Tom McGee's Blog

I’d kind of had enough. My two-year-old Motorola KRAZR, while sleek and sexy, was driving me to distraction. The keys were close together and hard to feel, so texting was a touch-and-go (so-to-speak) matter; and the battery life was beyond bad. After five minutes on a call, beginning with a full meter, the “low battery” signal would start to go off. I had ten minutes’ talk time, at best.

Verizon’s “New Every Two” plan lets you get a new phone at a steep discount (about $100 in my case) when you renew your contract. While it would be cool to finally get an iPhone, the AT&T coverage where I live is unacceptable and for me it’s all about signal strength.

So I went with the LG enV3. The form factor is a little wider than the KRAZR, though a hair slimmer. It opens up to give a QWERTY keyboard with a wider display. The talk time is rated at 100 or so minutes longer than the Motorola, even when new. The camera is sweet, 3.1 megapixels and very sharp. Even in moderately low room lighting and no flash, the picture was sharp and the color was pretty good.

I don’t use it for a whole lot more than making calls and texting people, plus the occasional photo when I leave my Nikon at home. So I’m optimistic that this is going to work out well. Watch for Part II as I live with it for a while.