Three times’s a charm, or so hopes LG when they came out with the LG Chocolate 3 – VX8560. There are some pleasant – and not so pleasant – similarities and drastic differences that are welcomed. The Chocolate 3 is an improvement to the series but doesn’t come out with the hype of the 2nd chocolate. Over all, the phone is worth its price and will please the LG Chocolate fans. Here is the review:
THE HARDWARE
Style and Design:
The 3rd generation of the Chocolate has dropped the slider approach of accessing the controls and decided to go ‘old school’ and open up like a clamshell. It has a polished finish which looks nice but attracts finger smudges. It has also dropped the touch sensitive button on the exterior which we didn’t like anyway. The Interior isn’t all fancy but the push buttons are big, making typing a heck of a lot easier.
Change is what the Chocolate 3 has gone for. However, what has stayed the same is the iPod like navigation wheel. Like the Chocolate 2, the metallic wheel easily spins. The External screen is convenient allowing you to access your photos, music, the 2mp camera, or checking your text messages if you want. There is also a dedicated music button on the side of the phone.
The disappointment is that this phone hasn’t made any significant, iconic debut like the Chocolate 2. If you like the flip style phone though, the LG Chocolate 3 really shouldn’t disappoint.
Another good point is that the left spine houses a 3.5mm headphone jack, a voice command key, charger jack, and volume control. On the right is the microSD card insert and Keylock and Music buttons.
Size & Weight:
The phone isn’t ridiculously small or bulky, like a rock in the pocket. The height is 3.87″, width is 1.94″, and Depth is .64″. The weight is 3.36 oz.
Display:
The LCD display is bigger, 2.2″ for the internal display and 1.76″ for the external display. Internal LCD is 260K color and 320 x 240 pixels. The external LCD is 260K color with 176 x 220 pixels.
Battery:
The Lithium Ion batter will get you through 5 days of minimal use, about 3 days with more heavy usage. Talk time claimed is 4.5 hours with a standby claim of 14.5 days. GPS navigation and V Cast will suck the battery faster than any other application and won’t last you a trip to Florida with just one charge but will get you around town. Spare batteries are fairly cheap though, $39.99 through Verizon. You want a more extended 1500 mAh battery? That will cost you $49.99.
Memory
The memory is 1 Gig. There’s not much more that is needed for a phone; is there?
Keyboard:
It’s bigger than before but slippery. There’s not much more to be said.
Camera:
One word to describe the camera: standard. Every newer phone’s camera today has 2 megapixels. That is standard and no phone should be bought with less. The upgrade of the camera from its previous 1.3 mp versions was necessary to not be viewed as lagging behind. Although it is better than older versions, don’t try to quit your day job and become a professional photographer with the camera on your Chocolate 3. There isn’t a lot of detail in the pictures but there are lots of options to play around with to make up for the ‘just decent’ quality. For a camera phone though, and for its price, it does just fine.
Videos of 30 seconds can be used for MMS and an hour long video can be saved to the phone. QVGA or a 176 x 144 resolution is what you get with this phone.
GPS:
I use my GPS religiously and the Chocolate 2 keeps me happy with the VZ Navigator. However, the Chocolate 3 sports the new VZ Navigator 4.1.1, giving even more accurate directions with real time traffic reports. The traffic reports warn you of delays and construction. As before, there are different voices you can choose to direct you step-by-step. The price remains the same at $9.99 per month or $2.99 for a day’s usage.
There is also a service that allows you to message the GPS location and directions
SOFTWARE
Media:
How does the music sound on the Chocolate 3? Good via the built-in phone speaker but the sound quality of the music is excellent through headsets, both wired and Bluetooth. The speakers also produce decent sound quality and are surprisingly loud. This is one of the improvements of the Chocolate 3.
More music format support and the new V CAST Music with Rhapsody, which offers more songs that totals about 5 million, are the two things that make the media of the Chocolate 3 better than the previous two. Formats that are supported are MP3, WMA, and unprotected AAC/AAC+ files. This allows you to use your music on iTunes or other PC Media Players that you have downloaded or ripped from CDs. The cost of the subscription version of the Rhapsody is $14.99 per month and the price per download is 1.99.
The LG Chocolate 3 has 1 gig of internal memory and the phone partitions most of that to store music. It has a microSD card slot supporting SDHC cards. A couple of cards were tested with the Chocolate 3 and there were no trouble loading music or saving photos.
In addition to music is the supported V Cast Video, giving you videos from TV programs, music videos, and news. The sync is mostly on queue. The large keypad also makes it easier to play games.
What I found cool was the ability to broadcast music from the Chocolate 3 to an FM radio because of an FM transmitter imbedded into the phone. Crazy.
Messaging:
The messaging stays the same. The messages can be read on the front display, like before. It offers regular text messages, MMS, and has message templates to send quickly without actually having to type out the message. You can access messaging either through the menu or the soft key on the home screen.
You can chat, IM mobile, or email. You’ll have to use the Web browser to email and once there you have Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo, or whatever email you use. IM with AIM, Yahoo IM, or Windows Live Messenger. Go to Verizon’s WAP portal to use the Chat option.
Typing your messages is pretty simple since it uses the T9 word predictor and it works well.
Calling:
The speakers and earpiece give the caller a nice quality and loud – if you want – volume. The reception can be compared to the last Chocolate phone with 1-2 bars in low covered areas. Calls were able to be made with decent quality when bars where at its lowest and the calls weren’t dropped. The phone book holds 1000 contacts for those popular folks or those that like quick contact to a bunch of businesses and organizations.
The voice command button, which also launches the voice recorder, works without having to prerecord any voice tags. It also works with Bluetooth headsets but you have to still press the voice command button. When tested with several Bluetooth headsets the voice dialing worked with them all. It uses Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR, supporting several profiles including DUN profiles, car kit, and mono/stereo Bluetooth headset, storing a maximum of 20 pairing partners.
THE GIST of IT
Here are the good points: The phone is solidly built to with stand some modest drops; it has a smooth feel as does the keypad; the back is rubber so won’t slide around in your pocket, scratch, or vibrate off the table; the sound is good; and it just looks nice.
The not so good points: The navigation wheel moves too easily; the battery life isn’t astonishing enough throw a party over; and the button lock is rather annoying.
Now the price is $129 through Verizon with a 2 yr contract. There are ads that offer $99, unlocked. There are ads that offer $69. The price is reasonable for all that it offers. It’s a good starter phone.
Other LG Chocolate 3 Reviews
“PC Mag” on the LG Chocolate 3
“In Repair” on the LG Chocolate 3
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