LG Chocolate 3 Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls
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Marianne Schultz Published on September 02, 2008 Comment on this |
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| With very high ring volumes and a good vibrate mode, you'll rarely miss a call with a Chocolate 3. And with fast dialing and start-up speeds and good call history information, you'll have no trouble managing your calls, though you may miss more advanced options like conference calling and the ability to customize your ringtones (without paying money to Verizon, that is). |
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Dialing Speed (5.14)
Dialing a number on the Chocolate 3 took an average of 3.89 seconds, which is right about average compared to all the phones we've tested at 3.80 seconds. Pressing mechanical dial keys can be more time-consuming than touch-screen buttons, as you would find on a touch-screen phone, since you must depress them until the tactile feedback indicates the electronic contact has been made to register the input. Though on the other hand, a touch screen phone cannot be dialed by feel alone. It's still possible to dial relatively quickly on the Chocolate 3, though not quite as fast as on the previous model, most likely due to the need to open the flip to get to the keypad, versus simply sliding the top half of the previous version to expose the keypad. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Dialing Speed (sec)
Send and End Buttons (7.0)
The Send and End buttons are below to the left and right of the D-pad, respectively. They are flat, shiny black plastic with small rubber nubs in the top outside corner of each that are barely detectable by touch alone. Aside from these rubber nubs, there is nothing to distinguish these buttons from any other on the keypad and would be hard to operate by touch alone until you get used to their placement on the dial pad over time. As with the other buttons on the dial pad, they offer good travel and tactile feedback, emitting a clearly audible click when fully pressed. They are large enough to press easily without accidentally pressing a nearby button at the same time.
Call Management (6.0)
The call history is most easily accessed by pressing the Send button, and can also be accessed via the main menu in the Recent Calls section. Accessing the call history through the Send button shows a combined list of all calls received, made, and missed in a list format with the date and time below each number and an icon to indicate the call type. Selecting a number brings you to a new screen that shows two additional details not provided in the list view - the year of the call and its duration in minutes and seconds.
During a call, the left soft menu key allows you to easily mute a call, and accessing other main menu items can be done through the right soft menu key labeled Options. Backing out of any menu to the previous menu level requires pressing the Clear key, which is a bit unintuitive. Call volume can be easily adjusted using the up/down buttons on the left side of the phone. There is no way to place an active call on hold and dial another number and conference the two calls together. A second incoming call during an active call can be answered by pressing the Send key, which automatically places the first call on hold.
An active call can be recorded by going to the Options menu and selecting the Voice Record option. Recorded calls show up in the My Sounds folder on the phone. The End button hangs up on an active call or cancels out of any menu level back to the home screen.
Startup to Call (4.66)
Start-up to call time was fairly quick on the Chocolate 3 with an average time of 21.46 seconds. This is slightly faster than its predecessor with its average time of 22.37 seconds. Such short start-up to call times are one of the benefits phones like the Chocolate 3 have over smartphones like the Nokia E71 - since they have few, if any, applications to start up or data to display (e.g., calendar and tasks to display on a welcome screen) it takes less time to dial and start a call from the powered down status. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Startup to Call (sec)
Ring Volume (10.48)
At 104.8 decibels, the LG Chocolate 3 is the loudest among our comparison phones, and louder than the average of all the phones we've tested. It's also louder than its predecessor by 2 decibels. If you set the phone to ring at its loudest volume setting and enable vibration, you will not miss an incoming call except in a very noisy environment.
Decibels
Ringtones (0.0)
The Chocolate 3 comes with a number of ringtones built in, and adding to the library of available ringtones can only be done by purchasing them from Verizon, and the existing ringtones cannot be edited on the phone directly. Music files transferred to the Chocolate 3 cannot be used as ringtones. Additionally, any sounds recorded through the built-in recorder cannot be selected as ringtones.
Non Audio Alerts (8.0)
The Chocolate 3 has a vibrate-only mode that is most easily selected by holding down the '#' key for 3 seconds (it can also be selected in the Sounds Settings menu through the main menu). In this mode, an incoming call vibrates the phone and lights up the front screen. The vibration is strong enough to be felt easily in a pants pocket or noticed when it's sitting on a desk or other hard surface and would most likely wake a light sleeper or draw enough attention to be distracting in a meeting.
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