LG VX-8500 Chocolate
Phone Scoop Review
Aug 11, 2006 by Eric Lin
An In-Depth review of LG's sleek new VX-8500 Chocolate slider music phone for Verizon Wireless. NEW: Video tour read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
I HATE THIS PHONE!!!
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I have had this phone since January and have gone through 3!! This will be my fourth since Verizon will not let you out of the contract with this phone! It has scrolled randomly, it has decieded not to send and it now won't even go beyond flashing the verizon screen. I hate the idea that I left Sprint and the LG Fusiq for this piece of crap! Same makers but this phone isn't even anywhere close to the fusiq as a music player, phone, or even camera. None of these functions work right, and I can't wait until my 1.5 YEARS is up with this company. Oh, by the way Verizon's customer service, I feel, is the worse in the cell phone industry. Don't buy this phone, save your money, and skip on the headaches!
Close, but no cigar
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My wife and I picked up two brand new chocolates 14 days ago. In the first day after a full charge, the phones died on us in about 10 hours. We decided to vive the phone the benefit of the doubt and at least wait out the full return period with Verizon.
Today was the straw that broke the camel's back. Battery was three bars this AM, phone only used for one call during the day, at 4 PM, a 20 minute call KILLED the battery and it shut down. Unacceptable.
I know there is some type of conspiracy with cell phone batteries, but I do expect the damn thing to last more than 24 hours in standby.
Phones went back, 8300 were taken instead and I don't think we'll look back. Here's my breakdown:
PROS:
- Vibrant screen
- Sweet looks
- MP3 functionality great for people on the
go
CONS:
- Battery life STINKS!
- Buttons are too small (both my wife and I
found it very difficult to hit the right
buttons when dialing or texting.)
- Ringtone volume not loud enough
- No easy way to view calls. (With the
supplied case, one had to take the phone
out of the case to answer and to view the
call. This practice required two hands.
No thanks.)
CONCLUSION:
I am a huge fan of LG. I have had Moto in the past and vowed to never return. Coming from a 6100, I wanted to try the Chocolate. I think LG definitely missed the mark with this phone. The 8300, although a bit bigger offers all the same features and is a desirable flip phone. Don't take my word for it, try the Chocolate for yourself. But be sure ask yourself if you'd be better off with the nice 8300 instead. I think you'll see what I mean.
Good enough; with a few irritating things
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Overall this phone seems like one that I will enjoy having. Most of the oddities like the touch screen are becoming familar after a couple of days. I do like having a bunch of songs available on a device that I always carry. I also like the design, although making it a little less slippery might have been nice, but a set of Gadget Grips solved that.
Annoyances are all associated with the headphone jack and included headphones. They suck, I hate open style headphones. From all the promotional info I thought that I would be able to use my much better earplug style phones by using the little adapter that plugs into the power/data port on the left side. It was really a major selling point for me.
I failed to notice that the adapter output is a 2.5mm plug, meant to allow usage of an aftermarket headset. Meaning it has an extra channel on the plug. So even after buying a cheap adapter from Rad. Shack to step it up to 3.5mm I still have to leave the headphones or the RS adapter one click out to use good headphones and deal with the occasional loss of a channel. Really annoying....I might have to rewire a set of earplugs to deal with the smaller plug directly
one word really cool
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I just go this phone like 3 days and i am still figgiting with it so... here what i know of. that confuse some ppl
the phone DOES NOT have speaker phone
(talking to ppl wise)
but it DOES have speaker (music wise)
the touch sensitive "circle" part, is touch sensitive but you can't rotate your figure to change the volume or move it... not like the ipodz that has that feature.
can't use regular standard headphone
i don't think you can use your own mp3/wma music form your computer to use as a ringtone
there is a camera 1.3pix and a camcorder that record 1hours worth (from build in memories)
the phone is awesome i wowed everybody that comes across me... ITS the ipod phone O.O
On the fence at first, but now im a believer
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I was extremely tepid about it when it first came out of the box, but this phone has really really grown on me!
The UI is responsive and fast (for the most part). Slight delays when accessing the tools/settings, but not very bothersome. I have yet to put music on the phone (waiting on my SD card), but i will let you know if that affects the speed at all as well.
Going through the menus can be cumbersome, but the shortcut keys are clutch. You can set them up for most anything you want in the phone, which is great.
The touch and feel of the phone takes a little getting used to cause the touch keys are different, but now im a big fan. You will most likely have to play with the sensitivity to best fit your style (i like the second highest setting), but im sure you'll find the right one.
A few tiny cons:
-There is no "ring, then vibrate" setting (I solved this by cropping the ringer mp3 files with a 6-7 second silence at the beginning)
-Text messaging takes some getting used to. A little different feel to it, but i adjusted after 3 days or so.
Overall, its a great phone. Im happy ill have it for 2 years!
Sweet phone
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Sweet phone better bluetooth than my 8300 and 8100. but not quite as good of bluetooth as my 9800. The touch sensitive buttons are pretty nice i would like regular buttons better though. Switched from a 8300. Which was a great phone should i add. Alot of people say it only has mono speakers but verizon informed me that it has stereo. It's hard to tell the difference either way. The only feature this phone lacks is SPEAKERPHONE. It does have a minimizable music player that will play in the background while you go online, search through menus, ect.
Telus' LG Chocolate
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I have had and used the LG Chocolate for about 2 months now and it is by far the best phone I have used.
Here are some pro's and con's about the phone that I find when using it.
PROS:
Easy to use navigation.
Easy to load music files onto the Micro SD card, and very easy to activate the music player.
Great sounding speaker quality for music files.
When the ringer is set to "Loud" or "Volume 7" on the Telus branded phones, it is very loud.
Ear piece volume is very loud even when on a lower volume setting.
Sleek, great looking design. (Best look of any phone on the market to date)
Text messaging is very easy to use and the messages send and download extremely fast with EVDO.
1.3 Mega pixel camera that looks more like a 3 or 4 mega pixel camera.
Camera lens smartly hid in the slide so that when the phone is closed, you can't scratch the camera. (Unlike the LG 535)
Night mode on the camera is extremely bright.
Save pictures to phone's memory, or directly to the Micro SD card.
Up to one hour of video record time with a 1GB Micro SD card.
Picture quality does not distort when setting a picture as your wallpaper.
Great idea allowing users to customize the sensitivity of the touch pad controls.
Amazing sound quality when using Bluetooth stereo headphones with the phone for either music, or used in a call.
CONS:
Speakerphone is not as loud as my old LG 535 slider.
Vibration is not as strong as other phones.
Can't set phone to Vib+Ring together.
Battery life isn't spectacular if you do a lot of messaging or listen to a lot of music....anywhere from 1-3 days is the tops that I get before having to recharge.
Overall, I would give this phone a 5 out of 5. The con's I mentioned are more of a pain or a nuisance then anything. Best looking and best working phone that LG has ever put on the market to date.
NOT durable, HORRIBLE touch screen
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It can be said that this phone is probably one of the "coolest" looking phones out there. HOWEVER, the functionality of it is awful.
1) The touch screen is either overly sensitive or not sensitive enough
- I dont know how this is possible, but I couldn't get used to using this phone after two months of using it. It is way too easy to press the wrong direction on the sensor and open a window you never intended to open.
2) The memory card I purchased separately became "unreadable" by the phone after only a month.
- The music I had stored on the phone was on there and could be viewed when plugged into my PC, but when in the phone, I could not play the music. I originally was able to, but the music wouldn't load and it said the card was unformatted.
3) On my first chocolate, the camera went out.
- I couldn't take pictures or video as the phone would turn off when I pressed the camera button or went into the menu to go to it. I also could not watch flix. I'm assuming that the motion feature of the camera was ruined and that's why, but I am unsure. All I know is that one month of use before a feature like this breaks is unheard of.
4) My second chocolate broke in my pocket.
- I sat down and when I pulled my phone out it was broken. At this point, this was the second damaged chocolate I had had in two months of time. I chose not to use my insurance again for a third time and to just purchase a standard V325i, without all the features. I haven't had a problem since.
5) The speaker is NOT loud.
- The chocolate is heavily marketed on its MP3 player, but the built-in phone speakers are horrible. You have to use earpieces in order to even enjoy the music you are listening to. There are plenty of phones on the market that have MP3 features with much louder volume.
There are many phones that offer the great features the chocolate is supposed to provide without the headache. I suggest getting the LG 8300 or Samsung U540 instead.
SO SWEET!!
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I just got a chocolate for my birthday and I have never been happier. This is the best phone on the market, i think.
PROS:
So cool
slim
good colors
good volume
nice font size
good display theme options
I could go on and on
CONS:
How should I put it, well um.. : a major FINGERPRINT MAGNET, but only if you but an original (black) Chocolate. I personally have a strawberry one, but my friend has the black one.
All and All, it is A GREAT phone. (why else would I give it a 5?? lol)
Very Flimsy Phone
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I got the phone at 10:30am yesterday and returned it at 6pm the same day. The phone was giving me a lot of static. My previous phone was the LG 7000 and the reception was great. In addition to the poor reception the overall feel of the phone was bad. I am very disappointed in this phone.
