If you're in need of a cell phone that can handle heavy messaging there are a few models that shine on the crowded scene of consumer QWERTY phones. The most obvious choices right now are the LG enV Touch for Verizon Wireless and the Nokia Surge for AT&T Wireless.
For those who prefer Sprint it's worth knowing that the new Samsung Exclaim was recently released. Despite lacking state-of-the-art technology, the Exclaim should be a worthy successor to the Samsung Rant, improving upon the latter with a 2.6-inch screen and dual slide-out keyboard. Otherwise it should offer an experience similar to the Rant, featuring Sprint's well-performing One Touch interface.
Lastly, T-Mobile recently released the Sidekick LX 2009. We haven't included it in our comparison below, but it's an overall good phone that for some might be exactly what they need. Perhaps the best aspect of the Sidekick is the teen-friendly Sidekick plan, which we recommend checking out.
Consumer QWERTY phone comparison
(Based on infoSync test results) |
| Phone |
Keypad |
Messaging |
Screen |
Specs |
| LG enV Touch |
Very Good |
Very Good |
Very Good |
- 3" WVGA touchscreen
- MS Exchange |
| Nokia Surge |
Very Good |
Very Good |
Very Good |
- 2.4" QVGA screen
- MS Exchange |
| LG Lotus |
Very Good |
Very Good |
Very Good |
- 2.4" QVGA screen
- MS Exchange |
| LG enV3 |
Very Good |
Very Good |
Good |
- 2.6" QVGA screen
- MS Exchange |
| Graphics by infoSync World |
The LG enV Touch is certainly a superior device compared to the LG Voyager, even though the new phone lacks V Cast Mobile TV. Instead, the enV Touch gets 2 high-resolution displays (hint: one's still better than the other), a slew of multimedia and messaging features, and enough power to show off those big displays with fancy video playback and Web browsing with Flash Lite. We'd have liked to see some new ideas from Verizon Wireless for this phone to give it advanced access to the online social networking services that are most popular with this phone's potential audience. Still, if you're looking for something different, a solid phone all around with a great screen (or two), the LG enV Touch gets the job done nicely.
The Nokia Surge is something of an ugly duckling among the inexpensive, full-QWERTY messaging phone set. Actually, it's not even that ugly, and with its Symbian S60 smartphone OS, it's definitely more swan than duck. If you skip the junk that AT&T has piled onto this phone, you're left with a powerful device with business-class e-mail, contacts and calendar sync, a respectable, full-HTML Web browser and suite of multimedia options that were capable of handling our basic music and video needs. We loved the keyboard. It's our new favorite among compact messaging phones, and even though the aging Symbian interface doesn't compare to new-fangled, top-of-the-line smartphones, it still outclasses other, simpler messaging devices by a mile. We wish the phone had more built-in options for our favorite messaging addictions, like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, but that Symbian S60 OS means an intrepid user will find third-party options available. In the end, some messaging fans might prefer a friendlier QWERTY feature phone like the LG enV3 on Verizon Wireless or the LG Lotus on Sprint, but the Nokia Surge is the best compact messaging phone on AT&T's lineup, and a solid choice all around.
The LG Lotus is about as smart as a phone gets before we call it a smartphone, thanks mostly to Sprint's excellent new One Touch menu application. Despite its haunting resemblance to a compact makeup mirror, we even like the form factor, as it provides a nice, comfortable QWERTY keyboard and keeps a classy look. The external screen is unfortunately an afterthought, even with the dedicated music keys, and call quality could have been much better. But for dedicated messaging fans, even those with corporate e-mail to read, this phone provides an interesting alternative to the more complicated smartphone set. Plus, with access to Google Docs, a capable (though not desktop-grade) Web browser and tethered modem support, maybe this phone is even smarter than we thought. Knock $100 off the price, and we'll take two.
Of all the compact QWERTY phone designs, we like the LG enV model the best, with its small but useful external screen and its roomy internal keyboard and display. The phone was a bit thick and chunky but it was so comfortable to use, with large keys inside and out, that we hardly noticed its size. The new LG enV3 is even better than its predecessors, with its ability to download and sync corporate e-mail and contacts, its improved call quality and multimedia experience, especially in video. It isn't perfect, as the Web browser and the 3-megapixel camera left us disappointed, but there are more advanced phones for those features. The messaging apps could also use an update to bring SMS into the modern age, but overall this is a very likeable phone, and easy to recommend to folks who want a compact texting machine with a few clever extras onboard.
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