LG Renoir review

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6.8

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LG Renoir user reviews

February 1, 2009

Posted by: messym

"A sad apology for a product"

What I like:

The stylus

What I don't like:

It just doesn't want to work as advertised!

Review:

This is going to be warts and all, honest review.

When I swapped tarrifs, I was offered this phone as an upgrade, moving from a Sony K800i. At first I thought "ooh, nice and hi tech.." The reality was soon clear that LG are more concerned creating a triumph of style over function.

1. The touchscreen seemed to vary in sensitivity from day to day. Some days it worked well, some days it didn't. The stylus looked nice though, being very well constructed.

2. The camera lense was good. But if the touchscreen was having a sensitive day, it'd jump to "send photo to MMS or email" menu without me actually wanting this to happen. When I then backed out of that menu and returned to the camera, all the camera settings would return to default which was very frustrating. I had to write down the settings I wanted to use and keep entering them in, every time this happened.

3. Accessing the internet by GPRS was appalling. The page would either not find the host, or would hang in a much reduced view, completely unusuable. This was despite repeated reset instructions via my service provider.

4. It may have GPS, but it doesn't work on Orange. You can download Orange Maps, but it simply isn't worth the effort. I can say this in complete honesty, as I now have Garmin Mobile XT on my replacement phone which is outstanding.

5.Whenever I was calling an automated service, eg Orange Customer Care or my bank, the phone would auto lock once the call was connected. This would mean having to press the unlock icon (hoping it would work), then pressing the keypad icon (again hoping it would work) before pressing "1" or "2". The phone would then immediately relock again meaning that I'd have to repeat the process for every menu choice. Not funny at all!

6. The MP3 player would only list songs in alphabetical order. What is the point in hyping the phone as having a really good, Dolby equipped, MP3 player when this was a clear design fault.

7. The onscreen qwerty pad was quite good, using T9 to predict and then give you a choice of what words to use.

8. The LG PC Suite Software was less than useless. The phone would connect, then disconnect to the PC, making file transfer a time consuming and annoying experience.

9. There is next to no online support from LG. When I tried upgrading the firmware, following the LG updater software instructions, it crashed my phone, only displaying "LG Mobile, Please Wait...." on the screen. It is now being returned to LG for reflashing.

10. It's impossible to personalise the phone. I either had to put up with Orange's white and orange menu or LG's black and white menu.

I was very disappointed. The phone did not live up to the hype. I did read the instructions, but the majority of the problems that I've described are clearly a result of LG shipping an incomplete product. I would not buy another LG again, given the lack of customer support and over complicated and eventually useless software.

As this phone was free, I didn't lose out, although I chose to purchase an unused, unlocked Nokia N95 8GB. Guess what, it has 3 megapixels less but the camera is far easier to use. I can find contacts instantly. The internet connection works flawlessly and very fast. The GPS in conjunction with Garmin is superb. The software is a dream, works first time and puts LG to shame.

Most importantly, the data transfer mode actually works, enabling me to go into the phone and delete applications that are unwanted.

I wish I'd got this in the first place. Sorry LG, but you've lost a customer.