LG Strikes Cheap QWERTY Gold with Solid Messaging Phones

The company's two contributions to AT&T's latest six-pack of messaging phones seem to nail appealing aesthetics and feel at a reasonable price.

After handling AT&T’s first deluge of cheap messaging phones in the fall, we were a little disappointed – but not shocked – to find that many of them felt, well cheap. LG seems have refined the formula this time though, because the company’s latest raft of sub-$100 messaging phones look extremely promising.

We had a chance to handle both the Xenon and Neon at the company’s both this year, and the phones impressed us with solid feel, good looks and sharp software. The Xenon, especially, benefits from a 2.8-inch touch screen that makes photos, graphics and text look extremely colorful and smooth, not to mention bright. It’s a feature often scrimped on in budget QWERTY phones (see Pantech’s Matrix from the aforementioned “first crop”), so we were surprised to see such a quality display here, given the price take.

The sliding mechanisms and keyboards on the phones also felt exceptionally sturdy – an important factor for two features that will probably see more use than anything else on the phone. And threaded messaging, which strings together back-and-forth text messages in the display, should make it capable texting machine on the software end, too.

Bottom line: not everybody needs the full features of a smartphone packaged around their QWERTY keyboard, and LG is more than willing to accommodate. With two apparent winners already here and even more basic QWERTY phones on the way, we look forward to what’s to come from LG.