LG 1100 Cell Phone

The first thing you'll notice about the Touchpoint 1100, which has a clamshell design and is made by LG for Sprint PCS networks, is that it has an LCD on the outside of the phone. The idea is that since the external LCD displays caller ID info, you won't have to flip open the phone to see who's calling (as long as that person hasn't blocked their caller ID info). That's pretty smart--and so is this phone. It's just a shame it doesn't have better battery life.

Measuring 3.4 by 1.9 by 1 inches, the 4.2-ounce Touchpoint 1100 isn't as small as Motorola's tiny V. series phones, but it's narrower than Motorola's StarTAC and Timeport models and easily fits in any pocket. While we weren't in love with its glazed silver casing, this is an attractive phone. Better yet, the Touchpoint feels comfortable to talk on, and your ear seems to effortlessly find the earpiece's sweet spot.

For navigating menus and the wireless Web, there's a mouse like button at the top, while a rocker button on the side of the phone adjusts ringer volume. Aside from that, there're only OK, Clr, and End/power buttons. The backlit dial-pad keys are rubberized and have a solid feel.

As noted, the external single-line LCD shows caller ID info. When you aren't on a call, the screen displays the date, time, signal strength, and battery life, and it indicates whether you have voicemail. With most flip phones, you can disengage the automatic answer feature so that when you open the phone, you can view caller ID info before deciding whether to take the call. However, we still thought the external LCD was a big plus.

The internal LCD isn't particularly big; it displays five lines of text in Wireless Web mode. But like other Touchpoint models, the phone's interface is really easy to navigate. Using the mouse and the OK buttons, you can scroll through and access the phone's fairly substantial feature set. Those include a 99-name phone book, a calendar, a calculator, 17 ringer options (plus vibrating ringer alert), call history log, and games (Puzzle and Black Jack, among others).