Customer Reviews

LG Chocolate VX8550 Phone, Maroon (Verizon Wireless, Phone Only, No Service)

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

 

 

I have to say that I'm happy I ignored negative reviews about this phone. These people are probably not as technically inclined as I am (sorry), but this phone is wonderful. There are two things that I want from a phone: style and good features. This phone has both. I love gadgets, and I own everything electronic. I personally do carry a wifi enabled pda (with a camera, calendar, and ability to play music and movies) and/or laptop (with GPS) with me most times, so it's not important that my phone has it all. Other than that, this phone has what I need and the features are so easy to use.

Here is a list of my favorite features of the phone:
1. Voice activated menus...that feature works flawlessly. Being able to use the feature to call up any song or any number or anyone on my contact list without programming is fabulous. I love it.
2. I love that I don't have to buy wallpaper or music espressly for this phone. I already had a micro SD card with music and photos on it, and I was able to transfer them very easily. Because the manual does NOT include it (which is suspicious), here's how to transfer music onto the phone very easy:
-You have to get a micro SD card and adapter...If you have a dell laptop, there is a slot expressly for SD cards. Otherwise you will need that USB cable that Verizon sells.
-On the phone, you will need to enter the mini SD card and format it for use with the phone. Go to the Settings menu and select memory at the bottom of the menu. Select save options, and choose sounds, then card memory. Your phone will be ready for file transfers from your computer to the phone.
-The phone will transfer mp3s and wma files. Insert sd into its adapter and either insert it or the cable onto the computer.
-Now your ready to copy your music files. You will copy it into the temporary drive for the SD card, into the "my music" folder. You can do the same for your pictures, in the "My Pix" folder. There is also a folder for your videos.
-When you are done, you will insert the mini SD card back, and go to My Music, the files will be there. Tada. It's not that complicated, but to do it right, follow these instructions. You don't have to buy their music and pics, just rip your CDs and turn them into MP3's and copy personal pics onto camera to use as wallpaper.
3. Good Volume
-After having a nextel motorola phone, which has an excellent loud volume on calls (unlike the Razr V3 which has horrendously low volume on calls), this phone has great sound. You don't have to strain, and the speakerphone is wonderful.
4. GPS Navigation is wonderful
-Although most verizon phones has this feature, it does work very well on this phone. I love the feature, and although my laptop has GPS navigation, it's not always convenient on the go. The navigator is very exact, audible and the turn by turn directions are great.

5. I love the navigation wheel on the phone. I did change the speed to medium, because it moved too slowly.

6. The tip calculator seems really cool. I never had one before.

7. The phone's appearance is beautiful and sleek. Its very small considering my old phone, but I love it. It's shiny, easy to use, and comfortable to carry. I'm very happy about the color, which is slightly irridecent and very glossy.

8. The phone charges rather quickly. I was think about getting the car adapter, but I've seen it charge within an hour.

9. The photos come out very sharp, without much effort. It has the ability to change the picture into sepia, black and white...that's pretty cool. The videos come out okay, but I must admit, I can't figure how to get better volume.

I'm happy. For those who want to text and pay all that money to have access to the internet..this ain't the phone for you. I have a PDA/laptop that picks up wifi (which they have at school and every Panera), so I don't need to get the data plan and blackberry. This is the phone for people that use a phone expressly for a phone, and want to play some music from time to time--and it looks cooler than talking into a square block phone.

My minimal gripes...
-The music feature's playlist organization should be easier. I assume if I chose to buy that software, it will make it easy to organize my files.
-The phone should come with the USB cable and memory card, but I understand why. Not everyone cares about the music/photo/video transfer feature.
-The phone's keypad is not friendly to those who heavily text--I personally don't like texting, but I can see why it may not be the best choice for that stuff. If you do some occasional texting it's fine.
-You have to buy specific earphones and accessories for this phone. I thought I could use my old hands free earphones--no. You must buy the ones to fit the chocolate.

Have fun with your chocolate phone.

I recently upgraded to the LG VX8550 (the new LG Chocolate) from a pretty cheap old motorola (no camera, small screen, etc). This phone is great if you're primarily looking for a phone that takes great pictures, has a Micro SD slot for music and pictures, is bluetooth and A2DP capable, and looks stylish. You can transfer wallpapers to your phone from your computer with the SD card, and text ringtones to yourself too, so no more paying for those extras! It also gets pretty good reception up in Vermont even outside of Burlington, which is a major plus. I talk and text on my Chocolate pretty often, and I'm highly satisfied with the general wireless functions regardless of all those extras.
However: be prepared to utilize warranty services, as this model tends to have some manufacturing faults. My first model overheated and only got about 12 hours of *standby* time on one charge, and couldn't handle phone calls over 25mins long. Went to Verizon the next week and traded her in for a new one, only to find that the slider and navigation wheel were loose right out of the box. This last bit is a common issue among Chocolate models, so the techs were ready to switch out for a third model (A+ service from Verizon, btw). Finally, the model I have works like a dream: I get hours of talk time, days on standby, and great sound/call/ringtone quality. I've had it for a month and the slider and nav wheel are still working great.
So:
Excellent Extras + Some well known manufacturing glitches = a phone for the stylish and patient who do more than just business calling.

This phone is absolutely gorgeous. Calls are clear and sharp. The speaker phone is plenty loud and clear. It has more fun to play with bells and whistles than any reasonable person could ask for, and they all work beautifully. The camera, both still and video, is amazingly good.

Now, on to the doubt part. I got the phone day before yesterday and I'm currently getting about 2 hours of talk time per charge. Also, it refuses to stay paired with my bluetooth headset. I'm taking it back to my verizon store tomorrow and hoping they'll exchange it.

I will update this review after I've had the replacement a couple of days. I really am hoping for the best, because I can easily see myself truly loving this pretty pretty little phone.

Okay! I swapped out the phone and played with it until the minimal charge it came with was used up then gave it a full charge. I then made 2 long (45 minutes plus) phone calls, played with it some more, and listened to around 5, 5 and a half hours of music before it needed recharging, which I think is perfectly acceptable.

It's almost official - I love this phone!

I bought this phone over the weekend. I was a little hesitant about spending so much money (it is new so kinda pricey), but now I am sooo glad that I did. The phone is gorgeous. The interface is very classy and bright. Even the lighting on the phone is spectacular. It just looks very appealing!
Anyway, coming from a flip phone, I had been worried about getting used to the touch sensitive keys and slider design. Seriously, though, within an hour of playing around with it, I felt like I had been using it forever. As for the touch sensitive keys, they really aren't that bad at all. You get used to them. As for the comments about rubbing against the keys during a call, this doesn't really happen. After you've been on the phone for so long (maybe a minute or so) those keys lock up, so you can't hit them accidentally anyway. This does make it a little difficult to turn on the speaker phone mid-call, though, because you have to unlock the keypad again before you can press it. But seriously, not a big deal.
The phone feels very durable and so far the call quality is great. The battery seems to be doing pretty well too, but I'm the person who charges my phone every night regardless of whether or not the battery is low.
All in all, get this phone! You'll love it!

First off I didn't buy this phone at Amazon because verizon had a better deal directly. That said I am quite pleased with this cell phone. As I am new to the whole cell phone thing ( past 5 years ) this was a quantum leap from my old pay as you go phone. There was a learning curve to all the buttons and whistles this phone has on board but if your patient and RTFM that comes with the phone it is a fun piece of equipment to own and operate.
Phone reception is pretty good and the camera is feature filled with decent quality. If there are any down sides to this phone it's that the touch sensitive buttons can be mildly annoying and the MP3 player could be more intuitive AKA I-pod or creative labs players. As I tend to be somewhat ham handed texting is more a function of the times then something I gotta have so any multi-use hand held device wouldn't get a good rating from me in this area. The benefits far outweigh the deficits as far as I'm concerned so my 5 star is objective to my most used features and don't warrant that this makes this any less a 5 star in my book.

I love this phone! We just switched from Sprint (terrible customer service!) and I don't know if it's this phone or the service, but the calls are loud and crystal clear! The battery seems to last forever (compared to my Razr I was using w/ Sprint). I got a 2GB memory card (LOVE that it takes those!) and easily loaded it with music that I can play on my phone...don't need an iPod with this phone.
The menu is a little less intuitive than ones I'm used to, but after a day or two of really playing with it, we've learned to use it pretty well.
I only gave it 4 stars for two reasons: One is the address book...there is no space in a contact for a note like "Joe's cousin" or "Open 8-10", there isn't a Birthday/Anniversary field, and there is also not an address field. Two is sometimes the voice dialing "ie: Call Mom Mobile" has trouble understanding me, but mostly has trouble understanding my fiance (who got the dark blue model).
We easily transferred our contacts via bluetooth.

Overall though, we both love our phones and are really happy with them so far. (About 2 weeks now)

I just received my chocolate a few days ago and I have say it is quite beautiful. The color is a deep, rich red and it is amazingly very light in weight. The navigation wheel is something I have to get use to since all my previous phones were the traditional flip-open type. I am still learning the features of this phone. So far what I do find annoying is the sensitivity of the four control areas around the wheel. Whenever I am trying to modify my phone settings, enter new entries in my phonebook or even browse through my music list the slightest touch to any of those control areas will change the screen. It is quite annoying and at times frustrating.

I never had a cell phone that played music so this one is a novelty. I opted to using the micro SD and an SD adapter for my pc. At first I couldn't download any songs onto the SD from my pc because it kept declaring that the SD was write-protected. What I found out later was that there is a lever at the side of the adapter that you have to slide to unprotect it. This information would have save me some frustration if it was mentioned in the SD package and/or the Chocolate manual. In fact the manual doesn't even mention anything on how to download music, pics or sounds from the pc using an micro SD or USB cable.

BTW I bought my Sandisk 1 GB with 2 adapters from Amazon at a very cheap price. Verizon was selling the same thing for twice as much.

To sum it up the LG VX8550 Chocolate is a pretty cool phone...so far.

let me give a disclaimer that this is my 1st video/music/1.3 camera phone after using a phone that is 4 years old. i was filled with glee when i first got this one.

pros:
+ sleek, slim, and sexy slider phone
+ of good weight for a cell phone
+ color is awesome: dark bloody red!
+ nice finished gloss on phone
+ menu interface seems like other LGs. can move left to right for diff menus and up to down to look within each menu
+ each contact can have 7 info lines: mobile 1&2, home, work, email 1&2, fax
+ music is clear
+ music player stops when phone calls in! and plays once hung up! wow!
+ music shortcut smartkey is on the side of phone
+ complimented for the clear call quality!!
+ each side button/cover is of the glossy hard plastic, so no soft plastic covers!
+ 2gb microsd card
+ decent camera
+ has dedicated camera button
+ EZ tip calculator! interesting.
+ accessories can be found cheap

cons:
- navigation wheel and touchpad are kind of too close together and my fingers sometimes tap on the touchpad when i meant to slide the wheel. both still sensitive to the touch.
- navigation wheel feels flimsy to me
- can't adjust music player volume until played. this makes for a loud noise when u decide to play it in a setting that is quieter than the last setting you were in.
- needs headphone adapter
- video recording isn't the sharpest but usable
- zooming of video recording allowed but *clicking* of zoom is recorded loudly
- phone lock is on too quickly (ie: when in music player and want to skip, searching through phonebook and pausing for a bit)
- speaker is on back of phone so when music player is on, have to lie it face down to hear clearly
- menu items are set and unchangeable (order-wise or items shown)
- no games
- number pad feels small to me. i end up misstexting letters
- 5-minute alarm snoozes?!
- bad ringtones that arrived with it
- some pictures are undeletable that arrived with it

When first purchasing this product I was very hesitant. In the past few years I had always had flip phones and became very comfortable with them. I was very unsure of the idea of a sliding phone and at first wanted my flip phone back. After using the phone for almost a year now I am very pleased. I am infamous for going through many phones after becoming annoyed with them, but I am happy to report that I still love my chocolate. The slider works perfectly. It is very easy to open the phone with one hand with little effort. In terms of the touch pad, I know there were many problems with the first generation of chocolate phones and their sensitivity but I turned the sensitivity down to medium when I first received the phone and I have never had any problems with it.
Also, I love the color. I have always had silver phones and with this phone I don't need a cover. The scratches are not incredibly noticeable like they always were with my old phones. I always seem to drop the phone or knock it against something so this is the perfect color if you don't want to show off your clumsiness. The only drawback of the color is if you want to put it in a large purse or bag... I tend to have trouble finding it in the bottom of my bags!
While this phone doesn't have all the capabilities of a blackberry or any of those newfangled gadgets, it is the perfect phone for someone that just wants a phone that makes phone calls. It does have the internet and an MP3 player and probably many other bells and whistles but it is not too complicated for someone that struggles technologically.
Overall I love this phone and I would definitely suggest it. After a year it still works wonderfully and I am very pleased!

I took a gamble after reading some good and some really bad things about this phone. I had a LG VX8300 for a little over two years and felt that it was time for a free upgrade. I waited a month or so until they got this black cherry color in and I ordered it with my fingers crossed. I had no complaints with my last phone, but these two are like night and day. The chocolate is very sleek looking on the outside and it's menu interface is so much more interactive, not to mention more pleasing to the eyes, than the VX8300. The scroll wheel works great (much like an iPod) as do the touch sensitive buttons located below the screen.

I have only had it for a day, so problems could occur in the future, but as of now, I think I made the right choice.