LG’s stylish F7200 taps into Cingular’s new push-to-talk service, perfect for chatters who can’t bear to be out of touch. Can it compete with the likes of Nextel’s iDEN handsets?
Review summary of the LG F7200:
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 With the F7200, LG and Cingular have made a good first stab at a GSM push-to-talk phone. While we wish the handset's overall design was a bit more compact and we miss the flexibility of out-of-network PTT, the F7200 makes for a solid alternative to the handsets on Nextel's iDen network – and the price is right. That said, if you want PTT from Cingular with a slimmer form factors and higher-end features like Bluetooth and EDGE support (and you don’t mind shelling out a bit more cash), the Samsung SGH-D357 might be worth a look. Release: May 2006. Price: $1.
Pros: Push-to-talk service; converts PTT calls to cell calls; slick-looking design; good messaging features; speakerphone
Cons: Bulky; confusing soft-key design; no out-of-network PTT
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Full review of the LG F7200:
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One of the first handsets to take advantage of Cingular’s just-launched push-to-talk service, the LG F7200 is a slick-looking slider that packs in solid messaging features and a decent LCD with its PTT abilities. While the F7200 lacks some of the features of Cingular’s other PTT handsets, such as the slim, Bluetooth- and EDGE-enabled Samsung SGH-D357 and the camera-toting LG CG300, it has one quality that’s tough to knock: it’s free (with a two-year service agreement, that is).
The two-tone F7200 slider has a great hi-tech design, complete with a sleek silver trim and a curved grille that serves as the speakerphone. Measuring 4.1 by 2 by 1 inches, the handset is a bit on the thick side; indeed, the phone makes a noticeable bulge in a jeans pocket, and at 4.1 ounces it feels slightly heavy for its size. Still, the F7200 has a nice sliding action, springing open with a nudge on the rubber ridge just south of the LCD.
Bright display
The two-inch, 65,000-color TFT LCD looked rich and bright to our eyes, although the somewhat low resolution led to a visible screen-door effect on the display. We also had a hard time seeing the LCD in direct sunlight, but that’s not unusual for a TFT display. Cingular’s blocky animated icons and menus are serviceable, but due for an update.
The F7200’s main controls look great: the soft keys, “talk,” “end” and “back” buttons all sit in the curved silver trim, which surrounds the four-way navigational control and bubble-shaped select key. Unfortunately, the cool design means that the soft keys lie nearly half an inch away from the bottom of the display, rather than right beneath as you might reasonably expect. We eventually grew used to the annoying design, although we never quite warmed up to it. Otherwise, the phone’s numeric keypad is up to snuff, and we liked the dedicated push-to-talk and speakerphone controls on either side of the handset (although we wish you could turn the speakerphone on before you’re in a cell call).
Talking the talk
In terms of features, let’s get right to the good stuff. The F7200’s push-to-talk features are pretty impressive: besides your standard one-on-one squawking, you can create PTT groups with up to 20 people (similar to Nextel’s Group Connect), and you can create up to 30 groups (although you’re limited to 99 total PTT contacts). A PTT buddy list keeps you updated on the status of your various buddies, and you can set up on-the-fly group calls for up to six contacts and convert a PTT call to a cellular call – all features you won’t find on Nextel’s aging iDEN network. Just about the only PTT feature you don’t get is out-of-network chatting, a la Direct Talk on Nextel.
Messaging features on the F7200 are quite good. In addition to the typical SMS and MMS messaging services, you also get a built-in IM client that supports AIM, ICQ, Yahoo IM, and Cingular IM. Calling features include a speakerphone, five-way conference calling, and voice calling. The address book includes room for 255 contacts in the phone’s memory and 250 contacts on the SIM card, but while you can assign ringtones to your various calling groups, you can’t do the same for specific contacts, which is disappointing.
Tools of the trade
The F7200 includes a WAP 2.0 browser for mobile Web surfing, and while pages loaded relatively quickly for a GPRS-only phone, scrolling on pages was often sluggish. Other tools include an alarm clock, a calendar (with day and month views only), voice memos, a calculator, a notepad, a world clock, and a unit converter.
We tested the dual-band F7200 (850/1900 GSM) in New York City, and we had no trouble hearing our callers (who reported that they could barely tell we were on a cell phone). The phone cruised well past its rated talk time of three hours (in our tests, we got closed to four hours), but we only got about six days of standby time, a bit short of the promised eight days.
Price and availability
The LG F7200 is free with a two-year Cingular service agreement.
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