verizon lg chocolate review
A few weeks ago my trusty Nokia 6235i started acting up. The headphone and mic started being flakey forcing me to use the speaker-phone all the time. After a week of this, I got completely fed up and went to find a new phone.
Unfortunately Verizon has a completely crap lineup of phones in my opinion. They do have some decent phones, but nothing really sparks my interest or catches my eye. I don’t get excited about all the cool features that everyone is trying to cram into new phones these days. MP3 players, 3MP cameras, Internet access… none of it makes me want a phone. I feel that all these features are currently better left to their Ipod, Cannon, or laptop rivals.
So since all the new features don’t give me boners, I’m left looking for a phone that is just a phone. I just want a phone that works and looks good. So I ended up with the LG Chocolate. It’s a nice simple yet cool looking slider phone. While closed the face is almost completely black and smooth. Once it slides open (which it does in a very nice fashion) the face lights up with a nice large screen and touch sensitive buttons. It is a VERY nice looking and feeling phone.
Not only does it look nice, but it also functions well as a phone. Good reception, decent battery life, and comfortable to use.
It’s not all good though, there are several areas that make this phone far from perfect. The first problem lies in the touch sensitive buttons on the face of the phone. The fact that they are touch sensitive means there is no mechanical feedback while using them. There’s no *click* noise that you usually get from normal buttons. This doesn’t immediately present a problem, but when you combine it with a sometimes slow interface you end up wondering if you really hit a button or if the interface is just lagging.
The dark clean face of the phone looks great, and allows the screen and face buttons to disappear when you close the slider. But when you’re trying to use the phone in the direct sunlight, the dark tinted face makes the screen almost impossible to read.
The phone also lacks a speaker phone… WTF were they thinking?
The slow interface and lack of feedback on the touch button is what bothers me the most. I would completely love this phone if they had done something as simple as changing the color of the buttons as they are touched. For a Verizon phone, I’m happy with the Chocolate for now. Hopefully this is a sign that Verizon will start releasing more cool looking phones in the future.
