LG Dare VX-9700
Phone Scoop Review
Jul 10, 2008 by Eric M. Zeman
LG's Dare is its best touch-screen phone yet, but it's not perfect. See what shines, and what fizzles. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
BeSt Phone I have nad
This phone is amazing!!! I will say it takes some time to get use to the touch and menus but after you have had it for a week its amazing :)
PROS:
3.2 meg. camera- great extra features.
Lock on the side of phone.
Good speaker phone.
Drawing pad.
FULL HTML Internet ( only $15.00)
Favorites space for the people you talk to the most.
Drag and drop icons to the main screen of the phone.
New menu for contacts.
Music player is great.
Great flash on the camera.
NO DROPPED CALLS. Thank you Verizon.
You can text with: full key board, standard key pad, or use the handwriting screen.
Cons:
NONE
LOVE IT!!!
Great Phone, Seriously
I've had this phone for a few days now and though I'd throw my thoughts into the review mix as well. I'll keep it simple:
Pros (in no particular order):
- Sleek, sexy and a great size. Fits right into my front pocket.
- External buttons all easy to access and use.
- Touch interface easy to use, short learning curve (for me, at least).
- 3.2MP camera that actually takes decent photos.
- 3.5mm headphone jack, rather than that damn 2.5mm my VX8600 had (plus it needed an additional adapter to use that).
- Plenty of customization options.
- Texting is a breeze. No issue using the keyboard in landscape mode.
- And the phone works really well, too.
- Favorites page is a cool and quick way to access your top contacts.
Cons (from highest to lowest):
- Music player only sorts by alphabet, not by track number. Renaming tracks in the id3 tag does not help. Also, not all album art shows up; there appears to be some size restriction, but where exactly the cut-off is, I don't know.
- The screen is a fingerprint & face print magnet. Get yourself some sort of screen protector. There's a few choices available.
- Having said that, there is some loss of sensitivity on the touch screen when using said protector. I don't notice it as much within the normal functions of the phone, but do see the problem on the browser.
- Camera settings don't save from one use to the next, you have to reset those you need.
- Get It Now content still being added; full library not yet available.
- Some additional theme options would be nice, but not a major thing.
Hope this information is helpful. I really, really have been loving this phone, it's top notch. And, hopefully, with the ability to check for upgrades OTA we'll see the phone expand and be around for a while.
The Best Phone So Far
The Dare is the best phone verizon has put out so far
I have read one negative review but i disagree with it. It talked about the touchscreen but it does have a learning curve with few tries th user should be adjusted. I was going to orginally gt the voyager but im gad i waited
Pros
Smaller than iphone
Light
call quality excellent
texting easier than ever
lock switch to prevent accidental touches
camera (has to be one of the best on a phone out in america)
cam be used as mass storage device for easy access to memory card
bluetooth that actual transfers files (about time)
software can be updated over the air
Cons
More theme selections (only limited to 2)
a few minor tweaks to the web browser and it we be near perfect
vibrate might be a little low for some people
overall every phone is not perfect but this phone is pretty close
Shockingly Great!
I have had the DARE for two weeks now, and am absolutely loving it. I can from a BB Curve to try and save the $30/month on the BB email/web feature.
PROS:
- AMAZING battery life
- Good responsive touch screen
- Great Media Player, easy to load music & video
- Great Camera with Panoramic feature
- Drawing pad is great for the kids at church!
- Favorites menu for contacts
- Great resolution on the screen
- Great external speaker for watching movies, videos, VCast, etc.
- Did I mention the battery rocks!
CONS:
- False responses sometime on the touchscreen. (Most likely my fat fingers)
I would recommend this phone to anyone looking for a GREAT alternative to a blackberry for the multi-media purposes. The phone doesn't do the push email, but it does everything else that I want
Excellent and FUN!!
I won't go through all of the Pro/Con which has been debated ad-nausium. I love this phone. I wanted the iphone but Verizon obviously does not offer it. IMO the Dare is a better phone (its the network baby) and it is actually smaller than the iphone. I love texting on the virtual keypad, it takes about a week to get used to it. The call quality is excellent and the music player is the best I have seen on a cell phone.
You can also add the Vcast pack @ $15.00 per month for unlimited browsing and accessing your e-mail. Great phone, give it a 30 day test drive, I think you will be impressed!
I dare you not to get this phone.
I decided to dare myself and go with an all touch screen phone. It was a bit of an adjustment coming from the LG voyager to the smaller LG dare. a smaller body size and the lack keyboard was different was easier and lighter in my pocket. the touch screen is very responsive and does pretty well when texting, scrolling and tapping. the body of the phone is just the right size for on the go types. the touch screen has handwriting recognition too.
the phone's menu system is a little complicated but is easier once you get the hang of it. to make things simple, you can drag desired icons on to desktop of the phone allowing you to by pass the menu system for some options. there is a lot of options to customize the pix stored in the phone. you can animate them, write on them and also put other animation art in the pix too. the camera is very crisp and watchout don't blind yourself with the flash like I did. the camera has a faster shutter and captured photos much faster than any other of my touch screen phones.
The sound on the phone is good and music management is much easier than any other phone I have used. I was actually able to bluetooth itunes music to the phone from my mac.
some real turn offs is this phone doesn't allow you you to see the instant messaging dialouge when typing becuause the screen isn't big enough to show both instant messaging screen and the keyboard. Also when in an application that uses the internet, the scrolling ability on the touch screen becomes choppy or jerky. it works fine on the mobile web though. if you have larger hands then texting on the virtual keyboard is going to be difficult.
Verizons Best Yet
Pros:
Responsive touch screen
Camera 3.2mp and options impressive
crisp clear screen
Call quality amazing / Reception
UI very sleek
size and feel
Favs drop and Drag, Very simple
Very eye catching
Battery life
Cons:
Browser slow and shows some WAP Pages
Video Media needs more options
summary: a great competitor to the iphone, but should be able to read more video formats to watch movies. The browser needs to be a little faster and
The BEST Verizon phone in Years
I'll begin this review by saying I have truly owned pretty much every major phone they offer: The Palm Treo 700P and the 755P, The Blackberry 8330 (The Curve if that number isn't correct), the EnV, and a bevy of other phones. This phone has successfully combined EVERYTHING I have been looking for now for nearly a year and a half...
Pros
1. As trivial as this may seem, I wanted to be able to have notepad either on the front screen, or one button away from the front screen. I use it often to keep different lists, and this phone has that.
2. With this phone, email is excessively easy (And Cheap: With Internet, $15, versus the Blackberry @ $30 and the Treo @ $50)
3. This phone may very well be the Best combination of functionality with battery life, ever. I never considered using a phone as my MP3 Player, but the battery life on this phone is second to none. I had an hour and a half conversation, let it sit for 12 hours, text messaged and talked for even longer, took PLENTY of pictures, and still only used a bar and change...outstanding.
4. I find it easy to use. Granted, for all intents and purposes, I can be considered a nerd. But I spent about 20 minutes in the store prior to purchase just to see if I could figure out what I wanted to know. Took me 10...if you aren't a tech geek, maybe an hour or so.
The ONLY Con I can find, and this doesn't even really count, is the keyboard and large fingers...but one is never going to find a keyboard on a phone contoured for larger hands, otherwise it wouldn't be a phone. So it cancels itself out...that's why I gave it a 4.5 out of 5.
Bottom Line: This is THE phone to have. I am an extreme critic, and this phone passes with flying colors. My only concern about this phone is if they decide to discontinue this particular idea (The touch screen with ridiculously good battery life and memory card expandability). If I use this as my MP3, I'd be forced to carry it again if they cancel...not the end...GET THIS PHONE!
I love it!
I really love this phone!
In order to help minimize any scratches on this phone I did purchase the InvisibleSheild by Zagg after watching the demo on their website to protect the phone without adding bulk.
Connecting through bluetooth has never been so easy. I had the enV orange and to connect to the bluetooth on my car stereo was an ordeal but with the Dare one click to turn on bluetooth and another to connect (once you have an established pairing)!
Also, you can connect to a friends bluetooth enabled phone and browse through their pictures, videos and sounds and grab the ones you want. My friends (who have the V, the enV & the enV2) do not see that option on their phones.
The music sounds a little flat as it only has the one speaker on the back of the phone but it sounds decent if you bluetooth the music from your phone through your car stereo.
I have kept my enV as a backup because if the screen goes on this phone, as opposed to the Voyager, you have no qwerty keyboard to dial from.
I also love playing the touch screen games.
Unless you are purchasing a phone specifically to listen to music then I recommend this phone.
Best VZW Touch Phone
I've had most of the newer phones, blackberry, venus, voyager, i760, etc. Long story short, if you're not after a PDA phone or blackberry, and you don't want a keyboard like the voyager, this is the phone. VZNav, music, internet, good camera, good call quality, and oh yeah, the touch screen is impressive.
Pros:
*Good all-around multi-function phone, best non-PDA Verizon has to offer, best touch screen phone.
*Web browser works fairly well.
*Games are fun with the touch screen (collapse chaos is so much more fun when you can touch the bricks instead of click them with the mouse).
*Works with my Zune Pass subscription, though I have to start the Rhapsody software and log in, but I can get most every song from my Zune pass over to the phone. If I knew my Zune would work with Rhapsody/VZW and a blackberry would also, I might consider switching my subscription to that.
Cons:
*No visual voicemail (yet).
*Album art doesn't move over. Not a big deal as I use this as my gym MP3 player and hardly look at the screen, but it is supposed to work. Apparently there is a workaround, but it seems too convoluted for me to be interested.
*Browser isn't quite as robust as a blackberry, but it's close.
There is a lot of opportunity for growth in the touchscreen market, and this is a good start. I'd like to also see a few more games designed specifically for touch phones.
