Customer Reviews

LG Accolade VX5600 Phone (Verizon Wireless)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Refusing to purchase a smart phone and the $30 / month data plan that must be purchased with it, I opted for an Ipod Touch (for the PDA I need) and the Accolade, for the simple phone I need. It's everything I wanted - just a phone that is easy to use and can hold lots of contacts. The keypad is large even though the phone is compact; the display is bright and colorful. My one drawback is the camera. If a good phone had been available without one, I would have gotten it. The placement of the camera button on the side of the phone was an engineering mistake. It's difficult to open the phone without activating the camera, and I've found no way to disable the camera. Otherwise, this phone is nearly perfect for what I want - a non-data instrument with good sound and easy to use.

I have two big complaints, but it has a lot of nice qualities too.

First, the complaints: it has a decent camera, but no way to transfer pictures to your PC besides expensive picture messaging. If you're the type that wants to pay for picture messaging, you're probably not the type that's going to buy this phone. It has a USB cable and bluetooth, but doesn't support transferring pictures via either of them. So all the pictures you take are trapped on your phone.

My second complaint is the poor sound quality. Voices sound garbled. It's bad in both directions: I'm constantly asking people to repeat themselves, and they're asking me to do the same.

Things I like: the two screens, the small size, the loud speakerphone, the searchable address book, the configurable menus, and the included ringtones.

Overall, the phone has a nice look and feel. Now if only it sounded as good as it looked and the camera wasn't crippled by lack of transfer capability...

Overall, this is a pretty decent basic phone. The battery life is reasonably good (although more on this below) and the sound quality is pretty good as well - nice and loud if you want or need it to be. The ringtones are limited and generally bad, but I don't care much about that. And there aren't many bells and whistles. Still, if you're looking for a phone that will make good quality calls that you won't have to charge often, this phone isn't a bad choice.

Except for the fact that the camera button on the outside of the phone is very sensitive. If it's "held down," even when the phone is closed, the camera is activated. If it is then "held down" further, the phone starts taking pictures. The big problem is that it's far to easy for the button to be inadvertently activated while the phone is in your pocket. Sometimes you can even hear it taking pictures as it sits in your pocket or bag. You then end up with hundreds of pictures of the black interior of your pocket. If you take pictures that you care about, this is really annoying as this can quickly fill up the memory and you have to delete all of the mistake pictures (not to hard if you "Mark all" when deleting and then unselect those that you want to keep - assuming you don't have many pics that you want to keep). And this can't be good for the battery life if the camera keeps flipping on.

This is a pretty silly design flaw. I'm not sure why one can't disable the camera, or at least disable the camera when the phone is closed (and believe me, I've searched all over the web for a way to do this). If you think that this would bother you, then don't get this phone as it will definitely happen. Perhaps you could get some sort of case that makes the camera button less prone to being triggered, but I don't want a camera case, I just want a simple little phone that I can put in my pocket that won't produce a portfolio of pictures of said pocket.

First the good, don't worry, it's a short list:
Good menu layout
Decent size buttons (for older folk)
A nice suite of tools.
Decent battery life.

The bad:
Hard to open.
Camera keeps taking pictures of pocket
Pictures taken cannot be downloaded to PC via USB cable
Sound is poor
Speaker is poor

The bottom line:
I would not buy this phone again and I would not recommend it to anyone.

The LG Accolade is a great cheap phone. I've had high end phones, which the Accolade is not, but for an inexpensive phone, it is really great. The sync feature, LG Outlook Sync, which I downloaded from LG, works well with MS Outlook Contacts and Calendar. The camera turn-off issue is not an issue for me because when I open the flip, activate the camera, and then close the flip, the camera goes off almost immediately. Get this: I went wading with the LG in one pocket at my iPod Nano in the other. The Nano is dead while the LG lives on and never missed a call. The Accolade has one very big design flaw, I think: If you have it turned on (for its non-telephone functions like Contacts, Calendar, Alarm Clock) while out of range of signals for an extended period, it will practically cook itself (and use up its battery in the process) in under a day. Normally, batter life is like four to five days! I think this is because it is constantly looking for a signal that isn't there. The phone actually gets hot to the touch! The Bluetooth functionality works perfectly with my Garmin Nuvi GPS. I love this phone.

Swapped to this phone because of the T4 rating. Excellent sound when using the telecoil program in my hearing aids. I like that plus the small size and good basic functionality. However.....spending time every week deleting tens to hundreds of pictures of the inside of my pocket is driving me nuts. Searching forums online shows this problem has been known to the company for 2-3 years and no fix is available. The camera button is on the side of the phone and is very sensitive as reported by many others. Also I find that the volume doesn't keep my setting. Control for that function is also on the side of the phone and probably gets reset if a nickel or something in your pocket bumps that instead of the camera button! I'll look for a shield for this phone to protect the buttons. Intentional pictures are good and I am able to transfer them to the computer using the usb cable that is (cleverly, I think) part of the charger/cable assembly. For me the good performance with hearing aids is essential so overall I'm three starts satisfied with this phone. If I can find a way to kill the "pocket pix problem" I'd give it 4 stars.

I want to re-iterate the point make by a previous reviewer. You ought to be able to disable the camera button, but you cannot. It's really irritating. I feel that a simple phone should support people who want simple, clean functionality. When I want to make a phone call, I don't want to take pictures of my desk, the ground, etc.

On the plus side, I like that the cover on the USB connector seems sturdy and unlikely to be ripped off. The buttons are big -- easy to read, easy to press accurately.

Why do designers insist on "cool things" on a simple phone when what the users want is to be able to disable them when they get in the way?

This phone takes pictures on it's own constantly. Sound quality is poor. Phone is flimsy, not durable and scratches easily. Would not recommend this phone to anyone.

I found this Cell phone to be a very good product. I prefer not to be commited to a company for a 1 or 2 year contract and thus this phone filled my needs.
LG Accolade VX5600 Phone (Verizon Wireless, Phone Only, No Service

I needed a "basic" phone with good sound and big dialing buttons & found all of these features in this phone! It's your basic run-of-the-mill phone,so I can't really say too much bad about it. I think it has great sound, great reception, & haven't had a problem messing up a phone number when dialing. Overall a really good phone. Only bad point is that the pictures you take with this phone can't be transfered via USB cable on to your PC. You have to e-text somebody with the picture included.