So I'm back from vacation where I tested the Voyager for twelve days. You know I love to take phones into the wild and really live with them. It was very revealing in this case.
Being on vacation I used the camera a lot. The pictures were acceptable, not great. I expected better phone quality. Isn't that quaint? But it's very important to me and the Voyager didn't have the greatest. Along those lines, I found you can't use the speakerphone unless the Voyager is in its rather ungainly open clamshell mode. Overall the Voyager is a hefty handful. And I really hated not being able to sync to my Mac; for me, that's a deal breaker. (See Tom Krazit's piece on Mac user passion!)
Now the good: I'm not a huge touch-screen fan, but this one works really well. I may be in the minority, but I like the haptic feedback feature that makes screen buttons feel a little bit like real ones. Cool and helpful.
You always have the option of opening the Voyager and essentially having a mini-desktop. Its physical keyboard is far better than the iPhone's touch version, reason enough to choose this cell if you plan on doing a lot of input. The GPS technology is fast and reliable. Music sounds great. And if you find the well-hidden antenna, it's a very usable TV under Verizon's VCast service.
Bottom line: Do I like it? Yes. Would I buy it? No, not even under the current promotional price that brings it in $100 less than an iPhone. Outstanding voice quality matters to me, and if you cross my Mac we're off to a bad start, regardless!
The VX8700 is stylish and usable. Nice.
(Credit: Verizon Wirless)If you're looking to make a style statement, this one is up there with the Prada.
Where the VX8700 exceeds, though, is in usability and price. The RAZR-like pad makes dialing easy; the VCast videos (including snippets of each night's Letterman, Stewart and Leno) are crisp, clear - and with a tap on one button can be viewed horizontally.
The feel is perfect: solid, heavy enough but not overly so. It comes off class. Yeah, it's not THE most comfortable fit with your ear and it heats up a bit. But at $180 with a Verizon contract, I'll live with it. Happily.
If it's time for you to upgrade, make time to check this one out. You'll be down with it.
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