LG Lotus Elite – with an external touch screen display!

For:

Downright sexy looks, the camera is located on the hinge and hence swivels, external display has touch screen interface, good call quality and plenty of multimedia and text messaging.

Against:

Not much upgrades have been made from its predecessor in features, camera could have been of 3.2 MP, speakerphone quality for calls and music is disappointing.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

LG Lotus Elite is a CDMA2000 1X handset with support for CDMA2000 1X 1900/800 bands. It is a clamshell phone. The two mega pixel camera of the phone takes photos in four resolutions of 320×240, 640×480, 1280×960 and 1600×1200. Other settings include night mode, self timer, four shutter sounds along with a silent option, 4x zoom (zoom cannot be used at the highest resolution), nine fun frames, five presets for white balance presets (there is a manual mode too), brightness (manual and auto), and four color tones. The camera can shoot videos in resolutions of 128×96, 176×144 or 320×240.

The external and internal displays of the phone have the same specs. Both are 2.4 inches in size and have a 240 x 320 pixel resolution. The only difference is that the external display is resistive touch screen. Supported audio formats are AAC +, MP3 and AAC. Other features include vibrating alert, polyphonic ringer, call timer, call conference capability, voice recorder, caller ID, speakerphone, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, speakerphone, voice dialing, microSD card slot, GPS, touch screen. Rated talk time of the phone is 354 minutes and standby time is 389 hours. On the left side of the phone, there is volume rocker button and a 2.5 mm headphone jack. On the right side, there is a slot of microSD cards, screen lock button, and camera key.

Razzle Dazzle:

This phone doesn’t look like the usual ones that you see. It has a square design that you hardly get on the phone these days. (Todays phones are mostly rectangular due to the wide screen displays) Though unseen, we welcome this new design by LG, it has certainly worked hard to this phone a style statement. The biggest upgrade to this phone from the previous Lotus is the touch screen on the external display which we thought was quite sexy. We think the Lotus Elite is more aimed at women with the bold red exterior with a whimsical floral tattoo on it. The handset also attached with red leather strap which can be removed if you don’t want it.

Inside Dope:

This device is the successor to LG Lotus Elite that we got back in 2008. The looks are the same but the handset is now sleeker, curvier and there is a stunning resistive touch screen on the lid through which you can contacts and messaging without opening the lotus elite handset. We couldn’t get enough of this external display and spend a lot of time fiddling around with it in our test centers. Usually the external display’s on the phones are quite disappointing, they only give basic information like signal strength, time, data and caller ID. But we had absolutely no complaints about this external display. The Lotus Elite also has integration with social networks like Twitter and Facebook. But apart from that, the features are about the same which was a bit disappointing considering LG had a year to come up with new ideas.  This handset is made for style conscious people. LG Lotus Elite will put you back by $99.99 and comes with a 2 year contract and a mail-in rebate of $50.

Display

LG Lotus Elite’s external display is 2.4 inches big and has a resolution of 320×240 pixels or 262k colors which is awesome for a lid display. The screen is resistive though, which means it is not as easy to use an iPhone screen. The highlight of the external display has to be the animated wallpaper. Our review unit had a flying butterfly animation which had us drooling on the screen for a lot of time. You also get the usual information like time, date, signal strength and battery. There is an icon for messages or missed calls. You can also program the phone to access your contacts lists, recent call history, speed dial contacts, photo gallery and messages and you don’t have to open your phone for this. The internal display of the phone is of the same size and has same resolution as the external display but it is not touch screen. You can adjust the brightness of the display, font size for browser, messages, ntoebpad, applications and digital digits. The main menu’s look can be changed to list or grid.

Navigation array and keyboard

LG Lotus Elite doesn’t have any button on the lid and all the keys are located on the inside. Beneath the display you get a navigation array which consists of a four way toggle with OK button in the center, two soft keys, Talk/End keys, back key and a dedicated button for speakerphone. The keys are flat but not difficult to press. There are three buttons which say Text, Email and Social. The latter key can be used as short cut for social network applications like MySpace, Twitter or Facebook.

We really liked the QWERTY keyboard beneath the navigation buttons was really good and comfortable to typing messages. There is a dedicated key for emoticon, the number keys are colored in red and we really liked the position and size of the space bar. (Mostly it is really small and is aligned to one side of the keyboard which is irritating)

Phone book and PIM features

LG Lotus Elite has a 1000 entry limit phone book, a single entry can take multiple numbers, memo, three e-mail IDs, URL, street address, IM user name, job title, company name and birth date. There are 4 vibration types and 33 polyphonic ringtones to choose from. The Elite also supports photo caller ID and pairing up of your contacts. PIM features include stop watch, world clock, notepad, calculator, calendar, alarm clock, speakerphone, and a vibrate mode. For advanced users, there are features like mobile Web browser, stereo Bluetooth, document viewer, voice memo recorder, voice dialing and voice command, wireless backup service, and USB mass storage mode. The handset also has A-GPS with support for Sprint’s location-based services like Sprint Family Locator and Sprint Navigation.

Messaging

LG Lotus Elite isn’t anywhere short in messaging. It has the standard multimedia and text messaging features and comes pre installed with IMs like Yahoo, Windows Live and AIM. There is also e-mail. E-mail can be set up from various Web providers like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, AIM Mail, AOL Mail along with other IMAP or POP servers. If your workplace uses Outlook Web Access (OWA) you can easily setup your corporate or work e-mail.

Multimedia

Inclusion of EV-DO Rev. 0 gives you access to a range of broadband services from Sprint. They include Sprint Movies for pay-per-view movies, Sprint TV for live on-demand television shows, Sprint Music for downloading and purchasing songs on the air, and Sprint Radio to stream radio. A track costs $0.99 and you can download it to your computer as well. The music player lets you edit and create playlists and apart from downloading songs, you can transfer the tracks from your computer through USB. Options include shuffle, repeat and you can minimize the player to background when not in use.

Camera

We really liked the position of the camera on the LG Lotus Elite. It is located on the hinge, so when you open the phone the camera is facing you on the hinge and the internal display can be used as a viewfinder for self portrait images. When you close the phone, the camera lens turns on the outside of the hinge, so you can use the external display to click photos. The 2.0 mega pixel camera (we would have liked at least a 3.2 MP camera on this style centric phone) can take pictures in 4 resolutions 320×240, 640×480, 1280×960 and 1600×1200 and there are three settings for quality. Other settings include night mode, self timer, four shutter sounds along with a silent option, 4x zoom, nine fun frames, five presets for white balance presets (there is a manual mode too), brightness (manual and auto), and four color tones. The camera can also take videos and the settings for the camcorder are the same as photos. The quality is not so good but there is not much to expect from a 2.0 MP camera. The colors seem dull and muted and the images were blurry.

Games and personalization

LG Lotus Elite can be customized with screen savers and wallpapers. You can download more from the Sprint’s store. There are a few applications and games like NFL Mobile Live, NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile, Social Zone, Frogger Evolution and Family Feud and Minigolf Las Vegas 4 Prizes. Some games are for trials and you will have to pay a fee for the full versions.

Call quality

LG Lotus Elite’s call quality was very impressive when we tested it in our labs. There is no distortion and our friends sounded natural on the phone. On their side, our friends said that our voice was as clear as landline calls. Speaker phone calls were disappointing, our friends that the voice sounded muffled and we had to speak with the phone close to our mouths. Our friends sounded tinny while on the speakerphone.

Battery life

Rated battery life of the Lotus Elite is 5.9 for talk time. We didn’t test the talk time but we will do it soon and update this section.

Verdict:

LG Lotus Elite is a downright sexy looking phone, we will recommend this phone for style conscious people and it doesn’t disappoint in performance either. To sum it up, it is a super phone but we doubt if men will buy it owing to the floral design on the exterior.