LG CF360 review – mid-tier handset, 3G & quad-band support
Thumbs Up:
The CF360 is a lightweight and slim slider phone that features good call quality, 1.3-megapixel camera, music player, GPS, 3G and quad-band support.
Thumbs Down:
Flat keypad; no flash and self-portrait mirror; mediocre photo quality.
Inside the Trunk:
Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone Design: Slider
Caller ID: Yes
Other Features: Bluetooth, TTY compatible, quad-band, 1.3-megapixel camera
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
The LG CF360 is a basic handset that features conference calling capability, quad-band, Bluetooth 2.0 and TTY compatible.
2-inch LCD display has 240×320 pixels resolution that supports 16-bit (65,000) colors. 1.3-megapixel camera features self-timer, night mode, and video recording.
The additional highlights are EDGE, GPRS, Mobile Email, and instant messengers including Windows Live Messenger, AIM, and Yahoo! Messenger. Supported audio formats are WMA, MP3, and AAC.
The handset has 910mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 180 minutes talk time and 250 hours idle standby time. Accessories supplied inside the package are AT&T Navigator Insert, Napster Insert, desktop charger, and battery.
Razzle Dazzle:
The LG CF360 is 3.97 inches tall, 1.89 inches wide, and 0.66 inch deep and weighs 3.5 ounces. It has ordinary look and feels comfortable while holding in hands. The handset is wrapped inside black soft-touch surface that provides nice grip. The solid sliding mechanism needs a firm push for sliding up and down. The CF360 comes with either red stripe on its sides or with blue one. The navigation array is also in red or blue color.
Inside Dope:
For AT&T, the LG had released touch-screen handset like the LG Incite and slim mobile with live streaming TV such the LG Invision. Now, the company comes with new – LG CF360 from AT&T that has mid-tier basic handset approach like the LG Shine. The CF360 costs $29.99 with two-year contract after a mail-in-rebate of $50. It is slim sliding phone that features 1.3-megapixel camera, music player, GPS, quad-band, and 3G support. If you need a basic handset with camera, 3G and quad-band support, then the LG CF360 is for you.
2 inches LCD display of the LG CF360 has 240×320 pixels QVGA resolution that supports 65,000 colors. We will prefer to have at least 262,000 colors. However, the CF360’s screens exhibits sharp and colorful images. You can customize the menu style, color schemes, backlight timer, brightness, dialing font color, and font size.
The navigation array is located beneath the display and includes two soft keys, four-directional keys with center OK button, a Call key, a Back/Clear button, and End/Power key. The arrow keys are raised above, while others are flush inside the surface. You can slide down the phone to access the alphanumeric keypad. The keys are not tactile, but are spacious and separated with good delineations between them.
You will find the headset/charger jack, task menu key and dedicated camera key on the right spine. The micro-SD card is located on the top, while the volume rocker sits on the left spine. Noteworthy that task menu key allows switching between the running applications. The camera lens and speaker grille are on the back.
The LGCF360 can store 1000 contacts in its phonebook. Each contact can save two phone numbers, a memo, and one email address. You can organize the callers into groups and pair them with one ring-tone and a photo for caller ID. The basic feature set includes a unit converter, a tip calculator, a stopwatch, a tasks list, a world clock, a calculator, a calendar, a notepad, an alarm clock, text and multimedia messages, a speakerphone, and a vibrate mode.
The advanced highlights are mobile-email, 3G/HSDPA support, GPS/A-GPS with AT&T Navigator (turn-by-turn location based service), stereo Bluetooth, instant messengers (Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and AIM), a voice recorder, a Web browser, voice dialing, and voice command. The mobile-email supports Web-based email services including Earthlink, Comcast, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail.
AT&T has also includes its broadband services within the LG CF360 including AT&T Video Share for streaming one-way live video to other compatible device/phone, and AT&T Mobile Music (Napster) – an online music store. The CF360 also has MobiTV to watch live television, and AT&T Cellular Video for streaming video content.
The music player is tied within AT& Mobile Music menu and has plain user interface. It features on-the-fly creation/editing of play-lists, shuffle and repeat modes, and typical controls. The LGCF360 supports WMA, eAAC+, AAC+, AAC, AMR-NB, and MP3 file formats. AT&T Mobile Music also features XM Radio Mobile for streaming satellite radio, music fan community, music news, song ID service, and Music ID. We like that it also allows watching streamed music videos and shopping for ring-tones.
1.3-megapixel camera of the LG CF360 features self-timer, night mode, and video recording. The still capture options are three shutter sound with a silent mode, brightness, white balance presets, 11 color effects, three quality settings, and four resolutions. You can record videos in two sizes with similar still capture settings. The overall photo quality is average.
The LG CF360 can be personalized with available alert-tones, calendar formats, clock styles, color schemes, wallpaper, and more. The handset comes with four games: Tetris, Ms. Pac-Man, Block Breaker Deluxe and applications like WikiMmobile, MobilePix, Mobile Banking, and MobiTV. More options can be downloaded via MediaNet browser.
We made few calls through quad-band based the LG CF360 via AT&T service. The overall call quality was good. We received clear and loud sound at our end without any voice distortion. The callers also received good sound without any background noise or static, but they could tell we were using a cell phone. The speakerphone call quality was average. The callers received muffled sound at their sound, while we received tinny and hollow sound from speakers.
The audio quality was average on small speakers of the LG CF360. It suffered from tinny volume and weak bass. We will recommend you for using the headset for better music quality. The streaming video from AT&T Cellular Video was pixelated, but there was no buffering speed due fast 3G/HSDPA network. The Web pages loaded instantly and a song was downloaded within one minute.
The battery life of the LG CF360 is 3 hours of talk time and 10.5 days of idle standby time. Its digital SAR rating is 0.676watt per kg in accordance with FCC radiation tests.
Nitty Gritty:
If you need an affordable basic handset with multimedia features, GPS, 3G and quad-band support, then buy – LG CF360.
