Hands-on review: LG Lotus for Sprint

I admit it—I scoffed at the short, squat Lotus when it arrived on my desk late last week. But after using this compact QWERTY clamshell for a few days, something funny happened: I started to get a kick out of it. Too bad about the price tag, though.

Measuring just 3.3 by 2.4 by 0.7 inches, weighing in at 3.7 ounces, and resembling a flip-phone version of the old, "fat" iPod Nano, the Lotus (available in black and purple; I tested the black version) didn't exactly wow me at first; the form factor looked gimmicky and bulky, and the QWERTY keyboard looked too cramped for comfort. I wasn't feeling it.

But I have to say ... my feelings changed once I actually held the thing. The Lotus isn't super-slim at 0.7 inches wide, but its squarish shape makes for a surprisingly compact package—it fit nicely in the palm of my hand and slips easily into a jeans pocket (or in a clutch, for that matter). For those who don't like candy-bar QWERTY phones or bulky sliders, the Lotus might be just the ticket.

As far as the cramped-looking keypad goes, it's actually about the same size as that of the new Palm Treo Pro, and the rectangular keys are somewhat easier to tap. Using the old two-thumb method, I was able to peck out messages pretty rapidly, and with only a few errors (predictive text is part of the package I'd have preferred a separate row for number keys, along with separate comma and "@" keys (at least the period gets its own key), but those are just quibbles.

Luckily, LG didn't leave the Lotus' impressive keypad hanging when it comes to messaging. SMS and picture messaging are both on tap, as well as an e-mail client that support Web-mail services like AOL Mail, Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, plus POP/IMAP accounts and OWA-capable Exchange accounts. Finally, there's also an IM app, good for chatting via AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Instant Messenger.

The Lotus works on Sprint's 3G EV-DO networks, good for streaming video (including Sprint TV and YouTube), full-track music downloads over the Sprint Music Store, and (relatively) speedy Web browsing. My test calls on the Lotus sounded loud and clear, and callers had a hard time telling if I was on a cell phone. Both standard and stereo Bluetooth headsets are supported, while the Lotus' speakerphone was plenty loud, if a bit tinny. Sprint promises 5.5 hours of talk time—par for the course.

The Lotus comes with a relatively solid music player, with support for album art, various shuffle and repeat modes, playlist creation, and play/pause/skip controls on the outside flip. There's no equalizer, but you can set your music to play in the background, and you can store thousands of tunes on the removable memory card (the Lotus supports up to 12GB of microSD memory). Unfortunately, there's only a 2.5mm jack for wired earbuds, which means you'll need a 2.5mm-to-3.5mm adapter for standard music headsets.

Back on the plus side, I liked Sprint's new, standardized phone interface, which boasts a customizable "carousel" of features along the bottom of the screen; you also get a series of widget-like "bubbles" (for news, weather, stocks, and so on) that you can place on the home screen.

Other extras include a 2MP camera (decent image quality), aGPS plus Sprint's TeleNav-powered navigation service, and the ability to tether the Lotus to laptop for on-the-go broadband access (provided you order Sprint's $15/month phone-as-modem add-on option).

All in all, I'd be more than happy giving the Lotus a thumbs-up—except I'm not thrilled with the steep $149 price tag (with a two-year contract). My advice? Wait for the inevitable price drop. Within a month or so, I'm guessing the Lotus will be selling for south of $100.

Correction: In my original post, I gave the wrong price for phone-as-modem service for the Lotus; the correct price is $15 extra per month. Sorry for the goof.

Related:
Product page [Sprint]