I've been sent one of these by 3 as an (unwanted) upgrade. I was going to send it straight back, but I'm losing the will to live talking to their call centre (I've tried 3 times now). Is it any cop in terms of having a decent camera and music player? Are the browser and GPS at all useful? I had a Viewty previously and the touchscreen was a bit rubbish as was the reception; I struggled to get a signal in places where my current basic Nokia is fine. Should I ditch it and get a HTC Hero? Any comments gratefully received.

i've had a renoir for about 6 months now and I'm pretty impressed with it so far. The camera is top notch, as is the music player, to the extent that I've ditched my mp3 player. The gps is very accurate and the browser is no better or worse than most I've used. The touch screen is very good (usually I hate them) and the only downside is that it gets smeary quite easily. Hasn't locked up or crashed once.

Best phone i've ever had but I'm not an expert on mobiles.

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/tell-me-about-the-lg-arena

Arena, Renoir, and GC900 are essentially the same

i like mine, the wireless browsing is handy, camera is fantastic, and the touchscreen is better than the viewty.

the only annoyance is the auto key lock business, the unlock button isnt as good as the one on the viewty, and it autolocks after everything you do, and very quickly (yes you can adjust this, but not by much).

Can't comment on the LG, but having had a HTC Hero (Vodafone) for 3-4 weeks I wouldn't switch to anything else. By far the coolest and most practical/fun phone/gadget I've used. It's more of a "lifestyle" phone than just being an everyday phone – so it depends on what you're looking for.

SM

I had one for a while but gave it back as felt with the plastic but I think now it's black instead of grey it looks so much better.

Music player is ok but the camera is really good.

I felt it too big for me to carry on rides and I hate fixed menus from mobile companies.

I went for the Sony C905 just for its compactness.

I found the touch screen annoying but hopefully it's new firmware has fixed the bugs.