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LG Voyager and I part ways, but amicably.

Ronn likes the LG Voyager a lot, but two basic hangups mean the two must part.

Ronn Owens
Ronn Owens is a host for KGO Radio. When not working on his daily talk show, he is pursuing the latest in cell phones.
Ronn Owens
2 min read

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.

The Voyager is the closest thing yet to an iPhone from the outside.
The Voyager is the closest thing yet to an iPhone from the outside. LG

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.

Now THAT's a keyboard.
Now THAT's a keyboard. LG

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!