Customer Reviews

LG VX8600 Black Phone (Verizon Wireless, Phone Only, No Service)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The LG VX8600 has garnered a lot of positive reviews (use Google), and while I won't go as far as to say this is the best cell phone ever made, it is quite functional and serves the added benefit of having a sleek, sexy form factor that elicits many "oohs" and "aahs" from relatives and peers.

I've spent two years with Sprint and Cingular apiece, and am now moving to mighty Verizon as the last of the mighty mobile phone triumvirate. I won't comment on signal strength since that's largely dependent on location, but I will say that the local Verizon sales rep in Madison, WI hooked me up with a terrific deal that beat any online price even after rebates and activation fees. Don't forget to ask your sales rep to see if they can match or beat these online offers.

Despite being a fully VCAST-compliant phone that sports mp3 playback and a 1.3-megapixel camera, all I really care about is the ability to make crystal-clear phone calls. The sound quality for voice calls overall is very good to excellent, depending on signal strength of course. In many cases, friends could not distinguish my phone from a land line. However, as many others have observed, the speakerphone is below average. Even at the loudest levels, voices sound diluted and unclear to the point I find them unbearable. I definitely recommend you try the speakerphone out if you it will be an important factor in your purchase decision. Many other Amazon reviewers, as well as those on other forums, have echoed similar comments.

To get by the speakerphone limitation, I paired this phone with the PLANTRONICS 510 Voyager bluetooth headset, and the combination has worked out great. I bought the 510 due to all of the positive reviews; it's a very sturdy, comfortable headset but doesn't surpass the clarity of using the handset directly (I don't think any of the bluetooth sets can).

One of the usability gripes I have is with voice commands. On my previous Motorola phone, I could activate voice commands just by pressing a button on my bluetooth headset and talking into the phone device directly. On the VX8600, I have to press a small button on the right side of the phone to activate the voice command menu, and then speak into my headset. If you put the LG VX8600 in a leather case and strap it to your belt, you'll realize what a nuisance this can be each time you want to make a voice command dial.

Another gripe is the fact that the front panel backlight only turns on when you press any of the side buttons. That means if you want to view the date/time you have to press a button each and every time. That may sound like the ultimate in laziness, but I'll put it this way -- there's no way to tell that the phone is dead or fully charged until you press a button. All of my other flip-top phones have had the date/time display persisently.

I don't really care much for cameras built into phones; much like stereo and home theater surround sound systems, I'm a believer in dedicated separates. I cannot comment on the music playing or VCAST capabilities of this phone, since I already own an iPod.

Overall, I still enjoy this phone immensely and do recommend it to others switching to Verizon or renewing their contracts. Please note that the next version to the VX8600 (SHINE) has already been released online as of April 4, and will be available in local stores on April 17. I prefer sticking to a black form factor and will definitely make this a keeper for the next two years.

PROS:
+ Great sound quality for voice calls (not using speakerphone)
+ Very sleek, sexy form factor
+ Above average battery life (this is relative to previous phones, of course)
+ Large, easy to read menus
+ Voice command settings were easy to configure; voice "train" was reliable and almost 100% accurate in recognizing my commands

CONS:
+ Weak speakerphone
+ Front panel backlight does not turn on until you press a button
+ Lack of tactile buttons for dialing and text messaging
+ Voice command support with bluetooth requires pressing a side button
+ Fingerprint magnet

This is by far the best cell phone I've ever owned. My last two phones were Motorola, and while they were perfectly good phones, this one is a huge step up. What first caught my attention was the outstanding quality of the displays, both the large, high-resolution inside display, and the much smaller but very clear external display. Then there's the sleek and clean-cut form factor. The shiny black surfaces with minimum silver accents remind me of my black iPod, and while both do show fingerprints, it's not that big a deal. I love the small size of this phone. It easily slides into a pocket without being obtrusive.

The sound quality for voice calls is excellent, definitely as good as the Motorola phone I had, if not better. This phone offers several alternatives to the Verizon menu display, which was not available on my previous phone. While the basic structure is the same, I prefer the look and feel of the "arch" display option.

The camera on this phone is also excellent, for a phone, anyway. It may be that the high quality of the display makes photos look better, but whatever it is, these are the first pictures taken on a phone that I've ever wanted to upload to my PC.

It's also my first phone with a music player, and I've been pleasantly surprised at the quality of that as well. I bought the Verizon Music Essentials kit, which includes a CD with the USB cable drivers as well as the software to upload music from your PC, the USB cable, and wired stereo headphones. There is no driver yet for Windows Vista (Verizon says it will be available at the end of March 2007), so I had to synch the phone with my older Windows XP laptop, but it worked fine. You can use Windows Media Player 10 or 11 to rip CDs and then synch your music to the phone. One CD takes about 50 MB of space on the micro SD card in my phone. The phone has music player controls on the outside that glow red for a brief time after you start the player, then disappear. The sound is quite good, even with the relatively cheap headphones that came with the Music Essentials kit. The advantage of these phones is that they fit the headphone/synch output without using an adapter.

[...].

My last 2 phones have been LG brand phones. I have Verizon Wireless. The LG phones have all been wonderful phones and I have had no problems with them.

I bought this phone in Oct 2006. It has lived up to the LG that I have come to know. The calls are clear and battery life is great for a phone this thin. I use the Bluetooth feature to make calls through my car stereo and it works flawlessly. I have not had any problems at all. I even dropped it once on concrete (my heart stopped as I watched it bounce a few times). That was 2 months ago, and the phone still works great.

If I had to list a down side, it would be that the phone is glossy and shows fingerprints and smudges well. These are easily removed, so it does not bother me much at all.

If you are considering a slim phone and have Verizon, I highly recommend getting this phone. My wife had a RAZR and had tons of problems with it. You won't go wrong with this phone.

Let me start this review by saying I'm not a tween and a phone's looks aren't all I care about. I've had this phone for less than a week and I'm going to be trading it in for the VX8300.

Let's get this out of the way, the phone is nice looking. Probably the best looking Verizon phone available. Unfortunately most of us don't use a phone for its looks. It does have all sorts of nice features which you can read about in the product description provided by amazon.

My issues with phone are these. It has a speakerphone but it is absolutely useless. Toggling between speakerphone and earpiece produce minimal difference. I use the speakerphone in my car, this one is practically unusable. Volume of the earpiece is super loud, this can be a pro or a con. However, I often got an echo when I talked, sort of tunnel like. Never had that problem with any of my othe phones

Perhaps the most bothersome thing about the phone is the strange high frequency pitch you can hear when you put your ear. Whenever the screen is on, either lit or not you can hear a high pitch buzzing. After the screen goes blank it disapears. I had thought it was a defective phone but all 4 of the display models at the verizon store had the same issue. Now it may not bother you but it's like a mosquito buzzing to me. The vx8300 doesn't have this problem. On a side note one of the 2 display KRZRs in the store had the same problem.

One final thought...LG doesn't use the standard size headphone jack so unless you got bluetooth you need to plug in a lame dongle which in my opinion defeats the purpose of portability

Pros:
Nice looking
Full featured
great size
decent battery life
loud earpiece
good reception

Cons:
Worthless speakerphone
Annoying "mosquito buzzing" sound from the display
dongle adapter
crazy loud earpiece
Frequent echoing

Just my 2 cents.

I loved the music and picture features on my chocalate phone but never got very good reception. No one could hear me on that phone. Long story short, the phone I ended up replacing the chocolate phone with is this one. LG VX8600 is an improvement and I've had no more problems with reception or clarity in calls.

The large outside display and large inside display are excellent. The inside display is 176 x 220 color display and full 16-bit color. The outside display is fullcolor 160 x 128. With the music playback controls on the front cover, it's easier to play my music and Bluetooth makes it easy for hands-free calling.

Built-in USB makes it easy to connect to a computer. I had no problems getting it to work with either, for a pleasant change.

The only thing I wish for is a better camera. Cell phones have been stuck with 1.3 Megapixel cameras for what seems like forever. It can't be that much more to include a better camera phone.

As a 13 year old, I find that many phones just don't keep up with the "hype" of modern technology when I'm at school. This phone is nothing like that. It has just about everything the RAZR has, but is also has some things that the RAZR lacks. For one, there are external touch-sensitive music player controls on the front. You can actually change the sensitivity from "low" to "super". Another advantage is that you can change the wallpaper on the large (internal) screen to display something, and you can show something else on the small (external) screen. You can also choose from an animation as the wallpaper. There is a 1.3 megapixel camera, which takes very decent photos.

I recommend this phone to any kid who is interested in a RAZR-looking phone but with more features.

This phone is gorgeous! It is like a sexier version of the razr or krzr. I like everything about it except:

Reception is not always great, it tends to drop a few of my calls but I think it's mostly because I live in an area of patchy service.

The keys take a little bit of getting used to because its a smooth key pad and it's very easy to hit keys you did not mean to.

Fingerprint magnet. Not really a problem though, most of the new phones are.

Other than those, the sound quality is great, the screens are bright and clear. I like having the ability to program 4 shortcut keys. The camera is not exactly spectacular but thats what I expected with 1.3mp. I have dropped the phone a couple of times and been pleasantly surprised that it shows no dents or scratches.

I would definitely buy this phone again.

If you're an economical person like me, you probably want a cell phone that's doesn't have all those fancy features more expensive phones have. You want a convenient cell phone that performs well, fits in your pockets easily, and looks nice. I've done my homework on consumer reports, cnet, and other reliable sources and this is the cell phone to get. Verizon's website has online discounts you can't get elsewhere in addition to the $100 credit you recieve after your contract expires.
Besides the minor complaints you've already read about, this really is the perfect phone for verizon customers. 5 stars.

Great Phone! I just purchased this phone because my Motorola e815 was stolen and I had to replace it. I first tried the new Razr but took it back because the earpiece volume was too low (even at maximum level). I work in an environment where it switches from loud to quiet all of the time & I need a phone that can vibrate and ring simultaneously and this phone does it perfectly. The Verizon Razr did one or the other but not both. TheRazr is disabled on the Verizon version & not the TMobile or Cingular versions.

The size of this phone is perfect. I don't want to walk around looking like a dorky "trekkie" with a phone clipped on my belt. This phone fits perfectly in the small coin pocket of my Levis and is not bulky at all in dress pants.

The Music player on the external speaker is a lot better than my e815 and is easier to control with the phone closed because of its external controls.

Verizon did not disable OBEX on this phone so I can send files back and forth wirelessly via bluetooth on my MAC os X 10.4.9.

Cons: The data/charger cable is propietary and not standard as on the Razr. On the Razr, I could us a standard USB mini to charge and communicate with the phone. iCal & Address Book do not sync up using iSync. I had to use my wifes e815 phone to sync up all of my old contacts and went to Verizon to transfer to my LG and I am now using Verizons internet back up contact application.

I would definately recommend this phone.

Ok I wrote a really negative review about the Chocolate. As much as I hated the Chocolate I love the VX8600. It isn't slow like the RAZR either which I was worried about. Its slim and has about every feature you could want on a phone. Several friends have gotten it and do nothing but rave about it. I paid full retail value at $250 which I hated doing but after having the phone a few weeks I think it was well worth the money. I've never said that about a cell phone either. The battery life is good too. It usually lasts me a good 3hrs of straight talking and charges up in about an hour.