able to set my own MP3 Ringtones as well but it’s tricky. I believe there is a size limitation of about 300k. I never was able to figure out why some MP3’s worked and others didn’t. I originally thought it may be a bitrate issue as well like some of the older moto’s but that wasn’t it. I had to move the MP3’s to the phone from my MicroSD card though to use them as ringtones.

Camera
The TU500 features a 1.3 mpix camera to take shots and send via MMS
The camera itself is pretty average, like most. Nothing special here, takes a half decent pic in ideal conditions but in otherwise poor conditions it’s like most camera phones and sometimes isn’t worth the ordeal.

The camera itself swivels, so the phone uses 1 camera both for images, and Video calling
The problem with this is that the camera isn’t smart and doesn’t reorient itself. So if you have the camera facing internal and start a vid cal, then swing it out to show your caller what you’re looking at the image will be upside down until you manually select to reorient the image.

(I’ll amend my review later as I have the camera images @ the office)

Video
The LG TU500 is also capable of recording video that you can send via MMS as well
Standard issue really running in a 176x144 format

External memory
The TU500 runs MicroSD cards, and as such a 512 meg card is included in the box and is on Rogers Memory Promo for a 1 gig on 3 year terms.

Connectivity
The TU500 has USB support as well as Bluetooth.

USB
The TU500 has USB cable connectivity out of the box
However, you’ll have to load LG’s driver and SW that comes in the box to get the PC to see the phone
Once you’ve done this you have access to LG’s media suite which will allow you to sync your phone, add or remove photos and music.

Bluetooth
The TU500 features your standard issue Bluetooth implementation, and includes A2DP for stereo Bluetooth headset support. You can stream music from the handset to a set of headphones, or an A2DP enabled car radio, or home stereo.

The TU500 can be hidden, or openly visible as well providing the extra layer of security if you’re keen on such things.

Aesthetics
The LG TU500 is a fairly straightforward and clean looking phone.
It is a smidge on the big side for a flip but when compared to its closest vision rival the Samsung A706 it’s not that bad
The TU500 is classically styled with a piano black front and a rubbery black backing














Screen
The TU500 has a decent screen, the outer LCD is legible and the inner LCD has good colour saturation. However, at 176x220 resolution the TU500 is starting to show it’s age. When compared to the A706 or even the upcoming Moto V9, both of which are 240x320 displays, you can definitely see a difference. In suck applications as streaming video or MobiTV over HSDPA the added clarity of the A706’s screen is apparent.





Keys
The Keypad on the TU500 is logically laid out, easy to use and provides decent tactile feel when using it.







Sizing

I can’t seem to get sizeasy to put out images, so here’s a direct URL to a size compare
http://www.sizeasy.com/page/size_com...s-W810-vs-A706

OS
The LG’s OS is pretty straightforward. It’s a grid of icons laid out graphically with text based labels and menu’s as you get further in.

The OS has a few neat tweaks that I found interesting
Namely, the ability to build a caller list of people that you don’t want being able to call you.

For example, on a SE, you can build a caller list of approved callers to these people can call you, but you can’t build a list of rejected callers The TU500 lets you build such a list so that if you add someone’s number into that list they’ll get flushed automatically without the phone bothering you. As an experiment I put a few of my buddies on that list and had them call me. Nothing. Straight to voicemail. It only seems logical that if you can build a list of approved callers, you should be able to build a list of calls to reject. With the TU500 you can do that.

Battery
After using the A706 I was anticipating the TU500’s battery life to be equally as poor.
However, the TU500’s battery is 1100mah and it actually lasted me a day with heavy SMS/calls/wap hofo and the odd vision service. Even when I ran it through an extreme test of MobiTB streaming it lasted 2.5 hours continuously. With that I say the TU500’s battery life is actually excellent for a HSDPA product.

SMS
The TU500 incorporates a standard T9 sms system. It was decent and did it’s job with little complaints. You’re able to easily add custom words and it’s pretty straightforward. It’s a competent SMS system that most manufacturers seem to have nowadays.

PRO’s
*HSDPA 1.8 phone
*Excellent battery life for 3G product
*Loud earpiece
*Loud ringer
*External MP3 controls
*Decent keypad
*Vision services
*caller reject list

CON’s
*Swivel camera doesn’t reorient itself
*Hissing on earpiece during call
*176x220 screen
*tad big

[didouche]

Another great review Treatz... I won't touch this phone (ahhh LG) but still!

[beastie_dan]

Why no score out of 10? Could it be that you're afraid to give this model a decent score (8/10?) when you know it will likely be crap in the longrun?

LG

[Treatz]

Why no score out of 10? Could it be that you're afraid to give this model a decent score (8/10?) when you know it will likely be crap in the longrun?

LG

i don't do score's anymore.

[motoraway]

i don't do score's anymore.

Which is a good thing. I love the reviews, but never counted on scores. Sure, it gave it something to compare, but aside from the specs, everything else is one man's opinion. What might be loud earpiece to one, might be soft to another.

[Treatz]

Which is a good thing. I love the reviews, but never counted on scores. Sure, it gave it something to compare, but aside from the specs, everything else is one man's opinion. What might be loud earpiece to one, might be soft to another.

yup. Agreed. Which is why I stopped
Howard originally asked me to use ratings but I dont wanna anymore

[Sharpo]

wait, you forgot one important part.

Is this LG immune to Telecomzombie'ing?

[fido2004]

Sound Quality
Incoming
The Incoming sound quality was good. It’s a loud phone. Although there is some hissing in the background, it’s a decent offering for those that are looking for something on the loud end. I was also unable to detect any transmitter buzz in the earpiece in the weaker areas that would be using GSM850

Is there any volume difference between Rogers 3G and Rogers GSM network ?

Do you feel the hiss is in the phone or the network itself ?

When on 3G, is the call clarity better than GSM ?

[C19.H28.O2]

Great review... but I'm thinking the V9 is a cooler phone.

edit: Not really feeling that keypad, either.

[C19.H28.O2]

yup. Agreed. Which is why I stopped
Howard originally asked me to use ratings but I dont wanna anymore

Howard is a real person?

[newman_dcb]

Good review, thanks. Glad to see that it has half decent battery life. That being said, the price is a little steep for what it appears to offer. I think if I were to choose between the two current Vision phones, I'd go for an A706.

[Prevailing Wind]

Yeah A706 over this beast for sure. This thing looks ok on the outside, but inside it's just a disaster in my opinion (from pics). It'll probably end up being the bottom of the barrel for Rogers' 3G phones (assuming it lasts very long on Rogers' lineup).

[motoraway]

Yeah A706 over this beast for sure. This thing looks ok on the outside, but inside it's just a disaster in my opinion (from pics). It'll probably end up being the bottom of the barrel for Rogers' 3G phones (assuming it lasts very long on Rogers' lineup).

When I ordered my A706 last week, the girl seemed to be pushing the LG over the Sammy. I went with the Sammy anyhow. While I'm not usually a fan of Sammy's, the A706 is decent. A few annoying quirks, but after a few minutes of figuring out their UI, it's not a bad phone. Reception on 850 seems a bit weak, but meh.

[newman_dcb]

Yeah A706 over this beast for sure. This thing looks ok on the outside, but inside it's just a disaster in my opinion (from pics). It'll probably end up being the bottom of the barrel for Rogers' 3G phones (assuming it lasts very long on Rogers' lineup).

I have a feeling that when our location gets this phone, it won't ever sell.

And depending on pricing, I'm sure it'll be bottom of the barrell over at Fido too, when they pick it up, especially if it's alongside much nicer 3G phones (ie. v9, z750i, a736).

[tbooth]

Howard is a real person?

Is it safe to assume you're joking?

If not, look at howardchui.com, this forums mother site.