2/13/2009 by www.mountainviewcellphones.com

The LG LX-160, “Free Phone,” is exactly what you get.  Although you do save money upfront, you really don’t get a phone that serves the purpose of lasting a long time.  This phone was not well built and we deal with the problems constantly.

 Key failure points:

1.  The charging port.  It’s poorly designed and starts to give out if you put any type of pressure on it.  This leads to a downward spiral of charging port abuse as customers try to push, jam, wiggle the charging port to charge, causing more damage.  At some point, the whole assembly is ripped from the motherboard and the phone is worthless.

2.   Keypad sticks or fails.  We’ve seen this a few times where the phone will not recognize a certain key.  It could be due to a failure on the keypad dome or by excessive pressure on the keys once a slow response starts.  Again, the cycle of abuse to make the electronics work.

3.  Searching for service.  The antenna/chipset is busted, kaput, DOA, etc…

So, if you have an LX-160, be gentle with it.  It’s not a rugged phone and if you use it infrequently, then it will work ok.  However, if you are a constant phone user and you wanted to save a few bucks up front on your purchase, you won’t be satisfied with the durability of this unit.  Buy another unit with better design and parts.  The mid-range Samsung M-520 or Sanyo Eclipse would better fit your use.  Buyers need to take some personal responsibility for their purchases and tell the sales person at the store how they use their phone and what they need.

Remember, the cheapest O-rings blow up space shuttles.  In the cell phone world, you often do get what you paid.  There are differences in prices for a reason.

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