If you didn’t know, T-Mobile hasn’t seen an LG phone until now. The LG Sentio is bringing companies together for the good of their costumers. The LG Sentio GS505 is a candybar GSM phone that offers a 3-inch touch screen, 3G connectivity for fast Web browsing, and a 3MP camera. Already on the market is a large number of LG Sentio Accessories from many different vendors. I enjoyed using the LG Sentio because it had a great smart phone appeal without the required internet plan. The phone had a handy Web 2 Go portal with weather, facebook, CNN, ESPN, along with the ability to add your own links. The Sentio had music player that supports MP3, VMA, AAC, AAC+, and MPEG4. In addition, the Sentio has HTML web browser, GPS capabilities, and visual voicemail.

Carriers: LG	Retail Price: $
Manufactured by:	Contact Price: $

Pros: LG Sentio has the Social Buzz application allowing quick access to popular social networking cites. In addition, the Sentio has threaded text messaging and an excellent 3 Megapixel camera, definitely a step up from previous LG models. The battery life was extensive with over 6 hours of talk time.

Cons: The Resistive 3 inch screen was a huge disappointment for a phone lacking a slide out keyboard. It is difficult to do all your typing on the virtual, touchscreen keyboard of such a small size. Furthermore, the letter keys take up the majority of the screen leaving little room for actual text.

The Sentio’s rounded corners are made of plastic, yet the phone still had a sturdy feel. The “pretty” phone was extremely thin measuring in at a mere 0.5 inches in width. The thinness comes from a lack of a full slide out QWERTY keyboard. The display can be easily customized with pre-determined color pallets titled phone themes. Although the phone only has one main screen, you are still able to drag and drop favorite widgets to create a scrolling main screen. The interface setup is slightly different from the traditional setup, but still easy to use. The home screen is arranged with side tabs divided into four sections: phone, settings, media, and organizer. Shortcuts are displayed on the bottom of the home screen directing you to the main menu, contacts, browser, or dial pad. The Sentio has three frontal keys for call, end, and back. The keys are raised and rounded with great feedback.

The 3 inch WQVGA screen has 240 x 400 pixels, which is basic but extremely common for feature phones. The resistive touch screen phone has a keyboard directly placed on the screen with both a horizontal full texting option along with the old T9 version. The LG Sentio has a few decent features including Games, Media Player, YouTube Player, and Stereo Bluetooth connectivity. The multimedia phone also came with support for AIM, Windows Live, and Yahoo! Messenger. The phone had a memory card slot under the back cover which holds up to 16GB of memory, a plus. The Sentio’s outside has the typical camera and lock buttons, but also has an added task menu button to immediately direct you to it’s Web 2 Go feature. The phone was packaged nicely with a USB cable which connects to both the power adapter and the computer. Although the Sentio came with headphones, the head phone jack with an in-line mic has MicroUSB connectivity and not the standard 3 1/2 mm universal jack. Users would be confined to using the given headphones, and ordering additional pairs if lost.

LG Sentio’s 3 Megapixel camera is a great upgrade with digital zoom, fixed focus, and video capabilities. You can take pictures and immediately email them to friends and family. The 900 mAh battery is also a great bonus with 6 hours of talk time and 16 days of life on standby. The Sentio holds 1000 contacts which can be easily arranged into group or speed dial settings. A feature I enjoy is T-Mobile’s ability to automatically back up contacts, thus regaining contacts simple if the phone is misplaced. The phone weighs in at a mere 3.26 ounces with 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.5 dimensions, making the phone an extremely lightweight, thin option for touch screen, multimedia phones.

T-Mobile’s LG Sentio’s interface definitely took some getting used to. LG’s interface is an acquired taste, some love it, while others can’t adjust. Once I was comfortable with the phone, I really enjoyed the setup, especially the scrolling main menu. The phone was fun to use, however web browsing junkies may encounter numerous problems. I often had trouble loading pages, and became frustrated when the browser failed. I was hoping it was just my current location, but my problems continued when after venturing out to numerous sites. On the positive side, Sentio does have a 3G connection that works world wide.

When turning on the LG Sentio for the first time, the phone is calibrated to your touch. The phone can always be re-calibrated in the future if problems arise. The Sentio has a built in accelerometer that activates the key board when rotating the phone to the horizontal position. The virtual keyboard allowes the phone to be thinner than comparable multimedia phones. Because all the typing is accomplished through touch, I was disappointed to see a resistive touch screen, instead of the more receptive capacitive touch screen version. The Sentio would not be a good choice for consumers who enjoy the feel of real buttons shown in full slide out QWERTY key boards. A great feature found on the Sentio was treaded text messages! However, when texting, the input area was small, with tiny text.

I enjoyed using the LG Sentio because it had a great smart phone appeal without the required internet plan. The phone had a handy Web 2 Go portal with weather, facebook, CNN, ESPN, along with the ability to add your own links. The Sentio had music player that supports MP3, VMA, AAC, AAC+, and MPEG4. In addition, the Sentio has HTML web browser, GPS capabilities, and visual voicemail. The Social Buzz application is preloaded onto the phone and allows an instant connection to Twitter, facebook, etc. Pop-up notifications from social networking sites are visible from the home screen.

The call quality on the Sentio was great regardless of location. Despite the good reception, I was disappointed to see the phone had no mulit-tasking abilities while calling. The speaker phone was effective, with no complaints on loudness.

As T-Mobile’s first LG phone, the LG Sentio comes in at an affordable 69.99 with a two-year contract. This small and mighty phone has a lot to offer for a feature phone. The Social Buzz application will keep you connected, and the Web 2 Go portal is a convient way to organize your favorite sites. Despite the 3G connection, the web browser was not the best. However, the 3 megapixel camera and threaded text messages can make up for internet troubles. The Sentio can be easily personalized to your color schemes, along with the addition of favorite widgets to the scrolling home screen. The price makes this phone a great purchase for T-Mobile customers looking for a small phone with a smart phone feel. The battery life is excellent and the touch screen makes with a cool interface makes this phone fun to use.