LG VX9900 enV

Like the VX9800 before it, the LG VX9900 enV is both a thick clamshell and a small QWERTY flip phone. Closed, the phone has a small external screen, almost too small for anything but dialing. Open, the internal screen is bright and colorful, but also proportionally small, just over two inches, relative to the open lid, with a large black frame around the screen highlighting the wasted space. The clamshell opens with a snap to two stages: tilted about 135 degrees, and completely open. Speakers flank the screen, and the camera is found on the back of the case. Unlike the Cingular 8525, which swaps nicely between views when you slide out the keyboard, the VX9900 only keeps your work when you open the phone; closing the clamshell quits any open apps and returns you to the standby screen, an annoying design flaw that made calling from the contacts list much more difficult.

The 65,000-color external display has the same color resolution as on the VX9800, but at 1.25 inches diagonally, it's actually smaller. Though we get that a smaller phone means a smaller screen, we suggest that users with visual impairments should test the phone first. You can use it to navigate through the phone's menus, but the small screen size means we had to do a lot of scrolling to find the feature we wanted. Also, since not all menu options are available, we had to open the phone repeatedly just to access certain applications. In standby mode, it shows the date, time battery life, signal strength, and photo caller ID. You can change the backlight time and the dialing font size.

Verizon's V Cast network does a good job offering new content for purchase, but the VX9900 drops the ball once you've actually downloaded your tunes. The music player is barren, capable of only the most basic playback options. All synchronizing is handled by Windows Media Player on your PC, which is fine if you've never used the superior Apple iTunes. Finding tracks on the phone can be difficult, and playback stops when you select a menu option -- or, worse, when you close your phone to put it in your pocket. We were also bummed by the lack of dedicated music buttons on the phone, and the volume buttons are on the hinge side of the phone, which means they're blocked when the phone is open at an angle. On a positive note, setting up stereo Bluetooth headphones couldn't have been easier.