Virgin Mobile LG Rumor Touch Review

I bought the LG Rumor Touch when I decided to sign up for Virgin Mobile’s Beyond Talk plan. The price I paid for it was about $160 with shipping which really wasn’t a problem for me because I figured that it would be a good phone and the cheap service plan would make it well worth the purchase. So after about six or seven months of using this phone I figured that I would write a review of the Rumor Touch and give it its very own hub. While writing this review I’m not going to focus all that much on the technical aspects of it but rather the performance that I have gotten from it in everyday use.

Touch Screen and Keyboard

What really attracted me to this phone was the fact that it had a touch screen and a full sliding QWERTY keyboard. It is really a big improvement over my old phone and having to rely on t9 to finish what I wanted to say with often ridiculous results. While I have gotten really used to the keyboard of the Rumor Touch I still find myself hitting the wrong keys a lot because my fingers are a bit larger than what they designed the phone for. Not hitting the right key isn’t a big deal most of the time but if you have bigger hands like I do it can be annoying.

The touch screen usually works very well but it isn’t always that responsive. For instance the home button on the bottom left hand side of the screen will sometimes take several taps to bring up the menu and then sliding down the menu is often a hassle because it doesn’t always take you to the option you wanted to go to. A lot of the time I just use the arrow keys on the keyboard to select things because it is less of a hassle and works just as well. The screen itself is three inches so you do get plenty of space to see what you’re doing.

Battery Life and Phone Performance

The battery is supposed to get about 7 hours worth of use out of it and that is pretty much what I have seen while using it. I can text all day and surf the web a bit and then get home and talk for a few hours and still have a full bar. If you’re someone who talks more than that you may need to bring a charger with you but for average users I always seem to make it through the day just fine with the Rumor Touch. Since Virgin Mobile’s plan uses the Sprint Network for its service I haven’t really had any problems with call quality. Other people sound very clear to me and only on occasion do I get dropped calls. I did have one really bad night where I kept getting dropped repeatedly and could get no connection in my house but I think that was just a fluke because it never happened again.

Web Browser

The web browser is pretty basic and can really be slow sometimes. Pages don’t really load correctly for some sites and others you’ll sit there for 10 minutes before it finally loads. I really don’t like the Facebook mobile site on this phone or even Twitter because you can’t really look at your replies because when you click on view all comments it does nothing. Plus it only posts what you wrote when it seems to feel like it. I can’t tell you how many messages I thought I responded to only to find out later it didn’t post at all. If you’re looking for a phone with a good browsing experience the Rumor Touch is not it. It’s very basic and can connect you but it isn’t a pleasant experience. Also, on YouTube you won’t be able to view most copyrighted material so almost every song you search for comes up with other things.

Other Features

The Rumor Touch features a 2 megapixel camera which is decent. The pictures tend to get blurry if you aren’t perfectly still and while there is a night mode there is no flash on the phone so you’ll need a light source. It also features video but I haven’t used that but from demos I have seen it’s nothing to write home about. Use of the media player requires that you have a memory card to import your files on there and since I don’t have one I haven’t been able to use it. Besides with the battery life it probably wouldn’t be a great idea to double it as a music player. You also have the usual clock, calculator, and Virgin Mobile Navigator which is their maps feature that I believe you need to pay extra for. It certainly would be a pain in the ass to use in the car in my opinion.

Conclusion

The LG Rumor Touch through Virgin Mobile is a pretty good phone overall but far from perfect. If you’re a serious cell phone user that needs better performance then look elsewhere but if you’re like me and only need something with good call quality, a keyboard, and some basic internet option then the Rumor Touch might be a good fit for you. I’m happy with my purchase even with all of it’s shortcomings.