[Review] LG Venus

[+StevoFC MVC]

LG Venus (vx8800) Review

Verizon Vireless

I have had the phone now for about 3 weeks, so I think I have tested it enough to give a decent review. So here it goes?

A quick run down of the phone:Phone Type:b> SlideStorage:b> ~128mb internal, and support for up to 8gb MicroSDScreen sizes:b> 240x320 and 240x17Audio Support:b> AAC, MP3, WMVideo Support:b> 3G2, 3GP, WMV, MPMost notable feature(s):b> Touch screen, Battery Life

Appearanceb>

At a quick glance the phone looks great?much better than my old phone, a V3C Razr. The front of the phone is 2 screens basically covered by what seems to be glass. But after using the phone for a while I noticed that the bottom (touch) screen seems to have some give to it, almost feeling squishy so to speak. As you look close you will see that some parts of the phone aren?t black, but a dark blue color. It?s slightly annoying to the overall appearance, but in certain light you really can??Featuresatures

This phone has many of the same features as just about all of the newest phones on the market. It has a 2mp camera that takes decent photos and up to 1 hour of video. It has a MicroSD slot that can take up to an 8gb card. I am currently using a 4gb card. Right now I have about 500 mp3 files on it and there is still more space available. I have the phone set to save my photos directly to the card to make it easier to transfer photos to and from the device. The most unique feature to this phone though is the (partial) touch screen on the front. The touch screen basically controls everything. It changes in context with what you are trying to do. The battery life so far is almost unbelievable. It is rated for over 4 hours of talk time and 20 days standby. I have talked multiple times over an hour straight and the battery meter still shows as full. I?m sure after time it will become much shorter, but it is easily replaceable. I haven?t had a chance to test mp3 playback for long periods of time so I can?t comment on that right now. One other thing worth mentioning is the user interface. You actually have the ability to choose multiple interfaces including some which are much different than the usual red interface on most VSound Qualityound Quality

The sound quality of this phone is above average. It is definately much better than my Razr. At all volume levels though there is a faint, but constant, hiss or static sound. By no means does it interfere with the conversation, but it is there. Everyone I have talked to says I sound great on tThe Touch ScreenTouch Screen

Since the touch screen is the main selling point of this phone I?ll talk about it in more detail. By default the phone will make a sound and vibrate when you touch the screen. It is helpful at first, but as you become used to the controls you will most likely turn it off?I know I did. Until you know exactly how hard to touch the screen things might seem a little unresponsive, but the more you mess around with it the easier things get. As I said before, the touch controls change all the time to control whatever i

Multimedia Functionsimedia Functions

The audio and video playback actually surprised me. MP3?s sound great and can be played various ways; though the internal speaker, or via the 2.5mm jack. The amount of music you can store on the phone is only ~64mb internally, but as I said before can be up to 8gb via the MicroSD slot. One thing that bothers me though is the ability the phone has to read some of my ID3 tags. On my PC my music has all of the corresponding ID3 tags, but not all of them show up on the phone for some reason. Video playback is also very good. I used super to encode clips of various shows into 3GP format. I encoded them at 320x240 which play great because you can turn the phone sideways and watch them in thConclusionon.

Conclusion

Overall, this phone is pretty good if you know what to expect from it. It doesn?t have any mind blowing features, but it does deviate from the standard type of phone we have all come to expect from Verizon.

As I just mentioned, overall this is a decent phone. I am happy with my purchase. If I had to rate it I?d probably say it?s about an 8 out of 10. Like I said before, nothing included is mind blowing, but it does everythingSample photo from phone:Sample photo from phone:

There is a lot of noise because the lighting in my office is horrible...but anyways, here's a 1600x1200 photo from the phone.

nter]Images of Phone:

[/center]

Edited December 19, 2007 by StevoFC

[Wannes]

Looks cool StevoFC except the SEND/CLEAR/END buttons. They don't seem easy to use to me just underneath the slider.

[gigapixels Veteran]

Nice review. My phone isn't too old (Samsung u740) but with all these new ones coming to Verizon it's pretty tempting. I was wondering how well the whole mini touch screen worked.

Thanks :)

[MasterC]

Nice review (Y) I hope I can get this phone when my contract is up in two months!

[+StevoFC MVC]

Looks cool StevoFC except the SEND/CLEAR/END buttons. They don't seem easy to use to me just underneath the slider.

I guess the photo is a little deceiving because those buttons are just as easy as any of the others to get to. The number pad is curved to the shape of the bottom of the slider. When I get home from work later I will post a cropped photo of the number pad in a larger size so you can see closer how it is.

I also forgot to post a sample photo from the camera.

Edit: added sample photo to main post...

Edited December 19, 2007 by StevoFC

[Wannes]

Cheers mate. It could also just be my eyes wearing out. :p

[Echilon]

Great review. I'm not sure I like the dual screens though. Maybe they'd have been better with one big one.

[gigapixels Veteran]

Great review. I'm not sure I like the dual screens though. Maybe they'd have been better with one big one.

Then go for the LG Voyager :p

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

Ive also have this phone. I bought it over thanksgiving towards the end of November. I love the phone.

my #1 gripe is the touchscreens unresponsiveness. You'll press a button and it'll take about 1/2 second to react. it's not real good them youre trying to send that quick txt or browse through pics quickly.

sound quality is great. battery life is pretty good. camera is great! there's many ways to view pics too... including a slideshow.

i just found the World Clock last night. pretty useless, but it has a pretty interface. real slick.

8/10 from me too. nice review!

[+StevoFC MVC]

i just found the World Clock last night. pretty useless, but it has a pretty interface. real slick.

8/10 from me too. nice review!

Heh yeah, the world clock is pretty sweet looking. Even the Tip Calculator has a cool animation.

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

ha, yeah... pretty useless tip calculator! neat nonetheless.

i just found i put my first scratch on the screen today :(

[+StevoFC MVC]

Cheers mate. It could also just be my eyes wearing out. :p

Here's a closer pic. it's out of focus, but you get the idea...

[Wannes]

Indeed, it looks quite fancy. The buttons seem a little small but then again, I have big fingers.

[+StevoFC MVC]

Indeed, it looks quite fancy. The buttons seem a little small but then again, I have big fingers.

Yeah my hands, fingers included, are quite large. The buttons are rounded in a way that they actually feel much bigger than they look. I have no problems sending text messages or dialing numbers at all.

[Rappy Veteran]

Thats a pretty nice review and the phone is pretty nice looking, I recently bought a HTC I am not a big fan of it to be honest.

[+StevoFC MVC]

If there's anything else you guys need to know about the phone just tell me...I'm sure I forgot to mention some things.

[embj]

I just got this phone on Thursday (last one they had!), and I'm quite impressed with it. It works much better than my previous, the VX8100. I'll point out another neat thing that you might not know about the LGs. They keep this feature fairly well hidden, even though it's not quite as bad as it was on the earlier models. If you go into voice command, tap Settings -> Prompts -> Mode, and if you make sure Prompts is selected, it will activate voice caller ID. So, if somebody calls you, it will say "call from John, work (or whatever number they call you from)". Then, it will ring like normal. If you don't have a person in your contacts, it will readout the number. I really love this feature, as I can be across the room and know who's calling without having to go pick up the phone.

I use the tip calculator all the time...the little animations on it are kinda cool. It's a big step-up from the VX8100. I'm glad that they've finally started putting a stopwatch on the programs list, too. Another neat thing that I found out last night (if you're in an EVDO area), is the VCAST Song ID program. I remember hearing about this on TV when they were advertising the VX9400. You download the program in Get Ringtones, tell it that you want to ID a song, hold the phone up to the speaker, and it'll listen for ten seconds and try to ID the song. So far, from what I've tried, it's very accurate. This'll be a really cool feature for when I hear a song on the radio and want to know the name of it.

I also like that you can charge it using USB. However, I've noticed one thing that seems really strange for a cell phone. It has happened a couple of times so far...somebody will call me, start talking, and it just like covers their voice with static. It's like the words are all jumbled up. However, they can hear me just fine. It's really strange...have you had this problem with yours Stevo?

I haven't had any problems with the touch unresponsiveness...seems to go fairly quick for me, except for the occasional time where it won't register. It'll vibrate and do the little animations like you've pressed it, but it won't register it. I'm sure it'll be fixed sometime in the near future with a firmware update.

[+StevoFC MVC]

I also like that you can charge it using USB. However, I've noticed one thing that seems really strange for a cell phone. It has happened a couple of times so far...somebody will call me, start talking, and it just like covers their voice with static. It's like the words are all jumbled up. However, they can hear me just fine. It's really strange...have you had this problem with yours Stevo?

I didn't really notice that, but sometimes if I say something right as I slide the phone open I end up having to say it again because the other person didn't hear it. But I have never had a slider before. I guess I'm just trying to answer too quickly right as I'm sliding the phone open.

[NoLiMiT06]

How much is the phone?

[embj]

I didn't really notice that, but sometimes if I say something right as I slide the phone open I end up having to say it again because the other person didn't hear it. But I have never had a slider before. I guess I'm just trying to answer too quickly right as I'm sliding the phone open.

You know, strangely enough, it hasn't done it since I posted here about it. This is my first slider phone, too...I usually just hit answer instead of sliding it open, so I'm not sure about the answering part on that.

To answer SU-FI_RuLz's question, I got mine from an authorized reseller...cost $249.99 up front with a $50 MIR. I sent in my rebate on Dec. 21st and got it back on the 4th. That's the fastest I've EVER gotten a rebate.

[+StevoFC MVC]

I sent in my rebate on Dec. 21st and got it back on the 4th. That's the fastest I've EVER gotten a rebate.

Yeah. I got my rebate back really fast too. Took less than 2 weeks.

[anarkhy]

Why a cellphone with touch screen needs a keypad? Would be much tinner and practice to just use the screen...

[Cormier6083]

OMG that camera looks better than my regular camera. O_o

[Creamy]

Looks like a smooth phone...A friend of mine had a LG Chocolate...looked nice, but blew! Doesn't appear to be the same...:) Thanks for sharing!

[team_NOOB]

Nice review! I am looking for a new phone and this one looks rpetty tempting however i am a little worried about buying another LG as my current LGKG810 is a massive piece of crap. The battery lasts for a day or two, the camera is poor, the menu is slow loading as in you can press down 5 times then wait for the phone to catch up.

Are there any similiar issues with your new one?

Cheers

Ben