LG VX-5400

Played around with the 5400 at a VZW store recently, and while I liked many aspects of the phone (plus it was a bit smaller than I thought it was going to be), the SPEAKERPHONE on it leaves a lot to be desired, sadly.

It's very muddy and kinda distorted sounding, even at moderate volumes. It might be okay for someone who either has never heard a good speakerphone, or who uses it only rarely (i.e. when you're put on hold, or to check voicemail), but to me, not acceptable.

Weird, considering the 8350 costs only 20 bucks more, yet has a much better speakerphone. THIS is where LG decided to save the money? Ugh.

Kinda sucks. I was gonna recommend this phone to a friend of mine who wanted trimode and bluetooth on the same phone. Guess not.

And this is YET ANOTHER LG that can't do speakerphone with the FLIP CLOSED. WTH? Aside from one push-to-talk model, they just have never done it. But everyone else (Moto, Nokia, Samsung) routinely releases phones that can do it. It's not rocket science.

What is LG's major malfunction with this? Good lord.

Ok, rant mode off. But you just hate to see an otherwise good phone taken down by stuff like this.