For some time now, Sprint has had a gaping hole in its phone lineup. Although the carrier offers an array of powerful smartphones with QWERTY keyboards, none of its less-expensive feature phones were so equipped. For example, a Sprint subscriber interested in a Sidekick or similar device had no option on the lower end of the price spectrum. The LG Rumor fills this hole. The handset includes both a numeric keypad and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and the Rumor also packs in a responsive OS, a 1.3-megapixel camera, quick access to Facebook, a music player, and a microSD card slot. There aren't a ton of cutting-edge features here, but the Rumor is a dependable messaging handset at an affordable price.

The soft-touch, rubber-and-plastic Rumor measures 4.3 by 2.0 by 0.7-inches (HWD) and weighs 4.1 ounces. The device is available in two color schemes: black with a blue slide-out keyboard, and white with a silver keyboard. LG pulled off a well-known slimming trick by carving a deep curve into the handset's sides. Eyeball the device and it looks thinner than its 0.7-inch depth measurement suggests. The five-way control pad changes orientation depending on how the screen is rotated, and there are two pairs of soft keys around the screen for the same reason. On the right side of the Rumor, there's a 2.5mm headphone jack and an easily accessible microSD slot, while the left side holds the volume and camera buttons. To lock and unlock the device, you press and hold the Back key.

The Rumor's 2-inch screen is a typical 176-by-220-pixel, 262K-color LCD. It's sufficiently bright and crisp, but I would have preferred a 320-by-240-pixel screen, especially since the Sprint MM-A900 had one two years ago. The handset feels lively, responding instantly to key presses. The slide-out QWERTY keyboard clicks into place with a satisfying snap. And it automatically rotates the screen and pops up the messaging menu in a flash. That's something I wish Windows Mobile handsets could do without giving the impression they're going to freeze up.

The phone's QWERTY keyboard is backlit and uncluttered, but slightly cramped. Like other small handsets, it has just three rows of keys, not the four rows found on the typical BlackBerry, or the five rows of the much-larger T-Mobile Sidekick LX. Still, I enjoyed the keyboard's clicky feel as I tapped out messages, even if it wasn't completely silent like the otherwise-clumsier Pantech Duo. One other quibble—there are no dedicated keys for the period, comma, numbers, or just about anything aside from Space, Back, and Enter, so keying in complete sentences took a tad longer than I am used to.

The Rumor excels as a voice phone. Sound quality was loud and crisp through both the earpiece and a Sound ID SM100 Bluetooth headset, with excellent noise rejection and superb reception. In fact, the Rumor is one of the better-sounding phones I've tested recently. The speakerphone was less impressive, though. I found it was difficult to get enough volume out of the device in this mode, and it occasionally muted the beginnings of words.

A dual-band (800-/1,900-MHz) CDMA handset, the Rumor can't hit the remnants of those analog rural networks. It's also not 3G-compatible; it's a CDMA 1X speed phone like the Sanyo Katana II. Its internal test speeds when browsing the Internet averaged 61 kilobits per second. If you're planning on Web surfing or using the Rumor as a laptop modem, this isn't your handset.

The device includes a basic music player, a somewhat clumsy affair with a slow, useless spectrum analyzer display. On the plus side, the microSD slot supports up to 4GB cards, which is plenty for stuffing the device with MP3 and AAC music files; my test phone also played iTunes Plus unprotected AAC files without a problem. The Rumor supports Bluetooth 2.0 but not stereo Bluetooth. Its built-in GPS chipset works with Sprint's subscription-based TeleNav voice-direction service, and an 8-day trial is preloaded on the device.

The Rumor's flashless 1.3 megapixel camera has a snappy 0.5-second shutter delay. My test phone took adequate but low-contrast pictures as long as there was sufficient light in the room—otherwise the photos ended up too dark to be useful. In Camcorder mode, the Rumor records smooth-but-dim 10-second, 176-by-144-pixel videos. Other bundled apps include a contacts list (but no calendar), voice SMS and Picture Mail capability, a way-too-slow WAP browser, and some game demos.

Sprint bundles an e-mail client that works with AOL, AIM, Hotmail, Yahoo!, Gmail, Sprint PCS, and POP/IMAP accounts. There's also a slick IM app that supports AIM, Windows Live, and Yahoo!; it worked flawlessly when I tested it with an AIM account. The Rumor's quick Facebook access is a bright spot. I used it to log in, check friend updates, view photos, browse profiles, change my own status, and even post to someone's wall, which appeared instantaneously.

The Rumor lasted 5 hours 25 minutes on a talk-time rundown test, a very good showing for a CDMA 1X phone.

Music and Web browsing enthusiasts on a budget should also check out the Sprint Musiq LX570, which offers high-speed EV-DO data access but lacks the QWERTY keyboard. And at $99, the Palm Centro is a tempting low-hanging fruit, particularly with its high-speed EV-DO data capability and 320-by-320-pixel touch screen (but no GPS). Basically it's a much better choice for Web browsing, document editing, and other smartphone-like tasks. But messaging fans needn't step up to that level of complexity. Although the LG Rumor may lack the flashy features of high-end handsets, it nails the low-end basics, sounds great as a voice phone, and includes a pair of keyboards along with flexible e-mail and instant messaging clients. At just $49 with a two-year contract, this is a Rumor worth spreading to your friends.

Compare the LG Rumor with several other mobile phone side by side.

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