By The LG Ally is by no means the Droid Incredible, but it is a solid phone from a great handset manufacturer that is sure to catch some attention from those who may be looking for a lower-priced phone. Verizon doesn’t want you to miss your chance to own one, and just like we thought, the Ally is now available for pre-order. The pricing is $99.99 on a two-year contract.
Here is the info so you know exactly what you’ll get when this phone lands on May 2oth:
- 600MHz Qualcomm CPU
- 512MB ROM
- 256MB RAM
- 3.2″ touchscreen display
- 4-row slide-out QWERTY keyboard
- Android 2.1
LG is also promising some augmented reality applications as well as their own set of “Socialite” social networking apps.
Not quite what we imagined back when this phone was thought to be the 1GHz Snapdragon LG Aloha, but a cool little phone that should sell nicely with the LG enV crowd.
[via Verizon]
I’ve had both the Motorola Droid and the HTC Droid Eris. I’ve also played with the Droid Incredible. Nonetheless, I’ve pre-ordered the LG Ally because it appears to achieve the best balance. While not the perfect device (because of apparent weight/size), it definitely seems to meet my specific needs. We’ll see for sure once I get it on May 20th. Here’s my breakdown (note: price is not a factor):
Motorola Droid
Speed: Fast (+)
Size: Thin (+)
Weight: Heavy (-)
Battery Life: Ok (+)
Camera Flash: Yes (+)
Physical keyboard: Yes, but horrible (-)
Physical send/end keys: No (-)
Android: Stock (+)
Droid Eris
Speed: Slow (-)
Size: Thin (+)
Weight: Light (+)
Battery Life: Horrible (-)
Camera Flash: No (-)
Physical keyboard: No (-)
Physical send/end keys: Yes (+)
Android: Sense UI (-)
Droid Incredible
Speed: Fast (+)
Size: Thin (+)
Weight: Light (+)
Battery Life: Good (?)
Camera Flash: Yes (+)
Physical keyboard: No (-)
Physical send/end keys: No (-)
Android: Sense UI (-)
LG Ally
Speed: Medium (?)
Size: Thick (-)
Weight: Heavy (-)
Battery Life: Good (?)
Camera Flash: Yes (+)
Physical keyboard: Yes (+)
Physical send/end keys: Yes (+)
Android: Stock (+)
At $369 full retail.. I can see it selling well for people who don’t like long contracts, or committing themselves to a couple of years of the extra cost of a data plan.. and the specs aren’t half bad. My brother and his wife for example have been die hard Verizon for over decade, but they enjoy the fact that they are not on contract. And that has basically what has kept them from getting smartphones,, not the monthly cost, just the thought of being locked in.
Definitely a solid option. Soon, there will be a smartphone for everyone.
wonder how hard this thing is going to be to root?
The two biggest issues with Moto and HTC Droid is poor battery life and weak phone capability (drops, garbled, gaps, signal). If LG can improve on these two issues then they will sell some phones. It’s interesting that LG is pairing a cooler running processor with a stronger battery (1500 mAh) than the Moto (1390 mAh) & HTC (1300mAh). Maybe they did their homework.
Returned both the Droid and Incredible. The incredible was everything but a good phone. Went through 3 batteries a day and had no reception. I own the Env3 and ordered this phone hoping it would come close to the battery life and reception. This phone looks like it is built well and wouldn’t be afraid to use it without a cover.
I decided to preorder this after going to a verizon store and playing around with a droid, and a droid eris. Didnt like that the eris had no physical keyboard and seemed a bit laggy. Droid was ok but kept hearing about it chewing batteries. I cant see where the droid is worth 200 bucks more at a full retail upgrade. I have friends who have had lg phones last for several years. After watching the cnet review lg and verizon i think got this one right and it will sell, right specs and most importantly right price. I have a felling this will be my phone for several years.