Review: LG dLite
Screen
The internal display is plenty big. The screen stretches 2.8-inches diagonally, and pushes 400 by 240 pixels. That's very respectable for a feature phone. There is some room around the display, but the phone seems well-proportioned for its height.
Under all lighting conditions, the LG dLite worked well. Indoors, the screen seemed bright and vibrant with color. The colors on the interface are somewhat muted, but looking at pictures and Web pages the phone looked great. Outside, the dLite didn't lose too much brightness, even on a bright, sunny day. I occasionally saw some reflected glare, but it was never hard to find the right viewing angle.
The external display is very bright. Made up of an array of LED dots, it was easy to read indoors and out.
Sound
Sound quality on the LG dLite was also solid. Through the earpiece, my calls had a crisp, present sound that made callers seem like they were standing nearby. The earpiece was not blisteringly loud, but I never had trouble hearing my caller, even in a crowded, noisy mall or riding with my windows rolled down. I was duly impressed.
The speakerphone was also nice and loud. At full blast, I had no trouble hearing the dLite speaker over car noise or across the room. Likewise, ringtones were always audible, no matter where I had hidden the phone. With the sound turned off, the phone had an aggressive vibration, but with full pockets, it was more difficult to feel the dLite, and I missed a call once in a while.
Signal
The LG dLite also has good network reception. In the PhoneScoop vault (a local theater where all my local networks drop out) the dLite still managed to cling to a bar of service, even though data dropped down from 3G service to T-Mobile's slower EDGE network. A test call was still able to go through, and data would load okay in the Web browser, albeit much more slowly. Signal strength did hurt sound quality, though, and that test call had some dropout moments, but I did not lose the call entirely.
Battery
I was easily able to go three days without charging the LG dLite. Most of that time was spent making phone calls and sending text messages, with some light data use for the social networking app and e-mail, and almost no heavy use in GPS navigation or Web browsing. I think that matches what the average dLite buyer will be doing with this phone, so that's what the average buyer should expect. In a flat-out talk test, I managed a single phone call that lasted just over 6 hours, which is a bit more than LG's own estimates. The phone charges over microUSB, plugged into a wall outlet or a computer.
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LG dLite
