UK mobile phone reviews - LG GT505 Review

Your LG GT505 Reviews

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Reviewer: Kit Kong - Mid Wales, UK
Date: 14th Jul 2010

I read a lot of the other reviews, most of which seem negative, & have to say I am quite pleased with this mobile.

At home I can't get on to the local transmitter so the UMA feature was the main attraction. This allows me to make calls through my router using my normal inclusive minutes.

The handbook is pretty basic & a first time mobile user would probably miss most of the 'hidden' features like the stylus concealed on the top right corner. My previous Mobile was also touch screen (as if my wife's new one) but they only respond to human fingers whereas the GT505 responds to anything. Matchstick, pencil, biro which for someone with big fingers is very handy especially when entering text. No one seems to have mentioned the headset which is both uncomfortable & falls out of your ears! There is no 3.5 jack option so you are stuck with them. I think battery life is short especially when connected via UMA which typically offers less than one day! Loading media files is slow & when selecting music it takes about thirty seconds just to load the list. Making up play lists is easier than my old Samsung but still not great. The PC suite is easy to use & at last it seems a standard for sockets (charger, headphone &USB) may be creeping in as my leads (Inc Car Charger) are compatible with my wife's Samsung. Does this mean these phones are made by the same people?

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Reviewer: Alan - Malaysia
Date: 22nd Jun 2010

I was after a Samsung Omnia Lite but there were none in stock & this was a lot cheaper, so. Bad mistake!

The built in browser is hopeless, circa 1998, so tried Opera Mini. That worked great on my Nokia E66 but hopeless on this, as most of the bigger screen is taken up with (unresponsive) arrow keys & the 'keyboard' is tiny in portrait mode. Tried Landscape mode & it totally corrupted the screen, also it doesn't switch automatically like my old Nokia.

Also, Opera Mini takes forever to load on this & for some reason I found it impossible to re-set the home page. There doesn't seem to be any option to place Opera on the phone's home page, so there's 7 button presses before it even begins its slow loading. There's nothing wrong with the Nokia E66 except the battery life (less than a day), hence wanting a new phone. I found the interface very restrictive & awkward, with few options to re-name things, rearrange the order & so on.

Frequently I found myself jabbing away, trying to figure out how to do things, before quickly realising the operating system is just too simple, without any options.

The touch screen is pretty unresponsive, though this is my first touch screen phone, so nothing to compare it with. Seems this type of screen cannot do 'pinch' or 'whirl' inputs, just poking & jabbing with your finger. Having experienced this I prefer conventional buttons & a D pad, especially for browsing the web. Unintuitive but true, sadly.

Happily the shop I got it from has agreed to take it back in exchange for the Omnia Lite I wanted in the first place :o).

All over the web people are complaining about WiFi on this, Orange lock you into their portal so they can charge you, so 'Free WiFi' signs don't apply to LG GT505 owners going with Orange. That's truly outrageous but not the phone's fault. I am in Malaysia using 'Celcom', so not an issue for me.

This phone ticks all the boxes on paper but in actual use I've found it unresponsive, coupled with few options anyway. The touch screen doesn't work properly in landscape & too fiddly to bother with in portrait, especially for browsing & to top it all the battery life is poor.

Did I mention it feels cheap & plasticy?

Overall I cannot recommend it, even if you're on a budget.

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Reviewer: Mugwump - Macclesfield, UK
Date: 1st Jun 2010

I have learned more about this phone from these reviews (like the stylus in the top) than I did from the manual which is appalling. I have never had an LG phone before, & will never have one again. There are simply no instructions as to how to use the onscreen functions along the bottom of the screen. Yes, you can drag them out onto the screen but then what? I have set up city time zones, but they do not display on the drag out time zone icon, my memos don't show on the drag out memo icon, & there is nothing in the manual to say what most of the other icons actually mean! Playing with them doesn't help since most seem to do nothing. What is the sunrise icon for? What is the magnifying glass icon for, they just do nothing. & as for 'shake to auto align' I don't want the icons I have dragged out to auto align! But every time I touch the phone they do.

I suspect you have to be very knowledgeable able to make this phone good for you. Those of us with limited experience are completely lost without a useful manual.

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Reviewer: Tim - Oxford, UK
Date: 14th May 2010

Firstly take the advice in other reviews here to 'easily' flash your firmware with caution. Remember if you do so you will need to set up all of the Orange settings for messaging & Internet access etc.

OK, so it is the best phone I have ever owned but has some very annoying features. I like the size of the onscreen buttons for texting (except the QWERTY which appears when you turn the phone sideways is pointless unless you use the stylus (yes it comes with a stylus tucked in the top)). Two really stupid things about texting though, the 'change language' button is prominent & I keep touching it by mistake. Why on earth put that in the main texting interface instead of in a settings menu? ! Secondly, the way of adding new words to T9 is ridiculous! You can't do it on the fly when you find it doesn't know a word, you have to go to a different screen, retype the word & save it. Then come back to your message & type it again!

The Wi-Fi browsing works fine & connects easily to my access point BUT, as mentioned previously Orange has hijacked this so it uses their data network regardless, so costs you money!

Major gripe is that the screen locks as soon as you get or make a call, so if you need to 'press button 1 for... Etc it is a pain. After unlocking, calling up the keyboard & pressing 'button 1' by the time you have listened to the next options it has locked again.

The games that come on it are demos only, which is pretty mean.

Display icons are so small as to be pointless.

Battery consumption is pretty high but switch off Bluetooth & 3G & it is OK (I had to do this on my last phone SE902 so this seems pretty normal).

The Orange version comes with Orange Maps as the phone has GPS but you will need to pay a monthly sub for that if you want to use it.

Other than that it does what it says: makes & receives calls & sends & receives texts! The on screen buttons are big enough for my large fingers (a major problem for me with most phones). I don't really want any more from a phone than that.

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Reviewer: Charlotte Slattery - UK
Date: 24th Apr 2010

I have had this phone for just under a week on an Orange upgrade. It looks great & is very lightweight but that is where the positive review ends. This is the most user unfriendly phone I have ever had & thank goodness Orange has agreed to me returning it.

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Reviewer: Tan - Singapore
Date: 3rd Apr 2010

My phone is not with Orange (thankfully). My telco singtel allowed use of Wi-Fi & 3G is fully functional. This phone is so sleek & the interface is much more easier than others (although not as easy as Nokia).

Plus.
- Easy user interface.
-Superb camera, Wi-Fi, touch screen that is responsive.
- All others than those mentioned below.

Downs.
- Slow animation & starting.
-QWERTY is crammed.

Given that I don't have to pay anything, yes, it is 100% worthwhile.

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Reviewer: Mohammed Yousaf - Bradford, UK
Date: 22nd Mar 2010

I think that this phone is amazing & I've only had it for 2 weeks! Its Internet is amazing & also the fact that it has WiFi makes it that bit better compared to its rivals. The camera is also very good in taking quick snap shots. I would suggest this phone to anyone who'd like a touch screen phone with loads of extras. 10 out of 10.

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Reviewer: Mike - Ammanford, UK
Date: 22nd Mar 2010

Don't BUY THIS PHONE! It's awful. I tried looking for the Samsung Omnia II, Orange didn't have any, so they recommended this phone, & it's the worst phone I have ever had! Its running speed is nice & smooth, but that's the only good thing. The touch screen is useless, it opens things, even when you don't want them to open, it makes really stupid noises when you turn it on & off. Unfortunately this phone.

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Reviewer: Paul - West Midlands, UK
Date: 31st Jan 2010

I bought this phone as a spare & back up to my Blackberry Bold. The first thing you need to do is flash the firmware (easily available on the Internet) to get rid of the horrible Orange gunk that they've filled it up with. Naturally this will probably negate any warranty you might have so use carefully. With the LG firmware installed this is a very nice, compact & useable handset. Proper Wi-Fi is obviously very useful & the features all work well. Occasionally the touch interface is a little unreliable (particularly when selecting music tracks, don't push too hard when scrolling through) but there is a touch screen set up utility which should solve any issues. The camera is reasonable, the call & music volume is good & the connectivity options are excellent. There is one really annoying issue which is that music tracks are listed alphabetically so if you want to play all tracks from one album you can't do it in the original running order & there is no way to change this. I've yet to investigate third party apps but understand that Opera Mini will work so this might be a handy replacement for basic browser.

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Reviewer: Michael L - London, UK
Date: 24th Jan 2010

Unfortunately with my phone being tied to Orange they cunningly changed the firmware so even though you can connect to your own WiFi you cannot use it. It's rather sad that comments of Orange blaming LG & vice versa are banded around. Orange has made sure that connection to the net means through them & of course chargeable. There are forums around with complicated work a rounds for this but to be truthful one should not need to tamper for it to you what it should! Other than the WiFi issue it's a great phone. The one issue I would have is the disconnect (bottom right) button can so easily be pressed during a conversation as you hold the phone. Not the best design for that. The 5mpx camera is great but using the inbuilt flash indoors seems to white out the exposure, still experimenting.

As long as phone operators tamper with devices, the only reasons being of extracting more cash from their customers mean those same people lose respect for them.

Michael.

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Reviewer: Shaikh Gulam - Telford, UK
Date: 30th Dec 2009

Hi. I bought this phone LG GT505, frankly speaking this is a smashing phone & the features are just so fast & stand up to my needs. The interface has been designed for an upmost user friendly use. The browser with Wi-Fi & 3G compatible makes it a tough contender to its rivals. The price is just the best part of it & I couldn't believe that it is coming with loads of options & features & top of that with a very low price.

Truly guys you looking for Wi-Fi & a touch screen phone. This one is the best. Thank goodness I bought LG GT505. Life is really good.

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Reviewer: W Vaughton - London, UK
Date: 1st Dec 2009

A poor phone. It looked good but there are just too many annoying issues with it, most of which are mentioned below.

& it manages to turn itself on very easily when in a bag & made a few calls when I was abroad. & it makes calls from your pocket too easily. The lock is probably the worst I've ever had on any phone & considering it's a pretty basic function it's not a good start.

It does have a couple of nice touches but the bad far outweighs the good

All I can say is thank goodness I have a 12 month contract still. It will be replaced as soon as possible for a Nokia.

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Reviewer: Debbie - Manchester, UK
Date: 22nd Oct 2009

My phone was 26 days old when I couldn't use WiFi. Has now been back at LG for 23 days they tell me there is a software problem which they are trying to fix, how long does it take? I would advise do not touch this phone with a barge pole. It wouldn't surprise if all these phone aren't recalled in the not too distant future.

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Reviewer: Gg - Falkirk, UK
Date: 16th Oct 2009

Had the phone for just over 3 weeks now & have had no problems with it great coverage in my area & find it very easy to use only thing I don't like about it is that the screen there isn't enough memory on the phone unless you buy a SD card. My other half likes it so much I have now had to order them one as well.

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Reviewer: Shona - Stirling, UK
Date: 7th Oct 2009

Well what can I say, I have had it 2 weeks & it's on its way back to Orange. Had the Viewty before & after 18 months was getting 2 days out of my battery. This one was brand new & was still getting 2 days out of the battery. Dread to think how bad it would have been after 18 months.

Screen kept freezing & I had to keep switching it off & rebooting it again. Volume control was amazing though. Only phone I have ever used where I have had to keep turning the volume down, LOL.

Oh & couldn't connect to WiFi either.

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Reviewer: Neil - UK
Date: 29th Sep 2009

Some brief comments from a new user.

- It's a nice design, sits comfortably in the hand, the touch screen is reasonable, & the graphics quite pleasant on the eye.

- Wi-Fi, reading around it seems Orange have disabled the ability to use Wi-Fi for anything other than UMA. Don't even bother trying, I spent an hour on the phone with an Orange tech support guy & even he was getting annoyed about it. I don't hold out much hope for LG fixing it either, this is most likely a business decision by Orange to squeeze more money out of users via data tariffs. This is why I give the GT505 such a low mark for features.

If you do want Wi-Fi hunt around the Internet & get the French firmware (V10b) that does allow you to use Wi-Fi as it should be used, & adds LG's GPS 30 day trial application as well.

- Battery life, only had it a couple of days & with the Wi-Fi on battery life is terrible. I've turned it off now (plus dimming the backlight) so will see what effect that has.

- UI, generally nice, very few issues there. The slowly animated alert window (tick, ! , etc) that appears every time you save a setting or confirm deletion of something is a tad annoying.

Overall a potentially nice phone let down by some dumb decisions on Orange's part & some annoying UI issues. If the battery life doesn't improve with Wi-Fi disabled (it's a non feature anyway) then it's going back.

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Reviewer: Iain - London, UK
Date: 25th Sep 2009

This is not a Smartphone. Though the hardware is decent enough, it could only do with a slightly more sensitive touch screen, the software is a huge frustrating drawback on this phone.

Major annoyances.
- Does not remember if you have predictive text on.
- the typing keyboard is far too small. Unless you have tiny thumbs it will be a nuisance to type accurately. Most Smartphone's have the sense to space out the keys I've found.
- the 3G capability claimed is locked off to only work through Orange Maps, which is an extra charge every month. No other application is able to access it.
- the MP3 player will ALWAYS sort songs in alphabetical title order with no option to change this. The joke being it uses the Tag3 information to find the title so you can't even trick it easily by including numbers on the file names.
- the auto focus takes too long & doesn't work well.
- the keypad locking is a complete nuisance & always seems to make keypad operated phone lines a journey through frustration.
- Java permissions cannot be set, so java applications are forced to ALWAYS ask whether you want to give them permission.
- Very little ability to customise the interface, the few widgets on offers are pointless or useless. They can't be augmented with other java apps. I can't even change the order or colour of menus.
- It losses signal often, & takes a long time on emergency call only when trying to go between 3G or 3G+.

There is very little to recommend the software on this phone, & as it is LG proprietary stuff it is unlikely to ever see any major revision or improvement during the 2 years I am stuck with it.

Throw in very poor customer service from Orange & this is easily the most annoying phone I've ever owned.

That all said it is probably fine for someone who just wants to make a few calls & doesn't really want a Smartphone or decently designed software.

It could have all been solved by installing Windows Mobile, Google Android or Symbian.

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Reviewer: Matthew - Liverpool, UK
Date: 10th Sep 2009

My previous phone, the LG Viewty, made me interested in all the other phones LG had to offer by the time my upgrade was available. After hearing many bad reviews of the Viewty Smart I decided to go for the GT505.

Unfortunately, this isn't the phone for you.

A few of the problems. You don't always receive a text until you unlock the keypad (very annoying). The phone doesn't remember if you use predictive text (or not). The keypad buttons are too small. You can't rename profiles. The earpiece is far too loud (although this can be altered, prefer for a shock the first time you speak to someone). The c button from the Viewty is now a pointless menu button. Signal strength can be very poor.

Good points. Battery life, I gave it a twelve hour charge the day I got the phone & then it had a better battery life than my Viewty. The Internet was fast. Impressive camera.

Overall, LG have let themselves down by changing things that didn't need to be changed. I'll be going back to a Nokia who know what needs advancing, & what is just fine as it is!

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Reviewer: Oz Mcgowan - UK
Date: 26th Aug 2009

This is a great phone. An iPhone substitute. It's easy to use, super quick, & not as bulky (or as expensive) as an iPhone. It's very well laid out in a logical fashion & I hardly needed to read the manual in order to know how to work it. Everything you need for modern day communication. Speed dial, messaging, email, Internet, wifi, camera, video recorder, MP3 player, FM radio. It's even got a sat nav. The QWERTY touch screen keypad makes light work when you're texting. & the sound & volume are brilliant. I have to turn it down when speaking to someone as it's too loud! The picture quality of the camera is amazing. The only couple of complaints I would have is if I have a new message or a missed call there is no notification of this when the phone is on idle (i.e. black screen) Only by pushing the button to access the screen will you then realise, & it would be nice to be able to use the radio without having to use the provided headphones. Minor things.

All in all, a brilliant phone & since I got it free with Orange upgrade I can't really moan. If you're in the market for a new phone & your talk plan allows it, then definitely check it out.

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Reviewer: G Host - Stafford, UK
Date: 21st Aug 2009

Had this phone for only 2 weeks but I can't get it to connect to the Wi-Fi, it will find a server, hub & connect to it, but when you type anything into the browser it always defaults back to the Orange WAP, & will not search for anything else, contacted Orange who said it's a LG problem, & LG says it's an Orange problem! Getting a bit cheesed off with it, all because of the Wi-Fi problem.

Anyone got any ideas? Otherwise, it's off to good old eBay. Shame really, as I like the phone a lot.

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Reviewer: Steve - Birmingham, UK
Date: 27th Jul 2009

I have had my iPhone for 18 months now & this phone is just as good! The first one I can truly say that is.

Having tried the Nokia N97, Blackberry Storm & others the LG GT505 is so much better than the others & only falls slightly short of the iPhone because of the App store, but made up by the price!

GET ONE.



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