The Good: The Voyager also known as the VX10000, is one of LG’s first touch screen phones to target the US and includes a more iPhone-like interface based on that of the Prada phone; users can place calls, play AAC/MP3/WMA music, and take 2-megapixel photos almost exclusively from the screen. It offers a generous features set that includes EV-DO support, V Cast Mobile TV Bluetooth, a top-notch Web browser, and an integrated GPS application. And if that’s not enough, its call quality was excellent.
The Bad: The LG Voyager VX10000’s camera lacks such extra options as a flash and Wi-Fi, and its photo quality was below par. The touch screen can be clunky at times, and the streaming video quality and EV-DO connection speed were sporadic.
The Bottom Line: Though we had some minor complaints here and there, the Voyager’s sleek design, generous feature set and excellent performance make it the best LG messaging and multimedia phone by far. What we like most about this phone is the improvements LG has made to the Verizon Wireless interface. Verizon Wireless believes, that users like to learn an interface and then find it useful on the next phone they buy. We don’t buy it. Phones are improving too fast, with too many new features every season, and users want a phone that makes sense. Maybe it made sense to bury the touted HTML browser under the “Get It Now: News and Info” submenu in the past, but now, that’s the last place we’d look.
The Good: The Samsung SGH-T719 is a flip-style quad-band camera phone featuring the popular Blackberry Push technology, allowing for the real-time delivery of e-mail to the device. It sports a 1.3 megapixel camera, both internal and external displays and a long talk time. Other useful features include Bluetooth, a large internal memory which stores up to 1000 contacts and MP3 ring tone support. The handset is slim and compact and fits easily into a pocket or purse.
The Bad: The external display only displays in monochrome and cannot be used as a viewfinder. The included SureType keyboard is difficult to get used to and becomes frustrating after a time. Also, the earpiece and speakerphone volume sounds low and muffled even when set to maximum. Also, despite having a camera, photo Caller ID is not supported.
The Bottom Line: The Blackberry Push technology undoubtedly gives this handset appeal, but otherwise it’s fairly mediocre. However the difficult keyboard and low volumes may cause buyers to think twice before purchasing.
The Good: This is a basic camera flip phone which boasts a VGA camera, Bluetooth and a WiFi receiver for connecting to wireless networks. It looks attractive with a brushed aluminium finish and has a keypad which is spacious and easy to use when dialling by feel. The phone has a variety of personalization options and expandable memory via a Micro-SD card.
The Bad: Although the phone has both an internal and external display, both are very small (less than 2 inches diagonally) leaving items on screen looking cramped and hard to read. Also the external display cannot be used for photographic Caller ID. The VGA camera provides lackluster picture quality.
The Bottom Line: This is an adequate phone for first-time buyers but what does give it great appeal is the inclusion of wireless connectivity, allowing the making of low cost VoIP calls and web surfing on pre-configured wireless networks. However those wanting something with a little more ‘jazz’ may wish to look elsewhere.
