LG VX-8550 Chocolate
Average Ratings
lg chocolate 2g
i have had this phone for about three months so now i can do a full review of it- its ok, but definitely not perfect.
good
1. screen is fantastic- everything is bright and colorful and nice and sharp
2. sturdy slide- the slider feels really nice in your hand- not cheesy or anything
3. vibrating feature on the touch keys- great because most of the time i dont look at what im doing so this way i can tell if i pressed something
4. GREAT speaker on back- nice and clear, although if you put it up to its highest volume it gets a little scratchy
bad
1. wheel- takes way to long to get used to it- whenever i got a text for about 2 months i would always hit it (the wheel is way too sensitive- no way to change it) and it would go to view later- then i would have to go through the menus ANNOYING
2. keypad- yes its raised but its just a little too tiny- i have big fingers. its always a trial and error when i have to type something- a full keyboard like the vx9900 or vx10000 would have been great
3. battery life- its omg horrendous. i charge it overnight, the next day i buy a song from the music store on the phone and its already down to two bars. i txt a couple of friends and its completely dead. if you need a long lasting phone that you dont need to charge that often DO NOT BUY.
all together this is a good phone if you like music- but i have an ipod for that. i really would have liked a full keyboard (or at least a bigger one) and a regular dpad instead of the wheel. better battery too. but its mostly good- id say buy it just make sure you can return it if you dont like it.
Great Battery Life
I have had this phone for a little over a month with Verizon Wireless.
Great Design and beautiful colors. Good call quality.
I have tested the battery stand by time twice and have found the battery lasted 20 days!
That to me is amazing. Great Job LG
Blue Ice Chocolate is Sweeter than Ever!!
Just like one of the other reviewers I had the samsung u740 and hated it. I returned within a few days because I could not get used to texting with the flip in rotation mode and sending emails. The phone was great with reception and being slim but that was about it.
The Blue Ice chocolate is sooooo awesome. I chose this color because everyone else seems to have the blue or red and I wanted to be different. The navigation wheel does take time to get used to but you can set the speed of it and once you do that it is fine. The keys are easy to text and send emails. I think it is a big improvement from the old chocolate. Way to go LG! You have a winner on your hands. The price of it is not bad either.
The battery is so far great! The reception is phenominal and very clear. The sound with the ringtones is very loud as well as the music player. Overall this phone is sweet as chocolate. Thanks LG and Verizon, job well done!! I would recommend this phone to anyone. I am definitely impressed.
Multi-Use UI = Compromised Performance
I was very impressed at first - I thought the Choc has it all. But my inability to use the phone "on the fly" in transit walking & driving, led me to return to a clamshell phone style. LGâs target market is for trendy multi-use functions, and those making repeated communications to friends and family. It was not practical for my primary business cell phone.
After 3 weeks learning the menus, buttons and "practice" using the phone, I was never able to dial a new number without an error. The buttons are too close and the touch sensitive areas too prominent so you always inadvertently hit wrong keys. My phone is a business and time management tool, calling businesses, clients and co-workers. If I used the phone to call the same contacts repeatedly, voice or speed dial would help overcome this. Or, if I typically used the phone sitting and using two hands, I might have stayed with the 8550. Even though I liked the phone, the frustration with mis-keying led me to exchange it for an LG VX8700.
I live in the mountains of Colorado and got this during the winter. Use the 8550 when skiing? NOT! Practical when outside in the summer biking or hiking? Not hardly.
PROS
- OK battery life
- small
- good reception
- lots of functionality
CONS
- keying and user controls (impossible with gloves, impractical when walking or driving)
- marginal speaker phone
- vulnerable design meant for use in benign environment
- no flash with camera
- OK call quality, there others better
- PHONE USE IS SECONDARY IN DESIGN, NOT PRIMARY
This Chocolate Just Got Sweeter!
After returning the Samsung SCH-u740 and NEVER getting a Samsung again I purchased a LG Chocolate.
Cons: The screen attacks many finger prints and the glossy look gets scratched easily
Pros: The phone has wonderful software, great customizable themes, spacious alpha-numeric keyboard, wonderful call quality, lightning web speeds, awesome picture quality although it would be nice if they added a flash, wonderful navigation wheel, slime profile which makes it wonderful to slip in you pocket, good battery time and I love the V Cast services that the phone supports.
MUSIC: The LG Chocolate is a good phone for music. The phone has good battery life which allows you to listen to music as much as you want. The phone has a special setting that uses it just as an Music Phone for being on the airplane or something in that matter.
Recommendations: If you are a text freak like me I recommend using WORD or T9 which is a predictive text thingy that you can use instead of Abc. As I said the phone is very sensitive to finger prints and scratches so I recommend buying a case, which will protect the phone from scratches but I also recommend buying a skin for the phone which will protect it from scratches and other things that take off from the phones beautiful looks. Here is the link if you want to use a SKIN. http://www.vskins.com/
I hope that you find this review useful and helpful if finding you the perfect phone.
Lg Chocolate II
I 1st had the LG EnV but traded that phone in for the LG Chocolate. i think overall for the price i paid this was a good phone.
PROs:
+Touchscreen keys
+U can do anything with music playing in the background.
+Pretty good pics considering its 1.3 mega pix
+Great,loud speaker
+Great speaker phone
don't have to slide it up to call or read text
+easy to i have big fingers)
+Video capture
+Great signal(i live in Colorado)
+Pretty good battery life(3 or 4 days w/o playing music or pics or video)
+Move fast with the scroll wheel
+Great Display screen
Cons:
-Touch keys get in the way sometimes
-Battery runs out faster if u play music or take a lot of pics and video.
-kind of hard to hear in loud places(even with blue tooth headset.
-Gets finger prints all over it and hard to keep clean and gets a grip of scratches too!
Other than that i would recommend this phone to anyone who wants to spend under $100 for a good phone.
8550 reasons why this phone is sweet
Ok well I really don't have that many reasons, but the LG VX8550, the new chocolate is a sweet phone. I purchased the phone last week and it came in today so I really haven't had too much time to play with it. I've previously had an enV, samsung u740 lg 8600 and lg 8100 all within the last 12 months...I am a cell phone fanatic! Anyway...so far the the chocolate has wowed me more than the previous models I used, from it's design and presentation alone.
Pros:
Great sound quality
Lightweight
Slim sleek design , easy to keep in pocket.
"Word" option for text messaging negates the need for the QWERTY, which I was a fan of with the enV and u740
Touch buttons are very responsive
Easy to open/close
Music sounds great!!
Call reception...amazing and clear
Cons:
Not too many...
Obviously fingerprints and scratches easily seen, but what phone doesnt have that issue
Track wheel sometimes isn't as responsive, but I haven't really played with the settings with it...stay tuned
Overall this phone rocks and is a great offering from Verizon! I was skeptical about a slider but it doesn't make a difference to me in the functionality of this device. Best phone I've owned!
Very good update.
seeing as the first chocolate was such a dud, i wasent sure about this one either. after having it a few months, i can surely say its a worthy upgrade which brings good name back to the chocolate line. the scroll wheel is MUCH easier to use than the touch keys on the first chocolate. the vibrate feedback on what little touch keys are left let you know if you actually pressed them or not.
Pros:
-Good screen, easy to see in sunlight
-Ringlights are awesome.
-Scroll wheel works well
-Good display themes, a nice change from the normal verizon interface.
-thinner and lighter than the first one.
-Music player, music player, music player.
Cons:
-Screen scratches easily. get a screen protector and your set.
-Keys are a little small, but you get used to it.
PROs and CONs about the 8550
PROs:
-allows you to listen to music while texting
-navigation wheel is rare and very useful (also fun to mess with sometimes)
-high quality graphics
-1000 phonebook capacity
-touchscreen keys
CONs:
-touch screen keys get in the way (sometimes)
-does not have full keyboard like enV
-easy to scratch or see scratches
Chocolate Slide
My total consensus is this is a flawless - at least mine was.
Pros:
Design was a sleek easy to use slide body. I didn't need a lot of effort to open and close the phone. The Navigation wheel made the getting through menus a breeze. The touch keys were responsive but not too sensitive. The locking controls were easy to access and use.
Dark Ice Blue was a perfect color for this device and software color. The the memory card was easy to slide in and out. Every was easy to use! It had great battery life.
Cons:
Perhaps the navigation wheel could be a little bigger. Speaking of the Navigation wheel, some of the chocolate phone's wheels are too touchy causing mistaken or over navigation to a wrong menu. Mine was slower to respond which made it perfect for friendly navigation for menus and was safe from over navigation.
Also it is easy to scratch. Having the phone for only 7 months it looks battle-scarred. Aside from those two items, the phone was just a pleasure to have as my communication device.
