LG Sentio Review

Introduction:

T-Mobile is the last major wireless carrier in the country to embrace LG, but fortunately the time is finally here nonetheless as the LG Sentio aims to be one of their auspicious launch handsets. We've seen how the Korean based manufacturer has some flagship series handsets in the repertoire with the other big three carriers – such as the Rumor, enV, and Shine line of phones. Although LG is launching a couple of other basic flip phones for T-Mobile, the LG Sentio is looking to pack a substantial punch – considering it's a touchscreen offering. We'll see if this handset can hang with some similar offerings that have cemented their place in T-Mobile's feature phone lineup.

The package contains:
•    LG Sentio
•    Wall Charger
•    microUSB Cable
•    Hands-free headset
•    Start Guide

Design:

LG is no stranger in crafting some fantastic and sometimes futuristic handset designs, but unfortunately the design of the LG Sentio is rather too ordinary – much like other similar offerings currently available like the T-Mobile Tap and Samsung Highlight. The candybar handset is exquisitely light weight (3.3 oz) and compact thanks to its small footprint and plastic construction, but the addition of the soft touch coating throughout the handset does make it very comfortable to hold. We'd imagine that the handset would be able to repel some of the damage that accompanies normal wear and tear, but there is no arguing that the handset feels a bit brittle due to its dainty design.



You can compare the LG Sentio with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

With a fitting 3” touchscreen on board with a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels and support for 262k colors, the size is more than adequate to distinguish text, but we find colors to be somewhat washed out looking. However, the resistive touchscreen requires you to firmly press down on the display to accurately register a touch. As we used the handset outdoors in direct sunlight, we found it very difficult to view without shielding it away from the glare of the sun.


The three dedicated circular buttons on the front of the handset are well sized with a springy feel with them, however, the other buttons on the sides of the handset are much smaller and difficult to make out with a finger. Despite this shortcoming, they had a decent tactile response when pressed down. As much as we're happy to see a microUSB port on board for charging and data connection, it's a pain that it doesn't offer a dedicated 3.5mm headset jack, but luckily the phone package includes a pair of stereo headphones. Flipping over to the rear, you'll find the 3-megapixel camera in the upper left corner by itself as the main speaker on the front is the sole one on board. Removing the back cover will get you access to the battery, SIM card slot, and microSD card slot.

Software/Features:

If the LG Sentio came out a few years ago, we would've praised it for offering a different looking interface, but regrettably it's instead a few years late. The Sentio employs the same outdated interface found on other LG sets like the Prada, Vu, and Viewty. Granted though there are some widgets you can place directly on the home screen, the main menu is laid out in similar fashion with its four tabs – phone functions, multimedia, organizer, and settings. By now it quite antiquated when you compare it to LG's current-generation interfaces like the one found on the LG Mini. Although we can't commend it for being original, there was no evidence of any slowdown or lag to ruin the experience and ultimately functions as it should.




Messaging can prove to be a challenge for individuals with larger fingers as the landscape on-screen QWERTY is limited in space, but then again, you can always opt to use the virtual keypad with predictive text for faster input. Setting up email is also simple as it presents you four of the big name email providers where you just input your email address and password for an automatic process. If not, you can simply get any email situated by just inputting some additional pieces of information like specific server addresses. Finally, you'll have your choice of AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger for all of your instant messaging needs.



As far as other apps are concerned, the handset doesn't include as many as we usually tend to see – they were predominantly demo games. The only worthwhile app mentioning that is preloaded on the handset is TeleNav GPS Navigator for your voice guided turn-by-turn directions. Although there is a YouTube shortcut under the media tab, it simply points the web browser to the mobile-friendly site of YouTube.
 


Multimedia:

There is nothing to brag about the LG Sentio's 3-megapixel camera. It produces sharp photos that make details stand out, but unfortunately colors are not saturated enough to please the eye. While usable, the Sentio's images do not impress in any respect.




Video recording on the Sentio wasn't all that pretty either as the QVGA videos produced by it lacked any fine detail with colors also looking extremely washed out. On the whole, it's a safe bet to say that it's best to default on using your traditional point and shoot for capturing precious memories as opposed to using the handset.

LG Sentio sample video at 320x240 pixels resolution.

Although it's not one of the prettiest music players we've seen, the one on the LG Sentio does the job in browsing through the selection on your handset. There are also some visualizations you can choose from to make playback just a little bit animated while exiting back to the home screen will allow music to continue playing through the media player widget. Unfortunately the main speaker is the sole work horse on the handset, so sound quality was neutral and lacking any serious power. As we set the volume to the loudest setting, the speaker still didn't sound too strained from it.


With a decently sized display at 3”, watching videos on the handset was unflattering versus the experience we see out of other similar handsets. We were able to play a video coded in H.263 320x144 with no slowdown, but then again at that low of a resolution, one would expect it to handily play it with no issues. Nonetheless the experience is more than acceptable for our taste, but doesn't quite feel as enjoyable due to the quality of the display – it looked somewhat washed out.


Despite having a somewhat lackluster media performance, the handset comes with approximately 80MB of free storage out of the box, but you can always supplement it with a microSD card.

Data/Connectivity:

International travelers will be enabled to talk away thanks to its quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) connectivity, while its dual-band UMTS connectivity (1700/2100MHz) will get you 3G connection via T-Mobile's AWS band.

Loading up web pages took an extravagantly long time as we wondered at one point whether or not it froze, but it eventually loaded in its entirety. Initially you're presented with an overview and can zoom in by double tapping a specific area, but kinetic scrolling wasn't as smooth looking as we would've liked. Still, it was able to render a page almost exactly like what you would see on a desktop to make the experience tolerable to say the least.

Performance:

Surprisingly we did not run to any brick walls with calling quality on the Sentio as we were able to hear our callers very well with no distortion in the background. However, our callers did say that our voice did sound a little muffled, but tolerable enough to make out our words. Speaker phone quality on the other hand was bland as voices were more on the neutral side – making it rather difficult to make out some conversations.

As we set the phone to the middle brightness setting, we managed to get two days out of the battery before a single bar on the battery indicator dropped – it has a total of three. This is clearly one area where we were extremely impressed with the handset as the manufacturer has it rated for 6 hours of talk and 384 hours of standby time.

During our time with the handset in the greater Philadelphia area, we did not recognize any instances of the phone dropping calls or loosing signal to the connection.

Conclusion:

We're a bit flabbergasted in LG's offering with the Sentio as it clearly doesn't showcase the true potential of what we've seen out of the Korean company. Out of the three handsets that LG is launching with T-Mobile, the Sentio is blatantly the most well rounded, but pales in comparison to rival options already available on T-Mobile's lineup. Although it may not exude some kind of flashy appearance, the Sentio's design is typical to the handful of other offerings out there and blends into the mix. However, it doesn't feel balanced enough in certain key areas to catapult it above the competition as other similar handsets are more polished around the corners. Despite not being equipped with some modern amenities, the LG Sentio can suffice as being an entry-level touchscreen handset with its $69.99 on-contract price point.

LG Sentio review unit software version: GS505-V10j-MAY-22-2010-TMO-US

LG Sentio Video Review