LG C1300 Phone (Cingular)

Rating:
Summary: One person's pro might be another's con
Review: Alas, my trusty Nokia cell phone died horribly and slowly, the folks at the cell phone store had to put it out of its misery. Having driven there through traffic and rain, I was surprised to find my options for a replacement limited, especially since my now dead Nokia had lasted just slightly longer than its warranty.

I left with a nifty little (slightly) used LG 1300 as the replacement and decided to let a month go by and see what I thought. At this point, the pros outweigh the cons, but, one person's pro might be another's con and vice versa. Human nature being what it is, I think it is more fun to focus on the cons first.

First the battery life is short, and the claim that this phone has up to 240 minutes of standby is debatable. There should be some sort of way to shake this thing around and generate a bit more time. Better yet, if one could hop violently from side to side as though afflicted with St. Vitus' Dance (which is a self-limiting disorder of movement caused by both streptococcal infection and by talking loudly on cell phones in crowded venues) and recharge the battery, then that would be very entertaining to watch.

Next, this phone is so small that it could be confused with a big pack of chewing gum. This feature is bad only if you keep a cluttered desk or satchel and keep having to call your cell phone from your desk phone in order to locate the little gizmo. The washing machine poses another, perhaps lethal set of consequences that could stem from the size of this phone.

We need to talk about the buzzer/vibrate setting, a feat of malicious engineering that deserves Cingular----I meant singular----mention. A pair of nondescript, tiny buttons grace the left side of the LG 1300. These buttons magically change the phone's setting from vibrate, silent, or ring if you accidentally press them. So when the phone rings, it's best to poke it with a stick first, then flip it open from the junction of the bottom/top not the sides.

(Permit me a parenthetical word about the buzzing or vibrating here. If you have a small chassis from a toy car available, you set the LG 1300 to vibrate, attach it to the chassis with a rubber band, put it on tray or cutting board and presto, you have a dynamic cat toy! Just call your number from another phone and your felines will pounce all over this sleek, mouse-like marvel.)

I was surprised at the poor selection of ring tones---or is it spelled solid as ringtones?---available, but then I found that the initial menu pick on the phone takes one to a media mall. I haven't visited there yet, but if I'm ever hungry I may try out the food court.

There are good things about this phone. The buttons sort of click when you press them, which makes it seem like you are entering data into one of those tricoders from the any of the various Star Trek series. Using the menus is pretty intuitive (unlike say those in a French restaurant), and changing the settings requires minimal effort.

Once flipped open, the earpiece and mouthpiece are sort of in the vicinity of the human ear and mouth, respectively, which does make a degree of sense in the design of a telephone! Plus this phone does not have a camera!! It's bad enough to have to talk to some of my friends, but if I also had to look at them, I would never use the phone.

I've also had some trouble with calls being dropped, and if this is happening because of some undocumented feature in the user manual, then I would like to know what it is. To me, this is not necessarily a bad thing because there is simply no better way to get out of an uncomfortable or unwanted conversation than to hang up on yourself.

The sleek, curved, compact case makes one feel a bit like a spy, so the coolness factor should not be discounted entirely. And the designers even included this wild little mirror on the outside. Although this tiny mirror gets smudged quite a bit, who knows, it could someday save your life if you are ever stranded and need to attract the attention of any would-be rescuers once your phone's battery has died.




Rating:
Summary: man im sad
Review: at school some moron stole phone(nokia 3595) right out of my backpack in woodshop.so after being yelled at by my parents i took my christmas money with my dad to the cingular store. right away this cell phone was push on my dad. with in a heart beat we came out with this phone. first the reception sucks with this phone it has a low battery life and i feal like ill crush it but as far as a phone goes its okay

Rating:
Summary: Pretty decent little phone
Review: For years, I have resisted the whole cellphone, constantly connected to the world thing. Then, this Christmas, my folks decided to put me on their Cingular family plan and finally force a cellphone on me. At the cellphone store, all I cared about was finding something small, simple, and unobtrusive. This phone seemed like it would fill those requirements perfectly. Well, it has. Both call quality and battery life have seemed more than adequate. I live on the edge of civilization in northwest Colorado where cell towers are few and far between, but I have had what is (to me) suprising success in getting a good signal where one would expect one to be. It's small size is a real boon to me, or anyone like me who does field work outdoors and has to carry around all manner of other gadgets and equipment and doesn't need a large device getting in the way or getting banged up. If you need a good reliable form of communication and also don't need it to be the center of your life, this model fits the bill.

Rating:
Summary: It's a cell phone...Deal with it!
Review: I am a guy who knows what I want, knows what I need, and knows the difference. When it comes to cell phones, I want a cell phone. If I wanted a digital camera, I would buy a digital camera. If I wanted a PDA, I'd purchase one. If I wanted a handheld video console, Nintendo, not LG, would be a top contender for my discriminating dollar.

In the fifteen years that I have owned cell phones of various makes, models, and manufacturers, I have never paid for one. I am into the "free-after-rebate" tradition of buying my phones. All I want in a cell phone is a reliable, no-frills, easy-to-operate, clear sounding, durable, lightweight phone. The LG C1300 is all of that and more...in spades.

Forget the previous complainers. Disregard the negative reviews. It's a cell phone for crying out loud. It doesn't pretend to be anything else. If it's a cell phone you want, I give the LG my highest recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: There should be laws against this phone.
Review: It's cute and light-weight. However, I've only had about 3 phone conversations that were not very choppy or down-right incoherent and dropped. We bought 3 of these for our family and they are almost always unusable. There is an echo in one of them. We have had 4 other phones, mostly Nokias, and they all served us very well. These are going back. Hope you don't wind up with one. In shopping for a replacement, ALL the sales people say that they are getting a lot of these phones back. They have a horrible reputation. I'm glad to read that some people are not having problems with theirs, though.

Rating:
Summary: Crappy, crappy, phone
Review: The external light doesn't serve any purpose, exept maybe to dupe people into thinking that this phone has external caller ID or an external clock. The antenna sucks too. Get a Motorola or a Samsung.

Rating:
Summary: First cellphone and IT ROCKS!!!
Review: The LG C1300 is a sleek, small and very nice cell phone!! Since this is my first one, I was shocked when I got it for Christmas!!! I couldn't believe it!!! This phone is amazing by having an incredable LCD display that is bright and clear! It has very good sound quality when talking/listening to people and when listening to ringtones. There are a few "cool" ringtones such as: Twilight and Rock Me, but that's about it. I would recommend buying your own. The one of the down sides for me is the battery life. The talk time is only four hours and stand-by time isn't that long either. Since I don't talk on the weekdays anyway, I usually leave my phone off. But during the weekends, I talk on it forever causing the battery to run low. Another down side is the external mirror. I wish it could have been an external caller ID or something nice. The only useful thing is the LED light implanted in the mirror telling if your phone battery is charged or not. Overall, for my first cell phone, this is great!! Has everything I wanted in a cell phone! The only two concerns are battery life and the external mirror. If you are considering in buying a cheap yet great quality design, BUY THIS!!! Oh by the way, Cingular ROCKS!!!!

Rating:
Summary: A Cell Phone is a Cell Phone
Review: The LG is a great cell phone. I agree with the previous reviewer, if you want a camera, buy one. The phone is small, easy to use, and has all of the necessary features you need. I also bought the accessory kit from Amazon, and everything works great.

Bottom line: Great Price (free), great reception, small, easy to use.

Rating:
Summary: Great Phone
Review: This is a great Phone! ITs my 3rd phone and i have had problems with 2 of the three. the first one was ugly, and the second one, the battery life was no good. But when i got this LG C1300, it rocked my world! The Battery Life is awesome and the features are real good. You can download ringtones without going online which is really cool and easy. It has a well lit screen and the volume of the ringtones are really loud. The hearing part is awesome, i put it on a volume 3, because when it was on a 5 its like a speaker phone. It only includes one game which is very similar to snake. The picture does not look the same, the big thing in the middle is really a mirror like thing and it flashes green, it does not stay solid. Overall it is a really good phone and i reccommend everyone to go and buy it!

Rating:
Summary: Small and elegant, but with a few issues
Review: This is a simple to use, small, light and generally elegant flip phone, with good reception.
Some useful comments for those interested in getting it:
-It looks nice and has a fast and responsive user interface (I found the LG interface much better than the Samsung x426). It is easy to move from menu to menu by pressing the shown number (or scroll around and press select if you want).
-Some useful functions are hidden away under three menu levels (ie Calculator, Alarm, Calendar). There is no way to assign a shortcut. There are built-in shortcuts to internet, text messaging, contacts, instant messaging.
-It is easy to put the phone to vibrate, even without opening it.
-The light on the outside lights red if there is a waiting message (voice or text) but not when you have missed calls.
-You cannot use most of the phone's functions when talking on the phone. (ie you cannot play games if you have a headset and are having a boring conversation.) But you can take a 'note' and later save it as a phone number.
-The phone can only "ring and vibrate" at the highest volume.
-The volume control for the games is tied to the volume of the ringer. So if you lower the volume while playing and forget to increase it afterward, the ringer will be quiet. Also, if the phone is set to loudest ring, some menu confirmation will elicit a loud sound from the phone (ie entering a new contact.) This is annoying.