Review of LG's GR500 Xenon with touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard

LG Xenon

LG Xenon

LG Xenon

LG Xenon

The LG Xenon, from AT&T, is a compact touchscreen cell phone with a nice slide-out QWERTY keyboard. This little phone even features a widgetized homescreen and a handful of slick multimedia features. The Xenon supports AT&T's 3G network, and also features a 2 megapixel camera with a single LED flash.

Physical Aspects

The LG GR500 Xenon from AT&T, at first glance, is a small touchscreen cell phone with only a few keys on the front. However, the top portion slides to the right to automatically rotate the display to landscape orientation and reveal a generous QWERTY keyboard. The slide mechanism is as smooth as butter, and is spring-assisted with a comforting snap in either direction. The rest of the phone is also built solidly, with no creaks or squeaks during use. The handset is extremely pocketable, measuring only 106.7mm x 53.3mm x 15.2mm (4.2in x 2.1in x 0.6in), but is slightly hefty, weighing in at 107.7g (3.8oz).

The front of the LG GR500 Xenon is dominated by the 2.8-inch WQVGA (240x400 pixel) resolution touchscreen display. Below this display are the dedicated send/end buttons with a task manager button positioned between them. The volume rocker is positioned along the left edge of the phone, and the micro-USB charging/data/headset port is located on the top edge, protected by an attached door, to keep debris out. The microSD card slot is found on the right edge of the Xenon, along with a screen lock button and the dedicated camera button. The Xenon is available in your choice of black, blue, or red color schemes, with chrome accents and a patterned battery cover.

When you slide the QWERTY keyboard out, the display automatically rotates into landscape mode, so that you can hold the phone comfortably. The keyboard consists of four rows of buttons, each nicely rounded and slightly convex, for a rather bubbly feel. The QWERTY keyboard offers great tactile feedback, which makes it a pleasure to type on. There are a plethora of shortcuts available from the keyboard, including quick access to messaging, the internet browser, contacts list, and even a '.com' shortcut key to make entering URLs more convenient. There is a standard numeric keypad embedded in this QWERTY keyboard, accessed with the 'Fn' key.

The 2 megapixel camera is positioned on the back of the LG Xenon, alongside a single LED flash. The phone's built-in loudspeaker is positioned near the camera, as well. The rear cover conceals the 950mAh battery, as well as the SIM card slot.