LG Lotus: Not as "Square" as It Looks

Yes, the recently introduced LG Lotus is a rather strange-looking phone. It's a square clamshell phone measuring 2.4" x 0.7" x 3.3", and weighing 3.7 ounces. Once you flip it open, you'll see a 2.4" 240 x 320 diagonal screen and a QWERTY keyboard.

The LG Lotus comes in either purple or black, but I'll warn you: the purple version has floral engravings, so I'm guessing most guys will pass on that color.

The unusual shape of the LG Lotus, designed by Christian Sirano, means it's a bit wide, which makes it a little uncomfortable for those with smaller hands. It does mean, however, that you get a wider-than-average 1.4" external display.

But while a square-shaped flip is unusual, the LG Lotus itself, when in use (and with appropriately-sized hands), isn't really that bad a phone.

The LG Lotus has all the typical features that cell phones today have, along with a 2-megapixel camera, GPS, and it comes with Sprint's new One Click navigation interface.

One Click consists of eight shortcut tiles along the bottom of the home screen, and each tile can become any of 15 shortcuts to applications. Sprint calls it a sort of "carousel," if you can visualize it.

The LG Lotus is a messaging phone, though, so the big question is: how is the keyboard. I liked it. As more and more manufacturers squeeze QWERTY keyboards into slimmer (width-wise) design, spacing has become a premium. In this case, the keys are well-spaced, so errors weren't as frequent as with recent phones I've tried like the Treo Pro or Nokia E71.

After all, we know texting is the cash cow of carriers, so they'd better get it right.

I've never been that big a fan of Sprint's coverage in the SF Bay Area (there are a lot of holes), but for testing purposes, it was fine. Nothing was wrong with call quality or Bluetooth connectivity. Sprint says the phone has up to 5.5 hours of continuous talk time. Overall a decent phone.

The LG Lotus' current price on Sprint's site is $150 including a two-year contract and the normal "instant savings" of $150. Of course, comparing it to an iPhone at $199 (though the lower-end model), you might think twice about it.