LG VX8500 Chocolate

Call Quality

Calls: Calls made using the LG VX8500 Chocolate cell phone are loud – so loud we occasionally thought we had front row seats at a live performance. In fact, calls are so loud we often decreased the volume using the audio adjustment keys on the cell phone’s spine. Thankfully, calls were also extremely clear, we rarely experienced distortion or had to mutter Verizon Wireless' trademark slogan “Can you hear me now?” Unfortunately, the Chocolate cell phone lacks a speakerphone, which is odd since the LG VX8500’s call quality and acoustics are so solid. (Editor's Note: The first release of the VX8500 didn't have the speakerphone activated. Later versions ship with the speakerphone working, you can access it by pressing and holding the camera key while on a call.)

Audio playback: We found playback of songs we downloaded from Verizon Wireless’ VCast service and our own MP3 files were quite impressive through the cell phone's built-in speakers and through headphones. Note: The cell phone doesn't have a built-in headset jack but a headset jack adapter is included in the box. It's not a 2.5mm jack so you can only use a cell phone headset (not standard stereo headsets you would use with a music-only device) with it or you'll need a headset that has an alternate solution for a 2.5mm jack.

Ease of Use

Menu/Phonebook: At the heart of the cell phone is the typical Verizon Wireless user interface. You can still tab over to different menus once viewing a specific menu’s options. If you use the OK button to launch the Menu you’ll find a circular menu wheel graphic that’s a little reminiscent of an astrological wheel. You can use the cell phone’s four-way navi-key to select different menu options. However, since the wheel-like buttons are a bit sensitive to the touch you’ll likely use the number keys to quickly navigate through menu options (each option in a menu file has a number associated with it so you can press a feature’s corresponding number to access it).

We particularly appreciate how easy it is to use the phonebook. You can store five phone numbers and two e-mail addresses for each contact – sorry, no slots for address info. But if you want to find your phone number you’ll need to dig through the menu system.

Camera/Video: The 1.3-megapixel camera in this LG cell phone is actually pretty good. The cell phone lacks a flash, but it has adjustment options for brightness, white balance and color effects. There’s also a self timer, which comes in handy when you use the tiny mirror next to the camera lens for snapping self portraits. Overall, image quality is good, providing plenty of detail – especially on the highest setting. We took a picture of a yellow flower and could see the lines on the leaves.

The LG Chocolate cell phone also has a video recorder. Finding it in the cell phone, of course, is a completely different story. This feature isn’t located in the camera application. Once you find the application you can record 15-second videos. The picture quality is pretty good but recording audio in this mode picks up a lot of static.

Music: The center piece of the LG Chocolate cell phone is its MP3 player. As noted, listening to songs played through the cell phone’s speaker or through a stereo headset is impressive. This cell phone lacks audio-centric controls such as bass and treble, however, it does have other audio effect such as Rock, Flat, and 3D Surround. But these extra effects don’t make a difference. It does have other MP3 player features such as shuffle, repeat and creating playlist , which incidentally is one of the easier ways to playback music on this cell phone.

However, unless you’re downloading music from Verizon’s VCast service getting music onto the cell phone can be a bit trying. You can’t use the Bluetooth to transfer music from a PC to the LG cell phone. The Chocolate will only playback WMA and MP3 files, so you'll need an optional cable and software to transfer unprotected music files (WMA and MP3) to the cell phone using Windows Media Player. Note: It is likely that you will not be able to listen to songs you purchased online at a music store on this cell phone.

If you have a lot of digital music files that you created from existing CDs consider purchasing an optional MicroSD storage card, drag and drop those tunes from your PC onto the card and then slip it into the MicroSD card slot on the side of the cell phone. In order to access and to listen to music stored on the card on the Chocolate cell phone you’ll need to format the card. The quickest way to do this is to purchase a song from the VCast service and save it to the memory card. This automatically creates media folders. Then you can copy music from your PC to the correct folder on the card.

Connectivity/Bluetooth: We were able to easily pair the cell phone with a Motorola Bluetooth H500 headset and even a Dell PC running Windows XP. Call quality was perfectly acceptable using a Bluetooth headset. As noted, unlike the Sony Ericsson Z520a you can’t use Bluetooth to transfer music stored on a computer to the Chocolate cell phone. Bummer!

Design

Look and Feel: Although, the Chocolate is thicker than your average slider, it’s a good looking cell phone with its shiny black casing, large display and translucent keypad that looks like something out of a futuristic movie. Most notable is its iPod-centric 4-way navi-key. Let’s get something straight: the navi-key is your typical cell phone navi-key; it’s not a scroll wheel nor does it function like the iPod’s scroll wheel. It’s got grooves similar to the lines on the face of an LP record and it’s ultra sensitive. You should immediately adjust the keypad sensitivity. The display is sharp and easily viewable in most lighting conditions. When you have such a slick looking cell phone there’s bound to be a couple of issues. The biggest downfall is the Chocolate attracts grease and fingerprints easily. Black may be slenderizing but it shows dirt and smudges clearly in direct light.

Keypad: Despite the sensitive iPod-inspired navi-key, the LG Chocolate keys are soft to the touch. The white backlit keys are slightly raised, which is good since once you master the cell phone’s menu options you’ll prefer to use the number keys to access corresponding features or applications. Although, the spine of the Chocolate cell phone masks the side keys well, they are easy to use and you don’t need to apply too much effort to press them.

Our favorite LG VX8500 feature is the identifying side key labels found on the display, so you always know what each button on the cell phone’s spine does. For example, where the music key is on the side of the phone, there’s also a corresponding box with the word Music on the display, so you know when you press that button you’re activating the music feature. The only key that takes a little acclamation is the End/Power key. It sits on the spine of the cell phone just below the Music button, instead of on the face of the cell phone across from the traditional Talk or Send keys. We got use to it soon enough because the button in its place serves as a Back key simplifying menu navigation. But, still, it’s initially a bit jarring.

Battery Life

The LG Chocolate has better battery life than expected from such a feature-rich cell phone. We particularly appreciated that we could use the cell phone to play music for a couple of hours before needing to recharge. If you want to conserve battery life we recommend keeping the display backlight at the lowest setting. Overall, battery life on the Chocolate cell phone is pretty good. Heavy cell phone users who make a ton of calls and send/receive loads of text messages daily and listen to tunes stored on the cell phone regularly will need to recharge it every two to three days. More moderate users will be able to make the cell phone last about five days before needing to recharge. If you are a light user, making just two to three 10 minute calls a day and light texting and listening to the occasional song, the Chocolate cell phone will last close to a week on a single charge.