Imagine a phone designed solely around the purpose of multitasking and entertainment. Now you can have a cell-phone with not only two screens but also two keyboards. This may sound like a joke but the LG DoublePlay is certainly not! Perfect for the above-average user who needs speed and reliability this new phone from LG should keep you occupied for hours. Similar to the Sidekick 4G found on T-Mobile’s network these type of phones are mainly targeted towards teenagers who enjoy the entertainment value of a second screen but can also take advantage of some ergonomically designed keypads which may be slightly harder than normal to pick up and use right away.
One of the sweetest features in this phone is undoubtedly the secondary 2-inch display that makes switching apps on the fly such a breeze. Now get this, the phone is only $99.99 with a contract that puts it on the low-end of the spectrum price-wise. Lets see if the handset has what it takes to handle the usage similar to high-end smart phones. The first glaringly problematic feature is the weight. Coming in at almost half a pound this is one of the heaviest phones on the market and it is definitely larger than any of the leading smart phones. For some users this may not turn out to be a problem though, as more weight will usually lead to a better feel in the hands; extremely light phones are often attributed with cheap feeling due to the lack of weight. This isn’t the only problem related to ergonomics though, the general feel of the phone is very lacking and almost tedious after a long usage period. I generally felt like I was carrying around a brick in my pocket while walking outside. Fortunately these type of ergonomic problems are normally opinionated and everyone has a different feel that they are looking for in a phone, for this reason we would definitely recommend trying out phones in a local store before making your final decision as you may be surprised.
The main positives of the phone are the super cool looking design and solid display. Now a 3.5-inch HVGA display may not sound amazing though it looks pretty great, and never faltered during our testing period. The only downside here is the small 480 by 320 resolution, which is important to note that this would have been considered fine just a year ago, but with the vast improvements made over the past year in smart phones this small of a resolution just doesn’t cut it. Overall this phone is fairly good, having a cool new design, original features, and an overall well-performing record the LG DoublePlay is one heck of a phone. We love the two display design, it is something that is not seen everyday, but it is not so obscure that the added feature is useless… we could definitely see ourselves getting a lot of usage out of the dual screens. Finally the main drawbacks to the phone are the ergonomics and other slightly scaled back features, due to the extremely affordable price, yet these disadvantages are not large enough to stop the phone from being an extremely great value with acceptable performance.
