this phone is by far the worst phone i have ever purchased. the guy at the cingular store recomended it to me and now since iam out of the 30-day return gap, they wont switch me a new phone. the phone has horrible reception and it always drops my calls, compared to my mom's nokia from the 90's which has perfect reception.

This phone is heavier than the razr, but is SOOO much better.... reception is comparable to my old phone which did well everywhere... sound is AWESOME... I actually feel the vibration in my pocket so I get my calls on time now.... the camera takes great pics and video.. bluetooth allows me to put every pic and video on my computer for storage... has customizable menu for personalized "favorites" like interface...

I am SOOOO pleased...


CONS: phone is so cool I feel like making calls all the time... eating up my plan minutes....OH and a couple of real things...
1. the alarms do not turn on the phone... so if phone is off... no alarm (alternative: put phone in airplane mode... no calls in or out as if you turned it off)
2. phone has to be open to use the speakerphone ( but works great... no one knows they're on speaker either...awesome sound quality

This is a Great phone no matter what some of these people say...one person says you can't assign ringtones to each person? That my friends is incorrect!! I have already assigned each person in my phone book a different ring. One person says it has an asscending ring and they couldn't hear the phone ring until after a few rings? Not sure about that as when my phone rings I hear it immediately. One person says the swiveling camera moves too easily? Why is that a problem anyway? The camera lens is at the top of the phone out of the way, so no bother there. Then you have the person who says the speakerphone isn't loud? Well I had to turn mine down as it does get very loud, if you want it loud...but it is quite clear. LG is a great phone and this phone is packed with features. Life is good!

I just recently had a Razr and I absolutely LOVED it..The razr unfortunatley broke and I got a LG cu500. The phone had great reviews, all the features and more and just look like an overall great phone! I got it and it was huge, heavy and DEFINETLY not a phone i would pick out. The menus are poorly set up, the keys are small, and the phone makes annoying Message Sent sounds 2x in a row after you send a text. The camera isn't that great either! The music part of the phone is pretty cool although you have to buy seperate headphones, software, and a seperate USB cable! The music isn't very loud and you can't set your songs as a ringtone. Another nice thing about the phone is the music ID software..Other than that, I pretty much hated it for the price i payed! Anyway I just sold it (after owning for less than a month)and got the LG cu400..Im excited to finally have somewhat of a simple, good phone. Because with the LG cu500 why have all the bells and whistles when they don't work that great and are poorly set up?

LG is offering a music player, a video camera with basic picture editing capabilities and internet connection in a small device that sometimes may work as a phone.

The best feature of the LG CU 500 is by far the Internet connectivity. Extremely fast and user friendly. Screen is very good for watching news, videos and whatever's available on the corresponding network. As a camera is OK, not many features but at least, basic photo editing.

Battery life is not what LG or Cingular claims and there is no extended battery available. When surfing the web or in constant talk time, one hour on the average. Standby mode will last 36 hours if nobody calls.

The other problem is the phone itself. Although the bars may indicate full strength, the signal is very poor and callers will complain that they barely hear you. This problem is not limited to indoors or steel buildings; happens everywhere (at least in South Florida).

Stay away from this phone and consider one of the "Berries" instead. I've had mine for six months and three batteries, already.

I've owned Samsung phones for the past few years and I thought I was getting a heck of a deal with this LG phone but all I got was a stupid toy. You can do a lot of stuff with it like load music, create cool ringtones, etc. but the one thing that it doesn't do is give you clear reception. People can never hear you because you. You've seen that commercial where the guy talks to that girl and half way through she can't hear him, well that's exactly what will happen to you with this phone. Worse decision I ever made buying this phone. I should have stuck with Samsung! Beware buyers, you'll want to toss it out your window.

Confused by my title? I try to do my homework before I buy a phone. All the reviews online and in the magazines gave this phone great reviews. It sure can do alot. But the problem is what it can't do. Does it take good pictures? Yes. Is it a good phone? Yes. Does it replace a MP3 player? Well... yes. Then what is the problem?
The problem is getting the pictures, video, wallpaper and ringtones into and out of the phone. There is no software to do this for the CU500! You can buy a USB cable but no software. Cingular has no clue. LG tells me the only way is to buy a card reader, remove the SD card and have your PC read it. That my friends is a big pain in the you know where. In addition pulling this card out from under the battery is just as bad, and will lead to eventual failure of the card!
I can't believe that one of the top of the line phones doesn't even have software to allow transfers via the USB cable.
I'm returning my phone.
What this phone really is is a portable modem that allows you to make calls. Not what I wanted.

This is a great phone!! I got rid of my Razr and got the CU500. It has everything. With the micro SD card I have tons of pictures that I can use as backgrounds, and tons of music. Tne look and feel of the phone is wonderful and the sound is great. It also automatically connects to my bluetooth as soon as I turn on my headset. No more trying to connect like with the Razr.

Pro
quick download
able to hear it rung and vibrate while in your pant pocket
loud and clear speakerphone
nice resolution
swivel camera
Con
SD card slot locate behind battery compartment
battery last about 2 days on standby
No cool ring tone, preset ring tone are annoying.
No cool preset screensave
No international money conversion

Overall, it's a nice flip phone to have for everyday use purpose



I had this phone for about 2-3 weeks and ended up trading it in. I liked the features and the look & feel of the phone, but was not happy with this phone in particular,(there are other phones out there that have most of the same features). Here's why I returned it:
1. Ascending ring. -Couldnt hear it at first until it finally gets louder.
2. The phone would go silent on me or the person on the other end alot. And no, it wasn't a problem with Cingular's service because I have had other phones that have worked just fine in the same areas and I wasn't traveling at the time of these happenings. I would be just sitting at home, talking, and suddenly the person on the other end would be like, "hello??" I could hear them, they couldn't hear me! This happened 3 times during one phone call!!! Thats not acceptable to me when I've had a Motorola, a Nokia, and a Sony Ericson phone before and did not have this problem!!
3. While the rotating camera is a cute idea, it is also a pain since it rotates way too easily in my opinion.

I ended up returning this LG phone for a Razr v3xx, which I love! I've never had a razr before, but am so happy with it, (had it now for 2 weeks)! I do like to give phones a chance before I just return them, and I wont be returning the Razr. It has alot of the same features as this CU500, without the above problems!

I switched from the razor to the CU500 and I must say im pretty glad I did, well far as better options. Unlike other phones I had, it would be difficult to see when the sun is shinning unless you play with the screen controls. But when I got this phone I dont have that problem.



~PROS~

- Like I mentioned the screen is good even when the sun is shinning directly on you. You can still see the screen clear

- The photo editor is GREAT!. Same thing with the GIF maker

- LOTS! of options. I had this phone for about two weeks and I find new options everyday lol. Just like yesterday I found out you can take pictures of the video you've recorded

- Recording a video is a big plus. Record up to 14 minutes


~CONS~

- Im under pick your plan and using the MP3 player uses up data towards your bill. I never reliezed that untill I kept wondering why my minutes would be so low everyday. Unless you get unlimited usage best bet is to not use the MP3 player

- Same goes for the radio. Uses lots of data. Same with mobilTV, and Cingular video

- You cant assign text message tones. It has annoying text message tones. The only way to turn them off is to completly put the phone on vibrate

- As everyone else said, the phone doesnt come with nothing but a charger. I brought the phone from the cingular store and the USB cable there was 24.99. But on other sites I seen some for 8.99


~Summary~

Its a good phone its just some things that LG should of took a second look at before releasing the phone. Because I text alot and those text message tones are annoying as hell lol. Especially the message that lets you know the text message was sent or even when you delete something. Plus its hard to constantly keeping your phone on vibrate when your at home. Thats just for the text message junkies. If you dont text or text that much you shouldnt have a problem with it.

I just upgraded to this phone after using an older LG model for 3+ years. Well, in 3+ years, phones have improved quite a bit. If you add in memory, you can store and transfer files. For me, that means transfering MP3s, which you can play with the built in music player. The phone also is Bluetooth enabled, allowing for wireless connection with other Bluetooth devices. Of course, I went out and bought a Bluetooth USB adapter and had it set up within an hour or so. There's also a camera that swivels through 6 positions and has very good picture quality considering the tiny lens you're working with.

The downsides to the phone mainly involve all the add-ins you may or may not want to buy. A memory card is not included, nor is a data transfer cable. Standard headphones will require an adapter to connect with the 2.5 mm port. Bluetooth is also a relatively slow method to transfer files if you want to move 100+ MB in files. However, all of these are peripheral to the phone itself, so that really comes down to the guys selling the device, not the device itself. The one intrinsic element I don't like is the music player. While it locates MP3 files easily, the phone doesn't sync up with iTunes or WMP like a pure MP3 does. But this is relatively minor since it just means you pick out your files and transfer them manually.

Battery life seems to be decent and I've run my phone for several days under normal usage without requiring a recharge. I don't put a particularly heavy load on my phone, though, so big talkers and texters may feel differently.

Most of the negative reviews come down to people who either aren't smart enough to figure out how to work their phone or who blame provider issues like poor reception on the phone itself. You may have different preferences for what you want in a phone or are used to a different configuration of buttons. But if you can adjust to the interface and the soft keys (they're really not that bad), then you'll be fine. This is definitely an amusing toy with the added benefit of being a good cell phone as well.

I absolutely hate this phone. Everyday it makes me want to throw it out my window. I switched to Cingular from Sprint in August strictly because most of the people I talk to have Cingular and I kept going over my minutes. So I didn't really like any of the phones they had in-store (I went to 3) and I didn't want the Razor and the guy told me that this was the best phone they had and it would definitely get better reception than the Razor. BULL. I am missing having Sprint with my beautiful tiny silver Samsung, I think it was the A670 (that Cingular does not have).

1. The reception sucks, and it's not Cingular. My boyfriend and his sister both have Cingular, they live out in the sticks and they both get service just fine and I don't. He has a Nokia, she has the Razor.

2. Half the time it says I have full service but it won't ring. So I miss most of my calls and txts cuz the stupid thing doesn't ring.

3. You can't assign Ringtones to particular people! What the heck, this phone has an MP3 player but you can't assign ringtones, which I didn't realize 'till I already purchased 3. I called LG and they said you could only assign them to groups, which I did exactly how they told me to and I could never get it to work.

4. My old phone had lights on the outside that would blink if you missed a call or a msg, and you could have the option of having it actually beep if you missed a call or a msg, this phone doesn't do that so I am constantly having to check it.

5. It is really quiet, both the ring and the voice, and the speakerphone isn't that loud. By boyfriends 4 year old Motorola he had before his new Nokia had a way better speaker.

6. It has the absolute worst battery life in the world. Sometimes I won't use it all day, I won't even open it, and the batter will be dead. What the heck is up with that?

The only good thing I can say about it is that I like the big screen and the picture quality is really good. It would have been nice to not have to buy the cord to download the pictures separately though, the phone was nearly $200, they could have at least thrown the cord in, or at least the car charger, I had to buy that too, which was $30 and quit working about 3 months after having it.

I would NOT recommend this phone to anyone, I don't know if it's LG or just the model but it is the cause of major frustration for me every single day! If I could give it zero stars I would have.

pretty cool phone, having problems sending msgs sometimes due to lack of reception at my home, but definitely the nicest phone i have had. i like the reversible camera but cant get it to zoom, still need to buy the cable and memory card. battery dies within 2 days but im always either on the phone or texting, or on the internet, which is also very fast and works great. overall a nice phone for the money, even though i had to upgrade my data plan to get the special price.

Ok, let's get this straight. Just because a phone drops calls/won't dial successfully, doesn't make it the phone's fault. Cingular may claim that they have the least dropped calls but most of the problems occur when Cingular won't even let you dial out. Call QUALITY is based on the phone, not dropped calls.

PROS...
The phone is aesthetically built, and looks very nice. I like the functions available to the user without even opening the phone (flip style). I can access mp3s, video camera, and normal camera from the outer controls.

I personally prefer the standard raised keys which the CU500 has over ones such as the flat RAZR buttons.

Good quality for phone calls, and easy-to-use interface.

CONS...
Nothing else is included when buying the phone except the charger. The USB data cable, microSD memory card, and headsets are all extra. Really stupid especially since the onboard memory is 16MB, pathetic when it features a 1.3 megapixel camera.
*I've had no problems with my microSD memory card, although others have. I'd make sure to buy Sandisk memory, which LG endorses.

Annoying ring notification when selecting settings and basically doing ANYTHING on this phone. I'm going to search for a software/firmware update to solve this problem, hopefully LG addresses this.

not a bad phone, but if you want to move files to your phone, and photos back to your computer. I have had other phones, and they came with a cable for making transfers to my PC. This should be standard with any phone that plays MP3s, but LG insists that you buy their software at addictional costs, and the cable too. I refuse to do this, so in order to move my files, I have to remove the battery, YES, remove the battery to access the memory card. Then remove the card and plug into my all-in-one card reader. This works fine, but not really worth it for just a few pics. In hindsight, I would have went with a different phone, but was not given much choice, since this was a warranty exchange from cingular.

I also wanted to like this phone like the other reviewers. I've had this phone for almost 3 weeks, but it's going back to Cingular. It has a great looking design, and on paper it looks to be loaded with lots of neat features. BUT:
- The battery in this phone drains very QUICKLY. I should have realized this b/c the specs on the phone rate the talk time at 3.5 hours for UMTS mode and 5 hours for GSM mode. Compare that to the Sony W810i (9 hrs talk time!). I haven't figured out how to keep the phone in GSM mode so that the battery might last longer.
- Good luck with the micro SD memory card used on this phone. Just do a Google search on "problems with LG CU500 memory card" and you will see what I mean! The biggest problem is the error message "card not ready." IF you get past that hurdle, a lot of people still complain that the card takes way too long to store data, or gives other errors. I think manufacturers are rushing these new phones to market way too quickly, complete with all the bugs.

Sorry, I felt I must warn people out there. BEWARE of these problems. Other than those gripes, the phone had great clarity and volume in the earpiece. If you're not tech-savvy and all you care about is using the phone as a phone, you'll be OK, but the wimpy battery is still going to annoy you.

I've had this phone for a couple of weeks now & I've found it has a lot of good points, but coming from someone who's used to Motorolas, I've been missing quite a few things with this phone.

First, it does have the 3G network which is amazing for super fast web browsing. I can't imagine going back to the old way. Everything loads within seconds.
I love that you can rotate the camera, but that can be a nuisance if it was pointing one way & then you need to reverse the image to change it for later pictures. I was disppointed with the quality of the pictures though. I had better pics w/the Razr. I took a few pictures & sent them to a friend & he was only able to see 1.

This phone has a lot of great options, but you have to pay for nearly all of them. For example, to watch tv clips from channels like TLC & Animal Planet, you need to pay $10/month; for HBO it's $5/mo. And those are only few minute clips-- not a whole show. For the radio it's another montly charge. You could easily rack up a bill for hundreds of dollars a month just to utilize all of these features on top of paying a regular phone bill.

The ringtones were a big disappointment. Unlike the Razr where you can apply different rings to different things (i.e. vibrate for texts, ring for calls, etc), there is no way to have vibrate only. You can only do it before ringing or while ringing (or just plain silent) & if you have it silent, it's silent for everything--calls, texts, etc. The ringtones provided were awful. Before I got it, I checked out the other reviews & saw people wrote this too. I figured how bad could they really be?? They're bad. Bad! There's only one that actually sounds like a phone (it's called old ring) but even that's just ok. THe others are like weird, annoying songs. Very odd.

I noticed the battery life is so so. I charge it about every other day & I don't even use the phone that much. If I were to make calls or use the internet, I'd have to charge it every night.

I haven't gotten any dropped calls or weird variances in volume although I have found myself often straining to hear what the other person is saying. However, I've not found the calls to start out loud & gradually get lower as someone else mentioned.

It's nice to be able to change the internal & external displays. You can have one image for the inside screen & another for the outside. They only provide you with 3 or so wallpapers (no screensavers) but you can use your own anyway.

The screen goes black pretty quickly if you're not doing something every second. First the key lights go off & then the screen dims then goes black pretty quickly. I find that a little annoying.

Storing numbers was a hassle as well. I liked the way the Razr worked in terms of this a lot better. It would show you distinguishable icons next to the person's name so you could just see what device you wanted right away. This one works a little differently & it's not as easily noticeable.

All in all I think this isn't such a bad phone. I'm most likely going to get the Apple iphone when it comes out in June so just to use this phone for 3-4 months is fine. I'm sure I'll be over it by then anyway. If you don't need a ton of bells & whistles, then I'm sure you'll be happy with this phone.

Bought this phone and I have had no problems. Camera is really good and you can even take pictures off your self because you can see it on the screen. The charging port has a cover so nothing can get inside there unlike the Motorola phone i used to have. I even dropped this phone into a stream and it was submerged for 15 seconds and it still works great! Works well with Bluetooth devices. You can use it as an internet connection for a laptop or anything that is Bluetooth capable. This phone is very fast with sending any kind of messages and web browsing is significantly faster than previous phones i have used. The only bad thing about the phone is the ringtones it came with. I just want a simple ring and it couldnt offer me that so I ended up recording the ring from my old Motorola and now I am satisfied. Battery life is pretty good depending how much you use it but I have noticed that if it has one bar left it will still go for 8 hours. Overall this phone is a great product from LG

I really wanted to like this phone, but I knew I would return it within hours of its purchase. I have known people that love LG products, and this certainly looked promising. The Cingular rep I spoke to also indicated that this phone might possibly be used for videoconferencing in the future. Since I needed to upgrade, I thought I might as well go for a 3G phone, since I would be stuck with it for a while. I put it through its paces with one solid day of extensive use.

Pros: Lots of functions. This thing will do pretty much everything that you would expect a high end phone to do. It's pretty nice looking, but the black finish is a fingerprint and faceprint magnet. The rotating camera might be useful in some situations (but it can also be annoying too, when it rotates when you don't want it to). The main keypad buttons work really well. You can use a standard headset, although I would predict that the covers for the headset hole and the power/data jack will break off quite easily with this phone.

Cons: Just pick it up and try to use it. The side buttons are painful. This thing is just an ergonomic disaster. I found it to be one of the most uncomfortable phones ever. Granted, I am a big person, but it just felt strange in my hand. The phone sounded OK, but I personally didn't like the tinny sound of the speaker. I got mixed results from those on the other end of the phone. Some said I sounded crackly, and others thought I sounded fine. I did not like the navigation on this device, but that may just be due to my familiarity with Motorola products. If you are a current LG user, you may love this phone.

Outcome: I returned the phone, and got the MOTORAZR V3xx. I'll post a review of that phone once Amazon updates their site. I decided to go with this phone due to my familiarity with Motorola Navigation. Any concerns I had about the design of the RAZR and its funky keypad have vanished. So far, I love the phone. The other solid 3G option would be the Samsung Sync. It is cheaper than the RAZR, but it looks and feels it. If you are holding out for the iPhone, keep in mind that it is NOT a 3G compatible phone. I would wait until Apple makes a 3G phone, and even then I am not sure I would shell out the $$$ for a product that would inevitably cause me to wreck my car.

I've had this phone for going on 4 days now. I've pretty much made up my made to take it back and exchange for something different. Don't get me wrong, this is a nice phone. It seems to be pretty durable, except for the flimsy cover that is on the charging port - it will break off, I'm 100% sure of that. It's a nice looking phone...I held it up to the Samsung Sync and in my opinion it looks better then that due to the Sync looks like a toy due to the plastic. For the price, the phone has a ton of features! I'm not going to go and list pro's/con's but I will touch base on why I am not satisfied with this phone. Since these features or non features are not listed when you go into the store.

Why I am returning:
- The ring is ascending ONLY! There is no way to fix this...by the time its loud enough for me to hear it, the caller has hung up (VERY annoying)

- Ring tones are horrible

- You cannot customize your contacts. Meaning no assignable ring tones or photo ID.

- Every time you go to write a text message, and you have to stop or start over, it saves to draft.

- A very annoying alert tone every time you access something from a menu. For instance, take a picture and then go to options to delete or send - you get an annoying chime.

So if any of these issues are important for you to have on a phone, then don't buy this one. If they don't really matter then check it out cause you will probably enjoy this phone.

I "upgraded" from an old nokia 6010 that was working perfect for over 4 years to a LG cu500 That can't even stay connected for more than a minute! Dropped calls like crazy. People on the other end keep hanging up on me because they could not hear me! HELLO? HELLO? HELLO? And the 3G Hipe that cingular keeps pushing is NO GOOD as well. I signed up for the full media package with video and all the bells and whistles and the video would go into buffer zone forever after playing about 15 seconds of a 3 min clip. This was my second CU500 phone from cingular. New sim card, new phone, same problems. My signal was always 5 bars strong in the 3g mode, yet, still dropped calls and nobody could hear me. My best guess about this phone is that LG rushed this phone to market to compete with the razor from motorola.(As we all know that the razor is always sold out at the cingular stores.) I would not recommend this phone to anybody who needs a reliable source of communication. Cell phone quality has dropped in the last 4 years since I brought a phone, so I can't really recommend any brands. Cingular service has been PERFECT so far before I brought this phone so go figure what's the problem. There is another reviewer on this page having the same problems as I did as well.

At first, the phone seemed like it was going to be great. Cool features, cool design, speaker volume was great. The only thing that truly annoyed me about the phone is the annoying little conformation chime that CANNOT BE TURNED OFF!?! Are you kidding me. Unless you have the phone on silent or vibrate and you change a setting, delete something, send a message, etc it makes an annoying LOUD chime. And as I said, it can't be turned off. Now to the best of the worst of the phone! Whenever talking to someone on the phone, they hear the most obnoxious humming/buzzing sound ever. You know that sound that speakers make when your cell phone is near them and it's about to ring? That weird humming/buzz noise? Yeah, that's exactly what the other person on the line hears. And it's quite loud, loud enough that at times I can't even be heard. Oh and not to mention dropped calls. There have been several times when this thing has dropped a call 3 or 4 times in a row. Talk about annoying. Other times it'll drop a call once and then I can call back and get back to the conversation...but i mean...seriously?

Bottom line: cool phone design, features. Could be improved if it used USB like the RAZR for easy connection to the computer for charging and transferring files (i.e. making my own ring tones). STAY AWAY FROM THIS PHONE! Yes, yes i know that Andy on The Office makes this phone cool but it is horrible!


I just bought the phone 3 days ago and i still have yet to charge up my battery besides for the first entire day... I've yet to have a problem with low reception. I live in central Jersey and have service inside a cement building which is unheard of. Overall i love the phone it would have been better if you could control the ringtones. I used to have a motorola and i could control all of the settings for that and this one your stuck with the way it is. Only good thing is you never miss a call because of how obnoxiously loud it gets. Overall though, i love it so far. No problems with the battery life or reception yet.

the phone's clear, feels good, neat features. it still doesn't support address book syncing with any software so i haven't bought the cable yet. also the battery drains way to fast, if i leave the phone on and maybe make one or 2 short calls it is dained within a day. i can not find larger batteries anywhere yet either. i subscribed to cingular video and xm radio on it and it's great! make sure you get unlimited bandwidth or else you're going to pay hundreds! :P they had an error on my statement i needed fixed and had to call 2 months in a row now since they didn't get it right yet.

I bought this phone about six months ago because I liked the features and I wanted to be a little different from everyone else who had a RAZR. Despite all the wonderful feature, I switched back to a Motorola and bought the RAZR V3r because the reception from the LG was not that good. The reception wasn't the fault of the service provider because the problems went away when I acquired the RAZR. My observations on the LG CU500 are:

1) Small and compact. Not as wide as a RAZR, but a little thicker.
2) Very easy to use.
3) Phone only comes with a charger and nothing else. You will have to buy all the accessories separately.
4) This phone takes an optional MicroSD card, so it's nice to be able to expand on your storage.
5) You can use regular headphones with this LG, but the jack has to be 2.5mm. It's better than having to buy a proprietary headphone from the cell phone manufacturer, like you would have to do with other phones.
6) Video recording is limited to only 20 seconds. I don't usually need more than this, but it's nice not being limited.
7) Reception was not as good as the RAZR. Despite all the great features, I need this to be a phone and therefore, reception is of utmost importance to me.

Good luck to you whichever phone you decide on!!

I think others may be having a problem with Cingular's coverage or something, because mine works very well all over Austin and Dallas/Fort Worth. In fact, in three months it's only dropped one call. That's no exaggeration; it occurred while going through a tunnel in Dallas (so I don't think we can blame that on the phone). I have another model phone for work that's also on Cingular service, and it doesn't compare. I'm pretty impressed with the LG.

Pros - sounds good for music or talking, has a durable finish, is easy to use, and is reliable

Cons - battery life (the indicator seems accurate, though, unlike some phones), only has ascending ring tones, keypad will not light up when alarm clock goes off (hard to know if I hit snooze or "end" when I'm waking up in the dark)

I've always had pretty terrible luck with mobile phones, and I couldn't be happier with this one.

I recently upgraded my phone to an LG CU500. I am very pleased. Here's why:

This is a very attractive phone. It looks similar to the RAZR, but it does not have the same wide body. (I do not care for the wide body of the RAZR, it makes it hard to fit in pockets.) I also like the slim body. It is slim enough, but it still feels sturdy. The phone is black with chrome around the external display and the external music controls. When you flip open the phone, you see a great, bold colored screen. You can customize BOTH screens with wallpapers and how you want to display the date and time.

The reception is great. I can hear crisp and clear, and for those other phones that you've had that just don't get loud enough when you're talking, the highest talk volume (7) on this phone is plenty loud enough, I have to keep it on 5 so I won't go deaf. I didn't think the reception would be so clear because of the internal antenna, but it is as clear as it could be.

The buttons on the phone are raised above the surface, unlike many other slim phones, such as the RAZR, the KRZR, or some of Samsung's slim phones. Under the external display are the music buttons. Which are Rewind/Back, Play/Pause, and Forward/Next. On the left side of the phone are two buttons, the rocker and the task button. If the phone is closed you can punch the task button and you can go to the MP3 player, take a photo, or record a video. If the phone is open and you hit the task button, you get the "Task Menu" which brings you to all the available tasks. (MEdia Net Home, Music Player, Games, Applications, Call, Write Message, Message Box, IM)

The phone has a 1.3 mega pixel camera, which is capable of video too. It takes clear, crisp photos and can zoom. The camera lens can rotate 180 degrees to take a self portrait, or to take one of someone else. Each time you rotate the lens, the display is upside down, so you hit the rocker button to flip it right side up.

If you hit the right soft key, the phone pulls up My Menu. This menu is extremely convenient. You make this menu, adding the items you want.

I have not tried the MP3 player yet because you have to buy a separate USB cable that hooks up through the charger port of the phone. You can add memory to the CU500 with micro SD cards.

The ringtones are loud and get attention. There are only a few that I really like, but the rest are OK. The ringtones are ascending, so it starts out average volume and increases to loud, and there is no option to change it, but it's not a big problem for me.

This phone is also 3G capable, which means it can get Cingular's fastest internet speeds.

I highly recommend that you get this phone. It is the best phone out right now. I don't think they will come out with a phone better than the LG CU500 soon.

[...]

This phone has a lot to offer that may phones of this size cannot do, or just don't do quite as well. Although some people did not have an excellent experience with this device, so far, I have had a great one.

PROS:
Form factor - Following the new trend of the thin Razr-esque style, this phone is in a durable easy to open and close casing with well spaced keys and a mostly finger-print resistant shell. Buttons clicks very easily and with the exception of the somewhat slim side buttons, the overall casing is excellent. People with large hands may have a little trouble with the music controls on the front, but the same menus can be accessed with the phone open.
Interface - This phone is just plain fast. My last phone was the Motorola L7 Slvr, and that has some major lag to it. This phone is lightning quick. The text messaging speed, browser load up speed, and music player interface are almost immediate. This is by far the fastest phone that I've come across, and very easy to navigate in. The only flaw is the split between the actual media center and mp3 player, but I adjusted fine, and really, I don't use it that much that it makes that big of a difference.
Screen - Excellent screen. Very bright, very vivid. Even when the screen dims itself, it is still easy to read, and the colors just pop. The external screen is decent at best, but usually the external screens aren't up to par on phones of this size. Text is sharp, and darks are really rich.
3G - For those that aren't familiar with exactly what 3G is, it is basically at type of internet access. It allows you to essential travel the internet at broadband speeds. While most webpages are pretty large to fit on this phone, and example of speed could be that MySpace took about 5 seconds to completely load. The AOL Instant Messanger (and other IMing apps) load pretty quickly... it took about 10 seconds to completely sign on and load my buddy list. Instant Messages are lightning fast, and feel as if it were in real time.
Camera - This is a MegaPixel camera. 1.3 to be exact. Although there are 2MP and now even 3MP cameras in phones of this size, the clarity in mid-range lighting is still really good. It is a little muddy in dark areas, and if there is too much light, it is over exposed, but for a camera that has no flash, I found the pictures to be relatively good. Also, the camera swivels for self portraits or snap shots. If your photos are upside down, there is a reverse photo option that's easy to get to that just takes a second.
Bluetooth - I would say an essential to phones these days. File transfers are quick. I haven't actually used a bluetooth headset on it, but it will accept all standard ones to my knowledge.
MicroSD Card Slot - Although I think it can only accept a 1GB maximum at this point, it is still great to have, especially in an MP3 phone. I have heard speculation about a firmware update to get 2GB cards to read, but I can't confirm it. Make sure you ask your provider which brands will work, because not all MicroSD cards will work (all cell phones you should ask).
Multimedia - The MP3 player is pretty good. I found that music that came out of it to be pretty clear, and the interface, although it takes some getting used to, is pretty good. This phone isn't designed to be an MP3 phone, it just has that option, so don't expect this to be above your expectation, but it still is very good.
Call Quality - Very good. There was a nit pick I had about it, but that's later on in the review.
Battery Life - I find it to be pretty good. It lasts about 3-4 days with casual talking and texting. You could probably stretch it to a week if you are a rare cell phone user. The AC adapter securely locks into place, and there is a rubber covering to protect it when not charging.

CONS:
Talk Issue - My only issue with the call quality, is that when the person you are talking to gets very quiet, the phone doesn't have anything that comes out of the speaker. Granted, I hate static, but at least I know my call didn't drop. I have yet to get a dropped call from this phone, but the sound dip kind of concerns me.
Streaming - Streaming is only at 15FPS, so it's not too exciting, but pretty cool.
Radio - The radio is a great addition, but uses hellacious amounts of data, I recommend getting an unlimited data package if you use this.
Awkward MicroSD location - It's actually located behind that battery, so it's almost faster to transfer wirelessly than going through the hastles of a card rearder (unless you buy the USB connection).
Media Package - I don't know if I just got ripped off, but when I was at the Cingular store, I was required to purchase the Media Works package for the internet and such. Granted I was going to get it anyways, but for people that just want to get this phone off Amazon for free, it's kinda iffy. I don't know if Amazon requires you to get this deal, but I recommend it because data gets expensive. Plus with a camera and 3G, the features get addicting.

BOTTOM LINE: Better than the Razr and Katana by far, but not up to par to some of the large candy bar phones and slider phones from Samsung. LG sceptics can rest their anxieties, because this truly is a quality phone.

I recently picked up the LG CU500 from Cingular and I must say that it isnt that bad.
*The MicroSD chip (sold seperately) is a great way to store up to 1GB worth of music
PROS
*The sleek look is similar to the Razr but a little bulkier. The keypad has similar stainless steel look but buttone have black around them.
*Lots of little features including MP3 player, Cingular video and other internet features.
*Ear volume is loud and I love it. After years of listening to loud music I need earpieces that radiate conversations and this does just that.
CONS
*Cant move too many volume options including alarm volume and ascending ringtone
*Message tones are limited and cheap. With the Razr, you could use any sound you wanted to.
*The MicroSD chip takes way too long to load.
*Ringtone length is limited, the Razr was not.

Other than that this phone is great, if you can get a good deal with a new or existing plan, I recommend the LG CU500

This phone drops calls on a regular basis, and is for all practical purposes barely usable as a phone. I've had mine replaced 2 times and the sim card swapped out several times as well. Still, it drops calls again and again, probably 20% of calls end in a drop. I ended up purchasing another phone a full retail and junking mine!

A couple of other gripes about this phone include:
- The ring tones are terrible so plan on buying one.
- The ringer volume starts low and get's louder on each successive ring and you can't change this. If the phone is in another room, by the time it's loud enough to hear, you won't catch the call.
- You can't turn the chime off for text messages, even when the phone is in silent mode for say a movie or meeting, your phone will chime when you get a text message.
- The speaker/earpiece is loud, but for some reason still hard to hear.

On the plus side, the 3G internet is fast and it can tether to the computer and make a not so bad and cheap wireless modem for a laptop

LG? Never again...

This phone gets a lot of good reviews for all of its gadgets. I enjoyed better picture quality and the novelty of video streaming. However, as a phone, this device was a nuisance.

What I didn't like:
- The ear piece hurts my ear even if I'm on the phone for just a few minutes and pressing lightly. The edges of the speaker are sharp.
- The sound quality of the voice on the other end is awful. It often sounds staticy and cuts in and out. I also have heard my own voice echoing in my own ear which makes it nearly impossible to talk.
-Drops calls. I have had the same service and live in the same area and didn't have this problem with the razr.
- Bulky, feels awkward in my hand. Not easy to flip open/shut.
- If I set the phone on silent, the alarm that I use to wake up will also be silent! Not so on the razr.
- Texting awkward, doesn't autofill words. No parentheses!
- Battery life is terrible. Razr has way better battery life which is hard to believe.

I've read a bunch of reviews on this phone and most of them say that the media accessories are great but the actual phone part of the phone is awful.

I really thought I was getting a phone that did neat tricks. All I got was the tricks. I'm returning it and getting another razr since my other one was stolen. Mostly, I'm tired of having a sore ear.

I've had this phone for a few weeks now and love it. It looks sharp (like a black RAZR), but not many people have this. I got it because it was cheap and different. It has Cingular Video and high speed data (3G, but only in certain large areas). Good battery life and clarity. Loud speaker phone, blue tooth. Cool camera too, seems like a nice, durable phone.

Cons:

It doesn't allow you to change to soft keys. The phone ring type ascends only, you cannot change this. Seems like the voice of the person you are talking to also ascends slightly. The alarm doesn't have volume controls, but I don't use that anyway. There are a few minor user interface flaws, but overall a great phone. I would recommend it.