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Cheap touch-screen smartphone may frustrate some users
- 3G speed and Wi-Fi at reasonable price
- Performs well as a phone
- Good battery life
- Easy-to-access external microSD slot
- Features FM radio
- Sluggish performance
- Frustrating touch screen – needs stylus
- Browser not as good as iPhone's
- Body attracts smudges, fingerprints
The LG Incite is the company's first smartphone offering in the U.S., and while reviewers say it isn't awful, they aren't especially impressed despite the sleek-looking candy-bar body and the fast 3G network capabilities. Even the most positive professional reviews describe performance as "sluggish" compared with the best smartphones, and one reviewer describes the 3-inch touch screen as "obstinate." Most reviews say you'll need the stylus to navigate that touch screen -- fingers generally just won't do -- and there's no holder for it, so you'll have to lash it to the phone like a dangling anchor. Professional and owner reviews also say the touch screen is a smudge magnet. It's not much, but praise for the physical design is usually limited to notations that the microSD slot (up to 32 GB) is external instead of located behind the battery, and that there's a dedicated key for the 3-megapixel camera. The Incite also has an FM radio receiver, which is a nice extra, but reviews point out you'll have to plug a headset into the jack so its wire can serve as an antenna.
Most reviews say that as a phone, the LG Incite performs well, with good voice quality and a loud speakerphone, and that you'll get very good battery life -- CNET got nine hours of talk time in its test. PCMag.com opines that the LG Incite "isn't terrible by any means," but that the Apple iPhone 3G is its Editors' Choice, and the review lists several other non-Apple options -- including the BlackBerry Bold and the HTC Fuze -- that it calls preferable to the LG Incite. Criticism aside, the LG Incite does offer advanced features. It runs Windows Mobile 6.1, and you have lots of email options, including sending business emails via your office's Microsoft Exchange server. There is Wi-Fi and HSDPA support as well. CNET makes a direct comparison with web surfing on the Apple iPhone, and says the LG Incite "browser experience left us wanting, mostly because of the inability to do multi-touch gestures like pinching to zoom in and out of a page."
We found the best reviews at CNET and PCMag.com, where testing (including battery tests) is thorough, and each cell phone gets a score so you easily can see how they rate. At this writing, Consumer Reports had yet to include the LG Incite in its coverage, but credible reviews can be found at MobileBurn.com, InfoSyncWorld.com and MobileTechReview.com. We found only about 20 owner reviews at Amazon.com -- about two-thirds as many as were posted at CNET.
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Our Sources
1. CNET
CNET rates the LG Incite as "very good" despite some sluggishness, flaws in the touch interface and the lack of a built-in stylus. About half the 30 or so owner reviews give the LG Incite poor or mediocre ratings, mostly because of slowness or problems with the touch screen.
Review: LG Incite CT810 (AT&T), Nicole Lee, Nov. 25, 2008
2. PCMag.com
PCMag.com rates the LG Incite as "good." It's "attractive and powerful, but it's let down by its obstinate touch screen, sluggish performance and sloppy software design." Recommended instead are the Apple iPhone 3G, BlackBerry Bold, HTC Fuze, Samsung Epix and budget choice BlackBerry Curve 8310 (non-3G).
Review: LG Incite (AT&T), Jamie Lendino, Dec. 19, 2008
Title aside, this page actually has a thorough written review as well as a video (though no comparisons to competing phones). Bottom line: "LG Incite is just too difficult to use. The phone is slow overall, and the display can only be used acceptably with a stylus" that's tied to the phone.
Review: Video Review of LG Incite Touchscreen Smartphone for AT&T, Michael Oryl, Dec. 18, 2008
This review echoes observations elsewhere that the LG Incite isn't especially special. The format here rates various features, and the Incite is "good" or "mediocre" in all of them. Ten other "business smartphones" are ranked at the bottom of the page -- all scoring higher than the LG Incite.
Review: LG Incite Review (AT&T), Philip Berne, Nov. 27, 2008
Reviewer Lisa Gade gives the LG Incite three out of five stars, saying it has "every high end feature except a hardware keyboard" but looks cheap. "The user interface, accelerometer and slightly numb screen just can't compete with the (HTC) Fuze in the smartphone camp and the Samsung Eternity in the feature phone camp."
Review: LG Incite Review, Lisa Gade, Nov. 19, 2008
6. Amazon.com
About 20 owner reviews combine to give the LG Incite a fair average score, but negative reviews outweigh the positive evaluations in this relatively small sampling of opinions. Most of the complaints are about slowness, poor Wi-Fi connections, the touch screen and virtual keyboard.
Review: LG Incite CT810 Phone, Contributors to Amazon.com
