Customer Reviews

LG VX8700 Phone (Verizon Wireless)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've owned many phones, with many carriers, and this is the best phone I've ever owned. It is by far the best looking phone too. It's just a great phone. It isn't perfect, but I've never seen a phone that was. Here are some quick observations. The sound quality is very good, but not as loud as some other phones. The speaker phone is average. Not the best, not the worst. RF is very good. Battery life with the standard battery is good. The inside screen is the nicest I've ever seen, although tough to see in direct sunlight. The Flash UI themes are much better than the standard Verzion UI. Ring tones are not very loud. Loud enough for me, but some people wish they were louder. Charge port is on the side and not the bottom. This makes it a little more difficult to talk and charge the phone at the same time. No external MP3 controls, and playback on external speaker is fair at best. Camera is excellent. Amazon's current description states the camera is 1.3MP, but it is 2.0MP.

...11/13/2007 Note: A new firmware update has been released, and it is supposed to fix some issues. It is available at most Verizon Stores.

As a longtime user of the LG VX8000, I was looking forward to this phone and ordered it the day it came out. Finally I could get rid of that brick I was carrying around and get something that looked much cooler. When it arrived, I noticed how smooth the brushed metal was and how slim it is. 6 months later, I still think the phone looks great, but it has several design flaws that prevent it from being a truly great phone.

PROS:

Appearance - The phone is very slim and stylish. I think it looks much better than the razor. The buttons are mostly recessed so they don't protrude from the phone. The brushed metal looks great, and I really like the keypad. I thought the keypad would be difficult and awkward to use at first, but I've had no problems with it (and my fingers are probably larger than average). When this phone is in my pocket I don't even feel it, and you can't tell it's there. My previous phone bulged out of my pockets. I have had no real problems with fingerprints and I never really notice them. The ones that do get on there wipe right off.

Sound quality - I've never had a dropped call or had any problems with the sound. I live in a medium-sized town, and I very rarely have anything less than full signal. Reception is very good.

User interface - Fortunately, Verizon doesn't force you to use their UI like you've had to with previous models. In addition to their UI, there is another UI you can choose from, which is nice to have some more options. One day, after leaving my phone in the car in 100+ degree heat, I came back and noticed it had shut off, but there was some crazy message about a "heat sensor warning" on the outside display and it displayed the outside temperature (109). I have no idea what this was and have never seen it again, but it was pretty cool and it looks like it is designed to shut off in excessive heat so it doesn't damage the phone.

Camera - The 2.0 Megapixel camera is one of the highest resolution cameras available at this time and it is great. There is NO FLASH on the camera however, so forget about taking pictures in low-light conditions. This isn't a problem for me though since none of LG's flashes have ever worked very well anyway. Cell phone flashes have to develop better technology before they become anything more than just a novelty. The camera includes some filters, such as black and white, sepia, aqua, and negative that will allow you to take pictures with different colors. Pretty pointless but kind of fun. It also includes some ridiculous voice files to use when taking pictures, such as a bunch of kids saying "say cheese!" right before you take the picture. You probably have to hear it to understand how creepy it is. Fortunately you can turn them all off.

Battery length - Not too bad. I can go maybe 4 days without having to charge it, although I only use the phone about 10 minutes a day. The included charger takes forever to full charge the phone though. Maybe as long as 45 minutes or an hour.

CONS:

Appearance/Design - The brushed metal will scratch. I keep this phone in a separate pocket from my keys or anything else. I like to think I take care of it fairly well, however it does have dozens of very tiny scratches all over the back of it. These scratches are very small and I don't really notice them at a distance, but if you look for them, they are numerous and I could never sell the phone as "new" condition. This phone WILL scratch. If you are hard on your phones it will probably scratch more than normal ones. As I said though, mine is 6 months old, and the scratching isn't enough to bother me since you have to be close to see them. I wouldn't advise anyone not to buy this phone because of it, just to be more cautious of it. What LG Should do is sell replacement covers to simply replace the back with. As others have said, the memory card is underneath the battery, meaning you have to remove the battery and power off the phone to take it out. This doesn't bother me at all since I never take the card out, but if you remove it a lot it could be a hassle. However, I would rather have them place the memory card here, where it is out of sight, than on the side of the phone where I have another slot to detract from the smoothness of the phone.

Alarm Clock - This is something that LG should fix with a firmware update. The alarm clock on this phone absolutely sucks. It has three customizable alarms. You can set an alarm to go off every weekday at a certain time or only on the weekends. It would be nice if I could customize each individual day, but I'm okay with not being able to do that. What I'm not okay with is the lack of a "quick alarm." Previous LG models had a quick alarm, where you could set a short alarm for 30 minutes, an hour, etc. You could program it very fast and I found it especially convenient. It's not on this model though, which makes no sense because they didn't add anything, they just removed it.

Speaker Phone - This also sucks. There is a dedicated button on the phone for activating the speaker phone. Only problem is, you can only activate the speaker phone while you're in a call. Who decided this was a good idea? You have to call someone, wait for the phone to start ringing, then you can press the speaker phone button. Once activated, it will stay on until you turn it off, meaning you don't have to activate it for every call. However, if you want to turn it off, you have to make another call, since you can't turn it off if you're not in a call either. This is the stupidest thing I've seen designed on a cell phone. I never use the speaker phone anyway because the quality is not very good at all. I have to have the phone at least within a foot of my face for anyone to hear me using the speaker phone.

Camera - The only problem I have with the camera is that there is a delay between hitting the camera button and taking the picture, as much as 1.5 seconds. This is fairly unacceptable to me in a camera that is great otherwise. If you're trying to catch something that isn't stationary, you have to factor in this delay and hold the camera still an extra 2 seconds after you take the picture. Everyone hates digital cameras that do this so why make a cell phone camera with the same problem? It is fairly frustrating.

UPDATE 11/29/07 - I am changing my rating from 4 to 2 stars. I took out the battery to replace the SD card, and when I put the battery back in, I was greeted with a message saying "use authentic battery," implying that I am not using an LG battery. My phone battery now lasts about 4 hours in standby, and replacing it does not good because apparently this is a problem with the battery contacts on the phone itself. Verizon will not recognize this issue under my warranty, despite other people having the same problem on the Internet. So now I am left with a $300 phone that is very difficult to use since I have to jiggle the battery all the time to get it to work.

UPDATE 12/29/07 - Took the phone to Verizon and it was a problem with the contacts on the phone not meeting the battery. They replaced the entire phone and it works great again, although I have heard from others who have had this problem. I would definitely recommend some type of screen cover for it.

I owned an LG VX6100 before this one and was happy with it. I've had this new 8700 for about a week, and I'm probably going to return it. I'm thinking of going with an LG VX5300. This phone isn't for me. I want phones that conform to the shape of my hand. This phone does just the opposite. My only complaint is really the overall design of the phone. The metallic shell is beautiful, but it's a bit prone to smudges. The external screen is extremely difficult to see in the sunlight and I can barely check the time. Its SD card slot is located behind the battery, so that's a huge pain to handle. Also, this keypad is horrible. Obviously, it was designed so the phone could be thin. I can barely text message without pressing wrong keys and making mistakes.
On a lighter side, the phone has a tremendous amount of features like bluetooth, USB mass storage, mp3 player, 2.0 MP camera etc. But, it's still hard for me to handle, and I prefer a more rounded phone with well-shaped keys and an easier-to-use menu.

I understand people have their own opinions and there will always be something to complain about and people have their own likes/dislikes.

In my opinion, this is the best phone I've come accross. I like the square shape, the small size, the sound quality is excellent, the displays are amazingly sharp, and the menus are ok. In direct sunlight, it is difficult to see the display but I haven't seen a phone that does a better job than this one. My previous Motorola phones had much worse sound quality (which is the important factor) and the screens were completely unviewable in sunlight.

I usually use a case because any phone will get scratched so commenting in a review that the phone gets scratched is meaningless to me. And, I've never accidentally disconnected a call when picking up the phone. I say give the phone (or another LG) a try.

I needed a cell that I could SEE without my reading glasses and this one fits the bill perfectly. Excellent main display, very good external display. I don't care about the mp3 player (have iPod), so can't comment on that. Camera is very good. Voice commands are excellent. The form factor is perfect; not too big or too small and the weight feels just right. I have large hands and fingers and I find it easy to dial and use the buttons.

Verizon service and coverage have been excellent also, compared to my old AT&T service and phone.

I recently traded my LG VX10000 (Voyager) to this phone (LG VX8700). I didn't like the Voyager because it was too gimmicky with no one application that was excellent. Also, it was too big. Also the web browser application sucked. Not VZ's fault. The tech. just isn't there yet. Wait for WIMAX or whatever else comes along (2-5 years). Until then, web browsing will alway suck on a phone, including iphone. Stick to your computer. Anyway, with that said, the LG VX8700 phone is an excellent flip phone that does just about everything the Voyager did, but no web browser and mobile TV (no service in San Diego anyway). Granted, the Voyager was more customizable, but, they both have the crappy VZ user interface (UI), so what's the point?
Looks:
The 8700 is very cool looking with the brushed steel casing and the cool grey UI theme (as opposed to the standard red theme). The construction quality is excellent. The hinge seems it will hold up until my next NE2 upgrade. The dailing buttons are solid, as is the side buttons. The phone does had a "razor" look to it, but, with much better build quality. The shiny steel casing makes it a little flashy, but in a good way. The internal screen is absolutely gorgeous. It is very clear, crisp, and clean. The high resolution is an eye catcher (better than the voyager).
Battery:
Battery life is good. I charge about every two days, with an average of 50 txts a day and two hour talk time, plus an hour or so playing with the music and mobile 2.0. My Nokia 6236i used to be charged once a week, which is excellent. That's why the 8700 gets a good.
Camera:
I like the camera. I don't know why the other reviewers say its slow and crappy. How fast do you need it to be short of using a regular camera? It's plenty quick and it's fairly clear. The pictures come out great. And, you can adjust the camera to the particular environs of the shot (night, sunny, etc).
Music:
The music player is fine. Good sound and VZ UI for the music is not that entirely bad. It gets the job done. Plus, with the new firmware update, you can now place up to an 8gig microSDHC card on your phone. That's a lot of music. Still use my ipod, though, but the phone is great for just "on the go" listening.
Reception (i.e. Call quality):
I haven't had any issues with reception (never really have with VZ). My benchmark is the elevator at my office. It's a Gaussian cage that blocks all radio waves, it seems. Anyway, I get four bars in there. My Nokia used to be three, and my co-worker's Razor is one. I can hear voices loud and clear. No dropped calls or fuzzy reception. The speaker phone is fine. You can't turn it on until a call is made. I don't understand that. Anyway, I've never really met a speaker phone I liked anyway.
Ergonomics:
The phone is a little wide. But, it's comfortable to hold when talking. Txting is a little awkward with one hand. I like to cradle it with the other just so my thumb doesn't get tired. The metal isn't that prone to scratching, but, in this day and age, everyone should be protecting their hundreds of dollars portable electronic device with some sort of shield anyway ( I use invisishield).
Summary:
I like the phone. It's good quality phone that'll get the job done. It has everything of interest that VZ has to offer: Nav., Vcast, mobile 2.0, music, good camera, and good call quality. The only reason I give it four is because of VZ UI. Enjoy your new phone. Cheers

This thing is just solid. Looks solid, feels solid. Of all the Verizon phones, this is clearly one of the top three choices. It's extremely thin, has good battery life, a 2MP camera with lots more settings than my Vx8300.
I really liked that phone and wasn't sure if this would feel like an upgrade or a disappointment. Definitely an upgrade. Larger screen with better resolution, music player accepts both mp3's and wma's (so did the Vx8300, but you couldn't mix them) - it was one or the other with a separate menu for the mp3's w/o the library interface (it did have a decent equalizer though that I wish they could have included here)- for a phone, it's a pretty good music player - won't replace your Zen or ipod - but OK.

There have been a lot of reviews that mention the inconvenient placement of the microSD card (behind the battery) - but this is really irrelevant since once you install it you never have to touch it again.
That's because for this phone LG finally had the sense make the card visible on the PC like a flash drive - which eliminates the need for a separate driver. Once you install the card a new menu options shows up in tools for USB mass storage. It then shows up as a drive on your system and you can copy pictures, video, music - or even use it as a flash drive and keep other stuff on it.

You can get a USB cable for 1-2 dollars on Amazon and a 2GB card for under $25.

You can also transfer music using Windows Media Player or Verizon Music manager w/o having to install a driver. They both recognize it as a music device to sync with.

Hard to beat this phone. If you have Verizon and have an upgrade coming, you can get it for $79 if you have the primary line on your account.

I have had this phone since August and it is a super phone and give it my highest recommendation. With the shiny exterior, large beautiful screens and an animated menu system, especially created for this phone which is easy to use and very entertaining as well, this is a great buy!

The phone supports 2gb of external memory and shows 44 mb of internal memory which is plenty for most all application uses. The Bluetooth menu is very educational and I was able to pair this easily with a Plantronics Voyager 510 headset which supported voice commands that the phone has with the Voice Recognition System(more than voice dialing). The VRS even has a setting that annouces the caller before the phone rings for people that cant see the ID screen. Being a 3G/digital phone , my experience is clear sound and transmissions plus the one button speakerphone works better than some wired versions Ive heard and comes in handy listening to voicemails.

The 2.0 mega-pixel camera has many options and also takes great videos even off a tv or computer screen. The preloads include wallpapers(great) , animations(metallic in design) and the alert sounds were excellent ( door bell is a great alert). I didnt like the included ringtones but found what I wanted exactly (artist and tv themes) with a verizon ring tone program (get the country crickets ringtone and you will fool people). Ring tones play very loud.

The display screens are the best. The 65k color external display can be customized to show a full color analog clock--along with menu colors when activated ( blue and yellow on MP3s, orange on bluetooth, green for an alarm, etc). The best feature is the internal 2.2" 262,000 color internal display which some have called "the plasma tv of cellphones" and easily lanscapes the picture with one button. You can also overlay an analog clock there over wallpaper or animations. Retro TV clips and cartoons look dvd quality almost and I do recommend getting VCAST video with this phone.

All in all, an excellent clamshell design choice. Easily fits in your pocket,sturdy (I dropped it on concrete and didnt break it ) and makes other plastic phones look like toys. So many features for a low price and a unique metal phone exclusive to verizon. Im putting it thru the paces , watching over 500 video clips a month, playing music loud, lots of minutes on calls and believe me--this phone can take it!

After a bitter tasting experience with the Chocolate, I now have this phone, and it hasn't failed to impress. The metallic nature gives it some weight, but considering it's so slim, that's probably a good thing. It doesn't seem intent on flying out of my pocket like previous, lighter phones. The sound quality is excellent, and the quality of the sound over the platronics 640 BT headset is exponentially better than the chocolate. In fact, this phone is the least crippled bluetooth (that i've seen) verizon offers. On my Mac I can send and retrieve files from my phone using the OSX's built in blutooth file browser. Handy. The front display is not complicated and is a bit difficult to see in the sunlight. But that is about the only thing I don't like about it. Battery life, reception, all the phone features themselves are great. The internal screen is wonderful, bright and crisp making reading news or email on the mobile web tolerable.

Length:: 0:45 Mins

This is a quick video clip of the LG VX8700 I just bought. Check out how thin it is. The aluminum exterior is pretty sweet. I tried to show the interface, but the camera couldn't focus on the display. It's super sharp, though. A great phone that's like a Razr but with a much better and more stable interface.