Customer Reviews

LG Shine CU720 Phone, Red (AT&T)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I upgraded to this phone nearly 2 months ago, and overall I like it a lot. I have not taken advantage of all the features on this phone, so I will only talk about the things I have experience with: cell-phone quality, camera, and audio/video player ability. There is a silver version available, but I was more partial to red.

First off, the cell phone is sleek and smart looking. The not-too-slim profile fits easily in any standard shirt or pant pocket. The 2.2 inch screen is very generous for a cell phone, and is easier on the eyes when watching videos, surfing the web, etc. You can receive calls without having to open the phone and thankfully the audio quality of the calls is very good.

The 2 mega-pixel camera is good for a cell phone. The pictures taken are crisp and lack the fuzziness that some other cell-phone cameras have. The zoom is not all that great, but certainly it is better than having none. However, when taking pictures, you cannot zoom in when your resolution is set to the highest setting. You can also take pictures on the fly without having to open the phone to access the camera. Good enough for still photographs, but pretty useless for anything fast. Pretty much what I would expect from a cell phone.
I am not that impressed with the video-capturing option, though you can use zoom during filming. My old cell phone was not able to do that.

I am very happy with both the audio/video player functions. With a 4 gig microsd card, you can play a lot of music or videos on the shine with little noticeable skip between different songs/videos. With the ear-buds, music is surprisingly crisp and clear. This can function as a good audio player. You can create folders on the microsd card, which can be similar to playlists.
The video quality was clear in the small portrait view, but suffers in quality when the larger landscape view is used. Although, it is not so bad that you cannot tell what you are looking at. For me, the landscape view quality was adequate (not good or great).
However, what is great is that if you find a good converter for the .gpp video file extension, you can play full length movies fairly well. You can find a .gpp converter for free on the internet.
The skip forward function is useful because it speeds after a little while (good for long video files), but takes some time to get used to because of the joystick navigation.

And speaking of the joystick navigation, it does take time to become proficient in it. But it does not detract from using the phone at all.

There are two negative things about this phone that I want to mention which prevent me from giving it 5 stars:
I can see how this phone would not be a good text-messenger phone, since the keys seem a little squished and can be difficult for people with big fingers.
While I like this feature a lot, it can be argued that the landscape video quality is poor.

I wanted a phone that could play music and videos, have expandable storage capacity, and looks good. The LG Shine fits the bill very well.

I purchased this Red LG Shine phone through AT&T when I had an available upgrade. So I only paid $39.99 for the phone, great price for such an awesome phone.

First off, I would like to say that I love the fact that the camera has a flash!! Love this feature. When shooting in camera mode, the screen turns to landscape view and almost appears to be a digital camera. In the camera mode, there is also a feature that allows you to make animated GIFs with the pictures you take, another neat little feature.

I also like the fact that the phone will lock the keys within a specified time limit, which you can set yourself, if you like.

The joystick is somewhat hard to get used to at first, unless you have had a previous phone with a joystick, it can be very touchy, almost lagging at times while I scroll through the menu's.

The phone also has a place for a MicroSD card, which is another great feature, the phone can almost be used as a digital player, having their own separate folders to organize music.

The phone does come with games such as: Diner Dash, Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man, Tetris and Midnight Bowling. All of which are demos and you must purchase the game to actually play more then 30 seconds.

The phone comes with several applications, all of course again you have to purchase a data bundle to even use. Applications include: InStyle Mobile Demo, MobiTV, Mobile Banking, Movies, My-Cast Weather and MySpace Mobile.

Overall, I would say that I love this phone and would recommend others to buy it. Hopefully, somehow my review and the pictures I posted will help someone. = )

I upgraded to this device last week and have been having a ball with it ever since!! The Pros: beautiful large screen, huge memmory, unbelievably clear digital camera (flash too) w/pic editor, very user-friendly, clear reception 100% of the time. Cons: middle button a little tricky to use, screen scratches easily so buy protectors, a case may be hard to find for it, keypad difficult for a text-er with fat fingers. Overall this phone is great for someone who likes a lot of ammneties (text, mp3, camera, web-browsing, etc.) but doesn't want anything too complicated. The RED SHINE is super sexy too!! You won't be sorry!!

Not a bad phone at all. It's "cute," too. A couple things that could be improved are:

- Although it's a nice-looking phone, when you open the phone the exposed back part is kinda' cheap-looking, because of a slightly different plastic that is used. Design-wise, that could've been improved and it wouldn't have been that hard to match the plastics to the same exact shade of red.

- Why doesn't this phone let you program an alarm to go off even while the phone is off? Sometimes, I don't want to take any calls (like when I'm sleeping or working), but I want the alarm feature to remind me of a task, or to wake me up! It's silly that I have to keep my phone on with the volume up, in order to use the event reminder and alarm features.

- I don't care much for the joystick navigator. When you're writing a text message, it makes it really easy to accidentally hit "send" before you're ready.

I've had the red LG Shine since late July. At first I was unsure about this phone and was considering taking it back, but it really does grow on you. Some complaints are that it is hard to type on, ringtones are quiet (I miss calls quite a bit), and the joystick is a bit touchy.
Battery life is pretty good. When it starts dying, it continues to die for 5 hours, which is kind of strange. I've never had a phone that chirped that long before it died.
The camera is great, takes great pics. It has 2 megapixels. I've Bluetoothed many of them to my computer and they have turned out great!
Don't be misled by the commercial that advertised the mirror. The mirror is NOT like the commercial, though it has come in handy when I've had food in my teeth and such...
I've gotten a lot of compliments on the phone, and even persuaded some friends to buy it! The phone feels really heavy duty when you hold it, which makes you feel more confident that it won't break easy!
The keys are pretty narrow, and I have small fingers, so if it's tough for me to type, it might be tough for others with larger hands to type on it. I have to use my nail sometimes to text message.
The joystick was a little hard to get used to at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's quite handy.
I like the multi-task function. If you are texting someone and want to go into your address book, just hit the multi-task button and it will let you toggle between each of the windows! Neat!
If you get the LG Shine and are unsure about it, you at least have 30 days to decide whether you want to return it, so you never know, it might grow on you like it did on me.

We recently purchased 4 LG Shine phones for our family plan. We have had Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung at various points before. We have returned all of the LG Shine phones because of dropped calls, poor reception, and calls not going through. We have been in this area since getting our first cell phone and have never had any trouble with local reception, dropped calls, etc. Two weeks after getting the LG Shine phones and noticing reception fading in and out on all of them, my daughter tried calling us 5 times in an afternoon, and none of them rang through or showed as missed calls. We then returned them to the ATT store where purchased and they did not seem at all surprised when we brought them back with problems. We then purchased Motorola RAZR phones and have had no further reception problems. I would not recommend these phones.

Brand New Unlocked LG KE970 Shine Pink Color

The shine sure does look cool but I have found out that it just isnt awesome. It seems alot of the technology they used is a step backward, not forward. For instance, making a song into a ringtone is impossible with out some outside sofware. Also the texing is less than par. Also, you dont think about it when you first get it, but that curser is just not good. It is more than irritating.
All in all, its an ok phone. Par at best.

Background: Over the past two months, I have spent a great deal of time debating between whether to get the Sony Ericsson W580i or the LG Shine CU720. After making numerous threads at various forums regarding this question, reading countless reviews, watching many videos, looking at hundreds of pictures, and mapping out the pros and cons of each one multiple times, I have settled on the Sony Ericsson W580i. Since my family just got a family plan with ATT (3 lines/550 minutes shared) and one of my sisters got the Shine, I was able to do a comparison between the phones.

Battery Life: The claim that Sony Ericsson has poor battery life, in short, is complete bull ****. Those that say they had short battery life... you just got a lemon (or are trying to reason yourself out of the fact that buying a shine was actually a poor decision). My OTHER sister, who also got a Sony Ericsson, also gets great battery life with hers. Rather than the claimed "3-4 day charge" that many people on this forum and others are claiming, I have found that the phone will last over a week (11-13 days). The LG Shine, which is said to have poor battery life, disappoints: its battery life is indeed very short. The papers that the LG Shine comes with claims that battery life is around 3 hours of talk time, up to 240 hours (10 days) of standby time, is standard marketing bull ****: through a test of 10 different charges with three different batteries, the phone has lasted no more than 3 days before it required a charging.

SE: 10/10 Shine: 3/10

Durability: People say the LG Shine has a stronger build than the Sony Ericsson, but if you actually compare the two, you find that you cannot actually compare the two... Why? The SE is a plastic phone; the LG shine is a plastic phone with metallic components. One thing that is not usually noted is that the Shine actually has VERY little metal in its body; it's only the battery cover and some of the front. The LG shine doesn't really feel that much more durable than the SE. If you drop the shine, you will certainly damage the screen, and/or scratch the body, and/or break the phone. With something plastic, eg. Sony Ericsson, a drop will do no more than give a few scratches. Regarding the slider mechanism, the LG Shine's "snaps" when you open and close it, whereas the SE's slider is not as snappy. Due to the difference in the way that the phones slide, it isn't really accurate to say that one feels more durable than the other. Since the durability was one of my biggest concern in getting the phone, I did a test of each phone upon cracking open the box: I opened and closed each phone 300 times. Results: The LG Shine's slider remained the same; the SE's slider got smoother after the test.

SE: 9/10 Shine: 6/10

Fingerprints/Scratchability: The claims that the Shine is a fingerprint magnet could not be more true. The Shine cannot stand to be touched at all. Walking around with the Shine put in my side jeans pocket for a day, the Shine went in looking stellar and came back looking pretty poor. The back plate had obviously been rubbed on, the front plate exhibited small, but noticeable scratches. I'm sure you could prevent the Shine from getting scratched by getting a screen protector and/or case, but the hassle of one is not something that I'd want to deal with (not to mention such protection would take away the "beauty" of the Shine). The Sony Ericsson, as one may predict, does not scratch easily. Same jeans, same walk, and the SE still looked great after. There was something that looked like a small scratch on the front screen on the SE, but nothing a wipe could clean off. Speaking of which, with the LG Shine, you cannot wipe the phone with any shirt; it will scratch if the fabric of the cloth/shirt is rough. A BIG reason people get the Shine is because it looks good. Well, if you don't take care of it like a newborn baby, it's going to look like **** and ipso facto, it was a poor decision to buy the phone for its looks.

SE: 9/10 Shine: 1/10

Keypad: People always complain about the keypads of the Sony Ericsson and the LG Shine and say how small they are and how difficult it is to text with them... Most of these complainers are complaining from hearsay (they repeat what they read/hear from others, not from their own experience). The problem of cracking keypads is also a huge concern for potential buyers of the SE. First, to address the keypad. The size of the keypad is very usable for texting and other usage. I have 6'2" and have large hands and I can still manage to comfortable use the phones' keypads. Texting with both is very easy (albeit not as easy as texting on a RAZR). The SE's keypad is not as responsive as the Shine's, meaning the click down are not as solid, and that the row of numbers are connected so that one press on a number slightly depresses the row, but nonetheless, it is very solid. The LG Shine's keypad is like a smaller version of the RAZR. Regarding the cracking keys on the SE, I performed a test to see if this rumor was true. Over a period of 2 days, I had the phone off and during my spare time (which is a lot since it's summer), I've been clicking away at the keys (with a good amount of pressure I might add), and the keys exhibit no sign of cracking. Clearly the cracking keys is an issue with older phones (which you could potentially still buy if the reseller of your phone has old stock).

SE: 9/10 Shine: 9/10

Navigation: Those that say navigation on the Shine is difficult are clearly retarded: physically or mentally. The joystick on the Shine takes no practice to nail. It is very easy to use, and is not too small. The SE, with no joystick, as imagined, is also very easy to use. My only caveat with the SE is that there's no dedicated end call button like my old Nokia. The numbered menus in the Shine are very easy to use.

SE: 9/10 Shine: 9/10

Reception/Sound Quality: I live in Northern California in a well populated city, and everywhere I go, I get 5 bars with the SE and from 3 to 4 bars with the Shine. I have found the number of signal bars that you get has a big impact on the call quality (as it should)... The Shine frequently echoes what the other person says, and a background static seems to be present in all calls. To ensure that I didn't receive a lemon shine, I tested a friend's shine and sure enough, it was the same. My friend told me they didn't notice the static (he probably got use to the poor call quality)... The SE's reception and sound quality it top notch. No complaints whatsoever here. Even with 3 bars (in a tunnel), the call was still strong.

SE:10/10 Shine: 5/10


Features: SE wins hands down. Read the features at each phone's respective website; I won't waste your time here. The LG Shine is the most basic of phones. The only thing its got over the SE is 3G. The Shine is all looks.

SE: 10/10 Shine: 2/10 (absolutely pitiful for a phone be so lackluster in features)

Other concerns and notes:
- The speaker on the SE kills that one which is on the Shine
- Both phones have ringtones are loud enough to be heard
- Both phones can [be modified to] receive games and , but with the SE, you have more options.

Pros: big screen, microSD slot, nice battery life.
Cons: the joystick, flat keypad, horrible reception,


I'll have had this phone for two years in late September. After nearly two years, I'll be getting a new phone tomorrow, so I thought I'd give this ol' phone a review before I gave it my own personal Bon Voyage. Being a high school sophomore, it's pointless to say I'm a texter. Not as much as some others, but about 200 messsages a day.

In the beginning this was a great phone. I loved everything about it. The flat keypad was hard getting used to but I eventually started texting on it like a pro. I was impressed by the large screen and the battery life, as I'd had problems with the latter when I owned my previous phone. When I discovered the microSD slot, I was thrilled, because I take lots of pictures.

I never had problems with this phone until the beginning of my 2nd semester as a freshman. By then, I'd owned this thing for about a year and two months. By then, the screen was scratched horribly from being in my pocket. Not exactly an uncommon thing with a slider phone, but that doesn't mean it's any less annoying. My reception became horrible. On band trips other people on the bus will have 2 or 3 bars while I have no bars. I live in a very rural county; with lots of trees and mountains nearby, I need at least a bar!

Two weeks ago (I'm writing this on August 13, 2010), some of my keys fell off. With a Razr-like keyboard, when one keys goes, it takes two more with it. Sigh.

Why did I give this another star when it deserves two??? The durability. Man can this thing take a hit!...or a fall. Haha. I can't tell you how many times I've dropped this thing from 10 feet up or spilled Gatorade on it. XD It still works!

All in all, not bad. But it could be a lot better.

I only needed a phone to make calls so didn't need anything fancy. I love the look of it and I've never had problems with reception, battery life, scratching (although I did get a film cover for the screen), dropped calls, etc. The camera is GREAT, way better than I expected. The only complaint I have is that the cursor is a pain for texting, but I don't text enough for it to matter anyways. Overall, I don't know how it is for internet and everything since I really only use it for calls and occasional texting...but it's great in that regard.