LG's new smartphone feels light and well balanced in the hand. It measures 4.2 by 2.2 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.2 ounces. In a nice styling twist, the top and bottom edges of the phone cut downward at slightly different angles. The Incite is finished in shiny charcoal-tinted chrome plastic, making it a serious fingerprint magnet. The left-hand side of the handset contains a covered mini USB port, a volume rocker switch, and a reset button hidden in a paperclip-size keyhole. The right-hand side houses a small thumbwheel, a covered microSD card slot, a recessed hardware lock button, and a camera shortcut button. The front panel is all screen, save for Send and End keys at the bottom; the End key doubles as a power switch when held down. In the box, you'll find an AC adapter, USB cable, and stylus, but no hands-free earbuds or carrying case.
The Incite's large, 3-inch wQVGA (240-by-400-pixel) LCD can display up to 262k colors but doesn't quite match the iPhone 3G's 3.5-inch, 320-by-480-pixel panel. The Incite's screen is also surprisingly dim, even when cranked up to full brightness. There's a switchable light sensor that adjusts the backlight automatically to compensate for ambient room lighting.
There's no physical keyboard here, but on-screen QWERTY keyboards appear in one of two modes: a condensed vertical keyboard, which combines letters similar to Research In Motion's BlackBerry SureType layout, and a horizontal one that's roomy enough for a full set of keys. I found typing to be passable once I learned to press each "key" relatively hard; the slight built-in vibration that registered each key press was welcome. The screen flexed inward when I pushed on it, though, which didn't inspire confidence. Often, the keyboard covered the field I was typing in. That meant constantly disabling and reenabling the keyboard to check for typos. In addition, the built-in accelerometer responded slowly to tilting the handset: Sometimes it stayed frozen in the wrong position until I retilted the phone.
You get a stylus, but unfortunately, there's nowhere to store it (unless you tie it loosely to the top of the phone by its string—which is seriously lame). Since the Incite lacks a finger-friendly UI layer, this is an amazing leap of faith on LG's part. Even HTC's TouchFLO devices, which are the most finger-friendly versions of Windows Mobile, include built-in stylus slots.
The home screen is cluttered but fairly well laid out. There are quick-access icons at the bottom to bring up contacts, the on-screen keypad, and the messaging window. Oddly, there are three ways to display a list of programs: two of the shortcut keys at the bottom right show different lists (one consolidated and one more expansive, with separate tabs for different categories), as well as the usual Program menu with its own icon arrangement. LG should have chosen one and nixed the other two.
The Incite is a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900-MHz) GSM phone and a tri-band (800/1900/2100-MHz) HSDPA 3.6 phone. It also includes a Wi-Fi radio for connecting to 802.11b/g wireless networks. I saw solid 3G reception during the review period. The Incite consistently pulled in two bars of signal in a rural area of Massachusetts, which is similar to the strong performance of the Samsung Epix. Voice quality was clear and punchy on my side and reasonably clear on the other end, with a touch of static and hiss. The Incite's speakerphone distorts easily and is too quiet for outdoor use. On the other hand, it paired easily with an original Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth headset, on which calls sounded crisp and clear. The Incite lasted 6 hours 32 minutes on a continuous-talk-time rundown test, a good score for an HSDPA-enabled phone on AT&T.
The handset includes a speedy 528-MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A CPU but only 78MB of total RAM, with just 33MB free for user programs. Fortunately, there's a Task Manager shortcut for quitting programs in the top right-hand corner of the home page. In addition, the Incite includes Xpress Mail and Outlook Mobile for POP and IMAP support. It can hook into both Web-based and Exchange Server e-mail accounts, and it works with Microsoft Direct Push e-mail. The Incite also includes built-in Word and Excel document editing, and can also display PowerPoint attachments.
The Incite is a mixed bag for multimedia fans. The microSD slot works with cards up to 32GB; my 8GB SanDisk card worked fine. The built-in 3-megapixel camera includes autofocus but lacks an LED flash. It took reasonably detailed but exceedingly dim photos, and took many long seconds to snap and store each one. It also recorded 400-by-240-pixel video files that were too dim to be useful. Standalone video-file playback succumbed to unacceptable stuttering, even with transcoded WMV files that fit the handset's screen resolution; the Incite also supports AT&T's streamed CV service for mobile TV. The GPS radio works with the optional TeleNav-powered AT&T Navigator for voice-enabled, turn-by-turn directions. Browsing the Web is passable with Internet Explorer Mobile if you stick with mobile WAP sites. AT&T also throws in a copy of the Netfront browser, which was pretty useless; it butchered even CNN's WAP page. The built-in instant messaging client logs into AIM, Windows Live, and Yahoo Messenger accounts with a simple tabbed interface.
Windows Media Player is tough to control without a stylus, but I managed well enough (albeit with many mistakes). I cued up an MP3 version of the White Stripes' "Icky Thump," which sounded horrible through the built-in speaker, bassy but muffled through a paired set of Cardo S-2 stereo Bluetooth headphones, and bright and unusually midrangy through a wired set of Creative Zen Aurvana earphones. In the process of listening to a variety of MP3 tracks, I heard intermittent clicks and stutters in the audio that became more frequent after volume adjustments. Rebooting didn't fix the problem, at least on my handset; a software update is clearly in order. On the plus side, the phone supports numerous optional services, including AT&T Mobile Music, XM Satellite Radio, and Pandora, and even includes a built-in FM radio tuner.
Overall, the LG Incite isn't terrible by any means, but smartphone buyers have plenty of competing options on AT&T. The iPhone 3G, our current Editors' Choice, is a better performer, easier to use, and more capable in just about all respects save for document editing and turn-by-turn GPS directions (which cost extra on the Incite). The BlackBerry Bold is more expensive but contains Research In Motion's next-generation OS, a higher-resolution screen, a stellar physical QWERTY keyboard, robust push e-mail, and improved multimedia capabilities. Windows Mobile fans should also look at the HTC Fuze, which offers a powerful if uneven TouchFLO software experience, and the Samsung Epix, which keeps the touch screen and includes a hardware QWERTY keyboard and optical mouse. Bargain hunters can save $100 and go for the (non-3G) BlackBerry Curve 8310, which also includes GPS support and a slick hardware keyboard.
- Price as Tested:
- Service Provider: AT&T
- Operating System: Windows Mobile Pocket PC
- Screen Size: 3 inches
- Screen Details: 240x400 TFT, 262K colors
- Camera: Yes
- Megapixels: 3 MP
- 802.11x: Yes
- Bluetooth: Yes
- Web Browser: Yes
- Network: GSM, UMTS
- Bands: 850, 900, 1800, 1900, 2100
- High-Speed Data: GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA
- Processor Speed: 528 GHz
- Special Features: Music
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