Verizon's best texting phone so far, the LG enV3 gives you terrific bang for your buck. Although it doesn't have the touch-screen luxury of the slightly more expensive enV Touch, it's a classy, high-quality device that delivers more features per dollar than its competitors, the Motorola Rival and the Samsung Alias 2 SCH-u750. We recommend it for Verizon users looking for a reasonably priced media, texting, or all-around phone.

Like its predecessors, the VX9800, enV VX9900, and enV2 VX9100, the enV3 is an unusual flip phone that looks like a candybar-style phone, but flips open sideways to reveal a large screen and full QWERTY keyboard. The enV3 is lighter and larger than the enV2, weighing 3.77 ounces and measuring 4.1 by 2.1 by 0.65 inches (HWD), but it feels more pleasing in general thanks to larger number keys and a larger (1.6-inch, 160-by-96-pixel resolution) external screen. The internal 2.6-inch screen has a 320-by-240 resolution, and is bright and sharp.

When you fold open the phone, it can stay halfway open like a little laptop (perfect for sitting on a desk) or lie completely flat. The QWERTY keys are roomy and well spaced, with a group of keys highlighted in blue for gaming.

LG typically makes rock-solid Verizon voice phones, and the enV3 is no exception. Reception is fine, and earpiece volume is strong, although voices got a little muddy at top volume. The phone has an unusual amount of side-tone (the feedback of your own voice into your ear); I like that, as it prevents me from yelling into the phone. You need to open up the phone to use the speakerphone, but once you do, the speakerphone is exceptionally loud and clear. Transmissions didn't push through much background noise, but they sounded a little weak and thready. The enV3 paired automatically with our Plantronics Voyager Pro mono Bluetooth headset and Altec Lansing BackBeat 903 stereo headset, including using voice dialing over Bluetooth. Battery life was very good, with more than six hours of talk time. Ringtones are very loud, and the vibrating alert plenty powerful—but you can't use your own songs as ringtones. Visual voice mail is a $2.99-per-month option.

As you'd expect, the enV3 makes texting a priority. With the flip open, you've got buttons to start a new text message or access your 10 favorite contacts—but notably not buttons to launch IM or e-mail, both of which Verizon phones are pretty weak with. The SMS/MMS client handles text and picture messages and shows them threaded by recipient, which makes long conversations much easier to manage.

The enV3's big internal screen and its ability to sit open on a table suggest a solid multimedia experience. The phone delivers, except for one annoying false note: a 2.5mm headphone jack that doesn't accept regular music player headphones. But if you can get past that, you'll find that the enV3 plays MP3s, AACs, and WMA music files in an attractive interface that's speedier than what older Verizon phones sported. It syncs with Rhapsody on PCs using an included USB cable, and it plays 320-by-240-pixel MP4-format video files clearly and smoothly. Games also played well on the large screen and roomy keyboard.

The phone's 3-megapixel camera is only so-so. You can take photos with the flip open or closed, but opening the flip lets you access camera options through a series of relatively easy-to-use icons. Full-resolution still pictures look soft, even a little blurry, though the white balance and color are good. The phone also takes relatively sharp, if wobbly, 320-by-240-pixel videos at 15 frames per second (fps). The enV3's camera is better than either the Rival's or the Alias 2's, however. You can store your photos on a microSD card tucked into the side of the phone (our 16GB Sandisk Mobile Ultra card worked fine), or on the phone's 120MB of available memory.

But this isn't a smartphone, and that weakness shows up in a few critical areas. The enV3 uses Verizon's standard, lackluster e-mail programs. Mobile Email and RemoSync connect to personal and Microsoft Exchange accounts, but they do so with clumsy, bare-bones interfaces and deliver text-only e-mails. The IM program supports the AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo! IM systems, but in a dull, basic format.

The Obigo Web browser on the enV3 is technically a full browser, but it's also slow, jerky, and clumsy to operate. That said, it's a step beyond the competing Motorola Rival and Samsung Alias 2's WAP-only browsers. Verizon and LG try to jazz up the browser with a new feature, Dashboard, which provides Flash-based information channels. It's a neat idea, but too many of the channels are sluggish or just offer links to Web sites in the Obigo browser.

The enV3 has GPS, which works with Verizon's VZ Navigator driving directions software. It also works as an EV-DO Rev 0 modem for Macs or PCs using the included USB cable and Verizon's VZ Access Manager software. Testing it, I got an excellent 990 Kbps down and about 110 Kbps up.

The LG enV3 VX9200 competes primarily with Verizon's two other texting phones, the Motorola Rival and the Samsung Alias 2. The Alias 2 has its truly awesome e-ink keypad and a very roomy screen, but it costs $70 more than the enV3. The Rival costs $20 more than the enV3, and is generally inferior all-around. Although the enV Touch is even better (and decidedly sexier) than the enV3, this is still our pick for a budget, text-focused Verizon Wireless phone.

Benchmark Test Results
Continuous talk time: 6 hours 6 minutes

Compare the LG enV3 VX9200 with several other mobile phones side by side.

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