Why You Can Trust CNET LG Chocolate VX8550 review: LG Chocolate VX8550
LG Chocolate VX8550
LG Chocolate VX8550
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
One of the most hyped cell phones last year was probably the LG Chocolate (also known as the LG VX8500). Even if it didn't have such a succulent name, the slim and sexy slider took the mobile world by storm, and its unique touch-sensitive controls seemed almost magical. With such hype, the eventual letdown was almost inevitable. Even though we liked the beautiful design, we thought the touch-sensitive keypad and controls required too much of a learning curve, and the initial lack of speakerphone disappointed us. With the second iteration of the LG Chocolate, however, it's clear that LG was listening to all the complaints. The LG VX8550 Chocolate still maintains the sleek profile that made the original famous, but its controls are now far easier to use plus it's a little slimmer and shinier than before. Add that to its extensive multimedia feature set, and it's clear that in the LG Chocolate's case at least, sequels can indeed be better than the original. The LG VX8550 Chocolate is available for $99.99 after a two-year contract. The LG VX8550 Chocolate can also be purchased as part of a Music Set, which comes with a microSD card and USB cable. The Music Set costs $249.98.
Design
The LG VX8550 Chocolate is definitely a luscious-looking handset, with a design that doesn't stray too far from the original. It retains that familiar chocolate bar shape; a rectangular chassis clad in a glossy surface and silver accents reminiscent of candy wrapping. At 3.85 inches tall by 1.87 inches wide by 0.67 inch thick, it's a little taller and wider than the original Chocolate, but not by much. You slide the phone open by pushing the bottom of the phone, which can be done easily with one hand. The slider mechanism moves up and down easily, and the phone feels pretty solid in the hand and when held next to the ear. The phone's glossy exterior does make it really prone to fingerprint smudges however.
The main 2.2-inch diagonal display is simply stunning. It shows 262,000 colors at a 240x320 pixel resolution and supports 11 lines of text. The graphics and animation looked razor sharp, and the bright colors added to the phone's overall flashy appeal. You can change the backlight time, the dial font size, and the clock format, but nothing else. Also, the display's glossy look makes it hard to see in direct sunlight because of glare.
Probably the biggest design change in the LG VX8550 Chocolate is the navigation controls underneath the display. Gone is the annoying touch-sensitive navigation toggle, and in its place is a mechanical scroll wheel with a middle confirmation key that can be pressed--similar to that of an iPod. This is an extremely smart move on LG's part, as it substantially lowers the learning curve for navigating the phone. Both the wheel and the middle key have a brushed-steel feel, and surrounding the wheel is a trace motion light that lights up when the wheel is turned. You can also set the trace motion light to flash differently when there's an incoming call. The wheel scrolls very smoothly and easily; in fact, we sometimes found it was too smooth and would almost prefer more resistance so that we could get a more solid grip. The wheel can also be pressed in four different quadrants (up, down, left, and right) much like a traditional cell phone toggle. Each directional click can be set as shortcuts to four user-defined functions.
But alas, the LG VX8550 Chocolate did not do away with touch keys entirely. All the other navigation keys surrounding the scroll wheel are still touch-sensitive. They consist of two soft keys, a dedicated speakerphone key, and a Clear key. As with the original Chocolate, the keys are pretty sensitive, and need only be tapped lightly for it to activate. Thankfully, the sensitivity of the buttons can be changed. Though we're still not huge fans of these controls, LG has thankfully added a vibration feedback setting that provides a slight vibration whenever the keys are pressed. This definitely provides enough tactile feedback so that we know exactly when a key has been activated. That said, we still prefer the tactile feeling of real keys. Also, the keys light up in a bright red when the phone is active, but when the backlighting is off, they go completely dark.
The navigation array locks up when the phone is closed or when you're on a call, but fortunately, LG has incorporated a handy hold/lock switch on the right spine. The volume rocker, headset jack, voice command key, and charger jack are on the left spine, while the microSD card slot, the aforementioned hold/lock switch, and a dedicated music key is on the right. Slide open the phone and you'll finally find the Send and End/Power keys, a dedicated camera key, plus the alphanumeric keypad. This is a big improvement over last year's model where the End/Power key was on the right spine. Even though the keypad seemed crowded, the keys are actually quite tactile, as they are raised above the surface, and we could dial by feel as well. When the phone is slid open, the camera lens and self-portrait mirror appear on the back of the front cover.
Continuing the Chocolate's stylish trend is its choice of menu themes. Unlike the much-maligned standard Verizon menu design, the LG VX8550 Chocolate sports two Flash-based designs--Rhythm and Blues or Rock 'n' Roll options--that arrange the menu options in a circle. With the circular arrangement, the scroll wheel makes so much more sense, and we could scroll through the options easily.
Features
Much like the LG VX8500 Chocolate before it, the LG VX8550 Chocolate comes loaded with a slew of multimedia options. But first, the basics. The VX8550 Chocolate comes with a 500-entry phone book, and each entry can hold five phone numbers and two e-mail addresses. The contacts can be organized into groups, assigned a photo for caller ID, or paired with one of 20 polyphonic ringtones. Other features include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, voice command and dialing, a calculator, a calendar, an alarm clock, a world clock, a notepad, a tip calculator, plus e-mail and instant messaging. The speakerphone can be activated prior to a call by holding down on the speakerphone key. There's also stereo Bluetooth, which is great for listening to music. You can also use Bluetooth to send business card information, sync contacts and calendars, or be used as a modem with your PC. Since the LG VX8550 Chocolate has 3G, EV-DO support, it's also compatible with Verizon's V Cast streaming video service with the full range of content offerings.
The standout feature of the LG Chocolate is its music player. It supports Verizon's V Cast Music service, meaning you can download songs directly to the phone over the air for $1.99. The price includes a simultaneous download to the PC as well. If you wish to save money, songs downloaded to the PC directly are 99 cents, which you can then transfer to your PC via a USB cable or microSD card. Supported file formats include WMA and MP3. Thanks to the dedicated music key on the right spine, we can activate the music player right away, and navigating with the scroll wheel is very simple, as we mentioned earlier. Music player features include shuffle and repeat modes, several equalizer effects, a music-only mode without any graphics, and the ability to create playlists.
While the previous LG Chocolate did not come with a microSD card or a USB cable, the LG VX8550 Chocolate can be purchased in an entire Music Set. This "Music Set 4.0" includes both the LG Chocolate as well as the Music Essentials 4.0 kit, which has a slew of accessories for your new Chocolate. They include an LG stereo Bluetooth headset, a very impressive 4GB microSD card, an SD card adapter for the microSD card, a USB cable, and Verizon's Music Manager software CD. If you wish to purchase the entire Music Set with the phone included, it's $249.98. The Music Essentials 4.0 kit by itself is $199.99, so it makes economic sense to just get the Music Set.
The LG VX8550 Chocolate has a 1.3-megapixel camera much like that of its predecessor. Camera settings include three different resolutions (1,280x960, 640x480, 320x240), a self-timer, white balance, color effects, night mode, spot or average metering, plus the choice of three shutter sounds (with a silent option). There's also 2x zoom for use at lower resolutions. The built-in camcorder has two recording times--30 seconds or so for MMS, and an hour or more for as much space as there's available. The white balance and color effects settings are the same as the still camera. Photo quality was pretty amazing. Images were saturated with color, and objects weren't blurry. Low-light photos did not fare as well because of the lack of flash. Video quality was all right but pretty grainy and shaky as is to be expected from a camera phone.
You can personalize the LG Chocolate with a variety of wallpapers, alert sounds, and display themes. If you want more options or more ringtones, polyphonic or MP3, you can download them via the WAP 2.0 wireless browser. No games or special applications are included on the phone, but a variety of options are available for purchase from Verizon's Get It Now service.
Performance
We tested the dual-band, dual-mode (CDMA 800/1900; EV-DO) LG VX8500 Chocolate in San Francisco using Verizon's service. Call quality was impressive, and we had no problem getting a signal. Callers could still tell were using a cell phone, but they had no problem hearing or understanding us. The speakerphone quality was also good; incoming sound was loud and clear and callers could hear us just fine. We were able to pair the Chocolate with the Cardo S-2 stereo Bluetooth headset and enjoyed great sound quality with both calls and music.
EV-DO speeds were remarkably fast. Song downloads took less than a minute, and browsing was great. Streaming video did pause for some rebuffering, but it wasn't that bad. We were also very impressed with the music quality overall. When heard from the stereo speaker, sound quality was kind of thin, but it was still sufficiently loud. A stereo Bluetooth headset of course makes the music sound even better. It probably won't replace a dedicated MP3 player, but it's good enough for short stints of music. The LG VX8550 Chocolate has a rated talk time of 4 hours and a promised standby time of 14 days. Our tests revealed a talk time of 4 hours and 41 minutes. According to FCC radiation tests, the LG VX8550 Chocolate has a digital SAR rating of 1.29 watts per kilogram.