I bought two LG Shines in November of last year after getting a great deal off Ebay for a pair. You could say I got suckered into purchasing the phones due to their sleek style and general aesthetic appeal. What I didn’t know was that the Shine lacked most of the qualities my Motorola SLVR L7 had which I loved so much.

As always, I like to start with the Pros. The phone is lightweight, thin, yet still noticeable, which is something I like when I put my phone into my pocket. Obviously from a artistic standpoint the Shine looks outstanding with its huge LCD screen that doubles as a vanity mirror. The wallpaper in both full image and landscape are really good quality, and I love how well it looks at night.

Although in appearance the Shine may look quite fragile, this phone is actually pretty durable. I’ve dropped my phone on several occasions, yet I’ve yet to have any problems with making phone calls.

The phone is also amazing during the evening. Its screen is crystal clear and makes it very easy to use, and the digital number display is an awesome feature which is quite handy when dialing in the dark. I’m also pretty fond of the scrolling navigation, however the button seems a bit sensitive and if pressed down even slightly and may ultimately send you barreling down the wrong direction.

Now for its cons. The first thing that comes to mind is its absolutely horrible ringer volume. I love my mp3 ringtones and this phone just doesn’t cut it in the volume department. I would literally place it to max “outdoor” volume and would still find myself missing calls in fairly quiet areas. When out with friends, I’d have to leave my phone in plain sight so I could see if I was receiving a call or not. The vibration mode is not much better either. Its weak compared to other models I’ve owned in the past, and many times I missed calls in vibrate mode as well.

Although durable in a sense, this phone scratches and leaves fingerprints which would make a CSI blush. I’d find myself walking down the mall with my phone in hand polishing my phone with the bottom of my shirt. This became a pretty bad habit for me, and I’d actually find it quite amusing. I understand that phones are never free from blemishes, but this phone definitely takes the cake in the “fingerprint” department.

Finally, the texting isn’t too hot on this phone. Its pretty tedious to text messages and I’d get frustrated and abort my message before it had ever been sent. The battery life is pretty abysmal as well, and lately I’ve had to charge my phone nightly even if my talk time was limited during the day. With such a great mirror on the phone, its very hard to navigate on its screen in the daylight hours, so if you need to look up information on your phone, you will literally need to find a shaded area to get a good look.

Overall, this phone is definitely a prime example of design over functionality. Yes it looks great coming out of my pocket and on the counter at a bar, but it lacks even the most basic functions that all phones require. A good ringer to enable its user to receive calls, and a great set of buttons to make texting and dialing numbers a convenience rather than a chore. With the number of new phones and technology hitting the market today, I suggest you just skip on this one. I wish I had.

[review pros="easy to navigate, nice sleek design, big lcd screen, microSD memory slot, takes decent photos, solid contruction (I've dropped this phone several times without problems)" cons="The ringer volume is horrible even on max volume and the vibration of this phone is weak so you won't get calls that way either, it scratches and gets fingerprinted very easily, the buttons for texting are quite small, you can't customize your SMS ringtone, battery life isn't too great, the mp3 player volume is very bad, screen visibility in the sunlight is bad" score=50]