Larry Garfield looks at LG Electronics' mid-range offering, the L1150, including some of the best clamshell engineering yet seen.
Exterior
The LG L1150 is a well-designed clamshell phone, measuring 83.8 x 43.9 x 25.9 mm and weighing a not uncomfortable 94.9 grams. It bulges slightly at the bottom for an almost teardrop shape that is quite comfortable in the hand, but more significantly the top and bottom halves taper in slightly at the crease. That makes it easy to slip a finger or thumb between them to open the phone one-handed - a small yet very important detail. The casing is an attractive blue and silver plastic that bulges slightly in front.
 | The L1150's feature set doesn't quite live up to its first-rate design
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The external screen is a basic backlit grayscale display with time, signal, and caller ID, while the internal display is a bright and clear 16-bit color TFT measuring 128 x 160 pixels. The keypad is a strong point for the L1150, with comfortably large keys in a traditional arrangement and slight ridges between the rows, making it one of the most blind-dial friendly phones we've used. The only downside is the blue backlight on the keypad, as blue light scatters easily and in fact is difficult to read. The flat directional pad is also easy to use.
The left side of the phone includes a metal volume rocker (which only supports vibrate on highest or no volume) and covered headphone jack, while a camera button sits on the right. The front of the phone includes a VGA camera and tiny vanity mirror. A fixed 2 cm external antenna finishes off the ensemble.
Ergonomics
The beveled edges of the phone make one-handed operation easy, while as mentioned the keypad is one of the nicer ones we've used with good responsiveness. It is light enough and well-shaped for good against-the-face usage, and the balance is not bad for texting. The keypad includes Camera and Gallery buttons, in addition to the directional pad which serves four different applications in addition to its usual function, making the menu almost unnecessary. There are also hard plastic nubs on either side of the 5 key for guidance. In all, the L1150 is one of the better-built clamshells we've used from a basic usability perspective.
Features
The L1150 is a tri-band 850 / 1800 / 1900 MHz GSM/GPRS device. Software includes all of the usual suspects, including SMS and MMS, a mini e-mail client, a web browser, 255 entry address book and small PIM suite. There is also an instant messaging client with support for AIM, ICQ, and Yahoo.
The phone supports polyphonic ringtones, some of which are included and sound superb, as well as animated backgrounds. It also supports Java games, although none are included. Also absent are either Infrared or Bluetooth, leaving little in the way of connectivity. Input is via either T9 or multi-tap, user-selectable, and the phone supports speaker-dependent voice dialing.
Performance
Voice quality of the L1150 was good, and we had no reception difficulties in testing. The 0.3 megapixel camera is very responsive and image quality is quite good for a flash-less VGA camera phone, even handling indoor shots well. It also supports multi-shot for rapid-fire pictures, but not video.
The removable 820 mAh Lithium Ion battery is rated for 7 hours talk time and 240 hours standby, which the phone manages, more or less.
Availability
The LG L1150 is available now from AT&T Wireless for $79.99 USD with service agreement or $199.99 USD without service agreement.
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