Cheapest Phone LG Beacon from MetroPCS
The LG Beacon ($39 direct) is a solid, reasonably priced mobile cellphone if you're wanting to speak and textual content on a budget with a cheap plan from MetroPCS. It has a pleasant slide out QWERTY keyboard, a responsive contact screen, and fairly good name high quality. It's additionally a good music player, although it stumbles in relation to all different types of media. however when you place texting above all else, it's alternative for the cash. Here's more about LG Beacon.
LG Beacon Design and name Quality
At four. 1 by 2. 1 by 0. 7 inches (HWD) and four. four ounces, the Beacon is light, however it's additionally tremendous thick. The again is a metallic crimson plastic, whereas the entrance is matte black. the two. 8-inch capacitive contact display options 240-by-400-pixel decision and is surprisingly responsive, however feels a bit cramped; the entire cellphone looks prefer it may well stand to be a quarter-inch wider.
The handset slides open to disclose a four-row QWERTY keyboard. The crimson keys are good and large, although considerably flat. Still, typing on the Beacon is tremendous smooth, which makes this cellphone ultimate for heavy texters. textual content messages are threaded, with a cool bubble look related to the one used for messaging on the iPhone.
A tri-band 2G 1xRTT (850/1700/1900 MHz) system with no Wi-Fi, reception is common on the Beacon, as is voice high quality. quantity will get sufficiently loud within the phone's earpiece, although voices can distort on the highest setting. A bit lower, calls sound good and rich, if simply a contact muddy. Calls made with the cellphone are very clear and have strong noise cancellation. The speakerphone sounds positive and is loud sufficient to make use of outside with out an issue. Calls additionally sounded clear via a Jawbone period Bluetooth headset ($129, four. 5 stars). Voice dialing worked, although I usually needed to repeat myself to get it proper. Battery life is a bit brief at four hours, fifty eight minutes of speak time.
Unlimited, contract-free plans for the LG Beacon begin at $40 (including all taxes and fees) for limitless talk, text, and internet. $50 per thirty days will get you all of that plus limitless use of MetroNavigator, which presents turn-by-turn GPS instructions. That makes the Beacon an important deal, offered you reside in a MetroPCS protection space and might put up with the gradual web speeds.
LG Beacon person Interface, Multimedia, and Conclusions
There are three totally different dwelling screens you are able to swipe between. To the left is a shortcut for messaging. The main, center display might be custom-made as you please with shortcuts, whereas the best is for fast entry to your eleven favourite contacts. There are 5 icons on the underside of the principle display that cannot be moved; they're for apps, contacts, messaging, cellphone calls, and 'MetroPCS featured apps. ' these options apps embrace an app store, email, and the online browser. the entire structure can appear slightly complicated at first, however you get used to it.
The Myriad 6. 2 net browser does a tremendous job with WAP sites, however is painfully gradual and troublesome to navigate. Also, you'll need to slip the keyboard out to enter URLs, as a result of the onscreen keyboard isn't very usable to enter textual content. It's good to have the ability to entry the internet, however don't purchase this telephone if internet entry is a main concern. e-mail and IM purchasers are included for many customary accounts, and each labored effective. the entire requisite starter apps are right here too, together with an alarm clock, calculator, unit converter, and world clock. There's even an app that permits you to use your finger to attract on the phone's contact display.
The Beacon has 70MB of free inner reminiscence. There's additionally a facet-mounted microSD card slot on the appropriate facet of the telephone that had no bother with my 64GB SanDisk card. Music sounded good over each wired earbuds as effectively Altec Lansing BackBeat Bluetooth headphones ($99. 95, three. 5 stars). The telephone was ready to play AAC, MP3, and WMA information in my tests, so that you shouldn't have a lot bother loading it up with suitable music. Unfortunately, there's no video playback in any respect.
The 1. 3-megapixel digicam is weak. There's no flash or auto-focus, and images look tremendous blurry, irrespective of how a lot gentle is out there. There's additionally no camcorder, however given the image quality, you're most likely not lacking a lot.
If you're prepared to place photos and video to the side, the LG Beacon is an effective selection for cheap voice calls and textual content messages on MetroPCS. We haven't reviewed it yet, however the Huawei Pinnacle ($9) is thinner and lighter, with a BlackBerry-style keyboard, although it too is missing for multimedia options. The Samsung Freeform III ($19, three stars) is comparable to the Pinnacle, however is a bit buggy and suffers from brief battery life. for those who don't want a keyboard, your choices are principally restricted to fundamental however succesful flip telephones. otherwise you are able to spring for the BlackBerry Curve 8530 ($1four9, four stars), which will get you higher multimedia capabilities and a vastly improved internet browser, however requires a $60 month-to-month plan.
Benchmarks
Continuous speak time: four hours fifty eight minutes
LG Beacon price is $39.00
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