LG Exalt LTE - Review 2022

The LG Exalt LTE ($168) for Verizon Wireless is a terrific flip phone with a near-fatal flaw: It lacks an external brandish for easy caller ID. That's a deal breaker for me, but if you tin can overlook this upshot, the Exalt is a proficient, simple phone for making vox calls. Still, nosotros prefer the Kyocera Cadence LTE for its slightly lower cost and outer brandish.

If you're buying a Verizon vox phone correct at present, it needs to have LTE calling. That'south because Verizon plans to shut off its 3G organization at the end of 2022, which will plough LTE-less phones into doorstops. (AT&T did a like thing with its 2G GSM network at the end of 2022.) The proficient news is, Verizon is offering several LTE-enabled voice phones, including this one, the Kyocera Cadency LTE, and the Kyocera DuraXV LTE.

Design

Flipped closed, the Exalt LTE has just a silvery plastic confront with a red notification indicator on it. I'm non a fan of this design: part of the joy of flip phones is knowing who'south calling earlier you lot open the phone. In this case, you have to flip open the phone, check who'south calling, and and then press Send to accept the phone call.

There are ways effectually this. Most notably, y'all tin set ringtones by contact, which can alarm you lot to who's calling. The telephone has a dozen or so standard ringtones, but you can also set any song in the phone or on a microSD card as a ringtone. You can also toggle a setting that answers the phone as soon every bit you flip it open, but that doesn't solve the caller ID conundrum.

Open up the phone, and the scene gets better. The Exalt LTE has a relatively big 3-inch, 400-by-240 LCD with a customizable background. The keys below are apartment, but big, separated, and have a flake of throw to them. There'southward a volume rocker on 1 side, and a dedicated camera button on the other. The phone isn't ruggedized or waterproof, but given that it'due south a flip phone with no external screen, it tin can certainly withstand some drops.

One thing to annotation is that the Exalt, flipped open, is very long—more than eight inches, or a good inch longer than the Kyocera Cadence LTE. That might feel awkward if y'all have a smaller head (or conversely, it might feel proficient if you have a very long face).

Phone Calls

The telephone makes calls over Verizon'due south LTE network, on LTE bands 4, five, and 13. Where there's no Verizon coverage, the Exalt LTE makes calls over Wi-Fi. Information technology likewise has GSM for global roaming. LTE back up too ways that the phone works every bit a Wi-Fi hotspot. The Wi-Fi isn't the greatest—it'due south 2.4GHz only, which ways slow speeds in crowded areas—and the LTE is Category four, which means speeds around 10Mbps. But both will assistance you in a pinch, and they're powers that older flip phones just don't have.

RF bespeak strength is bang-up—the Exalt LTE matched a Jetpack AC791L hotspot on signal strength, so yous shouldn't worry about coverage, fifty-fifty though the phone lacks 2G. Over time, Verizon will be shifting more spectrum from 2G to LTE besides, so you should run into the phone's coverage improve every bit 2G coverage and call quality drops.

Call quality is fine. The earpiece doesn't blare, but voices are clear, and transmissions come through nicely. The phone supports Verizon's Hd Voice on calls to Verizon and AT&T subscribers.

The speakerphone is decent, not great. Its major problem is that it's bottom-ported, so information technology faces away from you, which reduces the apparent volume. Information technology's loud and clear, though, and does a very good job of pushing your own vocalisation in forepart of background racket in transmissions. The phone connected hands to a Plantronics Voyager UC Bluetooth headset, and transmitted calls without pops and clicks. The phonation calling system works on contact names or phone numbers, and information technology works using the trigger push button on your Bluetooth headset.

Battery life was good, with 7 hours, 38 minutes of talk time on the 1,470mAh battery. Like other flip phones, the Exalt LTE consumes very little power in standby (the lack of an external screen helps there), so it can last a mean solar day or two even on its terminal few pct points of bombardment.

Media Features

The Exalt LTE is running a twisted, crippled version of Android on a one.1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 chipset. The UI is nice and fast. There's a very basic browser, which doesn't accept GPS capabilities and therefore tin't run mapping apps. The electronic mail app defaults to loading AOL, Outlook, Verizon.net, Yahoo!, and Microsoft Exchange emails in text-just format; you tin likewise kludge information technology a little to work with Gmail over IMAP.

There are no downloadable apps, only the phone comes with a standard array of tools. There'south a voice recorder, alarm clock, timer, stopwatch, calculator and file manager. In that location's no flashlight or magnifier, though.

For texting, the phone has Verizon's Message+ app, which supports predictive text. The telephone can receive emoji, merely but send a limited gear up of smileys. Information technology tin both send and receive picture messages, although they load really, actually slowly.

To get contacts into the phone, Verizon offers a useful web interface where you can import CSV files or type them in using your PC. That'south not as adept as syncing direct with Google, but it'due south a heck of a lot ameliorate than having to triple tap the number pad.

The phone has unusually good media playback capabilities. There's a microSD card slot, and you tin can play MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV, and OGG music files from 8GB (4.3 GB bachelor) of internal storage. Information technology will play MP4 video files, too, including in full-screen mural format, but the 400-by-240 screen isn't exactly ideal for watching movies. The phone works with standard wired headphones and stereo Bluetooth headphones for music, although in that location's no FM radio.

The v-megapixel camera is awkwardly placed and not very good. It'southward on the bottom one-half of the flip, which means yous accept to angle the telephone upward more than is natural, and it had serious focus issues in our tests. We had much better results with the video camera, which records 720p video at 30 frames per 2nd, inside and out. The videos accept a lot of color noise, but indoor scenes are plenty viewable.

Comparisons and Conclusions

The LG Exalt LTE isn't the ideal Verizon vocalization phone—for that, it would need an external display. Its major competition is the $120 Kyocera Cadence LTE, which has a lower toll and an outer screen. Both cameras are pretty bad, just you'll utilise an external display all the time, and so we suggest the Cadence as a better voice phone option. Await at the more expensive DuraXV LTE if you demand video messaging, or if its rugged, waterproof build appeals to yous.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/mobile-phones/19230/lg-exalt-lte

Posted by: robinsondoself.blogspot.com

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