Great Sound, but be careful if you don't have a data plan
Written: Nov 12 '08
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Pros: Great Sound
Intuitive interface
Cons: Be careful if you don't have a plan with data or Push to Talk
The Bottom Line: Great Quad Band phone for the world traveler, but take care you don't run up your roaming charges with accidental data use
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| raptorbill's Full Review: LG CU515 Cell Phone |
Our 5 year old Motorola Quad Band GSM phones started to actup. Of course they did it when we were on our way out of the country; We live in Mexico in the Winters and California in the Summers.
So just before entering Mexico by car, we stopped in an AT&T phone store in Arizona. We travel a lot so we asked for the best Quad Band GSM phone primarily for voice as there are NO good International Roaming data plans.
The representative recommended the LG CU515. It fit our size profile and didn't seem to be burdened with a lot of data features.
Well, it turned out it does have a lot of features that we won't be using: Push to Talk, Web browsing, Cellular Video and a variety of other 3G features.
It also has the usual features that you would suspect: Bluetooth for hands free headset, cell phone data modem operation, file and address book transfer, etc.
For what we were looking for, it's a great phone. The Audio quality is much better than our old Motorola phones. The fringe area reception is fantastic by comparison too!
The biggest downside is all the features we don't want or need. It's far too easy to hit a button and accidentally activate an expensive data feature.
We have a plan for Mexico (North America Plan) that Cingular (now AT&T) offered for a short time back in 2005 that's perfect for us, but it's voice only. There are no really affordable International data roaming plans - so we don't use our cell phones for data at all. Nor do we use text messaging for the same reason.
Interestingly the GSM and 3G cell phone coverage is much better here in Mexico than it is back home in the US. We have a great signal even in remote anchorages (we live on our boat when we're in Mexico).
In summary, The LG CU515 is a great phone for International use. It's Quad Band GSM with great voice quality. The only downside is you have to be careful that you don't accidentally activate Push to Talk or any of the Data capabilities of the phone when travelling Internationally. You also need to take care at home in the US if you don't have a data plan.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 20
Recommended for: World Travelers - Works Anywhere and Everywhere!
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Epinions.com ID:
raptorbill
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Member: Bill Finkelstein
Location: Santa Rosa, CA & Puerto Vallarta
Reviews written: 34
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Retired Alpha Geek, Cruiser, Amateur Chef, Foodie & SCUBA Instructor
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