LG Dare Review

Interface:

The Dare’s User Interface is optimized for use with the touch-screen and works in similar fashion to the Voyager, but has undergone a significant face-lift. Menus and text are shown larger than average, so that you can easily press on your desired selection. After a few seconds of inactivity, the screen will automatically lock to prevent any buttons from being accidentally pressed. You can unlock it by pressing the “lock” icon on the bottom of the display, or the lock button on the left side of the phone. When you touch the screen, the phone will give a haptic vibration feedback and will play an audible tone.

Once the screen is unlocked, there are 5 icons located across the bottom: message inbox, dial pad, main menu, contacts list, and favorites. Located on the right side of the screen is a small arrow that brings up the Shortcuts menu. It shows 11 preselected icons, but the user can replace each one with over 50 choices. The icons can also be moved around the shortcuts menu and dragged directly to the home screen for one-click access. If you no longer want an icon on the home screen, you can then drag it back to the shortcuts arrow.



The main Menu will bring up a screen with icons for contacts, settings & tools, my music, VCast videos, messaging, VZ Navigator, browser, media center, and recent calls. When using the default White Theme, you can move the main menu icons around and place them wherever you want, with a reset button showing on the bottom. However, if you change to the Black Theme, the icons are shown in a 3x3 grid and cannot be moved around. Unfortunately, no other themes are included. The only other customizations that can be made are the fonts, wallpaper, clock format, and charging screen. When you press on one of the main menu icons, it will then open it up and show the available selections. You can then slide you finger from one side of the screen to the other to go to the next menu. If the list is too long for all of it to fit, you can press on the bottom of the screen and flick it up to the top, which will scroll through the list fast, or press and move it slowly.


Phonebook:

Up to 1000 Contacts can be stored, each with their name, mobile 1, home, work, e-mail 1, group, picture, ringtone, mobile 2, fax, and e-mail 2. After a contact is saved, you can assign them to one of 999 speed dial locations. Retrieving a stored contact is done by pressing the phonebook icon located at the bottom of the home screen. This brings all of them up in a list that you can scroll through, or you can press on the letters across the top of the screen to jump directly to contacts beginning with that letter. You can also press the Go To icon on the bottom, and begin to type in the person’s name, with it automatically showing the matching results in the background. When you receive an incoming call, and that person is stored in your list, the screen will show their name and number, as well their Picture ID (if there is one), and will play their specific ringtone (if set). Unfortunately, the Picture ID size has not changed since the Voyager, and is still only about ½” in size. This is completely unacceptable, as it defeats the purpose of having a 3” display.


There is also the option of placing 9 of your most frequently used contacts into your Favorites menu. This is a new and fun way of accessing them since it shows all of their pictures at once. You can then drag a contact’s picture to the message, phone, or info icons at the bottom of the screen. The only downside to this is if a contact has multiple numbers (mobile, home, fax) it will not allow you to choose which one you want to dial and will automatically dial the 1st stored number for that person.

Pressing the Phone icon on the bottom of the home screen will bring up the numeric dial pad. We found that dialing numbers on the Dare is easier and more precise than we experienced with the Voyager and Glyde. When calling a normal area code number, the screen will show icons for accessing the dial pad, speakerphone, contacts, note, message, and Bluetooth, but when calling your voice mail or toll free number, it will keep the dial pad active on the screen, so that you can enter in numbers for automated systems.


Organizer:

Since the Dare is not a smartphone, the Calendar operates in similar fashion as on the Voyager and Glyde. It begins by showing the current month with the date highlighted. You can then move from one month to the next, by moving your finger across the screen, or by selecting the month and year using the drop-down-list or go-to-date fields. There is also the option to view weekly instead of monthly. Once the desired date is selected, you add a new event with the subject, start time, end time, repeat (once, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly), until, alerts, tone, and vibrate. When the phone reaches that saved event, it will display the information on the screen and playback the designated alert tone.

Separate from the calendar are three independent alarms, with each one allowing you to select the set time, repeat (once, daily, mon-fri, weekends), and ringtone. This is an easy way to setup a daily wake-up alarm or notification, if it takes place within 24 hours.

The speaker-independent Voice Commands can be launched by pressing the clear/mic button located on the bottom of the handset. Once activated, there are 8 choices that you can speak to the phone: call name or number, send message to, go to menu, check item, contacts name, play, my Verizon, and help. The most useful of these is the “call” command, where you can speak the digits to dial or the name of a person in your contacts list. The only training that is required are for the digits, not the names or commands. Most other devices that have Voice Commands will work best only while in a quiet environment, but with the Dare, it was able to accurately execute our request while in a car going highway speeds and in a noisy mall. It can also be used in conjunction with a Bluetooth headset, so you can call numbers while you are away from the phone.

There is a total of 268MB of internal memory on the Dare, out of which 121MB is designated for storing music synced from a PC or downloaded from VCast, with the remaining 147MB for everything else (pictures, videos, ringtones, messages, applications). Since most people have more that 121MB of music files, the Dare also supports up to 8GB microSDHC memory cards, which can also be used for storing pictures and videos. With 16GB microSDHC memory cards due out this year, it is uncertain if this device will be able to support them, but it could be possible with a firmware upgrade if there are no hardware limitations.