I recently purchased a new phone using ebay – the LG Shine. I wanted a new stylish phone for a reasonable price, around $100. I found a barely used Silver LG Shine and purchased it for $118.00. I always do my research before purchasing new tech, so I knew I was probably going to be getting something worth my money.
My first impressions of the phone were that of thinking it’s “rather cool.” I really liked the slide LCD screen to reveal the keypad. The quality of the phone is really nice. It has a heavy metal-like industrial weight to it. The phone feels sturdy and built well.
The dimensions of the phone are 3.93 x 1.99 x 0.59 inches. The phone feels and looks much more compact and sleek than my old phone. I am a person who hates having things in my pants pockets, but this phone is comfortable and small enough to the point where I often forget which pocket I put it in.
The 2 megapixel camera is relatively nice. I have not used it much but it seems fairly decent for a phone. The phone also supports bluetooth, which I have used a lot for transferring custom made ringtones and wallpapers. Although the phone is not officially supported by Bitpim, users have reported getting it working with the software. I have not tried it on my linux machine, but I have yet to be successful with syncing to my Macbook Pro.
I find the bluetooth on the phone to be a little dodgy. For the most part I can sync the phone to my mac, but after 2 – 3 file transfers the phone fails to sync. I have to continuously restart the phone to ‘reset’ the bluetooth so I can use it again. Apparently this problem is pretty common among the LG Shine. Given the problem, I must admit I absolutely love the quick and easy file transfer via bluetooth. Transferring MP3 ringtones, and wallpapers is pretty effortless (when bluetooth decides to work).
I didn’t like the small menu scroll-button upon initial use. After a week of playing with it I have been able to get a feeling of the right pressure to apply for the buttons to function properly. I still find the scroll button difficult to use at times. Another downfall I find with the phone is the fact that you cannot customize the functions of the main buttons. For example, pressing the scroll-button right will bring up the ‘IM’ screen to start AIM, Yahoo messenger etc. Since I do not use this feature, I wish I was able to change the function of the button to bring up another menu. So there are limits to customizing the phone’s button, which rather sucks.
Overall I would give the phone a 8.5/10 stars. LG needs to improve the bluetooth and give the user control over the button functions. Other than that, I am in love with this phone. It’s beautiful, the sound quality is great, and the phone is fun to play with.
Links:
LG Shine
Bitpim
LG Cell Phone Forums (Great community and support)
