Customer Reviews

LG C1300i Phone (AT&T)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

This is a simple to use, small, light and generally elegant flip phone, with good reception.
Some useful comments for those interested in getting it:
-It looks nice and has a fast and responsive user interface (I found the LG interface much better than the Samsung x426). It is easy to move from menu to menu by pressing the shown number (or scroll around and press select if you want).
-Some useful functions are hidden away under three menu levels (ie Calculator, Alarm, Calendar). There is no way to assign a shortcut. There are built-in shortcuts to internet, text messaging, contacts, instant messaging.
-It is easy to put the phone to vibrate, even without opening it.
-The light on the outside lights red if there is a waiting message (voice or text) but not when you have missed calls.
-You cannot use most of the phone's functions when talking on the phone. (ie you cannot play games if you have a headset and are having a boring conversation.) But you can take a 'note' and later save it as a phone number.
-The phone can only "ring and vibrate" at the highest volume.
-The volume control for the games is tied to the volume of the ringer. So if you lower the volume while playing and forget to increase it afterward, the ringer will be quiet. Also, if the phone is set to loudest ring, some menu confirmation will elicit a loud sound from the phone (ie entering a new contact.) This is annoying.

This is definitely a good cell phone.

I have seen all those fancy cell phone with huge screen and photo capabilities, but what's the point? I only want to call people with my phone, and if it does that, I am happy, and this phone does it well and has a good price.

I have also dropped this phone about 50 times since I got it 6 monthes ago and not a single thing has gone wrong for the phone as a result of my carelessness.

I think this is a perfect phone for someone who wants to keep things simple

Alas, my trusty Nokia cell phone died horribly and slowly, the folks at the cell phone store had to put it out of its misery. Having driven there through traffic and rain, I was surprised to find my options for a replacement limited, especially since my now dead Nokia had lasted just slightly longer than its warranty.

I left with a nifty little (slightly) used LG 1300 as the replacement and decided to let a month go by and see what I thought. At this point, the pros outweigh the cons, but, one person's pro might be another's con and vice versa. Human nature being what it is, I think it is more fun to focus on the cons first.

First the battery life is short, and the claim that this phone has up to 240 minutes of standby is debatable. There should be some sort of way to shake this thing around and generate a bit more time. Better yet, if one could hop violently from side to side as though afflicted with St. Vitus' Dance (which is a self-limiting disorder of movement caused by both streptococcal infection and by talking loudly on cell phones in crowded venues) and recharge the battery, then that would be very entertaining to watch.

Next, this phone is so small that it could be confused with a big pack of chewing gum. This feature is bad only if you keep a cluttered desk or satchel and keep having to call your cell phone from your desk phone in order to locate the little gizmo. The washing machine poses another, perhaps lethal set of consequences that could stem from the size of this phone.

We need to talk about the buzzer/vibrate setting, a feat of malicious engineering that deserves Cingular----I meant singular----mention. A pair of nondescript, tiny buttons grace the left side of the LG 1300. These buttons magically change the phone's setting from vibrate, silent, or ring if you accidentally press them. So when the phone rings, it's best to poke it with a stick first, then flip it open from the junction of the bottom/top not the sides.

(Permit me a parenthetical word about the buzzing or vibrating here. If you have a small chassis from a toy car available, you set the LG 1300 to vibrate, attach it to the chassis with a rubber band, put it on tray or cutting board and presto, you have a dynamic cat toy! Just call your number from another phone and your felines will pounce all over this sleek, mouse-like marvel.)

I was surprised at the poor selection of ring tones---or is it spelled solid as ringtones?---available, but then I found that the initial menu pick on the phone takes one to a media mall. I haven't visited there yet, but if I'm ever hungry I may try out the food court.

There are good things about this phone. The buttons sort of click when you press them, which makes it seem like you are entering data into one of those tricoders from the any of the various Star Trek series. Using the menus is pretty intuitive (unlike say those in a French restaurant), and changing the settings requires minimal effort.

Once flipped open, the earpiece and mouthpiece are sort of in the vicinity of the human ear and mouth, respectively, which does make a degree of sense in the design of a telephone! Plus this phone does not have a camera!! It's bad enough to have to talk to some of my friends, but if I also had to look at them, I would never use the phone.

I've also had some trouble with calls being dropped, and if this is happening because of some undocumented feature in the user manual, then I would like to know what it is. To me, this is not necessarily a bad thing because there is simply no better way to get out of an uncomfortable or unwanted conversation than to hang up on yourself.

The sleek, curved, compact case makes one feel a bit like a spy, so the coolness factor should not be discounted entirely. And the designers even included this wild little mirror on the outside. Although this tiny mirror gets smudged quite a bit, who knows, it could someday save your life if you are ever stranded and need to attract the attention of any would-be rescuers once your phone's battery has died.


Postscript: On November 15, 2006, I made the offhand remark that I was going to replace this phone soon. That night, it stopped working. I won't miss it.

The LG is a great cell phone. I agree with the previous reviewer, if you want a camera, buy one. The phone is small, easy to use, and has all of the necessary features you need. I also bought the accessory kit from Amazon, and everything works great.

Bottom line: Great Price (free), great reception, small, easy to use.

The LG C1300 is a sleek, small and very nice cell phone!! Since this is my first one, I was shocked when I got it for Christmas!!! I couldn't believe it!!! This phone is amazing by having an incredable LCD display that is bright and clear! It has very good sound quality when talking/listening to people and when listening to ringtones. There are a few "cool" ringtones such as: Twilight and Rock Me, but that's about it. I would recommend buying your own. The one of the down sides for me is the battery life. The talk time is only four hours and stand-by time isn't that long either. Since I don't talk on the weekdays anyway, I usually leave my phone off. But during the weekends, I talk on it forever causing the battery to run low. Another down side is the external mirror. I wish it could have been an external caller ID or something nice. The only useful thing is the LED light implanted in the mirror telling if your phone battery is charged or not. Overall, for my first cell phone, this is great!! Has everything I wanted in a cell phone! The only two concerns are battery life and the external mirror. If you are considering in buying a cheap yet great quality design, BUY THIS!!! Oh by the way, Cingular ROCKS!!!!

First, I hope no one reading these reviews is considering actually paying for this thing. I think that you shouldn't even take it for free, for two reasons: 1. you'll be paying a bundle a month for a service you can barely use, and 2. you probably passed up another free phone that no matter how bad it is, has to be better than the LG 1300.

My major complaint is dropped calls. (The battery life is a little thin, but I would say not a major problem.) But it's really tough to have a conversation more involved than "when are you getting home?" "seven." "okay, see you then." because you will spend half your time saying, "wait, can you say that again?" The reception is awful (/with/ the new antenna) even when the phone doesn't drop calls. Plus, the sound quality is really poor, and as other people have said you have to grind the phone into your ear to make out anything the other person is saying.

DO NOT take this as a free phone as I did - ANYTHING would be better. If you have the choice between this phone and a cardboard box with numbers written on it, choose the box. At least you can keep photos in it.

Keys not designed for adult human use... volume buttons on side where a person usually holds the phone will set off rings/noises usually at an awkward time.

LG also knows there is a problem with the antenna on most of these phones. They started replacing the stock antenna with a better("red") antenna, but they didn't get to a lot of them, especially the "free" ones they give you at Cingular.

You have to call "Warranty Service" to get the new "red" antenna to get service without mega cutoffs. --If you live in an apartment; DON'T EVEN CONSIDER THIS PHONE! -- And good luck on a speedy finding of where the earphone/mike handless plug is..

Do not get this phone. I got it for free and it was cool at first but after a few days I got *dissapointed*. Sometimes when I dialed a number and hit the talk button, I put the phone to my ear and waited. Then I looked at the screen and the *useless* thing had gone to the main menu. Also the volume is *really* bad. You have to push the speaker into your ear really hard to hear somone on the other end.

WARNING: DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE!

I only owned the phone for about two weeks and it was already acting up. First, the hinges became kind of squeaky and just felt horrible to hold the phone. Then, the battery wouldn't even charge. I plugged it into the charger and it looked like it was charging but when I pulled it out, it was still at one bar. And it went down to one bar overnight.. after I had charged it until it was supposedly full. It appears that other people had this problem as I saw people returning the same phone because of these issues.
So I highly don't recommend it.

I have owned this phone about a month and I've had to take it back to the store 2 times already. The first time the phone "pretended" like it was charging but remained only @ 1 bar after charging for 12+ hrs. The second time the phone would drop my calls after about 3sec. of talking. The phone is very small and cute and the ringtones sound really good, but that's about the only thing redeemable about the phone.