LG Decoy

At first glance, the Decoy looks like one of the glossiest phones we've ever seen. Indeed, its entire front surface positively gleams with a reflective mirror finish, right down to the navigation keys and the steel tinged joystick toggle. Measuring 4.01 inches high by 1.97 inches wide by 0.67 inch thick, the Decoy is not a very compact phone, but it has a nice enough size to accommodate its large 2.2 inch display.

It does weigh about 4.05 ounces, which makes it feel very solid in the hand. Though we can appreciate the glittery appeal of such a shiny surface, we found that it is very fingerprint prone, and that it's difficult to see the display especially on a bright and sunny day. The LG Decoy has a very shiny reflective surface. As we mentioned, the Decoy has a generous 2.2 inch 262,000 color display front and center on the phone.

It's bright, vivid, and shows off the colorful menu interface very well. You can adjust the font size as well as the backlight time, but not the brightness or contrast. Thankfully, you're not subject to Verizon's clunky old menu interface the Decoy offers tab, list, and grid menu interface options so you can arrange it how you like. Underneath the display is the navigation array, which consists of two soft keys, a center joystick, a dedicated speaker phone key, and a Clear key.

On standby mode, the center joystick also leads to three user defined shortcuts (to the bottom, left, and top). If you toggle it to the right, it will lead you to a My Shortcuts folder, which can also be customized to your liking.

Though we found the keys to be quite slippery, they had enough definition that they were still easy to find and press. We also found the joystick toggle to be very responsive.

We could be quite gentle in pushing it around, as it is sensitive to even the slightest of gestures.

You slide open the phone by pushing the bottom lip of the front surface up. That will reveal the full alphanumeric keypad, as well as the Send, voice command, and End or Power keys at the very top.

These topmost keys were the hardest to get to, since they're positioned right up against the bottom of the slider. Otherwise, we found the keypad to be very pleasant to use. Unlike most slider keypads which are flat, the Decoy has keys with curved textured bumps that we could easily find by feel.

The volume rocker and charger jack is on the left spine, while the microSD card slot and dedicated camera key are on the right. The LG Decoy has a built in Bluetooth headset on its back, as well as a camera lens and a self portrait mirror. But the most important aspect of the Decoy lies on its back. When you turn the Decoy around, you will see a rectangular bump jutting out from the top part of the phone.

This is actually a built in Bluetooth headset, stowed away in a custom built dock. Press down on a tiny latch at the top, and the headset will pop out. The headset itself is incredibly slim and flat, measuring 1.6 inches long by 0.8 inch wide by 0.2 inch deep, and weighs less than an ounce. It has a multifunction button on the front, which also houses an LED indicator light, and the volume rocker sits on the right spine. On the back is a simple springy ear piece that actually fits quite comfortably in the ear, resting just outside the ear canal.