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 Verizon’s LG VX9900 (marketed as the “enV”) is the newest reincarnation of VX9800 (The V) that was introduced over a year ago. The main feature of both phones is that they are a clamshell design; incorporate a QWERTY keypad that can be used when composing Text Messages and E-Mail. That is where most commonalities end. The enV is updated with a slimmer and more modern design, better quality external display and internal (QVGA) display, a 2MP camera with auto focus, and MicroSD card slot. Both the V and enV also have stereo speakers for ringtones and MP3 playback. The retail package includes the enV phone, 950mAh battery, travel charger, and user guide.
Appearance and design
Dimension: 90 x 47 x 15 mm; weight: 115g.
LG must have learned from its previous mistakes when it designed the enV. Yes, the phone is still boxy like the VX9800, but smoother lines give it a sleeker and more professional look. At 4.64x2.08x0.78 inches, it's thinner and narrower than its predecessor (4.57x1.97x1.0 inches) even if it is a tad taller. And though it's still hefty at 4.6 ounces, it is noticeably lighter than the VX9800 (5.19 ounces) and feels more comfortable in the hand. As with the VX9800, you can talk on the enV while it is open, but it's rather awkward to do so. Keypad
Below the external display is a 5 way navigational keypad that will access MP3 music, calendar, and limited phone settings (you must open the phone to get to the full menu settings). Surrounding it are the left & right soft keys, voice command, Send, and End keys. Below them is the silver numeric keypad, with blue backlighting, that is used for dialing phone numbers. The buttons are smaller than average, but still easier to use than on the Chocolate.   Of course, the most exciting feature of the enV is its full-keyboard input option. The phone opens along the long right-edge in a sideways clamshell design that both looks cool and allows for the keyboard to be included in a compact design. The keyboard for the most part resembles the standard QWERTY layout with a few exceptions. Instead of a single space bar, the phone features two "Space" keys on either side of the bottom row, which allow for easier thumb-typing. The left-handed space bar is at the bottom of a column along the left edge of the keyboard, along with a "Symbol" key for accessing common punctuation, a "Shift" key for capitalization, and an "email" key, which brings up email for registered clients. This keyboard format helps facilitate the transition from two-handed touch-typing to two-thumbed typing. Although typists can not attain as high WPM counts as with a full-sized keyboard, they should be able to type more naturally and much more quickly than with traditional alphanumeric phone pads.  The keyboard takes up most of the bottom half of the open clamshell, with the remaining space dedicated to a five-way navigation key, Send and Power keys, a Speakerphone key, and the Clear key, conveniently placed beside the right-hand space bar. Additional buttons
There are three buttons on the left side of the phone. One is a dedicated camera button, and the other two double as volume adjusters and zoom when the phone is in camera mode. None of these buttons are accessible when the phone is opened in the 3/4 position, but are when it is opened to the full 180 degrees. The camera button is actually a little difficult to press, as it is recessed a bit from the top edge of the phone. Rather than hitting the camera button, sometimes you'll just hit the edge of the phone. Sizes, Ports and Slots
The sides of the VX9900 are home to a decent volume control rocker switch, a headset jack, and a covered microSD memory card slot. A small LG power and data cable connector is located on the bottom, protected by an attached cover.. Display
TFT, 128 x 160 Pixels, 65K Color
The enV has two screens. A tiny exterior display on the outside for basic feature navigation, and a larger interior screen for watching videos, composing emails, browsing the web and taking pictures. The screen on the front, which appears to be the same one from the original V, is small compared to other candybar phones. I’m talking just barely bigger than a Quarter. This screen hosts most of the menu options when the enV is closed, and the diminished size makes for cramped navigation. The icons on the standard Verizon Wireless user interface were so small as to be almost pointless. It is bright enough to be readable in bright sunlight, but is nice and bright in dark rooms. The resolution on the screen is not great. Images are slightly pixelated and everything appears cramped on the tiny display. When dialing, the numbers are very small on the screen under the factory settings of "normal" and are almost impossible to see in sunlight. They are much easier to read if the dialing font is set to "large", and they are much more visible when in sunlight. TFT, 240 x 320 Pixels, 262K Color
The enV's 2.25-inch, 62,000-color internal screen is on a par with its predecessor. It's bright and vivid with readable text, and it's great for viewing graphics and taking photos. You can change the backlighting time, and we were glad to see LG add several choices for the font, size, and color. In an unexpected twist, the main menu page uses icons instead of the tabs found on Verizon's standard interface. It's a nice change, considering that we've never warmed to the tabs, although once you're inside a submenu, the dreaded tabs appear again. Stereo speakers sit on both sides of the display. Camera
2Mpx, Video, ZOOm
The VX9900 has an unusual 2 megapixel camera: it offers both fixed focus and autofocus modes-- usually you get one or the other but not both. In fixed focus mode it works like most camera phones, taking the photo nearly instantly with less than superb focus and no depth of field. The camera has several white balance settings including auto, various shutters sounds (you can disable the shutter sound if you wish) and color settings such as negative, sepia, solar and black & white. The camera has night mode which does help for dark shots and a flash. These effects and settings are also available in video mode. As with photos, you can save videos to internal memory or a MicroSD card and there are settings for 15 second max videos for MMS or up to 1 hour for saving to a card. You can take videos at 320 x 240 resolution or 176 x 144 commonly used for MMS. As with the LG VX9800, you'll hold the camera horizontally to take a photo when the phone is closed. Given the large lens it looks like a point and shoot camera from the back. The camera has a flash and a lens cover to repel those tiny dust bunnies that hide in pockets. The external camera button both launches the camera application and acts as a shutter button (you can also use the d-pad center button as the shutter button). Menu
The ho-hum menu screen pops up with five icons running across the top of the screen, which can be scrolled through sideways with the D-pad. They are the "Get-It-Now", Messaging, Contacts, Recent Calls, and Settings & Tools menus. Each has its own sub-menu of functions that can be selected by moving the D-pad up and down. Almost every feature can be accessed from the front screen of the phone through this menu set up.       The larger interior screen features slightly expanded menus. When the center of the interior D-pad's menu key is tapped, the large icons pop up in grid format. Each icon does a little dance when it is scrolled over. The animations are all sharp and quick with no delay. After the animation is done, the icon remains enlarged until you move to cursor on. If an icon is selected it brings up the standard Verizon selection grid with the main selections displayed across the top of the screen. Under each menu screen, the applications all have their own numerical shortcut for those who are too lazy to hit the D-pad 4 or 7 times.       With the larger screen, there are three menu selections available here that aren't available on the exterior screen: Email, IM and Navigator. The email menu only contains one selection and it loads the Intellisync download client for its push email service. The IM client allows you to sign into AIM, MSN or Yahoo. The navigator menu also has only one selection, Verizon's white-label navigator application. This application worked well, but requires a subscription. - Stylish design with internal antenna
- WERTY keyboard for easy messaging
- Simultaneous GPS for enhanced location accuracy
- 2.0 megapixel autofocus camera with flash and camcorder
- Camera resolution: 1600x1200, 1280x960, 640x480(default), 320x240 pixels
- Protective camera lens cover
- Self-Timer: 3, 5 or 10 seconds
- LCD Dual Mode for self-portraits
- Customizable brightness, white balance, shutter sound, color effects, night mode
- Video Resolution: 320x240, 176x144 pixels; video format: 3G2
- Video Player for MP4, 3GP, 3G2, WMV formats
- Functionality to allow videos to be set as wallpaper
- Capability to record up to one hour of video
- Video Message Mode -- record up to 15 seconds of video
- Digital Zoom: up to 2.5 times(2)
- V CAST-Capable
- V CAST Music -- download songs over the air or transfer your own music collection onto removable microSD memory cards
- V CAST Video and 3D Games -- download or stream video clips from the best names in news, sports, entertainment and more or download the latest 3D games from top providers
- Music player with customizable audio effects and user interface player themes that support mp3 and WMA formats
- My Music -- Allows users to manage play lists. Songs are automatically organized by artist, genre and album
- Music Only Mode (RF off except Bluetooth)
- MicroSD memory port -- store music, customer generated pictures, video and sounds
- Dual speakers for stereo sound
- Bluetooth-Capable (v1.1) -- compatible with devices that support the headset, handsfree, Serial Port (SPP), file transfer, audio/video remote control, basic printing, human interface device, Dial Up Networking (DUN), and Object Push (OPP) profile for vCard(5) exchange
- Advanced audio distribution profile (for Bluetooth stereo headset support for listening to music)
- Save up to 20 Bluetooth pairings
- Send vCard to another Bluetooth device
- Wireless Sync E-mail (BREW e-mail Client) capability
TXT, PIX and FLIX Messaging-enabled -- send and receive messages with text, sounds and customer generated photos and videos
- Up to 1,120 character of text for TXT Messaging
- Get It Now-capable -- download games, ring tones, wallpapers and more
- Mobile Web 2.0(SM)-capable -- customizable, enhanced wireless access for the latest in news, sports, weather and more
- Web-Based e-mail and instant messaging
- One-touch speakerphone
- Text to Speech, so text messages can be heard aloud
- Speaker-Independent voice recognition
- Voice Memo Recording -- 1 minute in standby or 5 minutes during a call
- 13 unique ring tones and vibrate/silent modes
- VZ Navigator-capable -- get audible turn-by-turn directions and location information from the phone to more than 14 million points of interest
- Personal Tools: Calendar, Alarm Clock, Notepad, World Clock, Calculator and EZ Tip calculator tools
- Speed Dial (95 entries and pre-programmed entries for voicemail, #BAL, #MIN, #PMT)
- 1,000 address book contacts with 5 numbers, 2 e-mail addresses and a picture ID for each entry
- Keyguard
- TTY/TDD Support
- Hearing Aid Compatible (M3-Rating)
- Standalone Mode (RF Off)
- Technology: CDMA
- Frequency: 1.9 GHz CDMA PCS, 800 MHz CDMA (digital dual-band)
- Data Transmission: high-speed EV-DO (where available) and 1xRTT
- Dimensions: 4.64" (h) x 2.08" (w) x 0.78" (d)
- Weight: 4.60 oz.
- Displays --
- Internal LCD: 262K Color TFT, 240 x 320 Pixels, 11 Lines
- External LCD: 65K Color TFT, 128 x 160 Pixels, 8 Lines
- Standard Battery: 950 mAh Li-Polymer
- Usage time of up to 4 hours 30 minutes or 19 days 4 hours of standby time
Pluses
QVGA Internal Display
2MP Camera
Stereo Speakers Minuses
Sound quality is below average
Autofocus quality
Camera settings reset to default when the phone is turned off and back on Conclusion
The VX9900 (enV) is a welcome update to the VX9800 (The V). It seems that LG listened to customer feedback and improved upon the phone is almost every aspect, including hardware design and software. The enV has a more stylish look to it and weighs less, while maintaining good quality construction. For those who want a keyboard for texting but don't need all the features of a smartphone or PDA phone, let alone the more expensive data plans associated with them, the LG VX9900 enV bridges the gap. For those who aren't email addicts, the LG is a feature-rich phone. |
