Nearly a PDA, Nearly an Everyphone
Written: Jun 28 '03
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Pros: Screen, Verizon-free downloads, style, quality, features, GPS
Cons: Stated battery life is in dog hours, lame ringtones, ill advised outside buttons
The Bottom Line: Technophile and technophobe will love this phone. Downloadable stuff without Verizon. Great quality, easy to use, a few quirks, lousy battery life in weak signal areas.
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| reframmellator's Full Review: LG VX4400 |
We have THREE of these puppies, and our reactions are nearly identical after about two months. The reception is slightly above average. The clarity is outstanding, but if you couldn't hear the "Can you hear me now?" guy with your old phone in a given spot, odds are you won't hear him with this one either.
Controls are pretty easy to use. Even my lovely, technophobic spouse pilots the thing like a pro, accessing such esoteric functions as the tip calculator and voice mail with ease. She could never get the hang of voice mail with her old phone, and it was fairly simple. The menu driven selection process works very well for her, but if you prefer to work with icons, LG gives you that choice, too.
My son uses the cell phone heavily, on his job, talking to friends away at school after the free hours kick in, and he has found it to be rugged, reliable, and a good performer. Plus, the coolness factor is impressive.
LG has thought of a few things. The ringer mode can be set with one button and the clamshell closed (but more on that later). It goes into "Power Saver" mode when it can't find a signal (still more later). It comes with a decent address book capability, calendar, alarms, tip calculator (why I picked this phone over a "simpler" monochrome phone for her) - it's a low powered PDA. The memo recording feature is nice. And the color coding of the cover display is a conversation starter, if nothing else. Most critically, the phone has GPS capability that will allow Enhanced 911 to fix the location of the call, and since our cell phones are as much about safety as convenience, that was a big factor.
Verizon wants you to upgrade with games, wallpaper and ringtones - for a fee. From what I've seen, they have lots of marginally better ringtones, and you have to pay for them. In researching this phone, I learned that there are newsgroups with free downloadable ringtones, instructions on how to do it (including the $20 cable you buy at Radio Shack), and support. As nearly as I can tell, there is no MP3 file sharing illegality going on here, and there are a lot more and better sounding ringtones. Want your mother-in-law to have a special ring, like the "Imperial March" from Star Wars? Yahoo's got it - just go to their home page and search for LG VX4400 in 'groups'. Disclaimer: I've downloaded the ringtones to my laptop, but not yet to my LG. In theory, if you can get it on a PC (in the right format) you can get it to your VX4400.
Nothing is perfect, to wit:
1) There is an outside button that allows you to switch from Normal Mode to Manner Mode (vibrate) to Completely Silent (no ring, no vibrate, no Charades) conveniently and unobtrusively. Unfortunately, as my wife has determined more than once, it also allows the loose cargo in her purse to select the mode without telling her. She's pulled her phone out only to find it in Completely Silent mode. The button is convenient, but too easy and accidents will probably happen to you, too.
2. When the phone can't find a signal, it's supposed to go into Power Saver mode, awakening every fifteen minutes to search for that elusive signal. It may well do that, but I work in a weak/nonexistent cell, and I've found my battery at less than 25% on the drive home, even though it was fully charged in the AM and I hadn't used it all day. The same routine wouldn't even phase my old monochrome Audiovox trimode. I think LG claims a standby life of about 190 hours. If you're a dog. If you're a human, figure on about one day. I don't know if the battery drain is tied to a lack of signal, but all three of us work or go through areas of weak cells and have seen the same effect. At home, where the signal is strong, 2-3 days of battery life is no sweat. But if you use your phone in a low signal area, it appears as though your battery life will be much shorter.
With Verizon Wireless' "New Every Two" program and rebates, these phones were free! We all love it, and prefer it to our previous LG, Nokia, and Audiovox phones. It is the ONLY high tech device where I have seen my wife use a) all the features b) understand, c) enjoy, and d) love it! Know up front that color phones have shorter battery life anyhow (and a bigger one is available at a slight size and weight penalty), and that if you use it in a weak signal area, you'll have to recharge it every day. But that's a small compromise to make for a terrific phone.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 0.00
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Epinions.com ID:
reframmellator
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Reviews written: 25
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