A more reliable version of the LG Xenon?
June 2, 2010 12:24 PM Subscribe
Recommendations for an AT&T cell phone like the LG Xenon only more reliable please.
So it looks like AT&T has finally listened to the angry swarms of customers and discontinued the LG Xenon. Naturally I only discovered this today as I was preparing to head over to a walk-in shop to try to replace mine as it has become gradually completely useless the past few months--the touch screen frequently freezing and needing a hard reset, my alarm going off like a possessed demon, the battery charge (which was never very good to begin with) getting progressively worse until the phone can barely hold one at all for more than an hour. The final straw was that now despite having network bars it will not connect properly to the network, so it's a brick to me--people call and it's as if my phone is permanently off, I cannot text or call or even get to my voicemail.
This is all a headache of course, right? And yet, crazy as it sounds, I freakin' loved the potential behind the phone--it was by far the best of every world for me when it was working. I really, really want to keep having a full slide-out QWERTY keypad. The touch screen was also wonderful, but I'd give that up in a heartbeat if forced to to keep said keypad; I can't stand typing on iPhone-type screens.
I know I should Google, and I did, but it's so overwhelming, plus you don't get unbiased firsthand accounts from satisfied users. What phone, available under AT&T, has a physical design like the Xenon, preferably with a camera too, that doesn't require a data plan and is actually reliably good (won't break within a couple months or drop signal constantly, etc.)? (Bluetooth-capable is also very very much desired, but if impossible with that keyboard I might be convinced to give that up.) I'd also love either a big ass text box and/or a way to get texts off my phone onto my computer (as in, Bluetooth); the Xenon was woefully piss poor at the saving texts thing (bizarre since it's clearly designed for texting). I don't need internet/email capability, so quibbles about software of that nature on a phone won't bother me.
I have unlimited texting and family minutes for talking, and that's all I need or want. I guess in a perfect world what I want is a Xenon that works and doesn't force me into a hefty ongoing additional data plan. What's the closest equivalent? Thanks guys.
So it looks like AT&T has finally listened to the angry swarms of customers and discontinued the LG Xenon. Naturally I only discovered this today as I was preparing to head over to a walk-in shop to try to replace mine as it has become gradually completely useless the past few months--the touch screen frequently freezing and needing a hard reset, my alarm going off like a possessed demon, the battery charge (which was never very good to begin with) getting progressively worse until the phone can barely hold one at all for more than an hour. The final straw was that now despite having network bars it will not connect properly to the network, so it's a brick to me--people call and it's as if my phone is permanently off, I cannot text or call or even get to my voicemail.
This is all a headache of course, right? And yet, crazy as it sounds, I freakin' loved the potential behind the phone--it was by far the best of every world for me when it was working. I really, really want to keep having a full slide-out QWERTY keypad. The touch screen was also wonderful, but I'd give that up in a heartbeat if forced to to keep said keypad; I can't stand typing on iPhone-type screens.
I know I should Google, and I did, but it's so overwhelming, plus you don't get unbiased firsthand accounts from satisfied users. What phone, available under AT&T, has a physical design like the Xenon, preferably with a camera too, that doesn't require a data plan and is actually reliably good (won't break within a couple months or drop signal constantly, etc.)? (Bluetooth-capable is also very very much desired, but if impossible with that keyboard I might be convinced to give that up.) I'd also love either a big ass text box and/or a way to get texts off my phone onto my computer (as in, Bluetooth); the Xenon was woefully piss poor at the saving texts thing (bizarre since it's clearly designed for texting). I don't need internet/email capability, so quibbles about software of that nature on a phone won't bother me.
I have unlimited texting and family minutes for talking, and that's all I need or want. I guess in a perfect world what I want is a Xenon that works and doesn't force me into a hefty ongoing additional data plan. What's the closest equivalent? Thanks guys.
Let me go a little more in-depth here, since my last answer was posted from my iPhone (Hi, AT&T!). In looking into a QWERTY phone that did not require a data plan several months ago, the options were very few indeed. There was the Xenon, the LG Neon (which had numerous reports online about problems similar to yours -- freezing, shutting off, not receiving calls), and a Motorola phone I can't find on the website right now -- it was almost square in shape with a slide-out QWERTY. I was leaning toward the Motorola, but it was constantly out of stock, and my wife was willing to compromise and go for the Samsung. It's not a slider -- more like a Blackberry -- but it's got a small form factor (smaller than my iPhone 2G) and she's pretty happy with it. The keyboard works really well, and she's never had a single issue with it's reliability.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:21 AM on June 3, 2010
posted by Rock Steady at 6:21 AM on June 3, 2010
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posted by Rock Steady at 2:35 PM on June 2, 2010