Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
The LG Town GT350 sports a user interface design we've seen before, and it leaves us with mixed feelings. It is easy to use, but we struggle to see the point of LiveSquare, and we wish all three Home screens could be filled with widgets to allow for maximum personalisation.
The slide out keyboard is well made and comfortable to use. It's not up there with the best of them, but for a handset at this price it's pretty good.
We liked
The reasonably good keyboard with useful shortcut buttons means we were able to write at a fair speed.
The screen is more responsive to taps than some resistive competitors, though it has to be said that anyone who has used a good capacitive screen will immediately find it disappointing.
LG has integrated music playback well, so that it's easy to pause and resume from the home screen either via a widget or by using the status summary screen.
Battery life is good – but then there's not much by way of hardcore functionality to run it down quickly.
We disliked
With no 3G or Wi-Fi, data connectivity is very limited. Web browsing and other data-rich work is rather hampered by this. At least LG has opted for Opera Mini as the web browser, so that when you do go onto the web, the experience isn't too bad.
The lack of GPS immediately means you can't do anything remotely navigation-related with ease.
The 2-megapixel camera is very disappointing, and we struggle to see the point of LiveSquare.
There is no accelerometer – though you can force the screen to reorient into wide mode by sliding out the keyboard.
Verdict
Despite LG's claim that the LG Town GT350 is a great social networking fan's phone, we aren't convinced. With only a client for Facebook on board, all the other social networks – such as Twitter and MySpace – are out of the frame unless you go onto the web, and this isn't really the ideal phone for that.
On the other hand, the keyboard is well made considering the price of this phone, and if you're really, really into SMS, it could be enough to draw you in on its own.
