Customer Reviews

LG LX550 / LX-550 / LX-550 Sprint Fusic Power VisionSM Phone

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

When I bought this phone recently, the Sprint salesman said, "the only thing that this phone can't do is fly." He's right.

Major features on this phone (aside from good ol' features like "it makes phone calls"):

-The phone doubles as an MP3 Player, which works very well (the phone includes stero headphones - along with a hands free microphone. The cool thing about the headphone/microphone setup is that the microphone is the part that plugs into the phone, and then the headphones plug into the microphone: which means you can use any headphones you want with a standard sized headphone jack like that you'd find in an iPod or similar. Not only does that allow you to hear your music clearer, but you can also hear conversations better.

-The phone has a built in FM transmitter. Ignore the reviewers who said that they're transmitter didn't work: either they got a defective phone or they have no idea what they're doing. It's worked fine for me: in fact, used on my home stereo, I can be on the opposite side of the room. I particularly enjoy this feature because I don't own a car: I'm a member of Zipcar (zipcar.com) car sharing - so now I don't have to bring CDs with me as I'm changing from car to car - I just have to have my phone with me, which I would anyway.

-The phone has a Micro SD card slot for memory expansion. The phone includes a 64MB card (the largest card to be included with a phone) but it'd be wise to purchase a larger card eventually. Th card can be used for MP3s, photos, videos, files, etc. Also included with the phone is an adapter so that you can fit the micro SD card into a standard memory card slot. Files from the micro SD card can easily be transferred into albums and files on the phone. The phone comes with a USB cable which enables you to either use the phone as a modem, or to use the micro SD card as a flash drive - this is an awesome feature because it essentially makes the phone in a portable hard drive.

-The phone has a 1.3 megapixel camera/video camera. Not only can you take short 30 second videos to send (either to another phone, email address, etc...) but you can also shoot 'long videos' which can basically be as long as the micro SD card will allow before it's memory gets filled. There is also a flash included on the phone (the camera has many other standard features too, such as the ability to shoot black and white, sepia, negative, etc...) for being a camera on a phone, the photos that it takes are pretty sharp!

-The Phone has Sprint's PowerVision capabilities - you can watch live TV, check your email, browse the internet, check the weather, news, get maps and directions, etc... The Power Vision is much faster than Sprint's standared Vision services. You can of course also send and receive video and picture mail.

-Along with those major features the phone includes a slew other more standard features such as calandar, voice memos, alarms, Bluetooth capabilities, a music composer which allows you to create your own rings, etc, and a million other things.

Overall, this is a great phone that can do pretty much anything for you. The best thing is that all these features fit in a phone that has a shell that's smaller than the popular Razor phone (as far as overall dimensions go - it's not quite as thin as the Razor, but close).

You can't go wrong with this phone.

Ah, this phone is excellent. There is a wide variety of ringtones ranging from "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to simple Melodies. It is lightweight and it feels comfortable enough to hold next to your face while you talk. It is very user friendly and easy to get used to. Also, the dial buttons are very nice, unlike the Razrs. The screen quality is beautiful and the camera is very nice. Great pictures. You DO have to buy a seperate Micro SD card if you want your own music on it from your computor. Just put the SD card into your computor, drag and drop the music files, and you're good to go.

I got this phone in early September 2006 and paid $100 more for it than it costs now. Both my husband and I got the same phone. His phone may rate as high as a 2 or 3 but I'm giving mine a 1. I'm already on my second one. I have a lot of problems with the phone "echoing." Everything I say gets repeated back to me and I can't hear the other person. Sprint told me it was a problem with the phone and gave me a different one... but now my 30-day exchange period is up and this one is even worse than the first. It doesn't happen on every call, but it happens often enough to be extremely annoying.

Other problems -- BATTERY LIFE GETS A NEGATIVE 10. My battery is often completely dead after 1-2 hours of standby, non-roaming use. I've been stranded without a phone DOZENS of times. I charge it up all night, leave the house with it fully charged in the morning, maybe make one two minute phone call, and it powers off with a dead battery within 2 hours. I also have a tremendous problem with it constantly saying "Data Call in Progress." This is obviously what is running the battery down every day, but no one at Sprint can tell me what is making that happen and I'm not running any applications or making any data calls. I try dialing out, and I can't - it says Data Call In Progress. I try in vain to find anything that is running or making a data call, power off, pull out the battery, start back up -- and it still says Data Call in Progress. Then my phone powers off because the battery is dead. I've been trying to find a car charger and an extended life battery, but neither are available at my local Sprint store, on the Sprint website, or on Amazon as far as I can tell.

Camera -- I bought this phone because I wanted a megapixel camera and this seemed like it would be a good one. Every picture, however, is horrible. Much worse than the crappy old phone I had before that had a low resolution camera. Colors are distorted and you practically need to mount the phone on a tripod to get a steady shot (not that you can actually do that).

Music -- It's very annoying that the Sprint Music store launches every single time you want to play a song. Also, the Sprint music player can't play MP3s that you load from your computer. You can only play those through a separate part of the phone, and then it only works if the phone is OPEN. You also have to advance to the next song yourself because there is no play list of your own songs. It works fine for the songs you buy through the Sprint store, however.

FM Transmitter -- I've tried three phones now (my first one, my current one, and my husband's Fusic) -- in three different vehicles, and the FM Transmitter didn't work at all in any of them. The guy at the Sprint store told me that is common, his wife's doesn't work either. Apparently you will have better luck if your car has an antenna built into the face plate inside the car, or it would possibly work if you wanted to stick it in the back window closer to the antenna.

Vision - WHAT A HUGE RIP-OFF. My previous plan, which I used with my old phone that broke in half, included Vision for free. I didn't change my plan at all, I just changed our two phones -- so imagine my surprise when I found out that I was now being billed an extra $50 a month for Vision. I called them and they said my plan included regular Vision and this phone doesn't work with regular Vision so they automatically "upgraded" me to Power Vision Ultimate for $25 per line. Information that would have been useful for them to share with me before I bought this phone. There are some cool features with the Sprint On Demand, such as movie listings and Mapquest locations on your phone, but the few times I've actually needed to use those services, the Sprint network has been down and unable to connect. Plus - $25 per line per month for Power Vision and that doesn't even include text messaging??

Alarm - you can't change the interval of the Snooze. You could do this in my old phone and it was very handy.

Receiving Calls - I'm not sure if this a problem with the Sprint network or with this phone, but half the time, these dumb phones don't ring. My husband and I have tested it (because it causes many an argument when you call someone ten times and they don't answer and then you found out the phone never rang). We have tried it out at home. Both phones turned on, both show a full signal, both have the ringer volume on... but we try calling them, either from a landline or from the other phone, and it goes straight into voicemail and never rings at all. Then the voicemail indicator goes off and you have the message, but the phone never rang and nothing shows up in the missed call log. That's happened when other people have tried to call me too, from other wireless networks. The phone just goes straight to voicemail. This doesn't happen all the time either, but I bet it's at least 30-40% of the time.

Overall, I'm extremely disappointed and not at all happy to be stuck in yet another two year contract with a crappy, useless phone that is never there when I really need it. Either the battery is dead, I can't call out because it's stuck in some mysterious data call mode, or the stupid thing just doesn't ring or register my calls. However, at least if you buy it now, you'll save $100 over what I paid for it.

the phone is awesome. if you go to newegg.com you can even get a gig of memory for just over 40 bucks. the transmitter is a little tricky at first, what with finding an empty station that will accept the incoming transmission clearly. over all a great phone. send and receives calls even when no signal bars are showing, as long as service symbol is on display. definitely worth the money they are asking for it.

I absolutely love this phone. When I first went to the sprint store to get a new phone and plan I picked the Katana (Sprint's Razr). While "test driving" the Katana for a while I became increasingly dissatisfied with it. After deciding I wanted a different phone I narrowed it down to the Samsung A900 and the LG Fusic. Not doing much research I picked the fusic. This was a great descision.

-FM transmitter> Didnt care about it when I bought the phone and now I use it every day. It works excellent in my truck (to the point that I forget sometimes and try to change the track on my cd player). In some of my friends vehicles it doesnt work as well, although that is probably due to their antenna.

-Style> I think the phone look and feels really good. The white is kind of pearly and the phone comes with four different collored face plates. The only negative is that the phone is not popular enough for companies to start making new face plates with alternate collors and designs.

-MP3 player> The speaker on the phone works very well. If you are in a room or on a walk, you and people around you can easily hear the music playing out of the phone. When you get in the car, just press a button to switch to the FM transmitter. Then when you get out and walk into work plug the headphones in and it automatically switches to headset mode. Very simple.

-Camera> I hear its good but i never use it. My Casio exilim is always in my other pocket ready to go.

-Negative> The only problem for me is when the MP3 player is in use it is not possible to make a call and then continue listening when your done. After making a call you must re-enter the mp3 function and find whatever you were listening to again.

Overall, this is a fantasic phone and i feel lucky to have stumbled upon it.

I just took advantage of a weekend sale which allowed me to buy this phone for $50 after all of the rebates. Of course I had to sign up for a new 2 year agreement, but I've been with Sprint ever since the mid 90's so I guess it's not to much of a stretch. My previous phone was a Samsung i300 Palm/phone hybrid. This fusic model is alot smaller and I have to get used to it's smaller size in my hand and in my pocket.

There is alot to be desired with this phone considering the price---

-decent reception and digital signal/digital roaming

-looks hot (obvious ipod influence) and you can change the faceplate color

-unlike the i-pod, you can hear music with the built-in speaker

-you can download music from Sprint store or load your own tunes to play

-The interface and navigation is easy for the most basic phone tasks (making calls, adding contacts, using cam)

-FM transmitter is awesome. Probably the best feature on this phone

-You can play music without opening the phone

-Sprint's Powervision

-wireless backup which comes in handy if you lose the data on your phone

-phone can be used as modem (Of course you have to pay a whopping fee for service)

-dedicated camera and volume rocker buttons

-expanded memory using a micro SD card (comes packaged with a 64mb card along with a standard SD adaptor)

-bluetooth capable

-You can use popular IM/web mail portals like yahoo, AOL, Earthlink, etc.

Now....for what I wasn't crazy about:

-NO ANALONG ROAMING! I think I'll miss this most from my old phone.

-Songs from the Sprint music store are expensive. Right now, they have a 3/$5 special. The regular price for just 1 song is $2.50! rip-off.

-When the music is playing, you can't do anything else. On the other hand, I must note that if you're getting a call, the music will stop for you to answer it. Then after the call is finished, you will resume music where you left off.

-The speakerphone is competent at best.

-The ringtone choices are not good at all. I think they do this on purpose so that you can download ringtones from Sprint.

-Don't rely on the camera. Unless you have a really steady hand.

-The more advanced features are more difficult to access. For example, enabling bluetooth requires several steps. The same goes for the FM transmitter configuration.

I'm probably missing a few for both pros and cons. I'm really into gadgets so a phone like this suits me just fine. I don't know if the simple cell phone user would find this ideal since there are so many features and not all of them are easy to access. If you're not into all the bells and whistles, then stay away from this phone. But if you're into playing digital music, text messaging, and all the jazz that Sprint's Powervision has to offer, then I strongly recommend the fusic.

Contrary to the negative reports I've read on the FM transmitter feature, I find it to be an amazing feature. The thing to remember is that you have to experiment with all the possible channels you're using to get the best signal. They give you like 12 open slots for you to program. You can't tell me that all 12 of your choices won't work right. All in all, nice addition to the Sprint line-up.

I'll qualify my remarks-the first Fusic that I purchased had to be replaced after 2 days because it wouldn't ring when the number was dialed. My local Sprint store replaced it with no problems. This review is for the 2nd phone, which functions as it should.

The call clarity is exceptional. It's hard to tell you're using a cell phone. Reception is great even in marginal areas.

The FM transmitter works well. I have a Subaru with the radio antenna built into the rear window and the FM transmitter sends signal to it with no problem as long as the phone is on the dashboard. If I try to put the phone in my pocket or below line-of-sight of the antenna it doesn't work.

The phone is fairly small and the buttons on the side are easy to press when talking on it. The case is also slick which can make it a little difficult to hold. However I always keep my cell phones in a leather case, so that problem is alleviated.

The menu system is easy to navigate. The music player takes a little getting used to, but once you figure out the controls it's simple to use.

Overall I'm very satisfied with the phone. LG has a real winner with this one.

After 3 years of beating up my old, very basic LG I needed a new phone. I normally don't care for all the bells and whistles on a phone. Normally I think its just more to break or will just lead to me giving sprint more of my money.

The MP3 player part of this phone is great. I love that I can put my own music on the phone. I bought a 512mb micro SD card here on Amazon for less than 20 dollars and can fit about 150 songs on that. That is plenty for a road trip or riding the bus to and from work. Right now the largest card is 1 MB but a 2MB will be coming out in the fall. The controls might not be as intuitive and the actual mp3 player as fancy as an Ipod but it works well enough. The phone comes with a set of bud earphones with good sound. I understand that if I purchase bluetooth earphones some music (unlicensed) will not stream over them. I'm not that annoyed by the cords.

The FM transmitter is fantastic. If you are driving a long distance and a station comes in strong on what was an open channel you'll have to change station settings. You also need to keep the phone fairly close to the radio. I live in a city and park on the street. I love not keeping many CDs in the car anymore. Before I had to be bothered with stashing them away or taking them in and out of the car.

Sometimes people have a hard time hearing me over the speakerphone. The speaker is loud and I hear them well if I turn it up. The reception I get with it is the best that you'll get with sprint. It's also a great looking phone and I get compliments all the time. I'm happy with my purchase.

I returned this phone due to multiple issues. First irritation I discovered was that if you don't like the handful of ringtones and other noises that come with the phone you MUST buy new ones from Sprint Vision because there is no way to load your own from your computer or from the SD card to the phone. Sprint Vision costs upwards of $15 a month. Ringtones, songs, applications, games and whatnot are $2.50 upwards and must be renewed every 60 to 90 days so think of just how much it will cost you to really be able to use this phone before you buy it.

The FM transmitter works but the sound quality is so so and there will be static if you use it in your car. I found that getting a extension cord to power it in the car and using suction cups to stick it to the window behind the driver seat really helps reception and battery life. This works in my car based on the location of my cars antenna. Adjust this method to best fit your car if you try it. Haven't found a method to get the transmitter to work in my Semi unless I am parked.

Micro SD cards come in the 2 gig size. I highly recommend purchasing a 1 or 2 gig card as the included card will only hold about 20 songs if you put nothing else on it. Do note though that a 1 gig card loaded fully with music your music player on the phone will be slow to load but it will load and work provided all the songs are in the music file on the card. Use the phone to format the card before you put anything on it at all and be certain to load your songs into the music folder the phone puts on the card and you'll save yourself a great deal of trouble.

My phone developed the problem of only playing 20 seconds of music before stopping and restarting the song. I tried recording the song in at a better quality level and though that version played fine on my stereo via my usual MP3 player the phone had the same glitch playing it.

The last straw for my phone was it dropping calls when I was standing still in a high coverage area but only for certain land line numbers. It dropped calls to sprint customer service so often that the only way I had to reach sprint customer service was to call them from a land line phone!

I can't recommend this phone. This is an updated review. I'd lower my star count to zero now if I could. The only perk now was that sprint made the return by mail process fairly painless and I now have a phone that works.

Hope this was helpful.

I have had this phone for about a month and a half and am impressed with the quality of it. I am however on my third one, and being told I need to return it for a fourth, because of the fact that every one I have had so far has been unable to download the Firmware Update. Without this update the Media Player that lets you play music from the SD Micro has a habit of freezing at completely random times while listening to music. I then have to restart the Media Player, and even if I do that there is a 50% chance that it will simply freeze again on any other song I play.

I have also had a slight problem with overheating, but it only occurred after watching clips for a period of about 8-10 minutes. It is completely understandable that the phone would get quite warm after doing this so I have not been to mad about it.

All in all I believe that this is a good phone even though I will probably be returning it and using a different one from here on. If you buy this phone however I would have to agree with what other people have stated, make sure the store you buy it from has an excellent return policy just in case...