I was planning to move over to a GSM service when I decided again to go for this CDMA candy phone offered by Reliance India Mobile. Been using this cell phone since August 2004, the first impression on the look of this phone is really great considering the price tag it comes with. With a large display (for this price range) and excellent 65K colors it looks a great buy. But then you start using it and start seeing the glitches.
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| LG RD5130 |
The box ships with the handset, a headset, a 3.7V LG Lithium-Ion battery (LG LI-AAEM), travel charger (model AC-20W), user manual, hand strap and an added Quick Guide. The color I got is the Metal Silver and the rated price on the box was Rs. 11,500.
Display
This is by far the main feature of this cell phone. With a 65K color CSTN display, this phone delivers distinct, clear and smooth graphics and animation. The 128 x 128 pixels resolution (6-line LCD) is a good number for the price range. I basically went for this display. However, there is a catch - the display is not very visible in the sunlight.
A major problem with the display is that it simply shuts off after about a minute, so you see nothing on the display unless you have pressed a key. Though I initially thought that this feature was provided so the battery juice would be used more efficiently, but from the battery life it seems to have no such positive effect. Also, evidently, there is also no way to turn off this.
Keypad
The keys on the keypad have a bumpy look and are made if rubber, so the longevity is in question, though I have not faced any wear and tear as yet. The * and # keys are hard to use, and you might miss the pressure points if you are using with one hand. The Left & Right Navigation keys are so closely placed to the Call and End keys, respectively, you'll often press the wrong key. The keys need a little more pressure than regular - I wish it had those soft keys. Typing with only one hand feels the phone is going to slip and fall.
The keypad features predictive text input using the T9 dictionary for easy typing.
Calling
Messaging
Typing SMS text messages is not comfortable with the keypad with its hard keys and the phone's form factor. SMSs that don't fit into its character space limit are difficult to scroll through to see the rest of the content.
Phone Book
The phonebook stores up to 300 x 4 entries which is pretty large. Finding entries is however very slow and not that user-friendly.
Audio Quality
The audio quality is very good, and none have complained to me about the audio they receive on their side. I haven't faced many call drops or voice breaks other than cases that originated from their side.
Software
The phone software seemed pretty good in the beginning but within a few days I realized that there might be some memory leak within the code. That is because you will see there is a problem with the way the icons animate on the main menu options. The problem is that the animation plays quite well first, but once it goes into the second loop and beyond, the animation jerks, showing distinct indication of memory blocks. I sometimes hope it doesn't hang the phone. I'm not sure if the problem is in general or comes with particularly in my unit. It looks disgusting, however.
Navigation
Navigating through the menus is easy if it wasn't for the few badly placed keys and the number of key presses you need for the operations. The number of key presses required to finish a task is too much and it is a pain for someone who is used to Nokia handsets in particular. There is however, a customizable, My Menu feature that comes handy in partly overcoming this part of the problem.
Speakers
This speakerphone is a great add-on. The sound is loud and clear as far as I have experienced. I guess it's louder than most speakers I have seen on costlier handsets (both CDMA & GSM).
Antenna
The phone carries a Hitachi SMA-S080C internal antenna. At last LG seems to be doing away with those external antennas sticking out from the head of its CDMA handsets. This is one reason I didn't say no to this phone.
What's the time?
If you are used to watching the time on your cellphone, then it's really a bad experience with the keypad locked and in daylight. The display features auto-shutoff so you just can't pick up the phone and see the time. You need to press some key to reactivate the display. Here is the catch - if the keypad is locked, pressing a key shows the message 'Press Key Guard to Unlock' and then the display dims immediately after the message disappears. In case you are in bright daylight and waiting for the message box to disappear, so you'll have a glance at the clock - you are in hard luck, because you can't see a thing with the display now dimmed. So, in case your key is locked, and you are in bright daylight, there are three steps to watching the clock: a) Press 0 for 2 seconds to unlock b) Wait for 1 more second for the ''Key Guard Disabled'' message to disappear c) Then watch the clock on the display.
My Menu
This is a really useful feature considering the large number of key presses that you have to use to access frequently used functions. This lets you create shortcuts to functions that you can access with a single key press.
Alarm
The phone has three alarms that you can set individually. You can also set the alarm to fire off once, daily, recurring Monday-to-Friday or Monday-to-Saturday. Alarms don't work if the phone is switched off, as you get in Nokia.
Battery
The battery is one of the major deciding factors that come to play when you rate a mobile phone. Being a portable handheld device, it is only the battery that keeps it going (you can't run around with the charger). The cell phone comes with a 3.7V LG Lithium-Ion (LG LI-AAEM) battery. Though you may find the standby time quite long (almost 2 days really) the average talk time is under 2 hours. If you are an average user, however, charging once a day should do. It is normal battery life even after the fuss it creates by shutting off the display.
Recharging
Speaking over the cell phone while recharging is really uncomfortable since the charge port is on the side of the handset. The charger adapter is too big, and the shape is not ergonomic enough so you can carry it in your pocket. LG can design it in a better way. The indicator after full recharge is useless since it's just a message box that shows for a few seconds and then disappears - so you can be sure to miss it. This is a big problem if you are recharging with the phone switched off. If you charge the phone keeping it switched on, you can however know the charge is full if the battery-charge indicator in the top-right of the display is constant and is no longer animating.
PC Connectivity
The handset connects to the PC using an LG-DC300DJ serial data cable or a LG-USB8100 USB cable for synchronization of the phonebook and organizer using the PC Sync application.
R World
The R World (Reliance World) graphics show cool on the display and all features are accessible. However, I regularly face errors in the R World connection, which I'm not sure if the problem is with the phone or the R World service.
SAR (Specific Absorption Rate)
SAR value for this phone when tested for use at the ear is 0.591 W/kg and when worn on the body is 0.335 W/kg. The SAR limit set by the FCC is 1.6W/kg.
FCC ID
The FCC ID for the device is BEJRD5130 and the reports are available here.
Conclusion
All in all, I somewhat regret my decision of buying this handset, but won't recommend to new buyers. There are better options out there. Here are my ratings for individual features:
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| Ratings for the LG RD5130 Mobile Phone |
