great phone with some irritating shortcomings
Written: Jun 22 '03
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Pros: call quality, size&weight, style, ease of use, external LCD, well built
Cons: poor speaker quality, hideous ring tones, limited volume control
The Bottom Line: If you can tolerate the bad ring tones, then this is a great phone.
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| jimkul's Full Review: LG VX4400 |
I bought the LG VX4400 in large part because of the reviews i read on this page. I've found that most everything that has been said about this phone in these reviews is true to some extent. This is my first cell phone, so I don't have much to compare it to, but I'm quickly learning what I like and don't like about this phone. Overall, I really like it.
So far the call quality and reception have been great. Almost all of my calls have been clear, with only a few moments of garbled sound and poor connection (probably the result of service quality)
The LG VX4400 scores high for style and looks. The large color display has great clarity (although it can be difficult to see outdoors), and the menu formats are easy to understand and pleasant to look at. The buttons on the keypad are large, well spaced, and the key layout is logical and easy to use. The colored key lighting is also attractive and helpful in dark conditions. I've found the external LCD extremely helpful. It tells you everything you need to know before opening the handset: time,date,charge status,signal strength,caller ID,message alerts and so on. Overall this is a very attractive and stylish phone.
This phone seems very well built. I haven't owned it all that long, so it's tough to say how durable it will be, but it feels very solid in the hand, and the flip hinge seems tight and sturdy (unlike the moto V60 I've used). Although the antenna looks a little vulnerable, at least the base is molded into the body of the phone (unlike the V60). All of the buttons on the keypad have a solid, responsive feel. The battery fits snug, and overall the phone has a very solid, tight feel to it.
Since had never owned a cell phone before, I was not up to speed on how to navigate the menus of a sophisticated phone with so many features. This phone is extremely easy to use. The interface is logical and intuitive, and the menus are easy to follow. Everything on the display and on the menus is clear and easy to read. Despite the horrible users manual, I was able to understand and use most of the features of the phone after working with it for one evening. The address book is especially easy to use, and also powerful. You can store several phone numbers, e-mail addresses and bunch of other information for each name in the 200 line address book. It's really pretty cool. I think the user interface of this phone is exceptional.
What I truly dislike about this phone are the ring tones. There are lots of them to choose from, and they all suck. You have the choice of 6 or 7 "basic" ring tones, which all sound like bad wind chimes, or you can choose from a large selection of silly songs to use as your call ringer. These horrible ringtones wouldn't be so bad if you could adequately adjust the volume of the speaker. While you can select between 6 or 7 volume levels for the ringer, the lowest ring volume other than vibrate is still obnoxiously loud. It's almost embarrassing to get a call in grocery store or a mall, let alone an office or restaurant. The vibrate mode isn't all that strong, either, so you're kind of stuck with the loud ringer. I just don't understand why LG would limit the volume adjustment in this way.
The speaker quality for the ring tones is not all that great, either. For some ring tones the sound is relatively clear, but for others, the speaker has a tinney, distorted sound quality.
Another thing that's not great about this phone is the desk top charger. While it is very compact for a desk top charger, i'm not sure why LG can't use a plug-in charger cord like Nokia. The desk top charger works great, it's larger and more difficult to pack for travel.
Despite these irritating flaws, overall, I'm very pleased with the performance of this phone.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100
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Epinions.com ID:
jimkul
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Reviews written: 1
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