LG VX8500 Chocolate Review

Introduction:

The LG VX8500 “Chocolate” is one of the latest and most advertised music phones to be released by Verizon Wireless this year.  The Chocolate is unique because it is a slider style phone, which incorporates a MP3 Player, MicroSD slot, Bluetooth, and a 1.3MP Camera.  When looking at the phone for the first time, it looks very similar to an iPod or other MP3 player.  This is because of its sleek looks, large display, and keypad.  Sliding open the phone will reveal the numeric keypad.  The handset's retail package includes the VX8500 Chocolate Phone, 800mAh Battery, Wall Charger, Headset Adapter, and User Manual.

Design:

The Chocolate is very compact and lightweight.  It measures 3.80”H x 1.88”W x 0.69”D with a weight of 3.53oz.  Due to the small design, internal antenna and weight, it fits well in the hand and is almost unnoticeable when in your pocket.  The shell of the phone is constructed out of shiny black plastic, which is very slippery and shows a lot of fingerprints.  A better choice for the casing would be matte black plastic to eliminate the fingerprints.  We found ourselves having to keep wiping the phone with a cloth to cut-down on the fingerprint problem.  The shiny plastic also gives the Chocolate more of a “Toy” look than being a high-end device.

Construction quality!

The front of the Chocolate is designed very well.  Located on the top is the 320x240 pixel QVGA 262K Color TFT Display, which is one of the best features of the phone.  It has a nice size and displays text and images with good quality, as well as showing icons for the Signal Strength (1x/EVDO, or Digital), Bluetooth, GPS, Battery Level, Current Date & Time, and any Missed Alerts (Voicemail, Txt/Pix/Flix Messages).  Most other phones only have a 176 x 220 Pixel display, which causes text and images to have jagged edges, but this is not the case with the Chocolate.  The only other phone Verizon has on the market with a 320x240 display is the Samsung A990.  We hope that Verizon will continue this trend of incorporating QVGA Displays in their upcoming phones.  Even though the Chocolate has a high quality display, it is still hard to see in direct sunlight, but this is a problem with all cell phones, no matter how good they are.



Just below the display is the 5-way circular touch-sensitive control pad.  It's used to access the Menu functions of the phone, and also when utilizing the built-in MP3 Player.  To the left is the Send (which looks like a phone icon) and Messages button.  To the right is the Clear/Go-Back (which looks like a sideways U) and Contacts button.  All of these are touch sensitive, which means that the button does not have to be pressed in.  A very small electric charge is interrupted when your finger is placed on one of the buttons.  The left side of the phone is where the Volume Up/Down, Voice Command buttons, and Charger/Data port are located.  The right side of the phone is where the MicroSD Card slot and Camera, Music, and End/Power buttons are.  The back of the phone houses the mono-speaker and the battery.  Sliding the phone up will reveal the 1.3MP Camera on the back of the display.

The Chocolate is the first phone for Verizon to use touch-sensitive buttons.  They have an eye-catching red backlight, but are extremely sensitive, even when the sensitivity level is turned down to the lowest setting.  Because of this, we found ourselves having to be careful where we placed our fingers; otherwise we might press one by mistake.  The touch-sensitive buttons are a nice idea, but are yet to be made perfect.



When the phone is slid open, the Numeric Keypad is located at the bottom.  The buttons have white backlit, but are also very small and slippery.  When dialing a number or sending a TXT message, it is very easy to unintentionally press the wrong button due to their small size.  This may be a problem for people who send a lot of TXT Messages.

Interface:

One nice aspect about the Chocolate is the new User Interface that it features, which has two FlashUI Themes called “Rock'n Roll” and “Jazz”.  The Rock'n Roll theme is selected as default, which shows the menu in a circular fashion and is red-colored.  We decided to change to the Jazz theme because of its Blue color.  Both themes operate with good speed and are very responsive.  Despite the two new themes, the phone still has the older Verizon Standardized UI themes that you can use.  A new option is that you can select six different color choices for the top and bottom bars (Red, Blue, Orange, Green, Silver, and Black).  We were glad to see that Verizon is now offering more choices for their menus, but only the LG VX8300 and Chocolate have the new FlashUI menu system.

Phonebook:

Adding a person to your Contacts is very easy to do.  With each contact you can enter the Name, Mobile 1 number, Home number, Work number, E-Mail 1, Group, Picture ID, CallerID Ringtone, TXT Message alert tone, Mobile 2, Fax, and E-Mail 2.  With Ringer ID and Picture ID you can assign a specific ringtone and/or picture to each of your contacts.  When this person calls, the Chocolate will play the ringtone that is assigned to them and display the picture.  Once contacts are added, you can then assign them to speed dial and groups.  The Chocolate allows a total of 500 contacts and 98 assigned speed dials.



Voice dialing is speaker independent and works by pressing the Voice Command button on the left side on the phone.  You can say “Call Work”, and the number stored in the contacts list under “Work” will be dialed.  If you just say “Call”, the phone will ask you for the number.  You then speak the digits for it to dial.  The Voice Command calling feature works a majority of the time without any problems.  The Digit Dialing is a useful feature when driving and can be used with handsfree earbuds or Bluetooth earpiece.  Other functions of the VoiceCommand allow you to send a message, go to a specific menu, and check the phone's status.



Organizer:

An easy way of keeping track of appointments is by using the built-in Calendar.  After a task is added in the Calendar, the phone will alert you with an audible tone and display the information on the screen.  There are three standard alarms and one music alarm that can be programmed separate from the Calendar.  You can choose the date, time, ringtone, and how often (Once, Daily, Mon-Fri, and Weekends).  The music alarm is different because it will play a MP3 song. 



Everything that is downloaded from Verizon, such as ringtones, music, wallpapers, TXT/PIX Messages, and Get it Now applications are all stored in the phone's 68MB of internal memory.  The Chocolate comes with a MicroSD slot which will allow you to install a MicroSD card for additional memory.  We recommend going with a card with the largest amount of memory, because any pictures that you take with the phone, and all MP3 music files that you transfer from your computer will be stored on the memory card.

Messaging:

The Chocolate is not only capable of sending and receiving text messages, but also pictures and video.  Text messages are created by using T9 input, but since the keys are small and slippery, we made several T9 errors that had to be corrected.  Sending a picture or video message works in the same way as a text message except for the fact that you can attach a picture or video from either the phone's internal memory or from the MicroSD card.  Picture and video messages can be sent to other capable Verizon phones or to any E-Mail address. 
The Chocolate also comes with a Mobile Instant Messaging application that works with AIM, MSN, and Yahoo.  We were able to use it with AOL IM (AIM) without any problems.  It woks in a similar fashion as sending a text message, except it goes to people you select on your Buddy List.  When they send you a message, it will be displayed on the phone's screen.

Connectivity:

Bluetooth has become an everyday tool for cell phones and it is nice to see that it is built into the Chocolate, even though Verizon has limited the Bluetooth functionality.  The Chocolate only supports Wireless Headset, Handsfree, Stereo Audio (A2DP), Serial Port, and Dial up Networking.  Not all OBEX profiles are supported.  We feel that Verizon should not block any Bluetooth profiles in their phones.
For a complete list of BT Profiles, please see the Verizon Bluetooth web page: http://support.vzw.com/pdf/BT_Chart_Handsets.pdf
When using the Chocolate with a Bluetooth earpiece, it will integrate with the Voice Command feature to allow voice dialing.  Another nice feature is using a Bluetooth Stereo A2DP headset, which will allow you to listen wirelessly to MP3 audio files using the Music Player.  The Chocolate supports Bluetooth version 1.1 and allows up to 20 pairings, despite phones from other carriers now use Bluetooth version 2.0.



Internet:

The Chocolate has a standard WAP 2.0 browser that will allow you access to Verizon's Mobile Web site where there is a lot of useful information (News, Weather, E-Mail, Sports, Entertainment, Shopping, and Account Services).  WAP sites load fast thanks to Verizon's EVDO coverage, but in a non-EVDO area the phone will use the slower 1x network.  The Verizon Mobile Web page will load in 5 seconds when using EVDO.  Normal HTTP sites will take longer depending on content.  Overall, the Chocolate's WAP browser is easy to use and works well, despite its limited capability with HTTP sites.  Mobile Web is available for $5 a month or is included in the $15/month V Cast service.



Music can be downloaded from Verizon's V Cast Music Store.  You can select “What's New” and “What's Hot”, or browse by Genre, Artist, Album, and Song.  The easiest way to find what you are looking for is to use the Search feature.  You can listen to a free 20 second preview of each song before purchasing it at a cost $1.99 to download.  The song can be saved to the phone's internal memory or to the MicroSD card.  A 5MB song only took 40 seconds to download when in an EVDO area

Camera:

The Chocolate continues the tradition of incorporating a 1.3MP CMOS Sensor Camera built into the phone.  In order to use it, you must first slide the phone open because it is located on the back on the Display.  Then press the button with the camera icon on the right side of the phone.  There are several different choices in the Options menu.  Resolution allows you to change between 1280x960, 640x480, 320x240, 176x144, and 160x144 - we recommend using the highest setting of 1280x960, despite the fact that the digital zoom does not work in this resolution.  The Self-Timer cen be set to 3, 5 or 10 seconds, Brightness ranges from -9 to +9, while White Balance has five preset modes - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Tungsten, and Fluorescent.  The Auto setting worked well except when taking outdoor pictures during the day.  The White Balance seemed to have a problem in Auto and would make the image appear to have a lot of “blue tinting”.  Because of this problem, we had to manually change the White Balance to Sunny when taking pictures out-side during the day.  Most phones do seem to have a problem when it comes to the White Balance being set to Auto and being used ourdoors.  Hopefully Verizon will address this problem in a software upgrade.

You have four choices for the Shutter Sound and they are Shutter, Silent, Say Cheese, and Ready 123, whereas the Color Effects are standard ones - Normal, Sepia, Black & White, Negative, and Solari.  Night Mode can be turned On and Off, which slows down the shutter speed to allow more light to enter in the shutter when taking pictures in darker environments.

We were surprised to see that there was no flash on the Chocolate.  Almost all camera phones sold have a LED Flash.  There is no reason why a Flash should not be included in the handset.  Because of this, the camera is useless except for usage in areas where there is a decent amount of light.  Since the Chocolate is designed more as a Music Phone, not a Camera Phone, it is not surprising that the camera is only a 1.3MP CMOS and there aren't as many Camera Options as on the Samsung A990.

Since there is no Auto-Focus, there is no lag time when taking pictures.  Once a picture is taken, you must choose to Save it, Erase it, or Send it, because the phone will not auto save pictures.  The total amount of time to take a picture and save it is 4 seconds, which can be saved to the phone's internal memory, or to a Micro SD card.

Outdoor pictures had a blue tint to them because the Auto White Balance setting was having problems.  Once we changed the White Balance to Sunny, the problem was fixed.  When using the Sunny option, the outdoor pictures had nice color, but lacked detail.  This is because of the low quality 1.3MP CMOS sensor that is used.  Indoor pictures taken under incandescent light were grainy and also had little detail.  Because of these issues, and lack of a flash, we do not feel that the camera on the Chocolate is worth using except for taking quick pics.  A CCD Sensor, like on the VX8000, and a Flash would make the camera more useable.

The Camcorder mode allows you to record and save videos, with a resolution of 176x144, to the internal memory or to the MicroSD card.  One nice thing about using the MicroSD card is that videos can be recorded for as long as there is available memory.  But in order to send videos as Flix Messages, you should limit it to a maximum of 15 seconds.  When playing back the recorded videos on a computer, the image quality is poor, colors are blotchy, and the sound quality is very bad.  Even though you can record long videos with this phone, it is pointless since the quality is so bad.

Multimedia:

The Chocolate can play MP3 and WMA music files that are stored on a MicroSD card.  First you must purchase a MicroSD memory card and USB Card Reader.  Place the MicroSD card in the phone and go to Menu, Settings & Tools, Memory, Card Memory, Options, and Format.  Once this is done, connect the USB reader to the computer and insert the memory card into it.  On the computer, you will see the MicroSD card listed.  Then simply Copy and Paste your MP3 files to the My_Music folder on the MicroSD card.  After the files are transferred, remove the MicroSD card from the USB Reader, insert it back into the phone and press the Music Button on the right side.  The other option of getting MP3 files onto the phone from a computer is by purchasing Verizon's Music Essentials Kit.  Included in the kit is a USB data cable that will connect the phone directly to the computer, Software to enable transferring MP3 files, and a set of 2.5mm Stereo Earbuds.

The circular keypad is used to change between Playlists, Artists, Genres, Albums, and All Songs.  There are two Themes for the Music Player: Rock'n Roll and Jazz.



When you select a song and click OK, it will start playing, and the Display will show the Song Title, Artist, Time Remaining, and Volume.  Pressing and holding the left and right arrow buttons will Fast-Forward or Rewind the current song.  If you press and release, it will skip to the next song.  While the song is playing, you can click on the Clear button (sideways U) and it will exit the music player screen, but the song will still be played.  You can then use other features, such as sending a TXT Message, while listening to the song.  Overall we were very happy with the quality of the Music Player and didn't have any problems.  Music playback is loud, but gets distorted if turned up too high.  We were disappointed because there is only one mono-speaker on the phone.  There should have been Stereo speakers (like on the VX8300 and A990) because this would have greatly improved the sound quality.  We recommend using 2.5mm Stereo earbuds, but you must use the included adapter.  The other option would be to spend money on a Bluetooth Stereo headset to allow music listening without wires.  It is unfortunate that LG does not have Stereo Speakers built into the Chocolate since Verizon is advertising it as their “Music Phone".



Like all other Verizon phones, the Chocolate uses Qualcomm's BREW format for applications.  There are no preloaded games on the phone.  They must be downloaded from Get it Now, and range from Action, Sports, TV/Movie, Classic, Puzzle, Casino, Strategy, and 3D V Cast.  Most cost under $3 per month or $10 for unlimited use.

Verizon also offers V Cast service for $15 per month (unlimited Mobile Web is also included).  V Cast has pre-recorded video clips, updated daily, that you can play on the Chocolate.  The main categories are News, Sports, Entertainment, and Weather.  The resolution of the video clips is 176x240 and the quality is somewhat lacking.  V Cast provides a useful service when on-the-go and you need to access this information.  It does not compare to Sprint's new Media Service which has access to live TV broadcasts, since V Cast videos are all prerecorded.  In 2007 Verizon plans to launch their MediaFLO network, which will allow users to view live TV broadcasts.  However, since MediaFLO is not released, it is unclear if current Verizon phones will be able to access this service. 

Navigator:

VZ Navigator is a new service available from Verizon.  The program uses the GPS locator in the Chocolate to give you turn-by-turn directions by simply entering in an address, and the application will tell you where you are and how to get to the destination.  If you do not know the address, you can also enter in the Street Intersection or Airport.  When used while driving, the screen shows you the next turn and street, while a voice will tell you what to do.  If you happen to miss a turn, the application will then recalculate the map and tell you how to get to the destination.  I used this program in Southeast Florida and when traveling to Kissimmee.  It is very useful when in an area that you are unfamiliar with.  The directions on the screen are easy to follow, but the best part is having the voice guide you.  You can download a free month trial of VZ Navigator on the Chocolate, but after that it is $10/month.  Airtime is also used when downloading maps and directions.  When used in a car, I highly recommend using a car-charger to power the phone.  It took 3 hours to drive from Ft Lauderdale to Kissimmee and the battery was almost empty after sing the Navigation.

Update: LG Chocolate gets Speakerphone!

Performance:

Even with all the advantages of the Chocolate, and the impressive built-in MP3 player, the most important feature of any phone is the voice and call quality. Despite the phone having an internal antenna, the call quality of the Chocolate was good and on par with other LG phones that have an external antenna (such as the VX8300). This proves, once again, that it is possible to manufacture a phone that has good call quality without the antenna sticking out on top. While using the Chocolate and talking to a person using a land-line, their voice quality was quite good. When reversed, the person on the land-line said that they could tell a cell phone was being used, but it was still good quality. The speaker volume is loud and a setting of Medium or Medium-High was loud enough to hear in most environments. When used in fringe areas, the Chocolate had difficulties trying to place and receive calls. Since the Chocolate is a Digital only phone, it will not work in Analog only service areas. When comparing the call quality of the Chocolate to the A990, the Samsung is the definite winner, due to it being able to place calls in fringe areas, where the VX8500 could not.

One huge disappointment about the Chocolate is the lack of a Speakerphone. It is unimaginable that this phone does not have one since most phones do. The speaker on the back could work as a Speakerphone if the option was built into the software. We strongly suggest that Verizon should have this function implemented in the next Software Upgrade because there are many people that would use it. Since the Chocolate currently does not have a speakerphone, it is a serious feature-loss that may prevent people from buying it.

We were overall happy with the performance of the Chocolate. Call quality is good and the earpiece speaker is clear and loud. The Chocolate uses the new FlashUI menus that allow more choices than the Standard Verizon UI. When using the included 800mAh standard battery, battery life is rated at 3.5Hr Talk Time or 16 Days Standby Time. We got 2.5Hr of Talk Time or 3 Days of Standby Time. Since the Display on the Chocolate has more pixels, it requires more battery power than most other phones. LG and Verizon advertise this phone as getting 16 days of Standby time when using the included battery, but there was no way which we could find to accomplish this. Most cell phone manufactures will over rate their battery life, but 16 days of standby on an 800mAh battery is beyond believable. We feel that the 800mAh battery is not powerful enough for this phone and the included battery should have been at least 1100mAh.

Conclusion:

It is our opinion that the LG VX8500 Chocolate is a nice quality phone that is designed and targeted at younger users in their teens to mid 20's that are not looking to spend a lot of money. If you have the cash, the Samsung A990 or LG VX8300 is a much better choice. The Chocolate is well constructed, but the shiny black plastic is a magnate for fingerprints, and gives the phone more of a “toy” look, than a high-quality device. If the phone were made from matte black plastic, it would look less like a toy and not have a problem with fingerprints. The Chocolate fits comfortably in the hand and is only slightly noticeable when in a pocket, thanks to the slim design and internal antenna. The 1.3MP Camera provides decent pictures when you need to grab a quick pic, but it is not as good as other phones in this price-point. The QVGA Display is excellent quality and is a pleasure to look at. New FlashUI Menus are a welcome change from the sterile standardized VerizonUI, and the touch-sensitive buttons are a nice idea, but not in practice because they are over sensitive. Voice Commands are very convenient when driving and when using a Bluetooth hands-free device. The Music Player works well and songs sound good, but it would sound better if the phone had built in Stereo Speakers. It is most unfortunate that the Chocolate does not have a built in Speakerphone. This is a major feature that is missing from this phone. Mobile Web and V Cast will keep you up-to-date with the latest news, weather, and entertainment information; while VZ Navigator will help in getting you where you need to go.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

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