Lg Flip Phone Verizon Views
The wide and flat clamshell design of the LG VX8600 does not really lend itself to the Chocolate moniker, unlike that of the original slider versions (the VX8500 and the KG800) that resemble (albeit vaguely) the size and shape of dark chocolate candy bars. It measures 3.89 by 1.93 by 0.58 inches, making it wider and fatter than the VX8500 Chocolate. However, it still retains the Chocolate's trademark glossy black finish, and it remains quite slim as flip phones go. We think it's very elegant and sexy, rivaling that of the Motorola Krzr K1 in style and design. The one downside to such a glossy finish is that the phone is extremely prone to fingerprint smudges--it was unavoidable. The phone's lightweight 3.26 ounces felt really nice in the hand, and we thought it felt pretty comfortable when held next to our ear. Opening the phone was pretty easy; just one push of the thumb would do it, though closing it is more of a two-handed operation.
Flip open the phone and you'll find a beautiful 2.2-inch, 262,000-color, TFT (thin film transistor) display that is as gorgeous as the screen on the previous Chocolate handsets. Graphics appeared rich and detailed, and images were saturated with color. You can alter the settings of the backlight timer and the clock format, as well as the size of the dialing font. We were a little disappointed that you couldn't alter its brightness or contrast, but seeing as how brilliantly sharp the display was, we'll let that one slide. Verizon offers a few different menu styles to choose from, so you're not stuck with the tedious Verizon Wireless interface. We especially liked the Arch theme that arranges all the menu shortcuts into a wheel-like design.
As with the VX8500, the VX8600 supports V Cast Music and V Cast Video. With V Cast Music, the same restrictions and costs apply--songs downloaded to your PC are 99 cents, while songs downloaded to both your PC and your phone are $1.99 each. Alternatively, you can import your existing music collection from your PC using Verizon's Music Essentials kit, which costs an additional $30. The music player supports both WMA and MP3 files, and music player settings include the ability to create playlists as well as a shuffle mode. Even though we liked the music player's basic interface, it was marred by the touch-sensitive controls we mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, the VX8600 doesn't come with a pair of earbuds, only a headset adapter for you to use your own. On the flip side, V Cast Video gives you access to a wide range of on-demand mobile video content, from music videos to short clips of popular TV shows. You can read more about it in our review of the V Cast service.
We tested the dual-band dual-mode (CDMA 800/1900; EV-DO) LG VX8600 Chocolate in San Francisco using Verizon's service. Call quality was excellent, and callers couldn't even tell we were on a cell phone. Speakerphone quality was pretty good as well. We were quite impressed with the download speed of the phone, thanks to the EV-DO coverage. Downloading a song took less than a minute and Web pages loaded in a few seconds. However, we had mixed performance issues when watching streaming video on V Cast. Some of the videos seemed pixilated, and we experienced a few buffering issues.
Lg Flip Phone Verizon Images
