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LG Chocolate 3 Cell Phone Review - Messaging

Marianne Schultz Published on September 02, 2008 Comment on this

Intro Making/Receiving Calls Software Other Features

Tour & Design Messaging Battery Life Value & Comparisons

Audio Quality Organizer Connectivity Conclusion

Imaging Multimedia Hardware Ratings & Specs

With no native email or instant messaging applications, the Chocolate 3 does not offer the level of text-based communication that some users may want. But its SMS/MMS messaging application is sufficient and offers good integration with the media saved on the phone and is easy and quick to navigate.

Supported Email Services (0.0)
The Chocolate 3 does not have any native email client to handle email - you can only get to your email through the web and there's a handy link directly to their web portal in the Messaging menu.

Push Email (0.0)
Without a native email client, the Chocolate 3 does not have push email.

Multiple Email Accounts (0.0)
No email client.

HTML and Attachments (0.0)
No email client.

Email Customizations (0.0)
No email client.

Time to a New Email Message (0.0)
No email client.

Email Usability (0.0)
No email client.

Instant Messaging (0.0)
The Chocolate 3 is capable of Instant Messaging, but there is a charge for every message sent and received.  The included web-based IM client lets you choose between AIM, Windows Live Messenger, or Yahoo instant messaging services.  Despite the access to these three instant messaging services, we don't award any points for instant messaging clients that charge users for every IM sent and received.

MMS Support (6.0)
The Chocolate 3 is capable of sending picture, video, and even voice messages directly to other cell phones. There is a unified inbox for all messaging on the Chocolate 3 so you can see all text, MMS, and web email notification messages in one location. To create a new video or picture message, you must specify the type of message you want to create at the very start - you cannot start to create a text message and then change it to be a picture, video, or voice message later. When creating a picture message, you can select an existing picture from the My Pictures folder, or take a new picture with the on-board camera. To create a new voice message, the first option you're presented with is to create a new recording - you do not have the option of selecting anything that has been recorded previously and saved on the phone, such as a recorded phone call.

SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (2.0)
The Chocolate 3 can send smiley faces, but they must be selected manually from a menu when creating a message and cannot be added simply by typing the usual punctuation symbols (such as :D or :p).  When selected and added to a message, they appear as a smiley image within the message.  When sent 4 smileys in a test text message, the Chocolate 3 did not display any of them graphically, only presenting them as plain text.  Given the recent rise in popularity of text messaging and the inclusion of graphical smiley interpretation on more and more cell phones, it is odd that this is not included in this third iteration of the LG Chocolate (this is the same behavior exhibited by the previous Chocolate version as well).

SMS/MMS Ease of Use (5.5)
The Messaging menu is accessed via the left soft key by default out of the box, and can also be accessed through the main menu. The menu system is straightforward, with the first option offering to create a new message, followed by viewing the inbox, sent message, drafts, voicemail, mobile instant messaging, email (again, only via the web and not through a built-in email client), and chat (also via the web).

In the Inbox, received messages are shown in a simple list format and are not threaded. So, if you have been carrying on a conversation with someone through text messages and you forgot what they sent last, you must go through the inbox to find the last message from them.  If you text a lot and prefer to see a more conversational view of your messages, this may be an issue for you.

When creating a new text, picture, or video message, you are first prompted to enter the phone number of the recipient(s).  You can add up to 10 individual recipients (up from 5 in the previous version of the Chocolate) by manually entering phone numbers or selecting them from the contacts stored on the phone. Contact groups stored on the phone may also be selected, but you are still only limited to 10 total individual recipients per message, even if the group you've selected has more than 10 contacts.  Once you've finished addressing the message, it is easy and intuitive to navigate to the other fields by using the control pad. The left and right soft keys present you with other options to adjust text case, save the message as a draft, and many others.

Overall, the messaging functionality of the Chocolate 3 is sufficient for quick messages, allowing integration of pictures, video, and even sound recordings.  Power users and frequent texters may want to opt for a phone with a QWERTY keyboard and messaging functionality that includes native email and instant messaging capability.

Time to a New SMS Message (4.98)
To test this, we time how long it takes go from a closed phone to the appearance of the new message dialogue. On the Chocolate 3, this is facilitated by the left soft key that is set to go to the Messaging application by default. The average time for this test on the Chocolate 3 was 2.01 seconds, which is pretty quick relative to the average of all the phones we've tested at 5.22 seconds and faster than its predecessor at 2.61 seconds. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

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