Review of the LG Cosmos: An Affordable Messaging Device

The LG Cosmos is a solid and simple slider handset with a spacious QWERTY keyboard and tactile number keypad. There’s nothing flashy about this practical messaging handset but if you just want to make calls and text, this may be the phone for you. The LG Cosmos is an entry-level handset that lacks a music player, EV-DO, and corporate e-mail support, but the device does have a 1.3MP camera. The phone has all the necessary messaging features and offers access to major social networking sites. Let’s review this reasonably priced handset in detail.

(3 out of 5)

The LG Cosmos looks like a candy bar. It has a full QWERTY keyboard that slides out from the back for messaging. The LG Cosmos is 4.41 inches tall, 2.05 inches wide and 0.67 inches thick. At 125 grams, the handset is lightweight. The Cosmos is wrapped in glossy and smooth black plastic. It feels sturdy in hand and has an ergonomic design. The 2-inch LCD display offered by the LG Cosmos is striking and it supports 262,000 colors with a resolution of 320x240 pixels, which according to its standard is pretty good. Pictures displayed on the screen are crisp and they show accurate details. The interface is simple to navigate and the user can adjust the backlight time, brightness level, display themes, font size and type, the clock format and also the menu layout, even though it’s only a messaging phone.

On the left spine of the phone are controls for volume rocker and a dedicated camera key while the 2.5mm audio jack and the microSD card slot are on the right spine. The camera lens and external speaker are on the back and the charger jack is on the bottom.

Keyboard (4 out of 5)

The navigation array and the keypad on the LG Cosmos have a smooth but lusterless feel, which is good. The navigation array includes a diamond-shaped toggle with an OK key in the center, two soft keys, shortcut for speakerphone, a Clear command key, and the Send and End/Power keys. The right direction of the toggle takes the user to the My Shortcuts pop-up box. The up, down and left directions of the toggle can also be mapped for 3 user-defined shortcuts.

The size of the number keypad is small yet practical. The keys on the keypad are set like roof tiles, thus providing sufficient texture for dialing by feel. The user can also use the number keypad for texting. However, the roomy QWERTY keyboard is better for typing error free text messages.

The back of the phone slides to the right to reveal the full QWERTY keyboard. The slider mechanism is strong and the phone slides out pretty easily. When you slide the phone open, the display orientation changes from portrait to landscape. The keyboard is spacious with four rows and just one for numbers. There are arrow keys on the lower right side, plus keys dedicated to messaging functions and typical Shift and Function keys. Overall, the keyboard is spacious and keys have a good texture to them.

Features & Performance (4 out of 5)

Core Features:

• QWERTY Keyboard
• 1.3 MP Camera
• Mobile Email and Web Browser
• Bing Search
• Verizon Navigator Capable
• Bluetooth Support
• microSD card slot

The phone’s 1.3 megapixel camera is very basic and doesn’t support video recording. Well lit indoor and outdoor shots are sharp and colorful. The phone has a weak sensor so the images taken in badly lit rooms turn out to be spotty and blurred. You can directly upload pictures to Facebook via the LG Cosmos. The memory card slot accepts microSD cards up to 16GB for transferring images but, there is only 6MB of free internal storage.

The LG Cosmos has a phonebook memory of 1,000 entries. Each entry has room for five phone numbers, a street address, two e-mail addresses, an IM screen name, notes, and a picture ID. The contacts can be further arranged into caller groups that can be paired with one of 25 polyphonic ringtones.

Basic features of the LG Cosmos include, a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, a calculator, a calendar, a tip calculator, a stop watch, notepad, a to-do-list, world clock and an alarm clock. The Cosmos also supports voice commands, USB mass storage, Bluetooth, wireless Web Search and a feature called Info Search. This feature helps you to search for anything and everything stored on the device. The LG Cosmos also allows searching through Microsoft’s Bing Search Engine for mobile devices. It also has GPS with Verizon’s VZ Navigator’s support. The device does not have 3G support or EV-DO.

The LG Cosmos is a dual-band CDMA 850/1900 MHz device. Voice and call quality are clear and good. Voice dialing works well over Bluetooth. The speakerphone is loud enough to use outdoors. The battery life is quite impressive offering 6 hours and 20 minutes of talk time.

Verdict (4 out of 5)

Despite its imperfections, the LG Cosmos is a solid entry-level phone that nails the essentials: texting, voice calls, camera, and Bluetooth. It’s an intuitive and easy to use device with great sound quality. Overall the phone is a winner with some minor tweaks.