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Review: LG Rumor

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The Rumor is limited by its 1xRTT data radio. No speedy EVDO here. It also has a WAP browser. Pairing WAP and 1x together makes for a less-than-robust mobile web experience. The browser is found in the main menu, though you can also assign one of the D-pad shortcuts to launch it.

The default home page is of course Sprint's portal. This is easily changed, though, to another. I set it to launch Google as my home page. I was able to sign into my Google account and get all my Google content with no problem. Despite the D-pad configuration, I found it easier to browse the web holding the phone open (aka, sideways) with access to the full QWERTY keyboard. It just makes typing in things such as web URLs and usernames/passwords much easier. Also, when the phone is held in this position, the landscape orientation of the screen is slightly better than the portrait mode.

The left soft key is basically a "go" button, taking you to whatever links happen to be highlighted on the page. The right soft key is what opens up the browsing options menu. They let you do the expected things, such as go home, back, open your bookmarks or add to your bookmarks and so on.

There's one function of the browser that could be great, but it's not. There's a little tab called "Page Info". Clicking on it brings up the full URL for whatever page you are on in a text box. If would be great if you could highlight the URL and paste it into an email or SMS message. Alas, this option doesn't exist. Which makes us wonder why the ability to view the URL is valuable at all.

With the 1x data radio, even WAP sites are sluggish to load.

Customize

As with most modern phones, you can alter many of the basic settings of the Rumor. This includes the fonts, appearance of menu items, different screen savers and so on. The font size can be adjusted in the Messaging center, in the Browser and the Notepad all separately. They can't be made Super Big, but even this amount of control is nice to have. The option to have different ringer IDs is nice, but you can't choose to use one of your own songs as a ringtone. You have to buy one from Sprint. You can, however, set pictures you've taken with the Rumor as your screen saver.

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LG Rumor / Scoop / UX-260

2" display 176 x 220 pixels
950 mAh battery
Memory Card Slot, Hardware Text Keyboard