LG Vu CU920

Professional reviews generally call the LG Vu CU920 a good-to-excellent 3G (high-speed network) candy-bar cell phone that's great for watching mobile TV on the 3-inch touch screen, but it's a bit tricky to operate. Even the most positive reviews say the touch screen has "a learning curve," and owner reviews express a bit more frustration, especially from large-fingered folks who do a lot of texting on the virtual QWERTY keyboard. The key selling point, however, is access to AT&T Mobile TV. (There are monthly fees that vary depending on which kind of service you choose.) Reviews say the screen displays the TV well, but video playback is "choppy," and even its photo display feature doesn't wow anyone. There's a 2-megapixel camera/camcorder, and the touch screen serves as a viewfinder, but there's no flash.

The most common complaints in owner reviews are screen freeze-ups and battery life, although tests by PCMag.com and Laptop Magazine found the battery life better than advertised by about 45 minutes, at about four hours. We found very mixed reviews about call quality as well, with some saying there's hiss and others calling the LG Vu "excellent" as a phone. Reviews say the full HTML web browser is good, supporting JavaScript but not Flash. CNET says the surfing experience is "definitely not as smooth as the [Apple] iPhone," while PCMag notes plusses and minuses particular to each product's web experience. Where the LG Vu lags significantly behind the iPhone, reviews say, is in very troublesome syncing with a home computer.

We found the best reviews at the usual leading sources, CNET and PCMag.com. Both test lots of cell phones and assign a score that serves as a basis for comparison. No one has a more convenient format than Consumer Reports' ratings chart, but you need a subscription to see it. Owner reviews are most plentiful at AT&T's website -- more than 500 -- and although the overall score is very high, there are enough negative reviews to provide balance.