Best mid-size flip phone you can buy
Written: Apr 18 '07
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Clarity: |
|
|
| Portability: |
 |
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
|
Pros: Long battery, sturdy, loud speakerphone, good quality, plays well with other devices
Cons: Big, mediocre camera, Get It Now is an excuse to waste money
The Bottom Line: If you prefer a well made phone to serve you nobly as a communication device, get this. If you like gizmos that look cool but don't work, look elsewhere.
|
|
|
| jman1783's Full Review: LG VX8300 V Cast Music Phone |
I've ripped through a number of cell phones in my day, so I went looking for the best that 'free' could get me at the Verizon Wireless store when it was time to upgrade. Of course, everyone already tried the Razr and all of its evil spawn, and then there are the Chocolate phones, which are just a nightmare to use. I studied this phone for quite a while, researched its features and statistics, and ultimately settled on it as the best choice of entry phones that you can get for free with the 2 year contract renewal. Here's why:
Advantages
A durable flip phone with solid construction. I bought a leather case for the phone for $8 and have dropped this phone many times, on cement, on anything. I've abused it pretty badly, and it seems to show no signs of damage. It's very well made, and feels sturdy in the hand, unlike the Razr or any of the other low-profile phones.
Long battery life. Quoted as 230 minutes of talk time or 380 hours standby, this can be extended to probably 6-7 hours of talk time with a bluetooth headset. It's bigger (3.8 ounces), so it's got a nice big battery to hold you over.
MicroSD card located conveniently. The Razr has one, but it's under the battery pack, which you have to remove to access it! I like being able to take the card in and out to add music and remove photos and videos easily. With the microSD card, you can also take videos as long as the card will last, not just the quoted 15 seconds on the Verizon webpage.
Hackable! Very important for me - I like to know what I can really do with the phone. This phone can easily be 'unlocked' to allow you to play mp3s, not just proprietary music, as well as enable some other features you can discover on your own. Many other phones weren't quite as easy to do this with.
Decent camera. It's not the best - just 1.3 megapixels, max size 1280x960 - but you can take 'decent' photos with it, which look blurry when you blow them up really large, but look fine for most purposes. It has a flash as well, which many phones do not. There's a zoom as well, which basically just takes a big image and crops the outside, but still kind of nice.
Bluetooth enabled for longer battery life. Very easy to use, given that I've never tried it before. Just follow the instructions with the headset and you're all set.
Great speakerphone. I've put the phone 10 feet away from me and been able to hear the other person quite clearly, and vice versa. Nice, loud speakers on this, since there's one large driver on each side of the phone - not common on many cell phones.
Compatible with mini handsfree jack. Many new phones forego this jack to save on space, which means you can't use your old wired handsfree or get the normal headphone adapter without 3 cables hanging off the side. This phone is big enough to keep it in there.
Mobile web, VCast, blah blah blah. You get all the spiffy bells and whistles that new let you tap into the Verizon 'please let me pay you more money for things that should be free' plan, such as wallpaper, music, ringtones, etc. But you can at least connect to the internet as well, check email, and all that good stuff.
Interfaces with Bitpim. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's free software that lets you download and upload pretty much anything, including photos, contacts, and music files. This isn't standard on all phones, but it sure works on this one. Makes getting all of those things mentioned above cost you $0.
Standalone mode to save batteries. Let's say you're somewhere with bad reception, but you like having your phone as a clock/alarm/whatever. There's an easy to use setting that disables the receiver/transmitter setting to avoid searching for a signal when you already know you won't get one. You can get ridiculously long battery life this way, and then be the only one of your friends with a working phone when you get back to service!
Reprogrammable buttons. I remapped the buttons around the menu key to quickly go to features I want, since the menu system is terrible on the Verizon system. Makes things a lot quicker.
Nice, but not great, mp3 player mode. You can download music files onto your microSD card and play them if you get the headphone adapter, though it's not a great user interface. The sound quality is pretty decent, and you won't have to bring around another player, but you lose some of the features of a dedicated player, like easy scrolling, playlist navigation, the use of the phone, etc.
Color inner and outer screens. This is a nice feature I can use to tell the time, use as an equalizer in mp3 mode, and screen calls by using as a photo caller ID. The outer screen is just barely big enough to be functional, in my opinion.
Disadvantages
I already mentioned a few, but I'll go over them quickly.
The phone is more bulky than most for this day and age, but you may like the feel of it, as I do.
The Verizon menu system is overly convoluted and tries to get you to spend money at every turn.
The camera isn't the best - I like the pictures on the Motorola Q and the LG 8600 much better, and mine tend to have a bluish hue and do terribly at night, even with the underpowered flash.
Doesn't even come with a normal phone ring without paying extra! I couldn't believe the terrible selection of ringtones on the phone until I put some more on. At least it plays mp3s and whatever sound file I want as a ringer now.
Overall
I've been using this phone for about a year now, and I'm very pleased with it - as a phone. As an mp3 player, it's not great. I just bought the microSD card for it, and I hardly use it, mainly because it's inconvenient to move songs around. But as a phone, this does exactly what you want it to do - it gets great signal strength, lasts forever with a big battery, sounds crisp, has a good speakerphone, can take a beating, and feels comfortable in my hand or pocket. I've heard nothing but complaints about the Chocolate and the Razr, and the LG 8600 seems like my second choice, but I prefer a phone that won't fall apart in two years, just in case I don't feel like renewing just to get a new toy.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 0.00
Recommended for: Adventurous Technophiles - Tough and Durable
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
jman1783
|
|
Location: Chicago, IL, USA
Reviews written: 44
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
An engineering graduate student who likes cool gadgets and knows when he's getting ripped off.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.