The LG 200 is an inexpensive slab phone with a full QWERTY keyboard. It's not as bare bones as it looks, as it comes with a Web browser, Google Maps, and Bluetooth. Those features make it a decent, if unremarkable, candidate for a budget texting phone. But Virgin Mobile's comprehensive array of inexpensive prepaid options is the real story here.
Design, Call Quality, and payLo Plans
The LG 200 measures 4.5 by 2.3 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.6 ounces. It is made of a mixture of matte and glossy black plastics. The tight-cut lines and finished edges keep the phone from feeling excessively cheap, which is good. The vertically-oriented, 2.2-inch screen is unusual in this form factor; it works okay, but there's wasted black space on the left and right side as a result. The display itself offers a relatively low 176-by-220-pixel resolution, as well as poor viewing angles and contrast; colors nearly reversed themselves whenever I titled the handset a few degrees in any direction. Beneath the screen, six function keys bracket a raised, five-way control pad. The four-row QWERTY keyboard was exceptionally comfortable, with raised, well-sized keys that offer a medium amount of click and balanced resistance.
The LG 200 is a single-band, 2G 1xRTT (1900 MHz) device which runs on Sprint's physical network. Voice quality was decent, if not spectacular, with a slightly muffled tone in the earpiece. You can really crank the volume with this one, so watch your ears. Callers had no trouble understanding me through the microphone. Reception was fine.
Calls sounded clear through an Aliph Jawbone Icon Bluetooth headset ($99, 4 stars), though pairing it took too many keypresses. Voice dialing worked over Bluetooth, but only part of the way. Each time, I had to look at the screen and choose the correct option from a choice of several, which means you can't use it while driving. The speakerphone was exceptionally loud and clear. Virgin Mobile didn't give us enough prepaid credit on our loaner phone to test the battery, but the phone wasn't lasting unusually long in our tests.
The LG 200 is one of Virgin Mobile's payLo phones. That means you can get 1500 minutes, 500 texts, and 10MB of data for $30 per month, without signing a contract. While the data amount is paltry, the rest makes it a screaming deal, given that Virgin Mobile works on Sprint's regular nationwide network. You can also get 400 minutes for $20 per month, or 90 days of service that dings you 20 cents per minute. You can also buy additional texts, Web access, and ringtones with $10, $20, and $30 Top-Up cards.
Apps, Multimedia, and Conclusions
There's not much here in terms of apps, but the LG 200 is a serviceable messaging device. It has a combination Java-based e-mail and IM client that hooks into Yahoo, AOL, Windows Live, and Gmail, plus IMAP and POP3 accounts, but not Google Talk. Text messages are threaded.
The main menu consists of 12 icons arranged in a grid pattern. The Opera Mini Web browser is slow, but it'll get you to your Webmail. You can choose from a basic array of games, ringtones, and wallpapers from Virgin Mobile's online portal. The LG 200 lacks music and video players, so the non-standard 2.5mm headphone jack on top is for mono wired hands-free earbuds only.
The VGA (0.3-megapixel) camera is as worthless now as it was in 2004 when they first began appearing on cell phones. Amusingly, Virgin Mobile trumpets this as a "high-resolution" camera, when in fact it is the absolute lowest resolution cell phone camera ever sold in any volume. There's 15MB of free internal storage, but no microSD card slot; you can only transfer pictures by sending them as picture messages. You won't want to, though, as images only take up about a quarter of the average laptop screen.
Used within its limitations, the LG 200 is a fine texting phone that can save you bucketloads of cash over the next few years. If you don't need a full keyboard, we'd recommend the Samsung Mantra SPH-M340 ($19.99, 3 stars) or the LG Flare LX165 ($19.99, 3 stars), both of which offer improved voice quality and more durable flip form factors for less cash. Both also give you access to the same inexpensive payLo plans.
PCMag
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