LG Chocolate VX8550 Cell Phone Review - Software
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Mark Brezinski Published on July 27, 2007 Comment on this |
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OS (3.5)
The LG Chocolate runs on a the same proprietary operating system as the old one, and uses the standard Verizon BREW interface. It is fairly responsive, and experienced users can bypass the small amounts of lag by using keypad shortcuts to navigate menus. The menu system itself is quite organized, logical, and aesthetically pleasing. While many functions -- predominantly those classified as "Tools" -- are somewhat buried in menus, keyboard shortcuts will get you there in short order. The OS is essentially a prettier version of the original Chocolates, but with keypad shortcuts and better d-pad scrolling in the main menu. Overall, the Chocolate's OS was fairly impressive. We typically only award up to five points for proprietary operating systems, as those found on smart phones are often much more powerful.
Home Screen Score (5.0)
Up, down, left, or right on the d-pad are shortcuts, though there isn't any reminder of this on the home screen. Clockwise from the top, the default shortcuts are: the Verizon Wireless browser, the "GET IT NOW" menu, the Datebook, and the Picture/Video menu. These shortcuts can, of course, be redefined in the phone settings menu. The wallpaper can also be changed to either another picture, or a video.
Overall, the home screen looks nice and clean. The only possible detriment is not having a reminder of what shortcuts are linked to the d-pad.
Extensibility (0.0)
The LG Chocolate really doesn't support third-party software, unfortunately. You can download BREW applications provided by Verizon, but there really aren't many available. We don't award points for this because of its proprietary nature and limited selection.
Customizability (3.5)
The LG Chocolate offers a fairly standard array of customizing options. As mentioned above, you can change the wallpaper to either a picture, video, or built-in animation. You can also assign different keys to the four d-pad shortcuts.
The Chocolate allows you to change the theme to one of three presets: Classic, Jazz, and Rock & Roll. Other than changing the colors slightly, the themes mainly just change the main menu interface. For the purposes of clarity, I will refer to the items in the main menu (Get It Now, Contacts, Settings/Tools, etc.) as headers. Rock & Roll is, by far, the best theme, as it looks the best and allows you to browse headers with keypad shortcuts. The Classic theme displays the headers along the top, with their contents listed below. This view is similar to what you would see after clicking on a header in Rock & Roll. Since the keypad shortcuts apply to the contents of each header, rather than the headers themselves, you need to use the d-pad to choose amongst headers. Beginner users might find this theme useful, as it is a good way to navigate until you learn keypad shortcuts. The Jazz theme is virtually useless. The main menu displays the headers around a circle, and you have to use the scroll wheel and select button to open them. Though visually different, the interface is essentially the same as Rock & Roll, but without keypad shortcuts.
OS Responsiveness (3.0)
The Chocolate's operating system was fairly responsive. Though there is some lag when navigating menus, most times you can still navigate before a menu loads. Applications like the Web browser and media player load quickly. The only area of the phone where we encountered substantial lag was loading videos. Attempting to select a video before all the thumbnails have loaded results in sparse responsiveness. Also, as mentioned in the multimedia section, our Chocolate frequently froze for periods of time when viewing videos. These freezes happened when we loaded the video, or while playing it, but we were unable to duplicate a crash. The randomness of the freezing can be disconcerting, so users should expect it. Other than video interaction, however, the OS ran pretty smoothly.
Gaming (1.3)
The Chocolate doesn't come with any games built in, not even trial versions. You can purchase BREW games online. Without a game to test, we had to guess the quality of control; this isn't so bad as we assume each game will take advantage of different control configurations. If a game uses the d-pad and select key, it should control fairly well. The only caveat of the d-pad orientation is if the scroll wheel is also incorporated. If it is, the game will be quite hard to control, as pressing a direction can inadvertently scroll the wheel. We ran into this problem when navigating menus, so we can only assume how this would affect gameplay. Another problematic control scheme would include the touch buttons, as they alternate between unresponsive and overly sensitive.
Browser Features (6.0)
In this category, the Chocolate is nearly identical to its predecessor. Its browser supports HTML, WAP, images, encryption, cookies, and rudimentary auto fill capabilities. The Chocolate still can't handle Java, Flash, or RSS feeds, however. Again, the Chocolate is best used for viewing WAP sites or other sites designed for mobile access.
Browsing Interface (3.5)
Using the browser is simple enough on the Chocolate. You scroll with the d-pad or scroll wheel, and click with the select button. HTML pages on the Chocolate are viewable for the most part. The images are resized, which can sometimes cause overlapping with text. You can't change the font or view the page in landscape.
On the previous Chocolate, history was stored from session to session. On the new one, restarting the browser means erasing your history. We were unsure why this functionality was downgraded when the browser already sports an option to erase history manually. You can also clear your cache, cookies, and autofill information.
Though not the best option for browsing the Internet, the Chocolate does offer some functionality that other phones don't. For example, the Razr V3m doesn't offer as many options for managing favorites.
Browser Access Speed (3.33)
To test how easy it is to access the browser, we count the number of steps it takes to bring the phone from the closed, unlocked position to our website. Normally we use a stopwatch for our timing procedures, but as network interface time can sometimes be a variable, we decided to count steps instead.
The LG Chocolate took 12 steps to bring up our site. This is a bit on the slow side for a normal phone. The Razr V3m took an additional step, but the Sanyo M1 and Nokia N75 each took eight. Accessing the browser on the Chocolate is relatively easy using the d-pad shortcut. We were able to save a step by accessing the URL entry page in the menu with a keypad shortcut as opposed to scrolling to it. Navigating the URL entry page was difficult, however, as there weren't any keypad shortcuts available. Also, although we score URL entry as one step, it should be noted that multi-tap entry, such as on the Chocolate, is inferior to phones with a full keyboard.
| Cell Phone | Steps | Score |
| LG Chocolate VX8550 | 12 | 3.33 |
| Sanyo M1 | 13 | 3.08 |
| Motorola Razr V3m | 13 | 3.08 |
| LG Chocolate VX8500 | 10 | 4.00 |
| Nokia N75 | 8 | 5.00 |
| LG Shine KE970 | 4 | 10.0 |
Calculator (6.0)
The Chocolate provides a basic scientific calculator. You handle the four standard operators with the d-pad, and bring up parenthesis and exponents with the right soft key. The Chocolate performed all our basic calculations, including finding squareroots (via fractional exponents). The interface is very straight-forward and easy to use. The new Chocolate receives a better score here than its forerunner simply because the new d-pad is no longer an array of touch buttons, and is therefore easier to use.
Alarm (4.0)
The alarm functionality on the Chocolate is fairly basic. You can only set alarms to go off at a certain time, not day. You can set the alarm to repeat daily, during the business week, or only on weekends. You can also choose the ring tone for your alarms. Only three alarms can be set at one time, however.
Document Software (0.0)
The LG Chocolate doesn't allow you to view or edit office documents (PDFs, spreadsheets, Word documents, etc.). This is a standard omission on normal phones, though you'll normally find such functionality on smart phones.
Other Software (0.0)
There were a few other additional software programs on the Chocolate. It provides a very simple stopwatch program, with only start and stop capabilities. There is a world clock program that allows you to spin a globe and check the time in different parts of the world. There is also an "EZ Tip Calc" program with a ridiculously over-the-top graphic interface for what it does. There is an animated intro of a restaurant table and an opening guest check folder. Also, when you figure out the tip, an animated hand underlines the new total.
We only award points for additional software that provides significant functionality, which none of these applications do.
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