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LG CU500 Launched for New Cingular 3G Service |
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LG CU500 Launched for New Cingular 3G Service
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Fri Jul 14, 2006 2:34 pm
Cingular Wireless today launched the LG CU500 3G phone to take advantage of its new high-speed wireless network in San Antonio.
The LG CU500 provides fast and easy access to Cingular Video and a variety of other multimedia and messaging capabilities. Offering a full- featured music player, external music keys and optional Bluetooth Stereo headset to make listening to music on the go easy. Customers can also identify an artist's name and song being played on the radio, TV, or at a club with MusicID, Cingular's enhanced music recognition service.
In addition to its entertainment possibilities, the CU500 also includes a 1.3-megapixel camera with rotating lens and video recording. Customers can also stay in touch with the people who matter to them most by using one of the preloaded Instant Messenger clients: AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger.
The LG CU500 was launched as the first HSDPA-capable handset in North America. Additional handsets will be added to its product line, including support for HSDPA, in the coming months.
The Cingular 3G network uses HSDPA/UMTS (High Speed Downlink Packet Access/Universal Mobile Telephone System) technology, allowing customers to more quickly access email, browse the internet, connect to business applications, or watch video clips while on-the-go.
Currently available in 54 communities nearby the major markets of Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Gary (Ind.), Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland (Ore.), Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose (Calif.), Seattle, Tacoma (Wash.) and Washington D.C., Cingular's 3G network will expand to most major markets by the end of 2006.
HSDPA is the high-speed evolution of GSM/EDGE (Global System for Mobile Communication), which shares a common core network and therefore is backward compatible with EDGE/GPRS.
The launch is part of the company's $346 million investment in its Texas network this year, which includes $156 million in the South Texas part of the state, including San Antonio. Over the past three years, Cingular has invested more than $1 billion in its Texas network, integrating and deploying GSM/GPRS/EDGE technology, preparing for its 3G (UMTS) deployment, and improving overall coverage and capacity.
The LG CU500 will debut at select locations and online for $99.99 with a 2-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate.
- LG CU500 Specs
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| 1. Posted by timmyjoe42 |
Fri Jul 14, 2006 4:14 pm |
That phone is my dream phone. It looks pretty sweet, and it has all the specs that I could ever dream.
Too bad I just got a RAZR V3 this week.
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| 2. Posted by booboy |
Fri Jul 14, 2006 10:10 pm |
Finally... Cingular's been talking about HSPDA for the past year now. The CU500 looks to be a killer. Though I still have my eyes on the Samsung A990 on Verizon.
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| 3. Posted by didefresh05 |
Sat Jul 15, 2006 5:13 pm |
Looks like YET another Razr-killer. First the d807, now this phone. Yet I still have my heart out for the d807, weird?
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| 4. Posted by steva11 |
Sat Jul 15, 2006 6:14 pm |
the razr's kinda like kleenex or q-tips. the majority of pople think razr when they think slim phone, but people who know what tehy want, will check others.
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| 5. Posted by bpauld |
Sun Jul 16, 2006 1:27 pm |
Just picked up a cu500. 3g, music player (doesn't come with a memory card)
great form factor all in a flip...love it.
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| 6. Posted by georgiawx |
Sun Jul 16, 2006 6:30 pm |
Also picked a LG CU500 up today. So far,a little unimpressed. Yea, appearance is great or even excellent, but reception is poor compared to my previous phone (Moto V400) and my wifes V557, and there is no voice dialing or pop email...:-/. I can get over that, but I am in a fringe area and need all the reception I can get, so this baby might be going back to the store. Will give it a week to be sure.
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| 7. Posted by steva11 |
Sun Jul 16, 2006 7:21 pm |
Also picked a LG CU500 up today. So far,a little unimpressed. Yea, appearance is great or even excellent, but reception is poor compared to my previous phone (Moto V400) and my wifes V557, and there is no voice dialing or pop email...:-/. I can get over that, but I am in a fringe area and need all the reception I can get, so this baby might be going back to the store. Will give it a week to be sure.
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are you connected to the 3G network? you should beable to try GSM by doing a manual network selection. try this to see if it helps.
From the standby screen, press Menu.
Scroll to and select Settings.
Scroll to and select Connection.
Scroll to and select Network Selection.
Scroll to and select Manual.
NOTE: Default is Automatic for optimal and seamless performance.
The device will search for available networks.
Scroll to and select desired network.
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| 8. Posted by georgiawx |
Sun Jul 16, 2006 10:13 pm |
I am not on a G3 network, my area doesnt have it yet. Supposed to be here in early 2007.
As for your suggestion, it was a good thought, but I only have 3 options under the connection menu, they are:
1. Network profiles
2. USB Connection Mode
3. Diual Up Networking
I thought sure it was Network Profiles, but that only gave me one option, it was called MEdia Net. I also looked around in other menus in hopes to find this connection settings you referred to, but had no luck. I have seen the options before on other phones, but it seems this one doesnt give you the option to change the operating network.
I really like this phone and it does have some great features, I hate that the reception is not that good. right now, its the primary drawback that I see. as I said though,. i am not giving up on it, I will try it the rest of the week and hope that it does what I need connection wise.
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| 9. Posted by phonegeek |
Sun Jul 16, 2006 11:53 pm |
i have the motorola razr and i absolutely hate it, i cant wait until this phone comes out im going to get it right away
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| 10. Posted by steva11 |
Mon Jul 17, 2006 12:09 am |
it's already out.
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| 11. Posted by bolker |
Mon Jul 17, 2006 9:48 am |
Hey all, I'm about to pull the trigger on this phone. It doesn't have POP email software!? Is there any way for me to access my POP email another way? That would kill this phone for me.
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| 12. Posted by gwtx2 |
Mon Jul 17, 2006 4:49 pm |
I've also read it has a nagging problem of asking for network access when using non-Cingular apps, such as Google Maps. This is a turn off for me.
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| 13. Posted by cgbama91 |
Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:28 pm |
Does it come with PC Sync, and if so, do you know if it's easy to use?
I've read where the "Chocolate" line can be bothersome to use PC Sync on. 
Also picked a LG CU500 up today. So far,a little unimpressed. Yea, appearance is great or even excellent, but reception is poor compared to my previous phone (Moto V400) and my wifes V557, and there is no voice dialing or pop email...:-/. I can get over that, but I am in a fringe area and need all the reception I can get, so this baby might be going back to the store. Will give it a week to be sure.
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| 14. Posted by gwtx2 |
Tue Jul 18, 2006 8:59 am |
Hey all, I'm about to pull the trigger on this phone. It doesn't have POP email software!? Is there any way for me to access my POP email another way? That would kill this phone for me.
Yes, access the Internet with WAP or a browser (Opera Mini) and conect that way.
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| 15. Posted by gwtx2 |
Tue Jul 18, 2006 9:00 am |
What happens if one is not near 3G service. Can one still connect to the Internet with GPRS/Edge with this phone?
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| 16. Posted by georgiawx |
Tue Jul 18, 2006 9:03 am |
You can read all about it at the following link. Top right corner there is a link to a PDF file of the user guide.
http://us.lge.com/products/model/detail/mobile%20phones_select%20by%20carrier_cingular_CU500.jhtml
As a side note, this morning I experienced very bad reception, 2 dropped calls on the way to work, out of about 30 minutes total talk time. Yesterday I had one dropped call total, but several places where the signal dropped low enough that I couldnt talk. Last night, at my house, I had no service, I thought the tower was down, got the wifes V557 and everything was good there. Finally, about 5 minutes later I started getting reception again.
This is my first LG phone, so I dont know how it is compared to other LG's, but compared to my previous Moto's and Nokia's the reception seems sub-par.
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| 17. Posted by georgiawx |
Tue Jul 18, 2006 9:04 am |
What happens if one is not near 3G service. Can one still connect to the Internet with GPRS/Edge with this phone?
Yep, it will connect to the internet with Edge for sure, dunno about GPRS though.
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| 18. Posted by cbonn1 |
Tue Jul 18, 2006 10:34 am |
What good is a "music phone" or MP3 player without an external memory card slot. I'm certainly not going to buy music over the air from Cingular. These days, I can't see much benefit in 3G phones that aren't feature rich... true its better for web browsing, etc, but my previous EDGE phone worked just fine for the limited browsing I did. I guess the real benefit to me would be using it as a modem over BT for my laptop. But, that goes out the window if the antenna/reception are poor like the other person said. I'd rather have a SE or Nokia with features, even if it has to be unlocked.
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| 19. Posted by georgiawx |
Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:36 pm |
What good is a "music phone" or MP3 player without an external memory card slot.
It does have a memory card slot. It takes a MicroSD card, granted its not real easilly accessed, as its under the back cover and battery but its not terrbily hard to get to either.
The back cover of the phone contains the battery, so when the cover comes off, so does the battery, leaving the Samrtcard and the MicroSD slot exposed for access.
I might also add that, as far as reception goes, I am in a fringe area, and travel an area not extremely well covered. Not to mention its a mountainous region, with lots of hills and valleys. If you are in an area where coverage is not a problem, and mostly flat then this phone likely would do quite well.
It is a beautiful phone, feels greast in the hand, software is fast though maybe a tad primitive or simple looking). The display is sharp and clear, and large. If it werent for the reception issues, I would not even think of taking it back.
Since I am going to take it back, now I am in the delimma of what phone do I get to replace this one...:-/. I only have one more chance and then I am stuck.
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| 20. Posted by cbonn1 |
Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:56 pm |
 Yes, sorry, my mistake... brain is mush right now... apologies!
Obviously I haven't picked up the phone yet! 
So, while we're on it... has anyone loaded up a card, put it in and been using it as a music player??? Very curious as to how it will work as a iPod replacement.
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| 21. Posted by nkutke262 |
Tue Jul 18, 2006 1:53 pm |
I just looked on Cingular's website and it doesn't look like this is available in my zip code (41011). Is this only going to be out in select markets? If not, does anyone know when it will be available nationwide?
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| 22. Posted by xianman |
Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:45 pm |
I know this is a long shot, but does anyone know if there are any java apps that would bring voice dialing to this phone?
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| 23. Posted by sumta |
Tue Jul 18, 2006 4:24 pm |
I just looked on Cingular's website and it doesn't look like this is available in my zip code (41011). Is this only going to be out in select markets? If not, does anyone know when it will be available nationwide?
It is not available in the 27104 area code either, but I called Cingular.com and they said they could ship it to me. I almost said yes, but I want to make sure that it actually works here before I agree. Too many sleazy phone salespersons in my past.
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| 24. Posted by nkutke262 |
Tue Jul 18, 2006 4:41 pm |
I just looked on Cingular's website and it doesn't look like this is available in my zip code (41011). Is this only going to be out in select markets? If not, does anyone know when it will be available nationwide?
It is not available in the 27104 area code either, but I called Cingular.com and they said they could ship it to me. I almost said yes, but I want to make sure that it actually works here before I agree. Too many sleazy phone salespersons in my past.
If you get it and it works, let me know. I was thinking about this one or the W810i
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| 25. Posted by buggsy |
Wed Sep 06, 2006 1:18 pm |
With all the geewhiz on this phone, it sounded pretty cool when the Cingular guy was trying to sell it to me. Glad I checked this site though---the salesguy didn't get the difference between "POP email" and "really fast internet!" Yeah, I *could* write a browser-based app that checks my email for me and optimizes it for cell phone display... but for the price of this phone, I'm not about to.
POP email is the one and only dealbreaker feature for a phone for me. I don't need cameras, music, ringtones, PDA, Bluetooth, I don't even need a color display. I *have* to be able to get my POP email quickly and easily.
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| 26. Posted by gs_raptor |
Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:29 pm |
I will have to agree on the poorer reception coming from a V551. Not too bad but can defenitly tell a diff.
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| 27. Posted by asdf1234 |
Thu Jan 04, 2007 12:18 pm |
Just got the LG CU500 last week. Was able to get it to work with Motorola Phone Tools. I connect to my laptop via Bluetooth. I have Cingular service. I could not believe how fast the the internet was. It showed the same connection speed as my RAZR did (115.2 Kbps) but when I went to abeltronica and checked my connection speed with their speedometer, it showed a download speed of 496.24 Kbps and a upload speed of 118.88 Kbps. The only complaint I have right now is that I cannot get the mobile explorer to work, so it is difficult to move pics and music between laptop and phone.
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| 28. Posted by Malibu21 |
Fri Jan 05, 2007 6:26 am |
Moto phone tools won't work fully with your LG, because its for Moto phones, however, if you just pop your micro sd card in an adapter then into your computer you can transfer music and pics directly to the card or set the LG to mass storage and drag and drop, not sure if the LG has that option, I know the slvr and similar motos do.
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