LG Shine-CU720 Cell Phone

Cons: Poor voice recognition
Poor ergnomics
Hard to read screen in sunlight
Frequent dropped calls
Short battery life

Summary: I bought this phone to satisfy basic phone needs. Primary among my requirements was voice dial ability, which the LG CU-720 Shine appeared to have. After going through the manual and setup, it looked very intuitive.

What I have since discovered is that the Shine's voice recognition engine software is marginal at best. The Shine's responses to verbal and button input related to voice dialing is unpredictable and a source of immense frustration. Since it cannot be trained to specific names (only about 6 commands can be voice trained, no names) the Shine voice recognition engine tries to figure out who you are calling and roughly 50% of the time gets it wrong, repeatedly. This problem is partly due to the phone being very sensitive to environmental background noise such as wind. The voice recognition software pronunciation is limited and the vocal interpretation of some names is incomprehensible ("Shawn" is pronounced something like "schuwweet"). People who have listened when I attempted to voice dial (I have no discernible accent) thought that it was more trouble that it is worth. Then they see just how small and flat the number keys are (a lot like my old Motorola L6)and they understand why I don't use them instead. The speaker phone is quite loud but electronically distorted.

The 5 way joystick/Navigation key is extemely short and overly sensitive which makes selecting functions difficult and texting a nightmare. You have to use your fingernails to carefully push it from side to side and often it will select "OK" rather than right or left. The 5-way joystick has been a constant source of irritation and noise in that when the Shine is in you pocket the button is so sensitive that any other items in your pocket (or purse) will hit the key and set off a beep (telling you that the keyboard is locked and to unlock it). In fact I have had in my otherwise empty pants pocket and have it beep at me because I bent over and the button got pushed. This constant input on the 5-way joystick is probably why the battery life has declined to around 24hrs before expiring.

Worst of all, if that is possible, is that trying to slide the top open is nearly impossible using one hand to operate the phone. There are no friction surfaces on the top and all the available edges are softly rounded and shallow. You have to grab the sides of the top with one hand while holding the bottom with the other to slide the top. In fact the only surface that you can push on to slide the top up is the mirrored display (the rest of the upper surface is buttons which you don't want to push on) which then becomes greasy and even less legible.

I have had difficulty with the Shine's reception in areas where it should not be a problem. Dropped calls have occurred too frequently. The signal strength indicator will show 4 bars one moment and then 1 or less the next without the phone being moved.

However it is a very durable phone, that I have tested extens