LG 500G review
A full Qwerty phone from LG
The new LG 500G, a most anticipated full QWERTY keyboard phone, was officially launched by Tracfone last month. It has since then received a lot of praise by both customers and experts worldwide. Find out what we have to say about it from the review below.
Easy to activate online
The device was very easy to activate online. We did the following: went to Tracfone’s official Internet page, chose the model we bought and entered its serial number after logging in to our account; after that we waited around 20 minutes for activation. Once the process was over, we could make calls right away. Unfortunately, we couldn’t receive or text messages as easy; instead, we had to wait a day to do that. After the twenty-four hours were over, texting and receiving text messages worked like a breeze.
Simple and elegant design
The design of the LG 500G is simple, yet elegant with its rounded edges. The device comes in black smooth finish, measures 4.58” × 2.35” × 0.51” and weighs 86.65 g; the front is thin and sleek and the back is matte; we felt very comfortable holding it and moving it from place to place. On the right upper side we found the volume buttons and on the left upper side sat the mini USB port; the 3.5mm headphone jack can be found on the top. The phone also sports a 2.0 -megapixel camera, a built-in Mp3 player, voice recorder and microSD card slot.
Difficult submenus
When we tested the LG 500G for this review we had no problems with the navigation; they worked really well. Our only problems were with the submenus and the row above the QWERTY keys: the position of the Send, End and soft buttons was rather confusing, because they are situated on the same row; the submenus were tiresome and annoying: to change a certain sound setting, we had to dig very deep to find what we were looking for. The QWERTY keyboard might be somewhat small for some, but we encountered no issues using it. When we wanted to compose a message, we just touched the envelope icon located on the bottom row and began writing; it worked superb, because the keys were very responsive, not to mention extremely comfortable to the touch.
Good signal in antenna
The 640 x 480 resolution screen is somewhat smaller, but it makes up by displaying a large font. The resolution offered good clarity and sharpness, but when we looked at it in the sun, we couldn’t really understand the text on the screen and we couldn’t do anything about it.
During our tests, signal strength was very good and it remained so; the same happened in the case of the speakerphone. A problem was the in-call volume: when we were in a noisy environment, audio quality was average. The battery life was another plus for LG’ 500G: we were able to use the phone for 7 days on a single charge thanks to its 950mAh battery.
Good quality camera
The camera that comes with the LG 500G worked well. Snapping photos went fast and their quality was fairly good. We could afterwards transfer them to a friend’s e-mail address via picture message and to our Bluetooth-enabled PC with the help of a wireless connection. This product comes preinstalled with several games, namely WordAttack and Chequered Flag. When it came to apps, we downloaded some mobile java ones online and easily installed them to the phone.
The test and review conclusions
The Mp3 player used in the test performed for this review works great and the earphone jack offered by LG meant that we needed no special adapter to be able to listen to music.
Technical specifications and features
| Network | |
| Data | GPRS |
| Size/Design | |
| Antenna | Internal |
| Design | Bar |
| Keyboard/Buttons | Full QWERTY |
| Side Keys | Yes |
| Type | Messaging |
| Weight | 2.93 oz. |
| Battery | |
| Standby Time | 216 hours (9 days) |
| Talk Time | 5 hours (300 minutes) |
| Display | |
| Type | TFT,TFD,LCD (Greyscale) |
| Camera and Video | |
| Camera Features | Video capture |
| Megapixels | 1.3 |
| Data Messaging | |
| Music and Multimedia | |
| Music Player | Yes,MP3 |
| Speaker Phone | Yes |
| Connectivity | |
| Bluetooth | Yes |
| Instant Messaging | Yes |
| Text Messaging | MMS,SMS |
| Phone Book | |
| Capacity | 1000 |
| Multi Numbers per Name | Yes |
| Other Features | |
| Polyphonic Ringer | Yes |
| Vibrate Alert | Yes |
| Organizer | |
| Alarm | Yes |
| Calculator | Yes |
| Voice Recorder | Yes |
Can lc500g take pictures and video?Can they be transfer to pc with usb adaptor?Thanks,Chuck K
As I understand it, TracFone disables all data transfer regarding the usb port. This has been my experience with previous TracFones. However, the LG 500 G does have a data card port under the battery, next to the SIM card port. You can store pics/music/ringtones to the card and transfer to/from your computer that way. A tad inconvenient, but, better than nothing…
Just to clarify, you will have to remove the data card and put it into your computer’s card reader.
Can the LG500g receive email alerts and access FB?
I bought two from tracfone. Within 6 weeks both had failed.
is it wifi capable? I live way out in the boonies and get zero signal in a 10 mile radius from my home.
How do you set this phone to vibrate during calls???
You must take a look at the phone keyboard. Here is a button right bottom has a speaker on it. You must hold it until the phone it vibrates.