LG Quantum C900 -- My Windows QWERTY Phone wonder

Introduction

As you have probably learned from the couple of posts here or at Twitter, etc. I LOVE NOKIA!!! I have owned a Nokia since College, in fact, Nokia has been in my family since I was a young'un. After all these years we have seen the prominence of different makers giving us great phone offerings but what really changed the landscape was software. Symbian had been long used by Nokia and others, there was of course, the BB environment, Palm, Windows but it wasn't until those fuckers at Apple let loose the iPhone with their iOS that people really started to not only buy phones because of their looks or quality but because of their functionality.

After a few years supporting Nokia and Symbian I noticed that I was really left behind. The emergence of the Android platform and Apple selling a gazillion phones and updating their iOS with better features every time prompt me to try and go into other ventures.

Of course, I was/am planning to stay loyal to Nokia but:

1) They are still on Symbian whether is 'Anna' or 'Belle' or any other update with a new nickname
2) Their Windows phones and other flagships (such as the N9 with its MeeGo) are not here yet or they are extremely expensive so I decided, since I'm pretty sure I'm going to be back to Nokia, to try one Windows phone. I chose the LG Quantum C900 from AT&T (unlocked of course!)




Specifications:

So quickly a couple of specs for this phone:

Display: TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 480 x 800 pixels, 3.5 inches (~267 ppi pixel density)
(No super AMOLED or any of those fancy screens, but it's Ok.)

It also features:

- QWERTY keyboard
- Gorilla glass display
- Multi-touch input method
- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- 16GB storage, 512 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM NO SD CARD slot
- 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
- 1 GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 200 GPU, Qualcomm QSD8650 Snapdragon chipset

and of course the assortment of GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, etc.





One of the most important things I was looking for was a QWERTY phone. I'm just used to them and using the E71 for over 2 years just spoiled me! The LG Quantum has a GREAT keyboard (this is compared to the Samsung T-Mobile Sidekick and the Sony
Ericsson Xperia Pro) and it feels great. I really love text messaging and status updates in Facebook and Twitter. With this phone I feel like I can write better and more comfortable.

Phone calls are quite clear. The volume of the headset is perfect and although the quality is not super great, it does the job. Up till now, no dropped phone calls and can take GPS, 3G signals very quickly.

Tried Wifi at home and phone is awesome.

Overall, A grade on the hardware!



What's in ther Box:

1) LG Quantum C900 phone with Battery
2) USB data cable / phone charger
3) Cheapo headphones
4) and that's it (bought this on eBay lol!!)


Software:

Now, the reason for me buying this phone was basically for this. I wanted to experience a phone with Windows and Android. After much looking, I decided on this one. First thing I did once I got it? Updated it to Windows Mango. Now, what are the differences between the stock software and Mango? I don't even have a clue but since Mango/7.5 was a big update I guess a lot of good things came with it.

Anyway, coming from the lacking Symbian OS (lacking in the sense of accessibility, looks, etc.), Windows was a kick in the ass. First thing you see is the Live Tiles. It's really something! Got any text message notifications? The "Messaging" tile will tell you without you looking. Have any hotmail messages? Gmail? Facebook notifications? ALL of them show up in the tiles. Pretty nifty. In order to do the same with my Nokia E71, I had to actually navigate menus and select what I wanted to see. Not on this. In fact, the best feature I find with this phone is the INTEGRATION
of everything. Have calendar entries in Gmail or hotmail? They will synchronize with the phone. Have any calendar/event entries in Facebook? They will syncrhonize with the phone. Want to post a status update? You can do hotmail and Facebook at the same time, etc. etc. It really does integration well (not sure about iOS but at least is better than what I have experienced with Android)



Apart from that, the marketplace looks Ok and I have downloaded a couple of apps and games to fully test the phone. Of course I downloaded Twitter and Facebook apps but I also downloaded the ever essential "Weather" app, IMDB, a Turn by Turn Navigation to fully test the GPS (although the "Maps" application seems to work a-Ok!), QR reader, YouTube and all of the Office apps work great. Especially love "Notes"... just a basic app like a "sticky note" that is also available online and sincronizes
automatically.

Everything seems organized, easy to access unlike Symbian and Android, it really seems like an easy to approach OS.

I'm really pleasantly surprised!!


Performance:

What can I say? As of now I really have not experienced slowdowns or anything of that nature. No applications closing by themselves (Hello Android 'Force Closes'...), no jerkiness in games or when using most apps. The only thing I noticed was when visiting really "loaded" web pages, the internet browser (IE) seemed to slow a little... the same with the Seesmic Twitter app. Other than that it has been
great (definitely better than Symbian on the E71).

Now to one of my quirks... battery life.
My Nokia E71 could go on for at least 2 or 3 days without recharging... but these days it seems that trying to have everything accessible takes a toll on battery life. For example, all of the tiles that need updating, connect via 3G or Wifi in order to be updated. Add to that the big display, the processor and normal usage
for the phone has been more or less 15 to 20 hours. This is of course with just:

- Light internet surfing
- A couple of calls (I don't talk much)
- Facebook/Twitter updates and news reading
- Engadget App
- E-mail viewing/sending

That means that I have to go into the settings and change the sincronizing to "Manual". If I do that, I can have the phone lasting much more than 24 hours. But lets be real, if we have an updated phone be it iOS, Android or Windows, we want them to be performing with all those things active! ;-)

I guess it's a trade-off, you decide whether it's worth it ;-)


Camera:

Now, this is supposed to be a 5MP camera that records video at 720p, etc. etc. but I haven't had much time with it yet so I wont judge it. It SHOULD be better than the 3.2 one on my Nokia but I'll try to do a direct compare with the 8MP Exmor sensor of my Android headset (Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro, review soon)





Conclusion:

What do I think of the LG Quantum C900? I believe it's a great phone. The QWERTY keyboard works perfect, it's snappy, the Windows 7.5 OS behaves well and offers the best profile integration I've experienced yet. Now that I've experienced Windows, I'm really thinking of selling my Android phone... is that good!
But who knows... maybe I'll stick with both for a bit.

Pros:

+ Great social integration, you feel like you can really communicate
+ Good call quality, Great QWERTY keyboard feel
+ Not sluggish (at least for what I use it for)
+ Office Notes is awesome

Cons:

- Plastic all around (I was spoiled by Nokia!)
- Sometimes in Landscape mode some apps don't rotate (to properly use QWERTY)
- Battery life is not the greatest
- Small font for "Messages" app

All in all I give it:

3.5 out of 5!

;-)


See ya!


P.S. I'll post some more updates after I keep playing with it! ... with the phone guys... the phone!! :-p