LG Chocolate VX8500 Cell Phone Review
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Alfredo Padilla Published on March 16, 2007 Comment on this |
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We reviewed the LG Chocolate on the Verizon Wireless network. This handset is not available from any other major carrier. When the LG Chocolate was originally released last year it was marketed as the harbinger of a new era of music handsets. With its sleek good looks, support for Verizon's Vcast music store and perhaps not so coincidental similarity to the iPod, many predicted that the Chocolate would help popularize the idea of music handsets. We found the Chocolate to have promise but with some drawbacks that kept it from being a true ground breaker.[page title="Tour & Design"]
Front Closed
When closed the Front of the LG Chocolate is clean and simple. A glossy black surface is marred only by the earpiece hold slit at the top and the 5-way D-Pad at the bottom. You can just make out the outlines of the screen when the phone is off, above the screen you find the LG logo, and below the Verizon logo.
When you turn the phone on you discover that the seemingly blank black surface reveals some surprises. The 320 x 240 QVGA screen lights up, taking up the top two thirds of the front, while around the D-Pad you will find four touch sensitive buttons illuminated. Two soft keys flank the D-Pad to the top, while below and to the left is an answer key, and to the right you find a back key.
Left
The left side of the LG Chocolate contains the two volume keys at the top, on the upper part of the sliding mechanism. Below these keys is a key that unlocks the phone and also doubles as a voice command key when the phone is on. On the lower part of the slider, near the bottom of the handset you will find a port protected by a hard plastic cover that is attached to the body. This port is used for the charger, and the headset adaptor that is included with the phone. The port can also be used with a USB cable that you will need to purchase separately.
Top
The top of the phone is blank.
Bottom
The bottom of the phone is also blank.
Right
The right side of the phone has 3 more buttons, and another port, mirroring exactly the arrangement on the left side of the phone. On the upper part of the slider, towards the top of the phone you will find dedicated keys for the camera and music player. Below these keys is the end key, which also doubles as the power button. On the lower part of the slider, near the bottom of the handset you will find the MicroSD/Transflash memory card port, again protected by a hard plastic cover that is attached to the body. The memory card port is thankfully spring mounted so getting your cards in and out is as easy as you can expect given the small size of microSD/transflash cards.
Back
The back of the LG Chocolate is dominated by the battery cover on the top two thirds, with a battery release latch below it. On the left towards the bottom is the phone’s loud speaker, and towards the center at the bottom is the port for an external antenna, with a hard plastic cover.
Front Open
Opening the device automatically turns the phone on, and reveals the keypad. The keys are hard plastic, placed close together, but clearly defined. The 5 key has 2 plastic ridges that allow you to identify it by feel. Pressing in on a key produces an audible click; tactile feedback is good, although key travel is slight.
Back Open
On the back of the device, opening the slider mechanism reveals the 1.3 megapixel camera at the top of the upper part of the sliding mechanism. The lens sits on the left hand side, with a self portrait mirror next to it. It’s nice to have the lens protected when the phone is closed, although you obviously will need to slide the phone open in order to use the camera.
Battery Out
The 800 mAh battery of the LG Chocolate comes out all in one piece. You won’t find anything besides the phone’s sku below the battery.
In the Box (2.0)
The LG Chocolate comes with a disappointing collection of accessories for a phone that hopes to be a music centric device. Besides the manuals and the wall charger, the only other accessory is a small adaptor that allows you to plug a 2.5 mm headset into the device’s data port. Unfortunately, the phone doesn’t come with a pair of headphones that you can plug into this adaptor, and inexcusable oversight for a “music” phone. It is also unfortunate that no USB cable is included, requiring you to pay more for a cable, card reader, or Verizon’s downloadable music.
Handling (5.0)
The LG Chocolate is a small phone that should fit comfortably into most hands. The back edges are slightly rounded for better comfort. Opening the sliding mechanism is as easy as pushing the front part of the phone up with your thumb. The Chocolate’s plastic construction is slick however. This phone will fall out of your hand easier than most, we recommend you pick up a lanyard if you’re clumsy at all. The front edges of the phone are sharper than the back edges, and can feel uncomfortable if you are holding it up to your ear for an extended period. The small form factor may be too small for those with large hands, and the placement of the buttons on the phone can also create handling issues as you are forced to shift your hold to access some important functions like the camera.
Portability (8.0)
The LG Chocolate is eminently portable. It will slip easily into most pockets or purses. Although not as slim as many handsets that come out today, it is not bulky by any means. The LG Chocolate measures 3.8” x 1.88” x .69” and weighs 3.53 oz. This compares well to a phone like the Motorola Razr V3m, which is thinner but taller and wider.
Aesthetic (8.0)
The LG Chocolate is a striking phone. Despite our concerns about the touch controls, we cannot deny that the front of the phone is clean and even striking. Away from the front things are not as clean, as you have a plethora of buttons and ports, but the solid color scheme can hide a lot of ugliness.
You can get the Chocolate in several different colors, which means it can match any style. The original black is elegant and would be fine for a business user. Overall we thought the LG Chocolate looked good. It proves that you can depart from the obsession with the “slim” form factor and still make a good looking phone.
Durability (6.0)
The LG Chocolate’s plastic construction feels solid, but we are concerned about scratches on the glossy surface, especially on the front of the device. We are also always concerned about moving parts, and the Chocolate’s sliding mechanism is no exception. We also wouldn’t be surprised to see the covers on the 2 ports fall off with extensive use, especially the cover for the memory card slot which got twisted quite a bit as we moved it aside to get the fiddly MicroSD card into the slot. Despite these concerns, the Chocolate did not give the impression of being poorly made. It gave us no creaks, and there were no loose parts.
[page title="Audio Quality "]
LG’s popular Chocolate phone is a small, svelte, phone, but how does it sound? We do extensive testing on the sound quality of the cell phones we review; after all, making phone calls is what they are designed to do. We do this using a combination of software and hardware: the software is a professional audio analysis package called SoundCheck (from Listen, inc) and the hardware is a Head and Torso Simulator (H.A.T.S) from Brüel & Kjær. Both of these products are used by many of the cell phone manufacturers themselves to test their products. For more on how we test, see here. We test the phones in use as a handset (held to the ear), and we’ll be adding more tests soon to examine the performance of the speakerphone and the headset.
Sound Receive Frequency Response (8.04)
LG Chocolate on Verizon: Receive Frequency Response
This test examines how well the cell phone receives and reproduces different frequencies, which shows how accurately it can reproduce the voices of people calling you. The graph shows the frequency response of the phone (in blue) and the upper and lower limits for frequency response defined by the ITU, an international telephone standards body. The frequency response of a good phone will fall within these limits, and a great phone will have a frequency response curve that cuts between the two limits like a racecar going around a corner: smooth and without touching the sides. And the LG Chocolate is a pretty good phone: it doesn’t quite cruise between the limits, but it doesn’t crash headlong into them, either. It does bump up against them at a couple of points, but the overall result is a smooth curve that indicates a phone that reproduces voices well.
Sound Send Frequency Response (7.88)
LG Chocolate on Verizon: Send Frequency Response
The other side of the cell phone equation is sending voices, and this test examines how well the cell phone handles this. Again, the Chocolate has strong performance here, with a frequency response curve that doesn’t show any major problems. It does get a little high at higher frequencies, though; the peak at around 3.4Khz is at the high end of the frequency range for human voices, but it does mean that voices may sound slightly tinny.
Handset Side Tone (9.25)
LG Chocolate on Verizon: Side Tone
Side tone is the technique that cell phones use to stop you yelling into them: they feed a small part of the sound they capture back to you through the speaker, so you can hear your own voice and judge how loud you are talking. The ITU standard calls for this to be around 18 decibels, and the LG is spot on; we measured the side tone at 18.75 decibels. This means that you shouldn’t need to shout or whisper into the phone; you’ll hear your own voice back at the right level to judge the volume correctly.
Headset (0.00)
No headset is included with the LG Chocolate, so the phone gets no score in this area. It doesn't have a standard 2.5-mm headset socket either, although an adapter that converts the proprietary data socket to a 2.5-mm socket is included. This is far from an ideal solution, though; if you loose the adapter, you can't use a headset, and attaching it ruins the clean look of the phone.
[page title="Imaging"]
Resolution (1.9)
To test the resolution of the images captured by the LG Chocolate’s camera we took several pictures of an industry standard resolution chart and then ran it through our Imatest software. This measures how many black and white lines the camera could discern before they started to blur together (a measure Imatest calls line widths per picture height, or lw/ph).
The LG Chocolate received a score of 654.4 LW/PH horizontally and 585.9 LW/PH vertically. Compare this to a lower end stand alone digital camera like the Pentax Optio M20, which received scores of 1682 and 1620 respectively and you can see that the Chocolate is not going to come anywhere close to replacing your camera. We score resolution slightly differently to our sister site digticalcamerainfo.com, so the Chocolate earned a resolution score of 1.9. If we were to score resolution the same as dgitialcamerainfo.com, the LG Chocolate would have earned a score of 0.57.
Color (3.97)
To test colors on the LG Chocolate we took pictures of the industry standard GretagMacbeth color chart, which displays 24 different colors. We then ran the photos through the Imatest software, which compares the camera’s produced colors to the chart’s colors.
Imatest produces this chart that shows the original colors in the small vertical rectangle, the adjusted colors in the middle rectangle and the original captures colors in the outer square. Further analysis is provided by the color analysis chart that Imatest produces. On this chart, the circles represent the colors that the camera captured, while the squares represent where the images should be on this color gamut chart. The longer the lines between them, the more inaccurate the colors are.
As you can see by these charts the LG Chocolate had trouble reproducing true colors, especially yellows some greens. Darker colors fared better, but were still slightly washed out. The LG Chocolate performs better than the camera on Razr V3m, which is terrible, but otherwise doesn’t impress us much.
Noise (1.01)
We test noise by shooting a variety of images in light conditions ranging from 3000 lux (a bright, sunny day) to 60 lux (about what you would get in a darkened room with a single light), then running the captured images through imatest, which analyzes areas of the image for noise.
The LG Chocolate showed higher than average noise scores at every level, but had lower variance at lower light levels. This mean’s that you won’t be impressed by the level of noise at any level, but at least you won’t get too much worse at low light levels. Compared to other 1.3 megapixel cameras like the Razr V3m the LG Chocolate performed significantly worse at most light levels.
Live Preview (5.0)
The live preview on the LG Chocolate does a good job of recreating the colors that you will get on the final picture. The framing is off a bit though, with the final photo actually adding about 10% to either side of the frame. This means that if you wish to capture a close up photo of something you will need to adjust accordingly. This behavior is actually fairly common amongst phones that use a vertically oriented screen to capture horizontally oriented photos. For example the Motorola Razr V3m also displays this behavior. However the LG Chocolate’s preview is much less pixilated and provides better color fidelity than the V3m.
Unlocked Standby to First Shot (9.8)
To test unlocked standby to first shot we put the phone into standby and closed mode and then time the amount of time it takes to open the phone, launch the camera application and capture a photo. The LG Chocolate took an average of 2.04 seconds to complete this procedure using both hands. This is a very good score for a phone, for example the Motorola Razr V3m took an average of 3.5 seconds to complete this score. This score is also good when compared to an entry level digital camera like the Pentax Optio M20 which took 3.42 seconds to complete a similar test. Although you won’t be able to capture spurt of the moment shots with the Chocolate, you won’t have to sit around forever either.
Shot to Shot Time (1.0)
To test shot to shot time we time how long it takes to capture 5 pictures in sequence. We turn off picture review and use burst mode if possible. The LG Chocolate did not have the option to turn off picture review and did not have burst mode, meaning the photos taken were completely manually. The Chocolate took 5 pictures in 15.05 seconds. This works out to .33 frames per second. This is not a good score for any camera although it is a bit better than the Motorola Razr V3m's .2 frames per second. Don’t expect to be able to capture action shots with the LG Chocolate.
Shutter to Shot Time (7.14)
To measure shutter to shot time we take a photo of a stopwatch that we start running the moment we hit the capture key. The final picture shows how long it takes for the camera to capture the image. The LG Chocolate had a shutter to shot time of .28 seconds. This is an above average score for a cellular phone. Some phone’s like the Treo 700p can take as much as .5 seconds to complete a shot. Compared to a stand alone digital camera like the Pentax Optio M20 that has a shutter to shot time of .2 seconds, this score is slightly below average. Overall we were pleased with the Chocolate’s shutter to shot time.
Interface (4.0)
The Camera interface on the LG Chocolate provides you with some basic information such as the current resolution setting and an icon that tells you that you are in camera mode (as opposed to camcorder). You can also use the up and down controls on the directional pad to manually adjust brightness settings. The left soft key is mapped to the album software, and of course the center button on the directional pad actually takes the photo.
All other controls are accessed via the left soft key, including resolution settings, white balance and timers. There is no separate dialogue for advanced features. So the eight items you find in the menu are all you have to work with.
This setup is similar to that found on the Razr V3m, with brightness settings replacing zoom. It’s a shame that LG didn’t assign a function to the left/right keys to make better use of the available controls.
Photo Album Software Internal (2.0)
The Photo Album software on the LG Chocolate is very basic and has some unfortunate usability issues. The software presents every photo on your phone in 3 columns of thumbnails. It takes a moment to load up the thumbnails, during which you cannot do anything else. If you have quite a few photos, this delay can become rather long. Photos located on your storage card are marked with a small card icon on the bottom left.
Selecting a photo and hitting the enter button on the directional pad will open it up for larger viewing. Because of the orientation of the screen on the Chocolate, this view is not very large and unfortunately you cannot view photos in a full screen mode. The left soft key allows you to switch to the camera, while the right soft key provides you with a menu of different options.
The software does not provide you with many options. You can zoom into and pan around a photo, view the file information and assign a photo to wallpaper or a contact. You can also lock a photo, which means that it won’t be erased when you use the erase all function. Where the album software becomes particularly annoying is in moving photos between the phone and an external memory card. You can only move a single photo at a time, so if you have a large batch of photos you want to move to a card so be ready to spend a good chunk of time doing so.
Overall the LG Chocolate’s album software provides a minimum of functionality, and has some issues that are just annoying like the difficulty in moving photos or the limited viewing options. When compared to a phone like the Motorola Razr V3m, the Chocolate’s album software provides less functionality, for example the V3m allows you to create slideshows. It is however a little easier to use, for example we were happy to have all of our photos in one place regardless of their location on the phone.
Manual Control (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not offer any manual modes for its camera. This is not uncommon as the vast majority of phones with cameras offer no manual controls apart from the occasional scene mode.
Zoom (0.5)
The LG Chocolate’s still camera has up to 2x digital zoom however this is only available at the lower resolution levels. If you wish to take a photo at the full 1.3 megapixel resolution you won’t be able to use digital zoom. This doesn’t make sense since digital zoom enlarges a portion of the image, leading to loss of data. This is best done when you have larger images, so it seems silly to omit the digital zoom form the highest resolution level. Because the digital zoom is not available in at all level we awarded the LG Chocolate half points.
Focus (0.0)
The LG Chocolate has a fixed focus lens, which is the standard found on the vast majority of camera phones. Some higher end phones are starting to offer auto focus lens, such as the Nokia N73, and even some mid range phones are starting to offer it, such as the Sanyo M1.
Flash (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not have a flash. This is fairly standard amongst phones where flashes of any type are reserved for mid to high range devices. Especially on smaller phones like the Chocolate you will often see a flash omitted.
Metering (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not allow you to meter your shots. Metering allows the camera to gauge the amount of light in the scene and give you a proper exposure. Metering controls allow you to decide from which point or points the light is measured. The Chocolate’s lack of metering means that the camera uses the overall light in the scene to decide on exposure. Although standard on stand alone digital cameras, metering controls are not found on most camera phones.
White Balance (2.0)
The LG Chocolate provides 5 preset white balance settings, including auto, sunny, cloudy, tungsten and fluorescent. There is no evaluative white balance mode, which is found on stand alone cameras, but is extremely rare on camera phones.
Image Handling (3.0)
The LG Chocolate only provides the bare bones of image handling options, allowing you to resize images and protect them from deletion. Although most camera phones don’t offer too many editing options, it would have been nice to see more options on the Chocolate.
Video
Overall Video Score (3.0)
The LG Chocolate takes video in only one resolution, 176 x 144, which is good or MMS video, but not for watching on your computer, much less on a television. Colors reproduced by the video are close to true, with blacks slightly washed out. Compared to most phones the video the LG produces is very standard. Colors are slightly better than video produced by a phone like the Motorola Razr V3m, but it is inferior to the 352 x 288 quality video produced by phones like the Treo 700p.
Video Resolution (2.63)
To measure the video resolution of the LG Chocolate, we shoot the standard ISO 12233 resolution chart and run stills from that video through Imatest imaging software. The Chocolate scored 111.3 lines of horizontal resolution, and 236.5 lines of vertical resolution. Compare this to the low end Canon ZR700 camcorder, which scored 363.7 and 257.8 lines respectively and you can see that the Chocolate’s video recorder won’t replace your camcorder any time soon.
Compared to other phones the LG Chocolate is good but not great. The Palm Treo 700p did significantly better with a resolution score of 174.5 lines of horizontal resolution and 173.5 lines of vertical resolution. However the Motorola Krazr K1m did significantly worse with a score of 84.47 lines horizontal and 107.9 lines vertically.
Video Compression (2.0)
The LG Chocolate captures video in mobile standard 3GP format. Some higher end smart phones like the XV6700 from Verizon offer choices of 3GP, MPEG-4 or Motion Jpeg AVI. Most phones however only offer the 3GP standard.
Interface (4.0)
The LG Chocolate’s camcorder interface is very similar to it’s still camera interface. It shows you that you are in camcorder mode, and displays the current video resolution, which seems pointless since there is only one resolution available. Surprisingly digital zoom is available in video mode when it’s not available in still mode. You can zoom in up to 2x using the left and right keys on the directional pad, with the Chocolate providing 10 stops along the way. You also have access to brightness settings by hitting the up key on the directional pad. The last item you will see on screen is the timer that shows how long you’ve been taking video.
As with the stills interface the left soft key will take you to your files, in this case video files. All the other options are available under the left soft key. Here you will find settings to change your time limit, white balance and brightness.
Overall we though that the Chocolate’s camcorder interface was better than the stills interface and is better than that found on a phone like the Motorola Razr V3m.
Manual Control (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not provide any manual controls for the camcorder. This is standard for camcorders found on digital cameras. The Chocolate does provide you with brightness controls, which is similar to manual gain.
Zoom (1.0)
The LG Chocolate provides up to 2x digital zoom. Unfortunately digital zoom is almost completely useless as all it does is crop and enlarge a section of the screen. This means that every level of digital zoom leads to significant loss of detail. Given the already low resolution of the chocolate’s video, we don’t recommend using the digital zoom unless you are willing to give up a great deal of quality.
Editing (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not provide users with any video editing options. This is common amongst cell phones. Editing options for video are only found on high end phones that focus on imaging, such as the Nokia N93.
Modes (2.0)
The LG Chocolate records video at 176 x 144, which is already the standard for MMS video. This means that it does not have a separate MMS mode. The Chocolate also fails to provide any scene modes, which is standard for cell phones, for example the Motorola Razr V3m also fails to include scene modes.
[page title="Making/Receiving Calls"]
Dialing Speed (4.08)
To test dialing speed we make 5 phone calls to 5 different numbers and take the average time to get from phone closed to send key. It was quick and easy to make calls on the LG Chocolate, simply reveal the slider, key in your phone number and then hit the send key. This procedure took an average of 3.61 seconds. This is significantly better than the Motorola Razr V3m, which took an average of 4.9 seconds to complete. Overall we were very pleased with how easy it was to make calls on the Chocolate.
Talk and End Button (4.0)
The talk and end buttons on the LG Chocolate are different than those found on many phones because of their placement. The talk key is where you would expect it to be, flanking the directional pad below and to the left. Instead of finding the end button on the opposite side of the directional pad however, you will find it on the left hand side of the phone.
This curious placement allows LG to place a back button where you would normally find the end key, this key is used extensively for navigation and easy access to it is important. Furthermore, an end key is less important on a slider where you can end any call by simply closing the slider.
The placement does create some problems however. For example, if you want to get back to the home screen you will need to readjust your hold on the phone to reach the end key. The send key is a touch sensitive key, so there is no tactile feedback, but it is very convenient to reach for. The end key, despite being a real buttons, provides very poor tactile feedback, and is difficult to find by feel.
Overall we like the fact that LG was willing to buck the trend and use a different layout for the send and end keys, but many users who are used to a standard layout may find the Chocolate’s keys frustrating. We found the keys difficult to get used to, and even once we did get used to them we did not like the feel of either key.
Call Management (6.0)
The call management features on the LG Chocolate are very functional and well thought out. Call history goes back at least 30 days. You can view all calls as well as incoming, outgoing and missed calls. In the list you get the phone number, time and date of the call. When you select an item you also see call duration. Call timers are also extensive, providing information about all, received, dialed, roaming and last calls. There is also a counter for data. Each of these timers can be reset individually, or you can reset them all.
Once you are in a call you are given several options. You can choose to mute the call by hitting the left soft key. The right soft key provides you with a menu that allows access to important applications like messages or contacts, as well as allowing you to record the call. We were disappointed by the fact that the Chocolate doesn’t allow you to put calls on hold, make a second call or conference calls. Call waiting is present however.
Startup to Call (4.81)
Because we’ve all faced a situation where our phone was turned off and we urgently needed to make a call we test how long it takes handsets to go from off to send. We time how long it takes to make calls to five different test phone numbers, and then take the average. The LG Chocolate took an average of 20.8 seconds to make a call. This is an excellent time compared to other phones, for example the Motorola Razr V3m took 35.7 seconds to go from off to send, while the Motorola Q, a smartphone, took a whopping one minute eleven seconds.
Ring Volume (8.9)
To test ring volume we placed the Motorola Q 4 inches away from a sound pressure meter, set the volume to maximum and choose the loudest ringtone available on the phone. We then call the phone and measure the maximum decibels produced. The LG Chocolate scored an impressive 88.7 decibels on this test. This is as loud as the Motorola Razr V3m, but is significantly louder than most other phones. If you have the volume set to maximum on the Chocolate, chances are you’re not going to miss a call.
Ringtone Customizability (0.0)
You cannot use music files are ringtones on the LG Chocolate. This is an unfortunate omission for a music oriented handset, but is not surprising as carriers wish to ensure that they can continue to sell ringtones separate from music.
Non Audio Alerts (6.0)
The Vibration alert on the LG Chocolate is weak, we barely noticed it in our pocket and you could easily miss a call if you were distracted. Compared to a phone like the Motorola Razr V3m, the vibration alert was fairly weak. In addition to vibration, the screen on the Chocolate lights up and displays an incoming call message with the phone number that is dialing in. We were happy to see that the entire screen was taken up. Overall we were not too impressed by the non audio alerts on the Chocolate.
[page title="Messaging"]Supported Email Services (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not have a built in email client, instead directing you to a web based interface to access many popular email services, such as Hotmail, AOL and Yahoo. Wirelessinfo.com does not award points for web based email clients, as such the LG Chocolate from Verizon scores a 0 on this section. Although more phones are adopting purely web based email services, we feel that there are serious flaws with such services, for example when you don’t have network access you are unable to access your email.
Push Email (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not support Push Email.
Multiple Email Accounts (0.0)
No Email Client
HTML and Attachments (0.0)
No Email Client
Email Customization (0.0)
No Email Client
Time to a New Email Message (0.0)
No Email Client
Email Usability (0.0)
No Email Client
Supported IM Services (0.0)
The LG Chocolate includes an IM client that allows you to use Yahoo, AOL or MSN instant messaging services. Unfortunately you cannot use all 3 services at once. Users should also be careful, as each instant message will use an SMS message, so heavy IM users should invest in a large package of text messages. Because text messages are charged we do not award points for this, however those willing to pay will probably appreciate having the functionality.
MMS Support (5.0)
MMS messaging on the LG Chocolate is divided into two separate types, PIX messages for pictures and FLIX messages for video. Both of these options are found in the messaging area. There is no integration with normal text messages, meaning you cannot start with a standard text message and then add in a photo or video to turn it into an MMS message. MMS is integrated with the photo and video album software, simply select the item you want and choose send from the right soft key menu. You can also send an MMS directly from the still photo or camcorder interface. Once you have taken your photo or video, hitting the action key on the directional pad.
We were pleased to see integration with photo and video software on the LG Chocolate, but disappointed by the splitting of MMS into two different categories. We like the complete integration you see on phones like the Treo 700p, where there is a single messaging client that handles all of your SMS/MMS needs.
SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (2.0)
The LG Chocolate supports a wide arrange of different small graphics that you can insert into a standard text message. This of course includes smiley faces. Curiously however, the Chocolate did not turn any of the smiley faces we sent to it from a reference phone into graphics, leaving them in standard text format. This is an unfortunate omission, and surprising given that the Chocolate can definitely display smiley faces.
SMS/MMS Ease of Use (5.0)
The SMS/MMS program on the LG Chocolate is organized in a fairly standard fashion. You can access it easily from the phone’s home page as it is assigned to the left soft key by default. You have a messaging program that allows you to create a new message, access email, voicemail or IM.
In addition to this you can access your messaging inbox, sent mail and drafts folder from this menu. These folders are combined for SMS and MMS, messages are displayed individually in a list. Once you are in a folder or program you will need to use the back key to get back to the combined messaging interface. Unfortunately this doesn’t work if you have accessed a web based service like email. In this case you will need to use the end key to go back to the home page and then re-enter the messaging program.
When creating an SMS/MMS message you are presented with a list of fields. The “To” field when highlighted has space for up to 5 different numbers. You can also insert a contact, a number from a recent call, send to a group or to all your contacts.
Overall we found the MMS/SMS interface on the LG Chocolate to be run of the mill. It’s comparable to the interface on the Motorola Razr V3m, and not a patch on the excellent intefrace found on the Treo 700p.
Time to New SMS Message (3.68)
In order to test how long it takes to create a new SMS message, we measure the amount on time it takes to go from the home screen to a new SMS dialogue. The LG Chocolate took an average of 2.72 seconds to get to a new SMS dialogue. This is a good time and is aided by the messaging shortcut on the home screen, however wee did find that the Chocolate’s touch sensitive controls slowed us down a little. Compared to a phone like the Motorola Razr V3m, which took 4.6 seconds, we were pleased with the LG Chocolate’s performance.
[page title="Organizer"]
Synchronization Ease of Use (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not allow you to synchronize your contacts, calendar and other personal information with your PC.
Alerts (5.0)
Alerts on the LG Chocolate are only available for items you enter in the calendar program. Reminders can be set to go off at one of 8 preset times, ranging from on time to 2 days before the appointment. You can choose any of the standard ring tones to go off as the reminder, and you can also choose to add a vibration alert.
When a reminder goes off you are shown an alert on the screen with the title of your appointment along with the audio and/or vibrate alert that you chose. You have the option to view the item now or view it later. If you choose to view it later it will go off again in 5 minutes. There are no options to delay for a specified period of time.
If you miss your alert, it will stop ringing/vibrating after one minute and then sound again five minutes later, just as if you had hit the snooze. Overall we were satisfied with the alert options available on the LG Choclate. Although not as advanced as a smart phone, they do compare favorably with a phone like the Motorola Razr V3m. The ability to set your own ring tone for each appointment is a particularly nice feature.
Over the Air PIM Sync (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not provide you with any over the air synchronization options.
PIM Cross Connections (0.0)
There is no integration across PIM applications on the LG Chocolate. For example, you cannot add a contact to an appointment.
Address Book
Adding Contacts (4.61)
To test how difficult it is to add contacts on a phone we time how long it takes to enter each of 5 different contacts with diverse names. We enter a full name and number for each contact. The LG Chocolate took an average of 21.7 seconds to enter each contact. This compares well to other regular phones, for example the Motorola Razr V3m took significantly longer at 27.9 seconds to add a contact. However phones with a keyboard take significantly less time to add a contact. For example the Treo 700p took only 17.7 seconds on average to add a contact. Overall we were pleased with the LG Chocolate’s performance given that it has a standard keypad.
Sorting & Search (1.5)
The LG Chocolate’s contacts program only allows you to sort your contacts by first name. You can search through your contacts by typing out the first name only using multi-tap. You cannot search by last name and there is no predictive text search available. Overall the sorting and search options on the LG Chocolate are not impressive at all. Many phones allow provide you with more sorting options, for example the Motorola Razr V3m allows you to sort your contacts by category and speed dial, amongst others. Similarly, many phones allow you to search through your contacts using predictive text, and searching looks at more than just the first name.
Fields (2.4)
The LG Chocolate provides you with 12 different fields for your contacts. Most of these fields are generic (phone numbers, emails), but the custom text message alert stood out as something innovative. Overall we were not impressed by the Chocolate’s range of fields. We would have liked to see a birthday field and were disappointed that there is no way to enter non standard information, either in a notes field or by creating custom fields.
Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (5.7)
The LG Chocolate allows you to assign phone numbers to one of 99 different speed dials. Assigning speed dial can be done from a contact’s edit screen, by choosing the option from the right soft key menu. There is also a dialogue to view and manage all of you speed dials in the menu under contacts.
The LG Chocolate does not offer voice tags, but does have a very well implemented voice command program. In addition to recognizing each of our 5 test contacts without problem, the voice command software can do much more, including launching programs, reading back information, checking various status items like battery, signal or checking in on your account. The software can be trained to recognize your voice better and was remarkably accurate compared to other voice recognition systems we have encountered in the past, including those found on high end smart phones.
Overall we felt that the Chocolate’s speed dial application was run of the mill, and we were disappointed to find no option to add voice tags. Although the voice command program is very full featured and responded well in our testing, it’s always nice to have voice tags to fall back on.
Calendar
Adding Calendar Items (3.4)
To test how difficult it is to add a calendar item we time how long it takes to go from phone closed to setting a lunch appointment for the following day. We repeat this test 5 times and take an average. The LG Chocolate took an average of 29.4 seconds to add our test appointment. This is a particularly poor score, in comparison the Motorola Razr V3m took 22.6 seconds, while the Treo 700p took only 12.2 seconds to add our test appointment. The LG Chocolate’s score is the result of two things; first the calendar is buried in the menu system and second the Chocolate’s touch sensitive controls are anything but sensitive. It often took several taps on the key we were pressing before we got a response.
Calendar Views (3.0)
The LG Chocolate’s calendar program provides you with 3 views. When you open the program you are placed in the monthly view by default. You can switch to an agenda view, a listing of all the appointments in a day, by navigating to the day you want and hitting the select button on the directional pad. There is also a weekly view available in the menu you find under the left soft key.
The monthly view is a simple monthly calendar. The current date is highlighted in blue, and dates that have appointments on them are purple. There is also an indicator at the bottom of the screen that tells you how many events there are on a given day. The agenda view shows a list of the day’s appointments in order. Each appointment shows the start and end times, as well as icons for reminders and recurrence. The weekly view shows a seven day week in a grid with days along the top and time along the left side. Appointments are blocked off in black. No information about the appointment is available. You cannot filter your appointments in any of the views.
Overall the LG Chocolate’s calendar views are very basic, which is what we were expecting from it. Although no one expects to use a phone like the Chocolate as their PDA, it would have been nice to see more usable views available, especially the weekly view.
Fields (6.0)
When creating an appointment on the LG Chocolate there are 7 fields available, including fields for recurrence and the ability to set a custom ring tone for that appointment. Compared to other phones the Chocolate does not provide you with a large number of fields. We would have liked the ability to set an all day appointment for example, or to add a category or note.
To Do/Tasks
Adding ToDo/Task (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not allow you to create To-do’s and Tasks. This is not uncommon as most regular phones lack this feature.
ToDo/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (0.0)
See Above
Fields (0.0)
See Above
Notes
Adding Notes (1.48)
We were pleased to see that the LG Chocolate allowed you to create notes. This is not a standard feature on phones, for example the Motorolar Razr V3m lacks it. To find out how difficult it was to create a note, we timed how long it took to go from phone closed to saving a simple note reminding us about lunch the next day.
The LG Chocolate took an average of 33.8 seconds to create our test note. Most phones that allow you to create notes are smart phones like the Treo 700p, which took only 8.3 seconds on average. The LG’s poor time reflects the fact that the notes application is buried in the menus and that the keypad on the Chocolate doesn’t compare to the 700p’s full QWERTY keyboard for text entry. We also found ourselves once again stymied by the touch controls on the Chocolate, as it sometimes took up to 4 presses before the controls recognized a keypress.
Note Interface (5.0)
Although we were happy with to find a notes application on the LG Chocolate, the interface is fairly basic. Once in the application you have a list of notes, with the time and date created as well as the first few characters. The left soft key is assigned to creating a new note, while the right soft key opens a menu. This menu allows you to delete existing notes, and also allows you to search through existing notes. This is a nice feature and we were pleasantly surprised to see it. Even high end smart phones often don’t include a search function in their notes application. Overall we were pleased with the notes interface on the LG Chocolate, although not up to the same standard as some smart phone interfaces, for example there is no categorization or filtering of views, we were pleased to see a search function available.
Note Formatting (0.0)
There are no options on the LG Chocolate to add formatting to the text in your notes. This is not surprising as even high end smart phones often don’t offer this functionality.
Voice Memo (6.0)
The LG Chocolate has a simple voice memo program built in. This has become a standard feature on most phones, and we were happy to see it on the Chocolate as well. Creating a voice memo is fairly simple as a long press on the voice command button launches the recorder. If you don’t k now about this shortcut, or if you want to go and find your voice memos later though, the procedure is less straightforward. You will need to go three menus deep to the “my sounds” menu to find your recordings. Our test recording played back smoothly. Once you have created a recording you can send it via MMS directly from the program. Compared to other phones the LG Chocolate provides the most basic set of options for voice recordings, and in this respect it is similar to a phone like the Motorola Razr V3m, with the exception that the V3m does not allow you to send a recording via MMS.
[page title="Multimedia"]Accessing Music Software (4.2)
To test how easy it is to access music software we time how long it takes to go from the phone closed position to playing music. We set the phone up with our test album and make sure the music software has it loaded. The LG Chocolate is touted as a music phone and as such you would expect access to the music software to be simple. In this we were not disappointed, as it took the Chocolate only an average of 4.73 seconds to get a song playing. This is significantly faster than the Motorola Razr V3m, which took 12.1 seconds.
The Chocolate’s score is undoubtedly helped by the dedicated music key located on the right side of the phone. The score may even have been faster if we had not been stymied by the Chocolate’s touch controls on some of our test runs. Overall we were impressed by how easy it was to access your music on the LG Chocolate.
Dedicated Music Controls (2.0)
For a music device we were disappointed by the LG Chocolate’s lack of dedicated music controls. When music is playing and you are on the home screen there are no keys that will allow you to control your music. The volume keys will allow you to control music volume separately from the phone’s master volume however. Many phones that have music functions are beginning to put dedicated music keys for play/pause, next and previous tracks, for example the Sanyo M1 has these controls, and we wish that the Chocolate had them as well.
Music Software Functionality and Organization (5.2)
The Music software on the LG Chocolate provides a solid array of functionality. There is support for playlists created on the device, although our sample playlist in the standard .pls format was not recognized. Idv3 tags on our sample mp3’s were recognized correctly, and tags from our sample windows media song were also recognized. The software did not recognize our sample aac file at all. Music can be viewed by artist, genre or album.
There is no support for album art, visualizations or ratings, however there is automatic library updating when you add new music and music does play in the background. There is support for up to 7 different preset equalizer settings, but you cannot set the equalizer manually. On issue we did have was that music files placed on the memory card manually cannot be in folders, this adds an annoying steps to those who have all there albums organized into folders on their computer. Overall we were pleased with the range of options found on the LG Chocolate’s music software, it is significantly better than that found on the Motorolar Razr V3m, for example. For the most part it lives up to what you would expect from a music handset.
Online Song Downloading (8.0)
The LG Chocolate supports Verizon's Vcast Music Store for direct downloading of music to your handset. In order to access the store from the My Music menu. This launchd the store interface where you can browse and download music. We were pleased to see that items on the screen were associated with number keys making for one key press activation. Selecting a song shows you the title, artist and length along with the price. Most songs cost $1.99 each. You can purchase the song by hitting the center action key on the D-Pad. You are then asked if you want to download the song immediately or wait for later. Overall we found the V Cast music store to be very intuitive and easy to use, but a little slow.
Streaming (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not support streaming audio using any standard formats. Streaming audio is not usually supported by regular phones, for example the Motorola Razr V3m does not support it.
Podcast Support (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not include any software that allow you to download, synchronize or organize podcasts. This is an unfortunate omission, although not an uncommon one. Given the popularity of podcasts we wish that manufacturers would do more to start extending support for this format to phones like the Chocolate that are music enabled. You can of course simply drop a podcast audio file onto your memory card and listen to it using the music software, but dedicated software like that found on Nokia S60 devices is a much more elegant solution.
Music Sync with PC (0.0)
The LG Chocolate is not capable of synchronizing with a PC out of the box. You can purchase a music essential kit from Verizon that includes headphones, a USB cord and software that allows you to synchronize your music with Windows Media Player on a PC for $29.99. We only score a phone’s capabilities based on what comes in the box, and as such the LG Chocolate does not receive any points for music synchronization.
Music Formats and DRM (4.0)
The LG Chocolate supports Mp3 and WMA encoded files. It does not support files encoded in the AAC or Real formats. Mp3 is the global standard, and we were glad to see support for that. Anyone who uses Windows Media Player on a PC as their principal music creator and organizer will welcome the WMA support, however itunes users will find that AAC encoded files ripped from CD’s will not work on the Chocolate.
There is support for Microsoft’s playsforsure DRM, however no support for Apple’s Fairplay or Real’s Rhapsody DNA. Songs downloaded from Verizon’s Vcast music store are encoded as WMA, but the DRM associated with them applies only to the phone they are downloaded to. Overall the LG Chocolate provides an average array of music format and DRM options, the support for Microsoft’s Playsforsure DRM means that you can use the phone with online services such as Yahoo! Music and other that support it.
Music Interruption (4.0)
The LG Chocolate does a middling job of interrupting your music when you receive a call. The Music will pause when the call comes in, unfortunately it will not resume again when you complete the call. You will need to go into the music application and resume manually. This is unfortunate as phones like the Motorola Razr V3m both pause and resume music without issue. We expected no less from a music focused handset like the Chocolate.
Video
Video Software Access (3.75)
To test how easy it is to access video software on the LG Chocolate we time how long it takes to go from standby to playing a video. We do this five times and take the average. The LG Chocolate took an average of 5.34 seconds to get a video playing. This is a good score, faster than the Motorola Razr V3m’s 6.3 seconds or the Motorola Q’s 8.6 seconds. The Chocolate is helped by the fact that one of the shortcut keys on the home screen takes you to the photo and video menu.
Video Controls (6.0)
The LG Chocolate provides an average range of controls while watching video. The D-Pad provides access to Play/Pause, Stop, Fast Forward and Rewind. The volume keys control video volume, while the left soft key allows you to mute sound completely. This is about the same number of controls as the Motorola Razr V3m, albeit in a slightly different configuration. There are no advanced features available like the ability to configure your own controls.
Video Software & Organization (1.5)
The video software on the LG Chocolate is very basic, meant to view videos you take yourself with the camera. There are no advanced features available like library update/organization or the ability to assign ratings. We were pleased to see the ability to view video in full screen. Overall we were not impressed by the LG Chocolate’s video software, it did not even include options found on the Motorola Razr V3m, like watching videos sequentially.
As we mentioned, the video software on the LG Chocolate was really meant to simply organize and watch the videos you capture yourself with the phone. As such there are very few video organization options. Videos are listed in alphabetical order; there are no options to sort by anything else, or playlist support. There is also no option for background play. The video organization on the LG Chocolate is what you would expect from very basic video software.
Video Sync with PC (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not allow you to synchronize your videos with a PC.
Video Formats (2.0)
The LG Chocolate played audio on all of our test 3GP files, but did not play the video beyond the first frame except for the file encoded with Mpeg-4 and an AAC audio stream. The LG chocolate also supported a standard MP4 file, which seems to indicate that it is only able to play video encoded in Mpeg-4. We were disappointed that the Chocolate did not support industry standard 3GP files encoded with the H263 codec, but please to see that it supported standard MP4 files.
Video DRM (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not support any digital rights management software for video. This means that you cannot purchase video from the iTunes store, for example, and watch them on your phone.
Video Playback Smoothness (2.0)
To test video playback smoothness we play back 5 3GP files and note when they don’t become viewable. On the LG Chocolate the 56 Kbps file played smoothly. We began to notice choppiness and fragmentation with the next file at 112 Kbps. At 256 Kbps this was even more evident, and the 384 Kbps file was unwatchable. The 112 and 256 Kbps files were more watchable on the Chocolate than they were on the Motorola Razr V3m; however that still didn’t make them particularly watchable.
Online Video Downloading (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not support any online video download services.
Video Streaming (unscored)
Because streaming video is not easy to test comprehensively we do not score phones on this section. That being said, the LG Chocolate will allow you to use the Verizon’s V Cast Video store, which provides an array of short clips at various prices. The LG Chocolate did not support any 3GP streaming video clips which we tested.
[page title="Software"]OS (3.0)
The LG Chocolate runs on a proprietary operating system. The OS responds quickly with little lag. The menu system is organized in a logical fashion, with each of the major functions given its own heading and the important items listed in the main menu of that section. Some items are buried in the menu system, for example many of the tools like the alarm clock and calendar are two menus deep. Compared to other proprietary operating systems like that found on the Motorola Razr V3m we found the Chocolate’s OS to be snappier and more intuitive. Proprietary operating systems are scored between one and five points, we reserve higher scores for the much more flexible and powerful operating systems found on smart phones like Palm OS or Windows Mobile.
Home Screen Score (4.0)
The Home screen on LG Chocolate displays the basic information you would expect to see on your phone’s home screen, including signal strength, battery meter, date and time. On the bottom of the screen you see that the left soft key takes you to the message menu and the right soft key takes you to contacts. Between these two is the indicator that shows a press on the action key of the directional pad takes you to the main menu.
The 4 shortcut keys on the Chocolate (one on the left, three on the right, excluding the volume keys) also have indicators on the home screen that line up with them and show you their function. The center of the screen is taken up by whatever wallpaper is being used. There are also various icons that can appear when they are needed, for example when you have a calendar appointment a bar appears at the bottom of the screen with a calendar icon.
Although its not indicated on the home screen you also have access to 4 shortcuts by using the 4 directions of the directional pad. This is a standard feature on many phones, however because of the lack of an indicator we did not immediately realize that the Chocolate had this functionality. By default the four directions are assigned to News & Info, Pix & Flix, Calendar and Get it Now. These shortcuts can be reassigned in the phone settings menu. You can also change the wallpaper used and turn off the indicators for the shortcut keys.
We found the home screen on the LG chocolate provided a good range of options, but was a little cramped and unintuitive. For example we liked the visual
Extensibility (3.0)
Running a proprietary OS the LG Chocolate has limited opportunities for adding third party software. You can add java applications, which you can purchase from Verizon’s store or download from the internet. Compared to advanced operating systems like Windows Mobile or Palm OS that allows you to install a wide range of third party programs, the Chocolate’s operating system is fairly limited. That being said, there are some nice java applications available nowadays, such as google maps and the opera mini web browser, which can add significant value to your device.
Customizability (3.5)
The LG Chocolate provides a good range of options to customize your phone. Most of these are related to the look and feel, but a few allow you to address actual functionality. As mentioned above, you can change the shortcuts assigned to the 4 directions of the directional pad on the home screen. You can also turn off the indicators for the buttons located on the Chocolate’s left and right side, as well as change the wallpaper that is displayed on the home screen. The wallpaper can be changed to any photo or video you took, as well as one of the available animations. The ability to set a video as a wallpaper is a nice feature that is not found on most phones.
You also have themes available on the Chocolate. There are 4 basic themes that change the background color. For each of these you can choose one of six different colors for the top and bottom bars. There are also two themes that do more than just change colors. Called Rock n’ Roll and Jazz, these themes change the look of the menus as well. You can purchase additional wallpapers for the Chocolate from Verizon, however we did not find any additional themes available for download.
Overall we found the customization options on the Chocolate to be good. They were a step above those found on the Motorola Razr V3m, but not as extensive as those found on many smart phones. For example, on the Treo 700p we could change the applications viewed in the menu, assign them to new categories or create new categories ourselves. This functionality is not available on the Chocolate.
OS Responsivness (7.0)
We found the operating system on the LG Chocolate to be very responsive. Our major issue was the responsiveness of the keypad, which we shall address later. You can speed up the operating system’s responses by using one of the basic themes included with the phone. The more advanced themes that change menu structure do add some lag, although it is not significant. Even challenging applications like music or the web browser are fairly quick to launch, especially compared to a phone like the Motorola Razr V3m which displayed significant lag at times.
Gaming (1.3)
We were somewhat disappointed by the gaming options on the LG Chocolate. The phone does not come with any games installed, not even demo versions, which we found to be a penny pinching measure. There are a wide variety of java games available for download from Verizon for those who want to spend a few dollars to add some entertainment; however the touch controls on the LG Chocolate are not suited for gaming at all. Compared to other basic phones like the Motorola Razr V3m, the Chocolate is not a good gaming platform.
Browser Features (4.0)
The browser on the LG Chocolate supports basic features. HTML and WAP pages are supported, as are images, cookies and basic encryption. More advanced technologies like Javascript, RSS feeds and password management are not present. The Browser on the Chocolate does not compare well with browsers on other devices, the Motorola Razr V3m provided support for more technologies, and browsers found on smart phones are much more capable. The Chocolate’s browser is only really suited for browsing pages that are specifically designed for mobile phones.
Browser Interface(4.0)
The browsing controls on the LG Chocolate are as basic as you would expect given what we said about the features. Pages are automatically formatted for small screens, but there are no other controls available. We would have liked to see the ability to adjust fonts at the very least. The LG Chocolate does not compare well with competitors like the Motorola Razr V3m.
Bookmarks on the LG Chocolate are managed online, that is they are not saved locally. Given that you are always going to be online when you need to access them this solution works just fine, as long as you’re willing to wait while the bookmarks page is loaded every time you need it. When organizing your favorites you can delete, edit or reorder them. You can also create folders to store favorites with similar subjects or purposes, which is a nice feature that is not always found on mobile web browsers.
History on the other hand is saved onto the phone. You can see a chronological list of the sites you have visited by going to the advanced option on the right soft key menu. History is saved from session to session, so you can go back and see what you were browsing in the morning when you access your browser in the evening. You can clear your history, as well as the cache of files, cookies and items saved in autofill (which only applies to urls that you’ve entered.
Overall we found the management of favorites and history on the LG Chocolate to be a step above most phones, including the Motorola Razr V3m, and even smart phones like the Motorola Q.
Browser Access Speed (4.0)
To test how easy it is to access the browser we counted how many steps it takes to launch the browser, enter a url (we count the actual entering of the url as one step) and go to the web page. We choose to count steps rather than timing this procedure because many phones are required to interface with the network in order to launch their browsers, and we wanted to remove this variability.
The LG Chocolate took 10 steps to complete this procedure. This is good for a normal phone, for example the Motorola Razr V3m took 13 steps to access our test site. The Chocolate is helped by the fact that there is a shortcut to the browser on the home screen (press up on the directional pad). The fact that menu items are mapped to the number keys also shaves a few steps off of the Chocolate’s score. Overall we were pleased with how easy it is to get to a web page you want. Note though that long or complicated url’s can be a challenge to enter using a standard phone keypad.
Calculator (5.0)
The calculator on the LG Chocolate provides basic functionality, allowing you to do addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. D-Pad directions are assigned to each of the four functions. The only higher level functions available are the ability to group functions in parentheses and the ability to include exponents. Both of these are available under the left soft key menu. The Chocolate had no problems with our basic calculations, including the one that asks for the square root of 81 (thanks to the support of exponents). Compared to other basic calculators on mobile phones, for example the one on the Motorola Razr V3m, the Chocolate’s only really adds support for exponents. The interface is easy to use and straightforward, although once again we found the touch controls to be, well, touchy.
Alarm (6.0)
The alarm on the LG Chocolate provides good but basic functionality. You can set an alarm for any time, and choose any of the standard ring tones to go off. You are limited to 3 regular alarms, but also have the option to set a 4th alarm that plays your music instead of the standard ring tones. Recurring alarms can be set for daily, weekdays or weekends. The LG Chocolate’s alarm clock is comparable to other phones, like the Motorola Razr V3m, with the added bonus of having an alarm that can play your music.
Document Software (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not include any software that allows you to view or edit office documents, such as pdf’s, spreadsheets or word documents. This functionality is not usually found on normal phones, being reserved for more advanced smart phones.
[page title="Battery Life"]Call Time (3.22)
To test call time we initiate a call with the phone using Skype. We then play an audio book to simulate talk and measure how long it takes for the phone to go from a full charge to switching off. The LG Chocolate lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes in our call time test. This is significantly worse than the stated talk time of 3 hours and 30 minutes. Compared to other regular phones the Chocolate did about as well as the Motorola Razr V3m at 2 hours and 41 minutes, and significantly worse than the Motorola Krazr K1m’s 3 hours and 27 minutes. We were disappointed with the Chocolate’s call time score. A small device like the Chocolate inevitably holds a small batter, in this case the 800 mAh battery shows that it has serious limitations.
Music Playback (5.48)
To test music playback on a handst we set the device to loop an album continuously and time how long it takes for the battery to run out. We leave all options to the default and close the handset if it is a slider or clamshell. The LG Chocolate lasted 7 hours and 37 minutes in our test. This is slightly worse than the Sanyo M1, another music handset, but significantly better than the Motorola Razr V3m. The LG Chocolate will last a couple of hours at the gym and should still give you enough juice to get through an average day.
Web Browsing (3.8)
To test web browsing we direct a phone’s browser to a web site that is programmed to refresh every 10 seconds. We then ensure that the phone screen stays on either through the settings or manually. We take the total time it takes for the phone to go from fully charged to shut down. The LG Chocolate put up another poor battery score, lasting only 3 hours and 35 minutes browsing the web. Like the call time test this is close to the Razr V3m’s score (3 hours and 35 minutes). You should not expect the Chocolate’s 800 mAh battery to get you to far when using the web browser extensively.
Idle Time (unscored)
In order to get reviews out in a timely manner we do not generally do idle time tests. According to Verizon the Chocolate is rated to last for 16 days. This is an excellent rated standby time, however given the failure of the Chocolate to live up to its talk time test we would take it with a grain of salt.
The LG Chocolate is a dual-band CDMA phone, which functions on the 800 and 1900 Mhz bands. Unfortunately, CDMA technology functioning on these bands is pretty much restricted to the United States and Canada. World travelers who want to take their phone with them should either consider a GSM provider or look into Verizon’s international roaming service, which allows you to lease a compatible GSM phone and keep your phone number, for a cost. Our score in this section is standardized based on the total number of cellular bands supported by a handset.
Data Support Score (6.0)
The LG Chocolate supports Verizon’s high speed EVDO network. According to Verizon, average download speeds range from 400 to 700 kbps (note the small b), with burst speeds up to 2 Mbps. We tried to run a speed test on dslreports.com, however the Chocolate’s browser did not support it. When you are not in an EVDO coverage area, data falls back on the slower 1xRTT. The Motorola Razr V3m does not support Verizon’s newer and higher speed EVDO Rev A network. For users that stay in North America EVDO provides very good data speeds. Note that it does have a significant impact on battery life.
Bluetooth (7.5)
The LG Chocolate supports Bluetooth 1.1, and supports 7 profiles. These include standard profiles such as headset, handse-free and serial port, as well as more advanced profiles such as dial up networking. We were particularly pleased to see support for the A2DP profile, which allows you to use stereo Bluetooth headphones, and AVRCP, which allows you to control the music on your device remotely. Pairing the device with a Bluetooth headset was a simple affair, and only took a few seconds to complete.
WiFi (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not support Wi-Fi.
Infrared (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not support Infrared.
[page title="Hardware"]Keypad
Text Words Per Minute (5.0)
Using the LG Chocolate’s predictive text system we entered a sample piece of text in 5 times using 2 hands. The average time to write out the piece of text was 38.4 seconds, which works out to 25 words per minute. This is a poor score for a phone, and it is definitely impacted by the small size of the keypad. Compare this to the Motorola Razr V3m, which has a much roomier keypad and was able to write 29.4 words per minute. We found ourselves making quite a few mistakes as we were practicing for the test, and those with large fingers will find the keyboard to be especially cramped.
T9 and Auto Complete (5.0)
The LG Chocolate includes predictive text entry, allowing you to type out words by spelling them out on the keypad, rather than hitting keys multiple times to get the exact letter you want. Unfortunately, there was no support for word completion, meaning that you better know how to spell the entire word, because you won’t get any help from the phone.
One Handed Usability (4.7)
To test one handed usability of the keypad we entered a sample piece of text 5 times using the LG Chocolate’s predictive text system. It took an average of 40.54 seconds to enter this text. This works out to 23.7 words per minute. You can see that compared to the score of 25 words per minute using two hands you don’t lose much moving to one handed text entry.
Keypad Backlighting (6.0)
The keypad backlight on the LG Chocolate is a dull white. It does a good job of providing even backlighting and legible numbers and symbols, without being overwhelmingly bright. There is no light sensor for the LG Chocolate, however you do have control over how long the backlight stays on. On many phone these controls are tied to the screen backlight, and we were pleased to see separate controls for the keypad backlight on the Chocolate. This is a feature that is missing from the Treo 700p for example.
Controls
D-Pad/Joystick (1.0)
One of the distinguishing factors of the LG Chocolate are the touch controls used for the D-Pad and surrounding buttons. The D-Pad is arranged in a circle with the select key at the center. The surrounding directional keys are ridged in concentric circles, with slightly raised dividers between the 4 directions. Although we applaud LG for being innovative, we must say that the D-Pad on the LG Chocolate is one of the worst we have ever used.
Needless to say that tactile feedback is poor. We found ourselves hitting the wrong key constantly. It was especially easy to hit one of the directional keys when going for the center action key. , Beyond that we found that the touch controls were extremely unresponsive. It sometimes took us half a dozen presses before the phone recognized our key press. You can address this by going into the settings and increasing the sensitivity for the touch controls. Even with the increased sensitivity though, the D-Pad on the LG Chocolate could not be called anything but frustrating to use in the long term.
Frankly no one has really succeeded in making touch controls easier to use than real buttons (something Apple might want to think about in the iPhone) and we will be extremely happy to get back to a regular D-Pad when this review is done.
Touch Screen (0.0)
The Chocolate does not have a touch screen interface.
Jog Dial (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not have a jog dial.
Soft Buttons (1.0)
Like the D-Pad, the soft buttons on the LG Chocolate are touch sensitive. Many of the same concerns apply here, with the added issue that not even an attempt has been made to create some kind of tactile feedback. If you run your finger over the screen and down towards the soft buttons, at no point will you be able to distinguish by touch where the buttons begin. We found the soft buttons to be difficult to work with, although the fact that they are well spaced from everything else did reduce mistaken presses when compared to the D-Pad.
Volume Control (3.0)
The volume keys on the LG Chocolate are placed on the left side of the phone. There are two distinct keys rather than a rocker switch, however they are placed very close together. The gap between them is so slight that it is easy to miss it by touch. Add in that the keys themselves are fairly small, and it easy to miss them. When pressed they provide limited tactile feedback. Overall the Chocolate’s volume keys did not impress us, we liked the ones found on the Razr V3m better, even though they are harder to reach.
Power and Standby (4.0)
The power key on the LG Chocolate is the same as the end key, and all of the comments we made about it previously apply. The biggest issue is that the key is small and can be difficult to find by touch. These are not major concerns for a power key however, and as the Chocolate is a slider you will not be using it very often.
Other Buttons (6.0)
In addition to the standard keys above, the LG Chocolate has 4 additional buttons for your use. On the left hand side there is a dedicated voice command button. This button is also used to unlock the phone, and a long press will launch the voice recorder.
On the front of the phone you find a back key on the lower left, in the place where you would expect the end key to be. The back key will simply take you back to the previous screen, except for when you are using the browser, in which case it will take you to the previous web page you were on. On the right side of the phone are dedicated keys for the music application and the camera. A long press on the camera key will take you to the camcorder, while a short press takes you to the stills camera.
Display
Primary Screen Gross Resolution (8.0)
The LG Chocolate comes with a QVGA (320 x 240) resolution screen. QVGA is becoming the standard on mid to high end cell phones, and we are glad to see it on the LG Chocolate. It is a step above the 176 x 220 pixel resolution display found on the Motorola Razr V3m.
Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (10.0)
The LG Chocolate’s screen packs an impressive 200 pixels per inch. This makes for very high detail and deep colors. 200 pixels per inch is very good for a phone, for example the Motorola Razr V3m only packed in 125 pixels per inch.
Screen Physical Size (5.0)
According to our measurements the LG Chocolate has a 2 inch diagonal screen. This is slightly smaller than most cell phone screens, which run 2.1 inches in size (for example the Motorola Razr V3m), but not significantly so. It is of course not a patch on the large screens found on phones like the Treo 700p or Cingular 8525.
Screen Brightness (2.45)
The LG Chocolate’s screen measured an 49 lux in our test. There is no way to reduce the brightness level on the Chocolate manually. There is also no sensor that adjusts the brightness automatically. We were disappointed to see these feature missing as your screen can have a significant impact on your battery performance.
Screen Bright Light Performance (7.0)
To measure bright light performance we shine a light on the screen at 3000 lux, which is roughly equivalent to bright sunlight. We then gauge how easy it is to view items on the screen. We found the LG Chocolate did very well under bright lights. We got minimal glare and the menus and text were very readable. The phone did much better than the Blackberry 8703e and slightly better than the Sanyo M1.
Color Depth (8.0)
The LG Chocolate displays up to 262K colors. Colors on the Chocolate’s display are rich and deep, with high contrast and true blacks and whites. It is significantly better than the colors found on a phone like the Motorola Razr V3m, which displays only 65K colors.
Ports & Storage
Power & Data Ports (2.0)
The LG Chocolate uses a proprietary port for both charging and data connections. The phone ships with a wall charger, but not a USB cable. You can purchase a USB cable from Verizon as part of its music essentials package for $29.99. We were disappointed to see a phone like the Chocolate, which is begging to interact with the music on your PC, ship without a USB cable. We would have also preferred to see a standard Mini USB port, like that found on the Motorola Razr V3m.
Headphone Jack and Compatibility (1.0)
The same port that is used for power and data is also used for headphones. The LG Chocolate does not ship with headphones, which is unacceptable for a handset that’s marketed as a music phone. Again, you get a pair of headphones with Verizon’s music essentials kit for $29.99. The LG Chocolate does ship with an adaptor that will allow you to plug in headphones or a headset that uses a 2.5mm jack. Still, if you were going to include an adaptor why not make it compatible with the higher quality 3.5mm jack that is used on almost all standard headphones? Proprietary headphone jacks are all the rage these days as manufacturers try to lock you into their accessories. We can’t say that we like this trend.
Internal Storage (1.0)
The LG Chocolate comes with 128 Mb of built in storage, which is shared between multimedia content, contacts and other phone functions. According to LG there is enough room for 1,000 photos, one hour of video or 500 contacts. This is a generous amount of storage for a mid level phone, for example the Motorola Razr V3m has only 23mb of available storage.
Expansion Slot and Format (6.0)
The LG Chocolate has an expansion slot for the MicroSD/Transflash standard. This is the smallest of the SD card formats, MicroSD currently tops out at 2 gigabytes of storage, although at the time of this writing 4gb cards had already been announced.
Getting to your card is meant to be simple, with a hot swappable slot on the right side of the phone. This slot is protected by a plastic cover and is spring loaded, so you can easily get your card in and out. The only difficulty is a result of the small size of the media itself. MicroSD/Transflash has become a standard for mobile electronics, and the vast majority of new phones are supporting it.
[page title="Other Features "]
The LG Chocolate has no other features that need to be covered in this section.
[page title="Value & Comparisons"]Value from Verizon (6.0)
The LG Chocolate can be purchased from Verizon Wireless starting at $99.99 with a 2-year contract. The phone costs $269.99without a contract. The Chocolate’s key features are the ability to play music and it’s styling. You can get a music phone nowadays for less than $99.99, that may provide the same range of functionality as the Chocolate, but it probably won’t be as stylish. At the same price point you can pick up the Motorola Q, a smart phone, from Sprint or the Motorola Slvr L7 from Cingular, another music oriented handset. Given what it does, we consider the Chocolate to be an average value.
Comparisons
Sanyo M1 - The Sanyo M1 is another music deviced that has taken a slightly different approach from the LG Chocolate by building in 1GB of storage rather than using expandable memory. The M1 provides very good functionality and ease of use compared to the Chocolate, and we liked the fact that it came with accessories the Chocolate lacked, like a stereo headset and USB cable. On the other hand the Chocolate certainly wins on the ascetics side of things.
Motorola Razr V3m - The Razr V3m is another handset with good looks but some concerns about features. Although the Razr V3m has added music support, it is not as easy to use as the LG Chocolate and with its dedicated music key. The V3m is also a little lighter on features than the Chocolate, but it makes up for this by having easier to use controls. With these two handsets it might be six of one or half a dozen of the other. Perhaps the key feature might be form factor as the Razr is a clamshell and the Chocolate a slider.
Motorola Q - The Motorola Q is a new class of smartphone that is targeted at a consumer crowd. Offering a lot of the functionality that the LG chocolate does in terms of media, the Q also comes with a lot more. Unfortunately the price is higher to match the bump in features, with the Q coming in at about $100 more than the Chocolate.
[page title="Conclusions"]Who’s It ForBusiness user – The LG Chocolate is not a good choice for a business user as it does not provide the advanced messaging and enterprise features that many business people look for. We are particularly concerned about the lack of a built in email client, a must for business users.
Budget callers – The LG Chocolate is not a good choice for budget callers. You can get a phone that can do almost as much for significantly less than $99, and if all you’re looking for is a phone to make calls, you can find one for free.
Chatty teenager – The Chocolate would be a good choice for a teenager looking for a good-looking phone that provides a solid range of features. The ability to play music is a nice bonus as well.
Media maven – A Media maven focused on music should definitely consider the LG Chocolate at the lower end of media phones. It will not be able to do the advanced media and imaging functions that you will find on a higher end phone, but combined with a Music Essentials Package from Verizon and a MicroSD card and you have yourself a solid music player.
Conclusion
The LG Chocolate from Verizon is a mid range handset with impressive looks and a solid array of features. Audio quality on the Chocolate was TK. The Chocolate is not going to replace your camera, either still or camcorder, any time soon. Probably our biggest beef with the Chocolate were the touch controls. We found that they were not sensitive enough, although you can improve this by increasing sensitivity in the settings. More problematic is the lack of tactile feedback. The other buttons on the phone are only slightly better, they are small and awkward to use. We were also disappointed by the lack of a built in email client.
On the multimedia side the Chocolate provides good functionality as a music player, but the video options fall short. We were disappointed by the fact that you will need to spend an extra $29.99 for a Music Essentials Package to get the most out of the phone. Battery performance on the Chocolate was poor for both talk time and web browsing, and only middle of the road for music playback. We did like the Chocolate’s size and the aesthetics are certainly attractive. Compared to other phones at a similar price point the Chocolate provides better functionality than the Motorola Razr and Krazr.
Overall the Chocolate is an average handset whose limits and annoyances hold it back significantly.[page title="Ratings & Specs"]
| Dimension | |
| Height | 3.80 |
| Carrier | Verizon |
| Type | Slider |
| Low Price | 0.00 |
| Width | 1.88 |
| Depth | 0.69 |
| Weight (including battery) | 3.53 |
| Physical | |
| Number of Screens | 1 |
| Main Screen Dimensions | 2 |
| Main Screen Resolution | 320 x 240 |
| Main Screen Colors | 262000 |
| Main Screen Type | TFT |
| Secondary Screen Dimensions | |
| Secondary Screen Resolution | |
| Secondary Screen Colors | 0 |
| Secondary Screen Type | |
| Keys | |
| Number Keys Type | Keypad |
| QWERTY |  |
| QWERTY Keyboard Type | |
| Other Control Keys | Voice Command, Back, Music, Camera |
| Internal Components | |
| Processor | |
| RAM Memory | 0 |
| Flash ROM Memory | 0 |
| Memory Card Slot | MicroSD |
| Jacks & Ports | |
| Microphone Jack | |
| Headphone/Mic Jack | Proprietary |
| USB Port | |
| Dock Port | Proprietary |
| Radios | |
| Bands | CDMA |
| Bluetooth 1.2 | |
| 802.11 b wifi | |
| GSM 850 | |
| GSM 900 | |
| GSM 1800 | |
| GSM 1900 | |
| CDMA 800 |  |
| CDMA 1900 | |
| Bluetooth 1.1 | |
| Bluetooth 2.0 | |
| 802.11g WiFi | |
| External Antenna Port | |
| SAR at Ear | 0 |
| SAR on Body | 0 |
| Flight Mode | |
| Data Standards | |
| GPRS | |
| EDGE | |
| 1XRTT | |
| EVDO | |
| EVDO Rev A | |
| HSDPA | |
| UMTS | |
| Battery | |
| Standard Battery Type | Li-Ion |
| Standard Battery Capacity | 0.00 |
| Standard Battery Model | |
| Vendor Quoted Standby Time | 384.00 |
| Vendor Quoted Talk Time | 3.50 |
| Camera | |
| Maximum Native Still Resolution | 1280x960 |
| Image Sensor Type | |
| Megapixels | 1.30 |
| Optical Zoom | |
| Digital Zoom | 2x |
| Built-In Flash | |
| Focus Type | Fixed |
| Aperture Range | |
| Shutter Speed Range | |
| Focus Range | |
| Exposure Modes | |
| Exposure Compensation | |
| White Balance Modes | |
| Scene Modes | |
| Video Capture | |
| Video Resolution | 176x144 |