The Back Story

When I heard that getting hearing aids was imminent, I started checking into whether my BlackBerry was hearing aid compatible. I dug around everywhere online and couldn’t find anything to indicate that it was. In fact, hearing aid compatibility wasn’t mentioned at all on the BlackBerry site, at least not for the BlackBerry Pearl, which I owned.

I adored my BlackBerry Pearl and couldn’t even imagine living without it. Until I realized I was getting hearing aids, that is. If my BlackBerry wasn’t hearing aid compatible then I could wind up with only having texting capability, which wasn’t okay with me since there are still many, many people out there who do not text. Some don’t have cell phones and some with cell phones don’t have a cell phone or cell phone plan that supports texting. Some just refuse to pay extra for it. Being a technology-loving hearing-impaired person, I pay extra for it. However… I don’t want to be limited to texting because, frankly, I also pay for cell PHONE service and want to get my money’s worth. Additionally, it cuts me off from part of my audience.

That being said, I’m a hardcore RIM and BlackBerry fan who had to step away from BlackBerry due to life circumstances and attempt to find another phone that could give me the same functionality as the BB - or at least the features I used the most since I didn’t use the BB to its utmost potential. I didn’t want to give up the features I was used to using like email, IM, texting, speakerphone, bluetooth connectivity, the ability to post to twitter and other social media, the ability to take and send pictures, and web surfing.

So I shopped around for a phone that was hearing aid compatible all the while remembering my friend Lindsay’s beautiful LG Lotus. I didn’t know that much about the lotus other than it was the most beautiful cell phone I’d seen anywhere. My only wish was that it was also available in these additional colors: deep, deep red, lime-ish green, and copper (so that it looked like copper foil) all with the same raised flower design. I also wished they’d had a black version with the raised flower design.

• Not just IM capability, but IM by several carriers and I don’t have to pick one… I can use them all and flip back and forth between them.
• Full QWERTY keyboard for texting.
• A music player on the front, which admittedly, I don’t use.
• Speakerphone.
• Bluetooth capable.
• Applications for the home screen like weather, horoscopes or a stock ticker.
• Web surfing w/favorites for quick access.
• Email, not from just certain pop emails or whatever, but also from 3rd party emails like Gmail and I don’t need a separate app for each type. Like the IM, I can just flip back and forth from type to type by clicking the tabs
• Real, fully-functional GPS which I thought my BB was supposed to have but didn’t really. I didn’t have to pay anything extra - I just had to sign up right through my phone. Took less than 5 minutes and it works AWESOME!
• I can check and post to my MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• I can add tons of shortcuts.
• I can access my account info right from my phone.
• Direct access to Google.
• By default, the phone doesn’t beep or make horrible noises when I get a text message or anything. A portion of the message will flash on the screen and a very discreet light will flash on and off very quickly. This is so unobtrusive that it doesn’t even wake me up at night. The BB would wake me with its flashing. The LG Lotus is very classy & discreet.
• It’s got Maps.
• It’s got Music, TV, Games.
• It’s got a 2mp camera.
• It’s got a camcorder and for lengths I can choose Video Mail or Long Video.
• It’s got a great alarm clock that is even better than the one I had with my BB. I can set up to 3 daily (or not daily) alarms, there is another alarm called Walk The Dog that I could actually use as a 4th alarm and it even has a Quick Alarm which is nap or walk timer that you can set for 1 minute later, 10 mins later, 30 mins later, or an hour later without have to dink with selecting a time or even knowing what time it is now - I just select how many minutes later I want it to go off.
• I can add multiple phone numbers and email for each contact and distinguish between them. If I want to text my friend, John, but his home number comes up first, I’ll tell me that number cannot receive texts and ask if I want to continue, so then I can say no and simply hit the left or right arrow to scroll through the numbers I have for him to get the right one.
• It came with a mini-SD card and an SD card adapter so I can just pop the mini out of the phone and into the adapter and plug it into my computer to download my pictures - just like a regular camera. All without having to plug in my phone. Groovy! And… you can add more memory. It supports up to a 12gb SD card.
• It’s got voice-activated dialing, though I admit I haven’t tried it yet. It’s on my list of things to do, though! Could be very useful in an emergency and much safer while driving since you can’t really be caught holding a phone anymore.
• It supports up to 3G speeds where available.
• And… the cord is the neatest I’ve seen so far. The charging cord comes apart in 2 pieces. The USB cord, plugs right into a regular male plug you’d plug into the wall - this is for charging. If you want to use your phone as modem or otherwise connect phone to computer, you snap off the electrical plug and plug it into your computer.

To be honest there is one noticeable downside to the LG Lotus. The full QWERTY keyboard is very tight. The buttons are raised “pillows” so that you don’t have to have your finger on the whole button or you can use your thumbnails like I do, but it’s a pain. Even after having the phone 3 or 4 months now, I’m still not as fast at typing on it as I was on the BB. The BB Pearl has 2 letters on each key and it has sure-type software which mostly accurately guesses what you are typing. You don’t need that with the Lotus since each letter has it’s own key (you press the function key to type numbers and punctuation), so you’d think it would be faster, right? But sadly… no. The small keyboard is kind of hobbling and that reduces thumb-typing speed. I imagine it would be hellish if I had fake nails, but I can’t confirm since I haven’t had the luxury of fake nails in awhile.

Would the cramped keyboard keep me from purchasing an LG Lotus again? No way. Do regret my purchase because of it? No way! It’s just inconvenient is all and text messaging is not as quick and enjoyable as it once was. Now, I kind of groan when I have to text and I avoid responding to email via the phone, tho I will read it.

So there you have it. There are many, many pluses to using the LG Lotus and just one tiny drawback. Virtually every cell phone or smart phone out there has at least one drawback, so don’t let it stop you from owning this classy, pretty phone. The LG Lotus is just like a woman… pretty AND smart!

I do recommend getting one of those clear covers for it, though. The case doesn’t really scratch easily but the outside screen as well as the inside screen both show fingerprints like crazy.

NEWSFLASH! The LG Lotus now comes in a red, but they change the raised pattern. The red is a “tattooed paisley”. That raised design doesn’t grab me as much as the raised design on the purple does, but it’s bound to appeal to a lot of other people. Beautiful! Want one yet? You know you do!

Oh, and if the guys don’t like the raised designs or the colors, they can still play too. The LG Lotus is available in a slick, shiny black!

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