The LG Ally, at first glance, doesn’t look like a stand-out device. In fact, it looks like a lot of other handsets out there: a touchscreen taking up the majority of space, with a few buttons at the bottom for good measure. Pretty standard stuff. Sure, there’s a landscape, physical slide-out keyboard underneath, and that does add a bit of differentiation to the mix (especially with this increase in touch-based only Android handsets), but is it enough to make the LG Ally stand-out amongst the increasing crowd? Or does the LG Ally fall flat in its hopes to shine?
The Body
Obviously, one of the first things you consider when getting a new phone, is how it looks. You don’t necessarily want a beast of a phone to show off to your friends (unless you’re into that kind of thing, of course), and we can safely say that the LG Ally, while hefty in its own right, isn’t all that unattractive. Looking at it head-on, the only thing that might detract from its aesthetic appeal, is the obvious difference between the physical buttons, and the touch-sensitive versions right above them. If you’re accustomed to Android, then the button layout itself will seem a bit unorthodox; but after you get used to it, the layout isn’t all that bad. From right to left, you have the End Call button, the Menu button, the Home key, and finally the Call/Answer button. Above these, you have the touch-sensitive activators, which are Search and Back. Not that different, but just different enough to throw a wrench in any user already familiar with Android handsets.
The 3.2-inch touchscreen itself feels like a large slab of plastic, more so than its Android competitors, but we didn’t find that it missed any touch inputs, and it was as responsive as we would have liked. However, with LG’s decision to go with WVGA resolution on a 3.2-inch screen, we can’t jump on board. We never thought we’d say that there’s too many pixels on our phone’s display, but LG have definitely made the argument possible. Truth be told, on a screen anywhere less than 3.5-inches, HVGA would have been a perfect fit.
Along the sides, you’ve got the standard features. On the left side, you have the micro-USB charger, and the volume rocker. Along the top there’s just the 3.5mm audio jack. On the right side, there’s the MicroSD card slot, and the physical camera button, which is a sight for sore eyes. And finally, there’s nothing on the bottom. The handset itself is simple, black, and gets right to the point. It’s very reminiscent of other “heavy duty” LG handsets out there, and every time we held it in our hands, we knew that this handset could definitely survive the day-to-day rigors of life.
On the back of the Ally, you’ll find a 3.2MP camera with a flash. It has the ability to auto-focus, and you can also capture video with it. Our test runs with the camera were pretty positive, but we’ll cover that here in a little while. There’s nothing else on the back, with the exception of the standard branding from Verizon, LG, and Google. All in all, LG makes their point with the LG Ally very clear: here’s a phone that may not win the next award for good looks, but it’s constructed well and feels solid in the hands.
Also on the back, near the bottom, you’ll find the loudspeaker. And, when we say that this thing is loud, we mean that it’s loud. We actually had to refrain from putting the volume level all the way up, for fear that we’d blow the embedded speaker. This is one of the first times, in all honesty, that we were wholeheartedly pleased with a loudspeaker in a handset. It just works, and it does it very well.
As for the earpiece, it does an admirable job in of itself. However, through our varied test calls, people on the other end did sound a bit muddied. However, due to our location, that could have been anything: network connection, the other caller, or our phone. We tried a few calls from Google Voice as well, but the situation didn’t change. Though, if you’re a frequent caller on your phone, we wouldn’t say that this should keep you from getting the phone, as it was never all that bad.
The slider feels remarkably good. We were surprised at how many times we could slide it open and closed, and still feel like, over the course of two years, it wouldn’t lose any of its effectiveness. As for the keyboard underneath, this is yet again another department that LG surprised us. In a good way. It’s a huge, responsive, and comfortable keyboard. It has an expansive four-rows, meaning your number keys are dedicated and don’t need any kind of secondary feature, and each key is separate from one another. There’s a four-way D-pad, with the OK button placed in the center of it. And right above that there’s dedicated buttons for Home and Menu. Typing on the keyboard went rather well, but it still could have been a bit better over a long period of time. It has nice travel and response time with the letter input on the screen. Hands down, the keyboard is definitely one of the defining features of the Ally, and if you are a fan of physical keyboards, this one puts the Motorola Droid to shame.
The physical parts of the LG Ally are either going to attract new customers, or push them away. It’s heavy in the hand, and has an industrial look and feel to it that, when compared to devices like the HTC Incredible or Droid Eris (both of which are available for Verizon Wireless, hence the comparison) makes its lack of “sex appeal” something that customers will think about. In our case, we’re fans of the way LG put the Ally together, and believe that the extra weight in our hands goes a long way to show that the phone is well made, even if it’s just a psychological thing. Plus, the keyboard is too good to pass up, frankly.
The Software
LG, thankfully, managed to stick Android 2.1 on the Ally. That should be enough to sell the device to anyone at this point, but we understand that you probably want us to dig a little deeper. There’s not much to go on here when it comes to the bare bones software of Android 2.1. At least, not that we haven’t covered before. You get all the features of the updated mobile Operating System (OS), and right off the bat it doesn’t look like there’s any skinning going on, either. So, hopefully, that means that when updates do arrive for the Android platform, the LG Ally will be one of the first for Verizon Wireless to get them.
But! If you do like themes, or skins (like HTC’s Sense UI), then LG’s got you covered. They’ve put the Android 2.1 main software to the fore-front of the device, but they’ve also included their proprietary software on board as well. It’s right in the 3D launcher, and you’ll see it called ‘Themes.’ It puts the software overlay atop Android 2.1, and it does a pretty good job of changing some things up enough to make it pretty interesting. However, it should be noted that this is no way, shape or form, as in-depth as HTC’s Sense User Interface (UI). Basically, the LG Home theme changes up the launcher, and that’s about it.
The launcher itself, while completely hidden in other Android versions and proprietary skins, isn’t with the LG Home theme. It keeps, what you can picture in your mind, is the first row of the launcher positioned on the screen at all times. You can’t switch around the icons that are there, either. (It took us several tries, but we finally figured out how to change the icons in the home row: you simply hold an application’s icon in the launcher, and when it drops down to put that icon on the homescreen, you can put it in the launcher’s home row. It’s very strange, and not intuitive at all.) So, you’ll find the phone, contacts, messaging, and browser icons always present. We thought it was a good idea at first, and we actually used this theme more than the standard Android one for a few days, but then we wanted the 3D launcher back, along with the ability to save some extra screen real estate with the launcher completely removed from our home screens. Although, it should be added that LG does do a good job of separating pre-installed applications, and ones that you’ve downloaded in the Marketplace, by literally separating them from one another in the launcher. Very odd, especially considering it breaks the collected feel of the launcher, but we imagine that it’s a good way to show which apps you’ve downloaded and which ones were there already, making sure some people don’t delete necessary applications by accident.
We probably would have found ourselves using the LG Home theme a lot more had there been some more customization and skinning involved. Even some additional widgets would have been nice. Instead, the widgets are interchangeable to each theme, and even the LG version of the Messaging, Weather, and Socialite widgets can be used in the main Android standard theme. So, unfortunately, we just didn’t find a reason to use the LG Home theme.
Now, the widgets. Considering it’s an Android-based device, we would be remiss if we didn’t talk about the widgets that LG has added. As we just mentioned, they’ve got a Weather widget, the Socialite widget, and a widget for the Messages application. All of which work well for what they’re supposed to do, but, we’ll be honest, they don’t compare to the widgets that HTC developed for Sense.
The Weather widget is a simple blue bar that sits on one of your home screens. It displays the time for you, and then the temperature and current city you’re in. The date’s included, too. There’s no animation of the weather (we know that that’s not necessarily something people look for, but we have to point it out), and even opening up the application doesn’t do much to provide anything else but the weather. It brings up the six day forecast, all brought to you by the AccuWeather website. No, the widget itself, nor the application underneath, isn’t attractive, but it does do what it’s supposed to do: show you the weather. So, we can’t really say it’s a bad app, or widget.
The Socialite application is meant to bring your Facebook and Twitter streams to the front and center. And, much like the Weather widget, we have to say that LG definitely didn’t want to bring any unnecessary flair to their applications. It’s almost totalitarian in its presentation, designed to not necessarily attract your eye, but just deliver the information you want. Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems we had with the widget itself, is the fact that it’s not all that dynamic. Instead of being able to scroll up and down in the widget, you have to use arrows positioned at the bottom, which will scroll up and down for you. LG also included their own Twitter client, but you can only access it through the Socialite application.
And finally, the Messaging widget. Again, simple, and not dynamic in the slightest. It does well to show the message and picture of the contact sending it, but other than that, it’s just right to the point. You can hit options to write a new message without having to go into the Messaging application, along with delete a message. You can also get into the Messaging application simply by hitting the Menu option on the widget as well. Just like the Socialite widget, arrows will take you from one contact’s message to another, but you can’t navigate in any other fashion.
You can find plenty of other applications and their widgets in the connected Android Marketplace, of course, but as of right now, unless you don’t mind the simplest of design features, the LG versions aren’t going to win anyone over, we don’t think. But, in the end, they do exactly what they’re designed to do, so again, we can’t necessarily say that these are bad widgets in the slightest. We just want a bit of aesthetic appeal to our shiny new toys, and we don’t think that’s too much to ask.
One last application that we wanted to bring to your attention is the ThinkFree Office application. When we first took a shot at it, we thought it was probably the most brilliant idea we had ever seen. You have to register your device with the software, or you can skip the step and just dig into the features. We skipped the step, and just wrestled around with what the application had to offer. Now, if you’re not familiar with ThinkFree Office, it’s basically an online word document, spreadsheet, and other document creation website, that offers up to 1GB of free storage for you to access what you need on the go. However, the application on the LG Ally not only allows you to access this service, but it also links to your Google Docs, as well as any documents you may have on your SD card. Unfortunately, we felt pretty dismayed when we signed into our Google Docs account, and it then took us to the website, where we had to subsequently sign in again. Basically, it’s just a portal to the Google Docs site, and therefore just one more step and one that we immediately stopped using. However, for viewing documents with ThinkFree Office and on your SD card, it works well.
Under the Hood
The LG Ally is powered by a 600MHz processor, and it features the standard Android fanfare: WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth. As we mentioned above, it does support MicroSD cards, so that you’ll have plenty of space for all your media consumption. It does have all the bells and whistles you’ve come to expect from an Android handset, so LG definitely hit the mark on this one.
However, we were unexpectedly unimpressed with the processor, especially considering the graphics acceleration it comes with. As we said above, the Ally features a 600MHz MSM7627 processor, so we were thinking that the experience with the Ally would be quick, clean, and crisp. And sometimes it was. So good, in fact, that we loved just moving from one homescreen to the other, launching the 3D launcher, and activating applications. But then, randomly throughout the day, for inexplicable reasons, the whole system would slow down. The 3D launcher would pause, jerk up, and then jerk back down. Transitioning from one homescreen to the other was painful to watch, especially when we had Live Wallpapers activated (and it still happened with just a regular picture activated, too). Even after restarting the phone, the jerkiness would still happen from time to time. It just boiled down to us waiting, as if to give the phone a break, before the processor would start powering the phone like we wanted. But, despite the lag from time to time, the phone is definitely usable. You’ll just have to grit your teeth through the random (and we mean random) slow downs.
The Camera
We’ll just come right out and say it: this won’t replace your current digital camera, and if you’re looking for a method to combine your phone and camera, the LG Ally is not going to be your gadget of choice. Yes, we know there’s only a 3.2MP camera on the back, but we’ve taken better pictures with other 3MP camera-phones. And, honestly, it doesn’t get any simpler than that. It does feature auto-focus, video capture, and it has an LED flash, so that may be good enough for some people. And, in fact, the LED flash did well as an actual flash, and in the autofocus assistance department. But, images came out without definition, and more often than not, splotchy and blurry. Shutter speed, when worked in conjunction with the two-stage hardware camera button, is not too bad, but you should wait for the autofocus to kick in, if you want any kind of semblance of a decent picture. There are 8 effects to choose from, a dedicated macro mode, white balance which can be configured, and ISO. But, none of those mattered after awhile, as we just didn’t want to take anymore photos with it.
The Battery
Truth be told, we were completely blown away by the battery on our first day with the LG Ally. But, unfortunately, not in a good way. We charged it up completely, and then left it alone for an entire day. We had the standard things running in the background: email, Twitter, and Gmail. When we checked it again, about eight hours later, the battery was completely dead. Now, while that may sound great for anyone looking at it from the hours perspective, we ask you to keep in mind that we weren’t using the phone. That means no voice calls, no texts, and not actually responding or checking those emails. The phone was simply pulling info. Not good at all.
And yet, it seemed to fix itself over the following days. We were using the phone easily enough throughout the day, with several texts, Google Talk messages, and other Instant Messaging client messages sent, with plenty of emails, Gmail messages, and Twitter messages sent out. With all of that going, we clocked the battery at anywhere between 5 to 8 hours, which should mean that the average user should be able to squeak out a little bit longer than that. Of course, with Android 2.1, you’re able to see what exactly is pulling the power from your battery, and adjust your settings accordingly, which, honestly, we recommend.
Also worth mentioning, is how long it takes to charge the battery. If you’re like us, then you’ve got your phone plugged into the USB port on your computer more often than not. We do not recommend you charge your phone like this. Especially not the LG Ally. It takes forever. Now, charging it from the standard AC outlet takes a bit of time, too, but it’s nowhere near the length it does from the USB port. And yes, that’s from a USB 2.0 port, as well as a non-USB 2.0 port.
In the End
The LG Ally is a phone that, when held in the hand, feels more like a piece of industrial equipment. It’s heavy, it’s not all that attractive to look at, and the buttons on the front are completely mind boggling. However, it does have a relatively roomy touchscreen, and even if the WVGA screen is a bit too much, it does do a great job of showing off all those colors well. The sliding function is great, and while the keyboard may not make everyone happy, we were far more pleased with it than let down. And, while we love Android 2.1, we would say that LG should shy away from the themes from now on, and just let the stock ‘droid take over.
This may not be at the top of the list for Android handsets out there (it’s certainly not on ours), but for what it’s worth, it does a good job of showing that LG takes the Android handset seriously, and we imagine that the handsets coming down the pipe from the company will be better. However, if you had to ask us right here, right now, if we would recommend the $99 LG Ally to any upcoming Verizon Wireless customers, we simply couldn’t do it. Yes, it’s a better deal than the Motorola Devour, which is still positioned at $150, but that doesn’t mean you should get it just because it’s cheaper. There’s other options to look at, and we strongly suggest you look.
BULLSHIIIIIIIT! i have the ally and my battery lasts up to 2days! you obviously didnt have the task killer installed. the only app i have my phone run while on standby (not using it) is messaging. and it lasts 2days. and the phone still tells me when i recieve emails. the camera lags and the flash is way to bright but other then that do ur research completely before telling people the phone blows.
Awe, that’s cute.
You don’t need a third party Task Killer. Android offers you one right from the software itself. But, you go ahead and keep up the third party support.
But, I’ll go ahead and say this: The LG Ally was the worst Android-based device for Verizon when it launched. It might actually still be, actually.
But thanks for your input.
Average review by an average person.
Oh no, please don’t hurt my feelings!
There are also good video reviews at this android phone website
Evan,
Thank you for your review; it was informative and pretty accurate…the battery life would depend on how much the phone is used. When I’m on a lot the battery will last about 6 hours and that is with task killer. If I barely use it then it lasts all day.
It’s a fun phone for me but I’m coming from using a Blackberry, which I won’t ever get again.
So thanks again Evan! To those that posted to this negatively; please get a thesaurus on your LG Ally, which is available in the Market, to assist you in describing your feelings so that you don’t have to use words like ‘bullshit’… 😉
No, it doesn’t. When you try to scroll, everything that you turned off with the appkiller comes back on, and sometimes it randomly comes back on even when you don’t touch it. I keep the phone charging every day when I am at work and I STILL have the stupid thing drop dead. I have had other LG phones, but this one is the worst phone I have ever seen. I do not do email or surf on my phone, and don’t use many of the apps, and it’s still dead half the time. I would have hooked my old phone up except I donated it when I got this one.
I’m getting this phone for Christmas and I’ve used my friends Ally before and I absolutely love it! I also love the slider keyboard which makes texting faster but i don’t know about the battery yet.. I’ll tell you the pros and cons about the phone about a week after Christmas but this phone has a lot of cute covers on ebay. If you wanna put music on it go to Brinked.com and sign up(its free) and download the music to your desktop then go to Mobile 17 and upload it and send it to your phone via email or via text message. I’ve been using these websights for a year and they have high quality ringtones. Hope this is good advice(:
Do you have to push down hard to touch something on the screen? Or is it like the iPhone, where you barely have to touch?
I do not like the Ally. There are tom many things to try. It is difficult to get the thingd you want and it just takes more energy o use than the Blackberry. My bstery was no more than 6 hours. I had to use itnhiel it was charging so it took more than 123 to completely charge. zit would freeze often and if I really wanted to know what to do with it I had to download 300 pages of text to understand what it could do. Not a quick phone to many moves to get what you need. A nice size screen. Somehing the Blackberry needs. Verizon support is less than.
I do not recommend this phone.
I agree!! I’ve had the phone since November. I HATE IT! It’s the WORST Verizon phone I’ve ever had! (and i’ve been using cell phones since the early 90’s!!!) Very labor intensive to use…too many moves to get what you need – that is exactly it and way too irritating. My screen goes black too fast and sometimes when I’m trying to use the touch keypad I get one number touched and it goes dark and I cant finish dialling… Then at other times it wont hang up after I finish a call… and recently it randomly que’s up a bunch of texts and I don’t get them until I “reboot” my phone or take the battery out and turn back on… Just sucks!! For the price I’m paying – I am NOT receiving premium communication and I shud for what they’re charging.
Well had to get the phone bc it has my name! I haven’t had any problems as of yet. Love the keyboard and GPS works great! Battery life could be better.
You don’t have to push down hard on touchscreen very easy to use, my bf recently got the blackberry storm 2 and you have to press very hard to use and know wants to get the ally or incredible
I’ve had the phone for a few months, and I like it. The keyboard is a good size, and the touchscreen is a nice size. I have had a xouple problems with it freezing up, but that has only happened like 5 times since I got it.
I’d like to point out that the weather widget isn’t just a blue bar. The image changes depending on the weather and time of day. Also, I’ve never had any problems with the battery life, even when heavily used. As said above, just turn off uneeded updates and such, and keep the brightness low. I don’t see how there could be any problems while doing that. I also like the face that it has dedicated send and end buttons (I don’t see how the placement could confuse anyone) which make the phone app uneeded. Other than the processor being a bit slow and the low camera resolution I’d say it’s a great entry level smartphone. And the amazingly spacious physical keyboard is definitely a very redeeming feature.
I have the ally currently and have had it since july I think…. Anyways. The camera does lag, sometimes I’ll have photos that are still dark because the flash went off and then it took the picture. I have to take it in to verizon tomorrow though because it has decided to not register the SD card. It started off saying it was unmounting and then all the sudden it was just not there. The battery on mine lasts me more than one day, closer to 2 days and that is with heavy use since I’m almost always on my phone. I wait for it to almost die before plugging it in. I do like it, I’m just hoping the whole memory card thing doesn’t make me regret having gotten this phone.
Does anyone have a problem with the Ally saying “text message memory full or phone storage space low”? How can you move apps to the SD card?
I have the same prob. Youu have to go to menu>settings>sd/phone storage>all apps> menu key> sort by size and manually go thru every app and move to sd. There are some apps that will not go to your sd so u have to limit those apps. Being that the phone only has 700 some odd mgbs. LAME! You can also empty email trashes and unneeded inbox emails, clear call log, empty text inbox. You can also clear app caches. I found this useful . There is also an app in the market called uninstaller. Works great! Hope this helps
@Courtney there is an app called Apps2SD in the market. you go and download that and thru this app you can move them there. 🙂 hope this helps. it helped me!
I bought the Ally in June and I loved it! The keyboard is by far the best one on the market (second best is the Droid 2). I ended up getting a Droid 2 because I needed Outlook support and some other 2.2 features. I love the Droid 2 but long for the Ally and it’s keyboard and overall design. Now that it has 2.2 it could really compete and be a really decent Android phone. I hope LG creates another physical keyboard equipped Android phone that is more powerful in the future so I can pick one up!
THE ALLY DROID IS FUCKING TRASH! I got that new “system update” shit bc it wouldnt get off the screen and now i cant send or recieve text messages. Everytime i try pullin up my inbox the screen turns black and says force close. Verizon will surely get a lovely call from me in the morning, and im guaranteed to get a fucking free new phone. NOT THE ALLY!
ALI i have the same problem! How do i fix this? This is ridiuclous! Help me ASAP
I have the 2.2 version. Its different and better than the version in this review.
My wife have the same phone as a result of buy on get one free. We don’t like the fact of not being hands free with voice command. Does anyone have any suggestions. We bought a jawbone thinking it would have more control over the phone but we were wrong. Voice commands are not accurately received with the built in voice dialer let alone through a bluetooth device. Will the LG android be updated to have this function?
I have the same problem with my screen just turning black or forcing close. I’ve had my phone since the beginning of December and have always taken good care of it, it has no exterior damage. Just recently, after I got the 2.2 update, my screen starting shutting off but my buttons would light up and I would have to take the battery out and turn it back on. I decided I was just going to factory reset and it worked for a few days but then I went to pull up a picture somebody sent me and it just turned black. My phone is also really sluggish so a lot of times I have to force close on apps or the internet. I also like to use my phone to upload pictures to my facebook, when I first got my phone I could. Now I can’t upload anything. After having this many problems I finally called Verizon Friday and I am getting a new phone tomorrow, same phone I just hope that this one will work better. I’m very pleased with how well there customer service was.
I also had my phone take a crap on me when I did the update..no text, couldn’t hang up calls when I DID get them, forceclose all my apps. Dumb ass at the VZW store told me I had too many apps on my phone. I HAD A TOTAL OF 6 NOT INCLUDING WHAT CAME ON THE PHONE. They finally sent me a “Certified New” phone (ally) that has not had the update and I will NOT do it. Good luck to all who does do it, but be prepared to be pissed just in case. Other than this problem, love the phone.
i hear your problem and i might suggest doing a factory reset or turning your phone off then back on other than that i dont know but try it and see what happends.
I also had my phone take a crap on me when I did the update..no text, couldn’t hang up calls when I DID get them, forceclose all my apps. Dumb ass at the VZW store told me I had too many apps on my phone. I HAD A TOTAL OF 6 NOT INCLUDING WHAT CAME ON THE PHONE. They finally sent me a “Certified New” phone (ally) that has not had the update and I will NOT do it. Good luck to all who does do it, but be prepared to be pissed just in case. Other than this problem, love the phone.
I also had my phone take a crap on me when I did the update..no text, couldn’t hang up calls when I DID get them, forceclose all my apps. Dumb ass at the VZW store told me I had too many apps on my phone. I HAD A TOTAL OF 6 NOT INCLUDING WHAT CAME ON THE PHONE. They finally sent me a “Certified New” phone (ally) that has not had the update and I will NOT do it. Good luck to all who does do it, but be prepared to be pissed just in case. Other than this problem, love the phone.
Uh, after updating my phone, it started to randomly flash andriod on the front screen, even when I take the battery out. Any help please?
Uh, after updating my phone, it started to randomly flash andriod on the front screen, even when I take the battery out. Any help please?
I have a love hate relationship with my Ally. The google map for traveling is great when it works, but sucks when it laggs for too long for me to wait. The texts recieved suck too, they never stay on the screen long enough for me to read, nor does the sound come on. This is pretty sucky. But I love getting on facebook, and reading my email (sucks on opening certain emails). And the camera is great for close document pics, but sucks with the flash, and sucks on moving pics (blurrs). I idea is great, but the bugs are too many. Wish I could get a better version.
I have a love hate relationship with my Ally. The google map for traveling is great when it works, but sucks when it laggs for too long for me to wait. The texts recieved suck too, they never stay on the screen long enough for me to read, nor does the sound come on. This is pretty sucky. But I love getting on facebook, and reading my email (sucks on opening certain emails). And the camera is great for close document pics, but sucks with the flash, and sucks on moving pics (blurrs). I idea is great, but the bugs are too many. Wish I could get a better version.
Ok so there definetly is a camera on the FRONT of the phone!!! Next to the notification light, those 3 dark circle thingys. BUT NOWHERE CASN I FIND HOW TO WORK IT!!! Its meant for video calls / skype etc. I am away from family and daughter and would love to figure out how this works!!! Anybody please help.
That’s not a camera. Its a sensor. For during calls, it dims the screen.
Why can’t I download google earth on this phone.
I strongly hate this phone. I have had problem on top of problem with it.. first, any time I went to my gallery it would go fuzzy and reboot… then i installed an update for the phone and it crashed my phone.. then any time I would use the keyboard it would freak out, example: if i hit the letter M it would bring up my email. if i hit the letter Y it would bring up Youtube… no point in having a keyboard if i cant use it… Now its rebooting and will keep rebooting for an hour or two until I do a hard reset on the phone which wipes out all my apps and resets the phone to the original settings… that would be fine if i didnt have to do it every hour!! So I called customer service and I’m getting a new phone. This isn’t just bad luck with me… my neighbor has the same phone and has gone through 5, my cousins gone through 7 and a co-worker is on her 3rd. I think I know why this phone is no longer being sold….. ITS TERRIBLE!
I agree, I got 3 free one’s for christmas for my family. Ha! What a joke. Free comes with the first bill being $300.00 before you even turn the thing on to use it. By the time you figure out it’s the phone that keeps crapping out not the user’s fault you send it back. Well 6 months later each person in my home has replaced this very same Ally 4 times each. Yep!! Then when you call to see what other options are available they basically force you to take the very same phone as equal replacement or buy a new phone for up to $600.00 I’m thinking of sending them all back and telling them they can reach me on the phones they sold me. hahaha.
I was supposed to get a free one when I got my phone but I didn’t have a line ready for upgrade, so Verizon wouldn’t give it to me. I’m actually glad I didn’t get one because it would be just one more problem to have to deal with.
I have the Verizon Ally LG phone, I downloaded the Android version 2.2.1, but every time that I try to access or download a program that needs the Froyo 2.2, I can’t do it. Always appear messages that my phone needs the 2.2 version or that my system does not support it. Seems like even I have the 2.2.1 that it is need it to do it, it can’t be recognized it. What I can do? What is the problem? I really appreciate if somebody can help me with this problem.
the camera is great for close document pics, but sucks with the flash, and sucks on moving pics
that doesn’t mean you should get it just because it’s cheaper. there’s other options to look at
I had my phone take a crap on me when I did the update thanks
I had my phone take a crap on me when I did the update thanks
wow i cant believe all the complaints about this phone ! i had the lg env 2 before i got the ally ive had it for a year a little under .Its a really good phone im still on my first one the battery works great unless im surfing the web for 2 hours doing downloads but normal use doesnt kill the battery has a great facebook widget and alarms that wake me up i like the wallpapers and all the apps you can download the ONLY downside about the phone to me is that there is no flashplayer so you cant watch movies or netflixs but its really not that bad a downside cause it would just kill your battery anyways ! So i love the ALLY works great for what i need it to do !!! DOUG
this phone is absolutely terrible. it hasnt worked correctly since the first week i had it, thats when it deleted half my contacts. after that it has been freezing, glitching, lagging, disconnecting my sd card, saying my memory is full (i cant have apps because its so screwed up). i tell all my friends not to get one. i have done nothing but try and protect the world from its awfulness
Your comment is completely lucid and to the point
I have the ally, and i used to drop it sometimes. One time i dropped it, and the screen just shattered. It’s slow most of the time. I don’t have many apps or low to make it slow. My batter doesn’t last very long at all. It turns off randomly, and sometimes when i try and take a picture, it says it can’t connect to it. It delays texts ALL the time. I really hate this phone. I want a new one now. -__-
Amen.
I’m having the typical, “phone not charging” issue. Verizon replaced my LG Ally after it was still under warranty, however, the replacement is doing the same thing. As soon as it goes completely dead, a charge from any charger will not turn it back on. Took it to Verizon, and they got it to turn on with their charger. =Really? Now its happened again, I can’t even get it turned on to debug it from the 2.2 Froyo. What a hassle, I have to go all the way back to Verizon, (which is not close to me and very inconveinent since I am a business owner) wait in line, just to have the phone turned back on…. I am not happy with this phone at all.
i have the ally and have gone through 4 of them in the last year and a half with nothing but problem after problem….:( im getting something else now!! blah!
I got my first ally in november of 2010 and i only had a few problems where it froze. until february when i dropped it in the pool. i admit, that was dumb on my part. but it wouldnt turn on for a couple days and i tried putting it in rice and charging it and everything. about a week after that i plugged it in again hoping it would start working again and it did. i was relieved that it worked but annoyed that it took so long for it to turn back on. the sd card got all messed up though so it wouldnt take pictures every other time i tried. then in june i dropped it once and the screen cracked. i brought it to the verizon store months later not just because of the crack but because it froze and glitched all the time and the sd card issue. i just got a new replacement ally and set it up yesterday it was working fine until this morning. it froze for at least 30 minutes. i couldnt get it to turn off. i tried charging it. it just now started working. im so fed up with this phone. what if there happened to be an emergency and i needed to call 911 but the phone was frozen? what if my boss was calling me? this phone sucks.
I got my first ally in november of 2010 and i only had a few problems where it froze. until february when i dropped it in the pool. i admit, that was dumb on my part. but it wouldnt turn on for a couple days and i tried putting it in rice and charging it and everything. about a week after that i plugged it in again hoping it would start working again and it did. i was relieved that it worked but annoyed that it took so long for it to turn back on. the sd card got all messed up though so it wouldnt take pictures every other time i tried. then in june i dropped it once and the screen cracked. i brought it to the verizon store months later not just because of the crack but because it froze and glitched all the time and the sd card issue. i just got a new replacement ally and set it up yesterday it was working fine until this morning. it froze for at least 30 minutes. i couldnt get it to turn off. i tried charging it. it just now started working. im so fed up with this phone. what if there happened to be an emergency and i needed to call 911 but the phone was frozen? what if my boss was calling me? this phone sucks.
my phone is a pece of …. it duse all of that and I have had 4 of the same phone I hav not dropd it into water
This phone is totally junk. The battery does not stay charged for very long, constantly deletes apps, will randomly shut off. On my second one and would not tell anyone to purchase the phone. Verizon is not very helpful in fixing any problems.
I hate this phone. It’s a piece of crap. The battery won’t stay charged, and I can’t get things back off the SDcard. I can’t find information on how to do anything with this phone. I have tried to install an app for 3 days now, and all I get are a bunch of arrows showing downloading but nothing else happens. My daughter has a newer Android phone, and my sister has an Incredible of about the same age – and they don’t have any trouble – same carrier. I can’t wait until I am able to get a new phone.
This is by far the worst phone I have ever owned. Touchpad unresponsive. Goes into “airplane mode” by itself. Error messages – even when there’s no error. I asked around and the most most common reply I had was “don’t buy a LG phone”. I will take this advice on my next phone.
i hate the ally this is my 3rd phone its nothing but troble its always freezeing on me it just started not even leting me answe the phone plus i cant hear wean peoples talking 2 me on the phone it sucks i cant w8 untill my next upgrade i shouldi hav nevr got this damn thing
I’ve been demo’ing this stuff on my own YouTube channel for months (in fact even as far back as 2010 I did one with the Galaxy S, although it’s VGA output is nowhere near as well suited to this sort of thin). Old news.
http://www.youtube.com/user/NZtechfreak?feature=mhee
He’s just showing us how it is, not saying it’s new or anything. Who cares if you did this one, two or even five years ago. It’s still cool to see for people who don’t know.
Still it’s awesome!
Probably the best thing I have seen in ages.
Can’t wait to be able to unify my devices. Would be interesting to see how well Google docs would work. Could I write my documents like this?
docking is fantastic… using the phone as the sole source for data is dangerous, i’d prefer a cloud sync ‘backup’ but even then the phone could be used as the docking device.
i’d be interested to know if in this demo he is using wifi with a home router or using the radio (4G etc).
I used to do stuff like this on my iPhone before i got my galaxy s2… its called airplay mirroring. On iPhone it can be done wirelessly as well as with the vga/hdmi cable. It can aslo be done on the Galaxy s2 but i havent tried it yet
‘Girl Talk’, good stuff.
i have been doing similar thing with my lg 2x. Playing SNES and N64 emulators on my TV through a PS3 six-axis controller
my buddy’s siṡter makes $68/hour on the laptop. She has been out of work for 8 months but last month her income was $7114 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Here’s the site to read more… LazyCash5.çom
hi
Excellent preview of where we’re headed. Please do another demo this time using
“Picture in Picture” to demo watching TV while sending an e-mail; wireless keyboard in lap.. This will be a more likely trend as people spend so much time with TV on. Watching baseball (slow, conversational sport) this would be common.
Thanks
Hi, there. Thanks for covering my video. Would you mind fixing my name, however? It’s Christian Cantrell (“qantrell” is just my YouTube username). Thanks!
You got it. Sorry for the delay – I was traveling for work earlier this week.
my best friend’s ex-wife makes $76 an hour on the laptop. She has been fired for 5 months but last month her check was $8265 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Read more on tħis web site… ĹazyĆash5.çom
my neighbor’s mom makes $69 hourly on the computér. She has been out of a job for 9 months but last month her check was $7194 just working on the computeř for a few hours. Read more on tħis site… LazŷČash5.ćom
LG Ally sucks. do not buy, unless you enjoy wasting money and being frustrated.