Customer Reviews

LG VX8350 Phone (Verizon Wireless)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I have owned quite a few phones over the course of the last few years (to my wifes chagrin), the RAZR, Chocolate, KRZK, enV, VX9400, Blackberry 8830 and various other Samsungs, LGs and Motorolas. For this round, I was looking for a middle of the road phone (considering I have to pay full price due to my contract not being up) that had great reception and call quality. A camera was also required but not a high megapixel one. I did a lot of research via the internet and looked specifically at consumer reviews (the company reviews tend to rate things too high or seem to be somewhat biased). At the end of my 3 week search I decided to go with the 8350.

I have now had it for a day and I must say I am impressed. It is exactly what I was looking for. Here are my observations so far:

- Excellent reception, probably the best I have experienced in a cell.
- Great call quality.
- Ability to read text message on cover screen is really nice (FYI - volume keys are used to scroll up and down)
- Pics are great from a quality standpoint.
- Voice dialing is very good. My blackberry occasionally would not recognize the name but this 8350 does a really good job. I have it paired with a Jawbone bluetooth headset. See my review on the Jawbone.
- Screen resolutions is just ok, little on the low side.
- Opening the phone one handed is a little bit of a challenge but get used to it.
- I do agree with the other review, that the font on the dialing is HUGE, but I am ok with that.

Overall I am happy with my purchase. Updates to follow as I have more experience with it. Stay tuned!!

Update: 11/1/07
Still happy with my purchase. Voice clarify on both ends is excellent and the volume is more than adequate. Battery life is good but I have ordered the extended battery. Couple minor annoyances that I have noticed:

- Screen resolution is a little fuzzy. Not very crisp compared to other, higher end phones.
- Taking pictures is not always "what you see is what you get". What I mean by this is that I took a photo in landscape orientation and while when the pic was taken it filled the screen, when it was saved it was quite different. The pic was about 1/2 size.

Update 12/17/07
- Here is another minor item that I have noted with this phone and maybe it is just mine....normally phones give you a little bit of feedback in the ear piece (if you know what I mean). This one's feedback goes in an out. Sometimes it has the feedback and at other times it goes completely silent. It is a distracting when this happens but nothing serious.

The LG VX8350 is a pretty decent cell phone. I don't need it as an mp3 player, and I don't need it as a camera (often), so I have little to say about those features.

Pros:
It's built solidly and the hinge is nice and tight. The sound quality is an improvement over my Samsung u540 on both ends of a call, and according to one person I called, it "sounds like a land line." The screen is bright, with high contrast making text easy to read. The buttons are big enough, and have a good tactile feel to them. You can also reassign some buttons, which by default start up pay services but can instead be changed to start up a calculator, for example. There is also a microSD card slot on the side for adding music and video, but the card is sold separately.

It's not flashy or all that sexy. You'll have to decide if that's a pro or a con.

Cons:
The interface is Verizon's very own version and is not great. They limit what can be customized, and not surprisingly, ingrained lots of ways to charge you for services they offer. If you don't like the default ringtones, be prepared to pay up.

The camera feature is a decent 1.3 megapixel, but the shutter lag is absurd. If you want a picture of a moving car, you better push the button a full 2 seconds before you want the shot. You want a shot of your kid? You'd better hope he's asleep. Good news is you can email a photo (taken with an 'actual' camera) of your kid to your phone and get it that way.

The phone seems a little thick, but it's less than 7/8ths of an inch, which isn't bad. Since there's no external antenna I keep it in my pocket, but there isn't a lock button*, which causes two problems. 1) Any time a button is inadvertently pressed the external screen lights up, which needlessly uses the battery up, and 2) you can accidentally turn on the camera and take photos of the inside of your pocket. Not a big deal to erase them later, but you can wind up with dozens of photos of nothing. Just a nuisance.

*Okay, there is a lock feature buried in the menus, but it takes up to 12 key strokes to lock it. But there is no lock BUTTON.

Summary:
All in all, I like it. It's solid, the battery life is adequate, the call quality is good and it's small enough to keep in my pocket. It does a good job of just being a phone.

PROS:

- It doesn't have a touch screen, ultraslim profile, QWERTY keyboard, or any of the other gimmicks common on phones these days.

- Speaker is nice and loud. I have minor hearing problems and this is the first phone I've owned that I didn't have to plug my other ear to hear clearly in a medium-loud environment. The voice-clarity option (it increases volume if there's loud ambient noise) is also really nice. Switching to the 8350 from a first-gen Razr V3 was a revelation in this regard.

- Internal antenna is the best I've seen. I get good reception in places in my office that are notorious cell phone dead zones.

- The external display is great and the ability to display text messages on it is particularly nice.

- Phone seems to be durable and has survived a few drops already with no issues.

CONS:

- Verizon's crappy interface. Most of the menu options lead to screens where they try to sell you ringtones, backgrounds, music, etc. Annoying but bearable with some customizing of the main screen.

- Keypad could be laid out better, I find myself accidentally hitting the "clear" button while trying to push the down key every once in awhile. The numeric keypad is also a little tricky if you've got bigger hands.

- Phone is really really light, like half the weight of my old razr. Might be a good thing for some people, but combined with the ergonomic design it just seems to lead to me dropping the phone a lot. One-handed text messaging takes some practice.

- It's a bit bulky in the pocket if you're used to a razr-type phone.

OVERALL:

Can't comment on the bluetooth, music playback, or multimedia functions because I haven't used them yet, but the 8350 does all the basic things a cell phone is supposed to do (calls, text messaging) extremely well. There are much flashier phones out there and the keypad design could be better, but if you're looking for a cell phone (as opposed to a multimedia center that can make calls) you can't go wrong with this guy.

This is my first new cell phone in two years, and I must say, for a free phone it totally rocks. The sound quality of this phone was awesome, and I'm using the cheap headphones (buds) that comes with the VCAST music kit. The phone is very nice and easy to use. The display is clear and has great color. I was able to sync this phone up with my laptop via blue tooth very easily. Camera is easy to use, but no flash so can really only do well outside.

On the down side. The VCAST software is not that great. You have to reconect the cable a couple times before it wants to sync up. I also had issues where music from CD's that I copied onto my laptop in the past would not work on the phone. I recopied with the VCAST software and got it to work, so that sucks. In a nutshell a very good phone with loads of options at a very good price point. I would recommend it. Software can always be upgraded and improved on.

I would have given this phone five stars had it not been for the software.

Oh one foot note. You have to get an additional chip, the phone can only hold about five songs before it's full. So get that chip!

Pros
Good feel, small enough to keep in my pocket. The sound quality has been good so far, so no complaints there. Verizon does have things locked down so that you have buy the extra features. However, there are ways around having to buy ringtones :)

Cons
Maybe i'm a little (or a lot) anal about this but I like the normal (snall) dial fonts. However, there seems to be a glitch with the vx8350 accepting the normal dial fonts. No matter which one you choose (large or normal) the dial fonts remain large. I have tried this on other vx8350's in the Verizon store and they all had the same issue.
Also, when I plug the charger in the front screen dims but does not shut off. Not a big issue, just an observation.

I visited a couple of Verizon stores and this is the phone they kept recommending so I bought it. I'm taking it back the first of the week. Here's why. It doesn't have nearly the sound quality of my old vx6100. I keep accidently hitting the clear and the end buttons when trying to use the up/down button. It's hard to flip open and the flip top that rests against my ear has a sharp edge that hurts my ear after a while. Battery life is poor.
On the good side it does have a nice, loud speaker but it 's just not the phone for me.

I have had my LG 8359 phone for 5 months and the hinges cracked and broke off in pieces. This phone was not dropped or treated roughly. LG would not stand behind this phone and replace it because it has a "limited warantee" and body damage is part of it. The phone itself is great, just be sure you have no structural defects at the hinges or be sure to buy insurance.

I've had the phone for about 3 months. It has excellent reception and voice quality. Battery lasts about 4 days between charges, which is by far better than any other phone I've ever used.

On the down side, the buttons are too close together; it's very easy to accidentally hit the wrong button. And the charger broke in the first 2 weeks; Verizon replaced it for free.

The camera is only mediocre, and I've haven't tried using it for music.

I had the similar problem...the first time right hinge broke within 3 months and now around 9 months later the replaced phone had the same problem...right hinge broke...I can say that I didn't apply any force or dropped the phone. Fist time I was able to get free replacement, but I don't know what will happen this time...can we apply customer rights...how to solve it? I am with Verizon.

I've had the phone about a month now and am very pleased with it. Above all, it's got crystal clear sound. It's very comfortable when held to my ear. All the features I've used work well. I've had no problems transferring files via the micro SD card or setting up ringtones. As soon as I held it in my hand, I really liked the feel of it.

If I could fix too small things, it'd be perfect. One is that it is a little hard to flip as it has no really obvious place to grab it to open it. The other is that the charger connection feels a little flimsy compared to my last phone. I feel like it could snap with a little pressure.