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LG Chocolate VX8550 Cell Phone Review

Mark Brezinski Published on July 27, 2007 Comment on this

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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 its sleek design, uncluttered face and unusual form factor, no one can deny that the LG Chocolate VX8550 is a great-looking phone. And it has a set of features that mean it's not just a pretty face; a 1.3 megapixel camera, fast EVDO data connection, great music features, and a redesigned control system that deals with many of the previous version's faults. But it's far from perfect; the camera took only lackluster images with inaccurate color at low resolution, and there's limited support for e-mail. The interface is still also somewhat awkward; we found the new scroll wheel to be an improvement on the touch-only interface of the old Chocolate, but we did find ourselves accidentally scrolling sometimes and selecting the wrong option on a menu.

The VX8550 is the sequel to the popular VX8500, taking what worked for the original and improving on many of its faults. It has more responsive touch buttons and a much better d-pad. The End key has also returned to a more standard position at the top of the keypad, as opposed to its previous location at the side of the phone. The placement of buttons has also improved, and pressing them feels more natural. The Chocolate still uses the standard Verizon BREW interface, which means users of the old Chocolate will feel comfortable at the reins, but Java and Flash applications aren't supported.

But the new Chocolate has a lot of strong features that  make it a great pick for teenagers, who tend to value aesthetic appeal and multimedia functionality over organizational features. Conversely, business-types will probably want to steer clear of the Chocolate; it's no BlackBerry killer.

The Chocolate remains a Verizon exclusive, and is available for $99.99 with a two-year contract, after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Here are brief summaries to the different areas of our review. Click on any of the titles to read the full section.

Tour & Design - The Chocolate is well designed, and has a very sleek look. Though it feels sturdy, its screen is exposed and could be very susceptible to scratching.

Audio Quality - We found audio performance to be very good. The frequency response was well within the limits we test against, so voices should sound clear and easy to hear. 

Imaging - The camera captured images with poor resolution and bad color representation that looked awful; the camera will only be good enough for casual snapshots.

Making/Receiving Calls - Dialing on the Chocolate can be difficult due to the small keypad.  The keypad has a good positive feel, though; you definitely know when you've pressed a key.

Messaging - The Chocolate doesn't have e-mail software, but it does have adequate SMS capabilities.

Organizer - The organizer offers little functionality; you get a basic calendar, but no to-do list or task management. There is also no way to synchronize this data with a desktop application.

Multimedia - While the media player software is good, the Chocolate does not make organizing your audio and video easy.

Software - The Chocolate is equipped with the standard Verizon BREW interface. Its OS is nothing flashy. There isn't much in the way of included software, and only a limited number of third part applications are available.

Battery Life - Battery life was above average, with more than four hours of talk time. The music playback time was downright exceptional; more than 15 hours.

Connectivity - The Chocolate supports both US CDMA bands, a good amount of Bluetooth profiles, and connects via high-speed EVDO.

Hardware - The hardware is certainly an improvement over the previous model, sporting more user-friendly touch buttons and a respectable d-pad.

Other Features - The Chocolate claims it can be used as a wireless modem, but we were unable to get this function to work. There are a few extra software applications, none of which are noteworthy.

Value & Comparisons - A two-year contract will net you a Chocolate for $149.99, which is a decent price for a mid-range phone. After $50 mail-in rebate, that price drops further to $99.99. 

[page title="Tour & Design"]

Front Closed
The front of our LG Chocolate is dark blue with silver detailing. At the very top is the speaker, under which is the LG logo, followed by the 320 x 240 color display screen, and then the Verizon logo. At the bottom there's a directional pad that rotates like a dial. To the left of the d-pad are a soft key and a "SPK" button, which toggles the speakerphone. When held, it also toggles speakerphone mode, which essentially switches sound output to the speakerphone speaker on the back. To the d-pad's right is another soft key, below which is a "CLR" key. The CLR key serves the dual purposes of a delete key and a back button. The four buttons surrounding the d-pad are all touch keys. When pressed, they light up and the phone chimes and vibrates, creating a synthetic tactile feedback.

Open

Left
The left side of the LG Chocolate contains five features: lanyard loop, 2.5mm headphone jack, volume rocker, voice commands shortcut, and a proprietary connector for a charger. The charger's cover is tethered on with a rubber stopper. The left side also has a seam along which the phone slides open.

Top
The top has the other side of the lanyard loop. It also contains a valley-like seam for the front of the phone to slide up.

Bottom
The main feature on the bottom is the seam. There is a small indentation on the right side which is presumably the microphone hole.

Right
The right side of the phone has three features: micro SD slot, a key-locking switch, and a "MUSIC" button that activates the music player.

Back
The top of the Chocolate's back is the speakerphone speaker. Almost the entire rest of the back is dedicated to the battery cover.

Battery Out
Like the previous model of Chocolate, the battery cover is just the back of the battery.

In the Box (1.0)
The LG Chocolate only comes with manuals, the phone itself, and a charger. Like Samsung's SYNC, the Chocolate is being marketed as a music player, yet neither come packaged with USB cables or headsets.

Handling (4.0)
This newer model of Chocolate handles slightly better than the original. The Chocolate fits comfortably in the hand. This model also corrects the awkward button placement of the original. The "MUSIC" and camera keys used to be rather high up on the phone's side, which required you to shift your hold to reach them. The "MUSIC" key has now been lowered to within comfortable reach. The camera key was moved to above the keypad inside the phone. The send key has also moved to the internal keypad. Finally, the end key, which was inexplicably placed on the side of the phone, has been moved inside, to a more traditional position opposite the send key.

Unfortunately, the new Chocolate retains some of the shortcomings of the original. It remains fairly slippery, and its glossy plastic design tends to hang on to any oils it may pick up from your hands or face. Unless you're constantly cleaning it, it will always look and feel slightly greasy.

Portability (9.0)
The LG Chocolate is every bit as portable as its predecessor. Pockets and bags will have no trouble accommodating it. In terms of size, it's very similar to the original, measuring 3.85” x 1.87” x .67”. It is slightly lighter (0.29 ounces) than the original, weighing in at 3.24 ounces. Compared to thin phones like the Razr V3m, the Chocolate is only a tenth of an inch thicker.

Aesthetics (9.0)
The LG Chocolate comes in three different colors: black, navy blue, and crimson. Regardless of the color, the phone looks good. The new model basically takes the aesthetically appealing design of the original and makes it subtly better in every way. The most obvious difference is the style of the direction pad. The newer pad is smaller and doesn't have the blurry markings of the original. The smaller improvements include a change in the design of the keypad, a different font, more rounded corners, and differently shaped side buttons. The whole of the improvements is definitely greater than the sum of its parts; compare the older and newer models side-by-side and the old model comes off looking slightly 80s.

Durability (5.0)
The LG Chocolate remains the same in terms of durability. It still has a sliding design; the moving parts make the phone more susceptible to wear and tear. Also, opening the phone reveals a small crevasse on the top, between the two halves. This opening could allow dirt and dust to get inside the phone where it would be hard to clean out. The port panels are again held on by rubber hinges. Also, even in our relatively low-abuse testing environment, the Chocolate's external screen managed to pick up a few scratches. Other than superficial damage, you probably won't run into many problems with this phone. It has a very solid feel to it and there weren't any creaks. Despite its shortcomings, the new LG Chocolate seems well-built.

[page title="Audio Quality"]

The Chocolate certainly has some aesthetic flair, but did LG favor design quality over audio quality? As the main function of a phone is making calls, we do very thorough testing on audio quality. Our software is a professional audio analysis program, SoundCheck, by Listen, Inc. Our hardware is a Head and Torso Simulator, or H.A.T.S., by Brüel & Kjær. Each of these are used by cell phone manufacturers in product testing. For our tests we use the phones as a handset held to the ear. We keep a more detailed description of our audio tests here. We are also developing more tests, such as testing the performance of the speakerphone or measuring voice distortion.

Sound Receive Frequency Response (8.27)

This test analyzes how well the phone can reproduce a received frequency. The results essentially describe how accurately the phone reproduces the voice of someone calling you. The above graph shows the phone's frequency response in blue, and the upper and lower limits for frequency response in red. These limits were set by an international group of audio experts. Ideally a phone's frequency response would be a smooth curve bisecting the area between those limits; the closer a curve gets to the limits (or indeed goes over them), the further off it is from the standard, and the lower the score it gets.
This graph is very similar to the graph of the old Chocolate. The line is a relatively smooth curve and doesn't exceed the limits, meaning that the Chocolate accurately reproduces received frequencies and voices should sound clear and easy to understand.

Cell Phone	LG Chocolate VX8550 (on Verizon)	Sanyo M1 (on Sprint)	Motorola Razr V3m (on Sprint)
Score	8.27	4.76	8.12
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Cell Phone	LG Chocolate VX8500 (on Verizon)	Nokia N75( on AT&T)	LG Shine KE970 (Unlocked)
Score	8.04	8.73	7.37
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Sound Send Frequency Response (8.06)


This test determines how well the phone handles sending frequencies. Again, the new Chocolate performs more or less the same as the old one. It remains within the limits for the most part, only touching them slightly when it does. The spike near 4 kHz remains, so your voice could sound a little tinny to the person on the other end of the line. However, this is a relatively minor issue, and the performance of the Chocolate in this test is very acceptable.

Cell Phone	LG Chocolate VX8550	Sanyo M1(on CARRIER)	Motorola Razr V3m(on CARRIER)
Score	8.06	8.40	7.34
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Cell Phone	LG Chocolate VX8500 (on CARRIER)	Nokia N75 (unlocked, on AT&T)	LG Shine KE970 (unlocked, on AT&T)
Score	7.88	7.57	5.83
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Handset Side Tone (9.85)


Side tone refers to how loud your own voice sounds through the speaker. Side tone is important, as people naturally speak louder when they can't hear their own voice. The standard has placed ideal side tone volume at 18 decibels. The Chocolate averaged about 17.85, which is very close to this target. This means you shouldn't feel the need to whisper or yell.

Cell Phone	Sidetone Measurement	Score
LG Chocolate VX8550	17.85	9.85
Sanyo M1	22.62	5.38
Motorola Razr V3m	17.69	9.69
LG Chocolate VX8500	18.75	9.25
Nokia N75	14.85	6.85
LG Shine KE970	21.38	6.62

[page title="Imaging"]

Resolution (1.69)
To test the resolution of the LG Chocolate's camera we took five pictures of an industry standard resolution chart, then ran it through our Imatest software. Imatest then measures how many black and white lines the camera could discern before they started to blur together. This value is measured in line widths per picture height (lw/ph).

The LG Chocolate received a score of 603.2 lw/ph horizontally and 618.6 lw/ph vertically. The original Chocolate scored a 654.4 lw/ph horizontally and 585.9 lw/ph vertically. This is interesting, as the newer model is actually slightly worse. Compared to other phones, these scores are on the low side of the middle of the pack. It did better than the Razr V3m, which received a 521.7 and 242.2, respectively. On the other end of the spectrum is the Sanyo M1, which scored 859.9 and 773.4. Like all cell phones reviewed thus far, the LG Chocolate's photographic capabilities can't compete with lower-end stand-alone digital cameras. The Pentax Option M20 is one such camera, receiving a score of 1682 and 1620.

To arrive at a score, we employ a scoring method used by our sister site, DigitalCameraInfo.com. Since dedicated digital cameras are obviously held up to higher standards than the cameras in phones, we've modified the formula slightly. The LG Chocolate received a score of 1.62. By DCI standards, it would have only measured a .49. Either way, this is a rather low score, but it's about what we would expect to see from a low resolution camera like this.

Cell Phone	LG Chocolate VX8550	Sanyo M1	Motorola Razr V3m
Score	1.69	3.29	1.13
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	616.8/569.5	859.9/773.4	521.7/242.2
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone	LG Chocolate VX8500	Nokia N75	LG Shine KE970
Score	1.9	1.14	2.09
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	654.4/585.9	505.9/698.8	685.5/742.6
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Color (4.69)
To test how the LG Chocolate's camera reproduces color, we took five pictures of an industry standard GretagMacbeth color chart, which displays 24 different colors. We then ran the set of resulting images through our Imatest software, picking the images with the best results. For this particular test, the software compares the actual colors on the chart to those in the captured stills.

Imatest produced this chart as a result. The innermost rectangle shows the true color. The next rectangle out is the adjusted color. What this means is that the software takes the lighting and many other variables into consideration. The adjusted color represents the color an ideal captured picture should display. The outer squares are the actual colors captured by the phone.

The color squares from the first graph are plotted on the above color spectrum. The circles depict the color as captured by the phone's camera, while the squares represent how the colors should actually appear. If the circles are closer to the center than their corresponding squares, the color is oversaturated; if the squares are closer, the color is undersaturated. For the most part, the LG Chocolate tends to portray undersaturated colors. It also has a lot of trouble with colors at the higher end of the spectrum, capturing and interpreting the pale yellow on our chart as white. Again, though the new Chocolate is better than the Razr V3m, it isn't better than much else.

Cell Phone	LG Chocolate VX8550	Sanyo M1	Motorola Razr V3m
Score	4.69	5.66	3.26
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone	LG Chocolate VX8500	Nokia N75	LG Shine KE970
Score	3.97	3.47	3.41
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Noise (1.27)
We test noise by shooting five images of the GretagMacbeth color chart in different light conditions. The light levels range from 3000 lux (a bright, sunny day) to 60 lux (a room lit by a single light). The images are then run through Imatest, which sees how much the varying light conditions affects noise. For scoring, we take this result into consideration, as well as the average amount of noise per level. Therefore, a phone with consistent noise in any light level may score better than a phone with clean high-lux pictures and unbearably noisy low-lux pictures.

The new Chocolate showed an improvement in this category. Its average noise was lower than most phones. Noise increases substantially as light dims, however. The LG Chocolate does well when measured against other 1.3 megapixel phones such as the Razr V3m, which received a 1.05. The Chocolate also did better than the Nokia N75 (0.41) and the Sanyo M1 (0.67). This is expected, however, as the N75 and M1 have 2-megapixel cameras. Typically, phones sporting lower resolution cameras score better than those with higher resolution because the phone is capturing less information overall.

Cell Phone	Score
LG Chocolate VX8550	1.27
Sanyo M1	0.67
Motorola Razr V3m	1.05
LG Chocolate VX8500	1.01
Nokia N75	.41
LG Shine KE970	1.32

Live Preview (7.0)
The live preview on the Chocolate was pretty good. For the most part, what you're looking at is the image it actually takes. Depending on how steady your hand is, the final framing of a picture may be slightly different than in the live preview. The shift is very minute, however, and most likely won't pose a huge problem. Also, the final picture tends to be a slightly higher resolution than the one shown in the preview. The main reason the Chocolate lost points was because of the live preview's refresh rate. Even in medium light, panning around the room at a relatively slow rate resulted in a sluggish, blurry preview. We compared the live preview side by side with a Samsung SYNC and Motorola V235. Out of the three, the Chocolate had the biggest live preview display; though the SYNC's actual screen is bigger, the live preview display is cluttered up with the camera's interface. Out of the three, the Chocolate's image lagged behind the most and returned the blurriest preview while moving.

Unlocked Standby to First Shot (8.47)
For this test, the phone begins in unlocked standby mode. We then time how long it takes to open the phone, launch the camera and take a picture. We repeat this process until we can maintain the fastest time throughout several trials. The new LG Chocolate took about 2.36 seconds, which is 0.32 seconds slower than the previous version. This is still fairly fast. The Razr V3m took 3.5 seconds and the Sanyo M1 took almost five seconds. This is actually even faster than some stand-alone digital cameras. The Pentax Optio M20, an entry level camera, took 3.42 seconds in a similar test. At this speed, you'll capture all but the most fleeting of moments.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
LG Chocolate VX8550	2.36	8.47
Sanyo M1	4.9	4.08
Motorola Razr V3m	3.5	5.71
LG Chocolate VX8500	3.5	5.71
Nokia N75	4.7	4.26
LG Shine KE970	7.1	2.82

Shot to Shot Time (1.14)
To measure shutter to shot time we take a photo of a stopwatch that we start as soon as we hit the capture key. We then take five pictures. We use the final picture to determine the stop time. If possible, we disable picture review and use Burst mode. Unfortunately, the LG Chocolate couldn't turn off picture review and didn't have a Burst mode, so the process was entirely manual. The LG Chocolate took 13.13 seconds to snap the set of five pictures. This works out to 0.38 frames per second (fps). The older model Chocolate received 0.33 fps, while the Sprint Upstage and Razr V3m photograph at 0.2 fps. On the other end of the spectrum is the Sanyo M1, which does have a Burst mode. The M1 took either 2 or 3 fps, depending on a speed setting. The M1's photographs, however, were fairly low quality. A phone with good shot to shot time would have managed at least one or two fps.

Cell Phone	FPS	Score
LG Chocolate VX8550	0.38	1.14
Sanyo M1	2	6
Motorola Razr V3m	0.20	0.60
LG Chocolate VX8500	0.33	1.00
Nokia N75	0.41	1.29
LG Shine KE970	2.30	6.90

Shutter to Shot Time (9.09)
To test shutter to shot time we aim the phone at a stopwatch and simultaneously take a picture and start the stopwatch. The resulting picture shows the delay between pressing the button and when the camera actually takes the picture. We do repeated trials until we reach the fastest repeatable speed. The LG Chocolate took 0.22 seconds to take a picture after the shutter button was pressed. This is a really good score for a phone. The Sprint Upstage took 0.3 seconds, the Razr V3m took 0.4 seconds, and the Sanyo M1 took 0.8 seconds.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
LG Chocolate VX8550	0.22	9.09
Sanyo M1	0.8	2.5
Motorola Razr V3m	0.43	4.65
LG Chocolate VX8500	0.28	7.14
Nokia N75	0.73	2.74
LG Shine KE970	0.8	2.50

Interface (7.0)


The LG Chocolate's new camera interface is a huge improvement over the old one. Like most other camera interfaces, the old Chocolate had bars across the top and bottom of the screen that contained various controls. The new LG Chocolate's interface is much like an actual digital camera's, unlike the old model or most other handsets out today. The picture preview takes up the entire screen, and any menu or option that is or can become available is transparent and placed along the edge. Along the top of the screen is the data transfer information, signal strength, and battery life. Below, on the right side, is the current resolution setting. The left side of the screen displays a brightness slider which hides when not in use. The bottom of the screen displays three choices: Pictures, TAKE, and Options. Pictures takes you to your picture folder, while TAKE snaps the picture. Options opens up a menu along the bottom of the screen containing the following menus: Resolution, Timers, White Balance, Shutter sound, Color effects, Night mode, Save option, Photometry, Preview, and Capture. It only displays six of these at a time. You can browse them by clicking the d-pad left or right, rotating the scroll wheel, or pressing a menu's corresponding number on the keypad. The menus themselves encroach a little more than halfway up the screen at the most, and again, are transparent. Other than navigating the menu, the left and right d-pad buttons aren't utilized.

Photo Album Software Internal (4.0)


The My Pictures folder on the Chocolate has quite a bit of functionality. It shows 12 thumbnails at a time. When a picture is highlighted, its filename is displayed at the top. The left soft key erases photos, after first offering a confirmation prompt. The select key views the picture. The right soft key opens a fairly comprehensive options menu. It features all the standard options as well as allowing you to manipulate multiple photographs via a checkbox interface (i.e. move all checked photos to the memory card). There is no option to create a slideshow, add effects, or otherwise play around with the pictures. Overall, a fairly standard photo manager for a phone.

Manual Control (4.0)
The LG Chocolate has a few manual controls. You can manually control the brightness via the slider. There are also Scene modes, allowing the phone to adjust for Sunny, Cloudy, Fluorescent, and Glow. It also has a Night mode toggle. This is actually more than most phones offer in terms of manual control.

Zoom (0.0)
There are basically no zoom options on the LG Chocolate. Technically the d-pad's scroll wheel zooms in and out, but at its highest resolution setting it doesn't do anything. At lower resolutions the Chocolate sports digital zoom, but as always, this function is essentially useless. What it does is crop the picture and then enlarge the result, much like you would do with picture editing software. We do normally award one point for digital zoom, but only if it's available at the highest resolution setting. We use this standard because using digital zoom is essentialy scaling down the resolution as it is. If it is only available at a lower resolution to begin with, we do not feel its functionality merits any points.

Focus (0.0)
The Chocolate has a fixed focus lens, and therefore doesn't receive any points.

Flash (0.0)
The Chocolate doesn't have any sort of flash capabilities. We would have liked to see even a small LED light for shooting in very low light conditions.

Metering (4.0)
The Chocolate has the ability to switch between automatic metering and center-weighted metering. The menu refers to the latter as spot metering, but there's no way to move the point of reference away from the center.

White Balance (2.0)
As mentioned previously, the Chocolate has a few presets for manually setting white balance: Sunny, Cloudy, Fluorescent and Glow.

Image Handling (0.0)
The only photo editing options are available on the Chocolate are color effects. You have to apply them before taking the picture, and includes Negative, Solari, Sepia, and Black & White modes. We do not add any points for this type of functionality.

Video

Overall Video Score (3.0)
The LG Chocolate only captures video in 176 x 144 resolution. It will offer acceptable playback on the handset itself, but little else. The color representation appears to be a little off, often producing an undersaturated image. The Chocolate's capabilities are standard for a normal handset, but many smart phones have higher resolution and better color representation.

Video Resolution (4.38)
To test the resolution of the LG Chocolate's camera we took a short video of the resolution chart. We took random frames from that video and ran them through Imatest. This software measures the number of black and white lines the camera could differentiate before they became blurred together. The LG Chocolate managed 218.3 lines of horizontal resolution and 200.8 lines of vertical. For comparison, the Canon ZR700, a lower-end camcorder, scored a 363.7 and 257.8 respectively. Clearly, cell phones aren't close to eliminating the need for a camcorder.

Cell Phone	lw/ph horizontal/vertical	Score
LG Chocolate VX8550	218.3/200.8	4.38
Sanyo M1	247.5/297.7	7.37
Motorola Razr V3m	174.3/170.9	2.98
LG Chocolate VX8500	111.3/236.5	2.63
Nokia N75	307.1/346.3	10.63
LG Shine KE970	95.11/60.73	0.58

Video Compression (2.0)
The LG Chocolate captures video in 3GPP2 format. This is a variant of the standard 3GP format. Some of the other common formats include MPEG-4 and Motion Jpeg AVI. Most phones typically only offer one method of compression.

Interface (7.0)


The video recording interface is similar to the camera's. The soft keys all do comparable things. The options menu offers far fewer selections. Unlike the camera's interface, however, the display is nearly cropped in half by gray borders at the top and bottom. The smaller display area seems to result in a slightly less sluggish live preview.

Manual Control (2.0)
The LG Chocolate's video capture only lets you manually control the white balance. You can manually control the brightness via the slider or Scene modes (Sunny, Cloudy, Fluorescent, or Glow).

Zoom (1.0)
The LG Chocolate offers digital zoom.

Editing (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not provide any video editing options.

Modes (2.0)
The LG Chocolate receives points for including white balance scene modes. The LG Chocolate records video at 176 x 144, which will allow you to send them via MMS. We award points if the phone allows you to resize a video for MMS, but not if the only resolution happens to be the MMS standard.

[page title="Making/Receiving Calls"]

Dialing Speed (6.76)
To test dialing speed we start with the phone turned on, in the closed position, then time how long it takes to dial one of five different numbers, ending when the send key is pressed. The times of these five trails are then averaged. The mean time for the Chocolate was 2.96 seconds. This is an incredibly fast time. Other slide phones have comparable times, but the Chocolate is one of the fastest. For example, the LG Shine scored at 3.8 seconds, the Sprint Upstage took 3.38 seconds, and the Helio Ocean received a 3.1 second lap time. The reason for this probably comes down to one of two things. First of all, the spring driving the slide motion could simply be stronger on the Chocolate than on the other models. Secondly, the keypad is very small and the send key is directly above the number pad. The tiny key size could lead to misdialing, but also means your thumb has to travel less of a distance for each press.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
LG Chocolate VX8550	2.96	6.76
Sanyo M1	4.28	4.67
Motorola Razr V3m	4.90	4.08
LG Chocolate VX8500	3.61	5.54
Nokia N75	3.34	5.99
LG Shine KE970	3.80	5.26

Talk and End Buttons (8.0)
The new Chocolate's talk and end buttons are located directly above the keypad, separated by the camera shortcut. Like the rest of the keys, they are quite stout, but wide. Smaller keys could normally cause accuracy issues. The keys are placed in the top left and right corners of the pad, however, so the raised border surrounding the pad will give unmistakable tactile recognition. Also, their outer edges have slight raises in them, adding ease to navigation by feel. The keys also have good play, so you'll be able to feel when you hit them.

Moving from the directional pad to the send/end keys is a somewhat awkward transition. The only common situation where this shift would be necessary is turning off the phone, however, so it really isn't detrimental.

Call Management (6.5)
Scoring for this section is split into two parts. The first part scores the call history options. Here, the Chocolate receives a perfect score. The call history remembers an excess of thirty sessions, and can be viewed in its entirety, or by missed/received/called. Viewing individual calls yields the time and date the call was made, as well as the time the call lasted. Included in the call history menu is a submenu for various data timers. In regards to call timers, the Chocolate retains the length of all received, dialed, and roaming calls, as well as a total. It also displays the length of the last call made. As for data, it keeps track of transmitted/received data as well as a running tally of the two. An added bonus for those counting monthly minutes is an option to reset the timers. Even after a reset, however, the Chocolate maintains lifetime values for calls and data transfers. Overall, the new LG Chocolate is quite a thorough bookkeeper.

The second scoring area deals with in-call options. In a call, the left soft key mutes, and the speakerphone button on the left side of the phone opens up its namesake feature. The right soft key opens up the options menu, which contains the following options: Messaging, Contact list, Recent calls, Bluetooth menu, Main menu, Notepad, Voice record, DTMF tones. The Chocolate also offers conference calling. Because of its rather thorough implementation thus far, it's interesting to see the phone have such a confusing interface for call waiting. Initially the phone can handle a second call with the standard choice of answer/ignore. If you choose to answer it, there is no way to tell that there is, in fact, a call on hold. Most phones display some sort of visual reminder of who's on the other line, along with a soft key option to switch between calls. The Chocolate has neither. In order to switch, the user has to press the send key. Even more perplexing is how the phone stops displaying call information as soon as the second call is answered. Therefore, when switching between calls, there's no way to tell who you're talking to without outright asking the caller. This incoherent interface is surprising to see on a modern phone.

The Chocolate also has a default feature called Touch Protection. The external touch keys lock immediately upon answering a call, and once unlocked, relock after three seconds. This is a somewhat necessary feature, as holding the phone to your face will most likely press one of the soft keys. Doing this could be somewhat startling, as the phone will respond with its normal chime and vibration. The quick relocking can be somewhat annoying, but its saving grace is that it doesn't activate if you're already in a menu. Overall it's a fairly necessary feature that does much more good than harm.

Startup to Call (4.47)
To test startup to call we start with the phone closed and turned off, then measure how long it takes to turn on the phone, dial one of five different numbers, and hit the send key. The times of each of these five trails are then averaged. The LG Chocolate took an average of 22.37 seconds to complete the startup to call test. This time consisted mainly of boot-up. It should be noted that poor service areas could add substantial time to startup. The first Chocolate completed the test 1.57 seconds faster. Even with the downgrade, it's faster than the Sanyo M1(24.36 seconds) and the Sprint Upstage (28.9 seconds). It is also faster than most flip phones, which tend to average in the 30 second range.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
LG Chocolate VX8550	22.37	4.47
Sanyo M1	24.36	4.11
Motorola Razr V3m	35.70	2.80
LG Chocolate VX8500	20.80	4.81
Nokia N75	40.56	2.47
LG Shine KE970	31	3.23

Ring Volume (8.54)
To test ring volume we held the LG Chocolate four inches away from a sound pressure meter, set the phone's volume to maximum, and played the phone's loudest ringtone. We then measured the maximum decibels produced. The Chocolate topped at 85.4 decibels, which is about average. Interestingly enough, the old Chocolate was three decibels louder. For comparison, the Nokia N73 and the Sanyo M1 also both measured about 85 decibels, while the Razr V3m scored 88 decibels.

Cell Phone	Volume (decibels)	Score
LG Chocolate VX8550	85.4	8.54
Sanyo M1	85.2	8.52
Motorola Razr V3m	88.0	8.80
LG Chocolate VX8500	88.7	8.87
Nokia N75	85.3	8.53
LG Shine KE970	85.3	8.53

Ringtone Customizability (0.0)
Although the new Chocolate is still being marketed as a music handset, you still can't use your music files as ringtones. You must buy your ringtones separately.

Non-Audio Alerts (6.0)
The Chocolate's vibration is somewhat weak. Most of the time you'll catch it if it's in your pocket, but you'll most likely miss it otherwise. In addition to vibration, the screen on the Chocolate lights up and flashes. The display also shows the phone number of the incoming call. The animation will most certainly catch your eye. Overall, though, the non-audio alerts were none too impressive.

[page title="Messaging"]

Supported E-mail Services (0.0)

The LG Chocolate features a built-in e-mail client. It direct you to a Web-based interface with buttons for Hotmail, AOL, or Yahoo e-mail services. There is also a "FIND MORE" button, but that just returns Verizon Wireless search results for "e-mail". Web-based e-mail only offers functionality if you have network access. Therefore, if you're on a plane or in a no-service zone, you can't check e-mail or draft responses. We do not award points for web-based e-mail clients.

Push E-mail (0.0)
Inadequate e-mail support, see above.

Multiple E-mail Accounts (0.0)
Inadequate e-mail support, see above.

HTML and Attachments (0.0)
Inadequate e-mail support, see above.

E-mail Customizations (0.0)
Inadequate e-mail support, see above.

Time to a New Message (0.0)
Inadequate e-mail support, see above.

E-mail Usability (0.0)
Inadequate e-mail support, see above.

Supported IM Services (0.0)


The LG Chocolate includes an instant messaging client. You can choose from the AOL, MSN, and Yahoo IM services. We were pleased to see you could have all three running simultaneously, but you should remember that this client sends messages through an SMS gateway, so you will end up paying for an SMS message for every instant message you type. We don't award points for this, as it is way too easy to inadvertently rack up a large bill with a couple of IM conversations.

MMS Support (5.0)


As with its predecessor, the LG Chocolate divides MMS messaging into picture messages and video messages. Again, text messages are separate, meaning you can't write a normal text and later attach a photo or video. Selecting an attachment is the same as checking a box in the photo/video album. In fact, you can initiate a photo/video message from their respective albums. Once you've captured an image or picture, you can send it immediately. You can also compose a message and then capture media. These are all good options, but maintaining separated MMS capabilities (TXT, pictures, video) is an odd choice for LG and Verizon. Other phones, such as the Treo 700p and the Nokia N73, are capable of handling MMS and SMS functions together.

SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (2.0)
The LG Chocolate still has many built-in, small graphics you can send via SMS. In the library are a few smiley faces. Again, however, the Chocolate does not interpret smilies sent from others. This is probably because the smiley faces were just part of a large folder of pictures. Nothing from that folder is linked to character combinations within the text, so it won't know to replace a ":)" with a smiley face.

SMS/MMS Ease of Use (5.0)


The interface to send SMS/MMS is easy enough to use, if somewhat clumsy. There are fields for inserting the picture/video, a sound, a name card, and a subject. Editing a field is where the d-pad's scroll wheel can become annoying. When trying to navigate around a text field with the d-pad, we often accidentally spun the wheel, causing either the above or below window to become the active one. Again, this is just a little annoying, nothing major; you just have to scroll back to the field you want to type in. Another slightly irksome feature is the MMS/SMS menu itself. The old Chocolate labeled its texting options, "TXT Msg", "PIX Msg", and "FLIX Msg" respectively. The new Chocolate has done away with every abbreviation except for "TXT". Maintaining only the smallest abbreviation is visually jarring; it always looks like a typo in the software.

Browsing drafts or archived messages is fairly intuitive. Messages are initially thumbnails, displaying the phone number/contact ID of the sender/recipient, the first line of the message, and a small icon depicting if it was a TXT, Picture, or Video message. Selecting a thumbnail displays the full message, in the same format as the sending SMS/MMS interface.

Time to a New SMS Message (3.83)
For this test, we place the phone in the closed, unlocked position, then time how long it takes to open a new SMS dialogue. The LG Chocolate took an average of 2.61 seconds to do this, which was 0.11 seconds faster than the old model. This is a good time; the Razr V3m took 4.6 seconds, the Nokia N73 took 4.28 seconds, and the Sanyo M1 took 2.67 seconds. The Chocolate's time was helped by a shortcut to messaging on the home screen. The touch buttons slowed us down, as they remain locked for a fraction of a second after the phone is open. If you hit them during this time, they remain locked until they aren't pressed for a length of time. If you jump the gun, the Chocolate's time could worsen up to three seconds.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
LG Chocolate VX8550	2.61	3.83
Sanyo M1	2.67	3.75
Motorola Razr V3m	4.58	2.18
LG Chocolate VX8500	2.72	3.68
Nokia N75	1.84	5.43
LG Shine KE970	3.10	3.23

[page title="Organizer"]

Synchronization Ease of Use (0.0)
The LG Chocolate doesn't offer the option to synchronize contacts, calendar entries, or other personal information with your computer.

Alerts (5.0)
Like the old Chocolate, you set alerts through the Calendar application. You can set reminders to occur anywhere from the moment of the event to two days before, or turn off the alert altogether. You can choose any ringtone to sound when the reminder goes off, or set the phone to vibrate, but you cannot set it to both vibrate and ring. The alert sound/vibration is set individually, not globally, so each different reminder can be distinct. Also, the phone's volume settings usurp the alarms, so if it is set to vibrate, your tone alert will instead vibrate; there is no option for vibration that allows a reminder's tone to still play. Also, while there is a phone volume setting "Alarm only," this does not include calender alerts. Users should definitely keep this in mind as it will undoubtedly result in missing alerts.

When an alert goes up, a menu comes up that has the calendar icon, the word, "Calendar," and an option to view the event now or later. "View now" will just bring you to the edit event interface for that event. The "View later" option is essentially a five-minute snooze. Unfortunately, the five-minute delay is the only snooze option available. If you don't choose an option, the alert will continue for a full minute before automatically selecting "View later".

Overall, the alert functionality does its job. Even if you manage to miss a full minute of vibrating/ringing, it will just keep trying every five minutes.

Over the Air PIM Sync (0.0)
The LG Chocolate does not offer any over the air PIM synchronization.

Address Book

Adding Contacts (4.88)


For this test, we start a timer with the phone in the closed, unlocked position. We stop the timer after we enter a contact consisting of a full name and a number. We use five different sets of contact information, then average all the times together. We do trials with different sets of information to better approximate a real scenario; a user won't be entering in the same contact multiple times. The LG Chocolate took an average of 20.5 seconds, which is 1.2 seconds faster than the previous Chocolate. This is fairly speedy compared to other phones. The Razr V3m took 27.9 seconds, the Nokia N75 took 22.84 seconds, and the Sanyo M1 took 20.6 seconds. As fast as the Chocolate's time was, phones with full keyboards tend to be a few seconds faster. For example, the Treo 700p only took 17.7 seconds.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
LG Chocolate VX8550	20.5	4.88
Sanyo M1	20.6	4.85
Motorola Razr V3m	27.9	3.58
LG Chocolate VX8500	21.7	4.61
Nokia N75	22.84	4.38
LG Shine KE970	28.5	3.51

Looking/Sorting/Search (1.5)

The LG Chocolate organizes contacts alphabetically by name. Searching through contacts is done using multi-tap. There is only one dialogue box for name, not separate ones for first and last. Therefore, the only way to sort by last name is by inputting a contact's last name first when creating the entry. Also, to search for a contact, you need to type in the contact's name exactly, starting with the first letter. This is incredibly disappointing, as this search function is worse than the search used for notes or events. The note/event search will show all notes/events that contain the search entry anywhere within its body. Meanwhile, searching contacts for "bert" will not return "Albert"; if you enter a first and last name into the name box, such as "Albert Smith", you won't find it if you search for "smith". It is a absolute mystery why LG/Verizon would choose to downgrade an existing search function for one section.

There are no additional search or organization options. You can assign an entry to one of five preset groups, such as "Colleagues" or "Business," which are mainly used for group texting. You can't organize or search by group. Not much has changed since the first Chocolate, and the lack of improvement is disappointing. Many phones offer additional options for organizing and searching, such as sorting by last name and predictive text.

Fields (2.2)
The new Chocolate actually has one less field than the old one, and it was the one field we felt was innovative: custom text message alerts. As it stands, the new Chocolate only has standard fields for contacts. You can customize a contact by adding a personalized ring tone, picture (not video), or assigning them a group from a list of presets, but these are options you can find on any modern phone.

Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (5.67)

The LG Chocolate has 99 different speed dial values you can attribute to a phone number. You can either assign a speed dial value to a phone number or vice versa; there are specific menus for each. The menu for the former is somewhat buried. To assign a number to a speed dial value, you have to go into a contact and highlight the phone number you wish to create the shortcut for. When you do, an options menu will become available via a soft key. From this menu, you can only assign the number you were editing to a speed dial. The second menu is under contacts in the main menu (note: the contacts soft key on the home screen takes you do a different menu). This brings up the 99 speed dial values, which you can browse and assign different numbers to.

You cannot add a voice tag to a contact. The Chocolate does have voice command software, though. All you do is say a contact's name and the software will try to guess what you're saying. The voice recognition was actually very good, correctly identifying all our test names.

Calendar

Adding Calendar Items (15.43)
For this section we test how easy it is to add a new calendar item. To do this, we time how long it takes to enter in a calendar reminder starting from the closed, unlocked position. The chocolate took an average of 6.48 seconds to do this. As it turns out, adding calendar items on the LG Chocolate is incredibly fast if you know what you're doing. Initially we believed the relatively hidden location of the calendar program would hinder the phone's score (Main Menu > Settings & Tools > Tools > Calendar). Fortunately, down on the d-pad is a shortcut to the calendar. We actually didn't realize this initially, and in our initial tests we just used keypad shortcuts (the Chocolate still scored a speedy 11 seconds). The test calendar entry requires us to set a reminder for 15 minutes before the event, which the Chocolate does as a default. Changing the time of an appointment is easy, as you can simply type in the time on the keypad.

Compared to other phones, the Chocolate is extremely fast. The old Chocolate took 29.4 seconds, the Razr V3m took 22.6 seconds, and the Sanyo M1 took 16 seconds. The Chocolate was even faster than smart phones with keyboards. The T-Mobile Dash took 7.38 seconds and the BlackBerry 8800 took 6.92 seconds.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
LG Chocolate VX8550	6.48	15.43
Sanyo M1	16.00	6.25
Motorola Razr V3m	22.60	4.42
LG Chocolate VX8500	29.40	3.40
Nokia N75	19.20	5.21
LG Shine KE970	12.50	8.00

Calendar Views (4.89)

         

There are three main calendar views on the LG Chocolate: Month, Week, and Day. There is no year denomination. There also isn't an agenda view, which would list all scheduled events.

The monthly view contains the least information, but is sadly the default view. Days with events that have passed are colored blue. Days with future events or uncompleted ongoing events are colored green. Sundays are all colored orange. Highlighting a day displays its number of events. From here you can either click on a specific day to go to the day view, or use the options menu to go to the week view. The week view displays the days of the week along the top, below which are their corresponding dates within the month. Below that is a grid, with each day broken up into hour blocks. Events highlight areas in a column between their start and ending time. This view does not differentiate between events, however, as they are all represented by the same white highlight. Again, the only way to view specific events in a day is to click, which brings you to the day view. Though the week view isn't as aesthetically pleasing as the month view, it displays more pertinent information and probably should have been made the default view. The day view lists individual events sorted by time. Clicking on them allows you to edit their individual fields.


The Chocolate allows you to search through events based on what you named it. This search is actually better than the one used for contacts, since you can type in any fragment of the event's title to find it. The entries are organized by date. Searching through scheduled events is actually a rare feature outside of a smart phone, and we were pleasantly surprised to see its inclusion. The search can also double as an agenda view, but since we don't feel this was its intended function, we did not award it points in that regard.

Overall, the Chocolate provides basic calendar functionality. People who need to manage complex schedules should look elsewhere.
Fields (6.0)
The fields the LG Chocolate provide are Title, Start/End, Recurrence, and Reminder/Alarm. The reminder can be customized as either a vibration or one of the ringtones. You cannot set an event to an entire day, give the event a category, or jot a note about the event.

ToDo/Tasks

Adding ToDo/Task (0.0)
You cannot create to-do or task lists with the LG Chocolate.

ToDo/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (0.0)
Not applicable: you cannot create to-do or task lists.

Fields (0.0)
Not applicable: you cannot create to-do or task lists.

Notes

Adding Notes (3.64)
To find out how difficult creating a note was, we time how long it takes to enter a simple note. We begin the timer with the phone on, closed, and unlocked, and end when we save the note.The LG Chocolate took an average of 13.73 seconds to type a note. The application was buried in menus, but the keypad can be used as a shortcut for navigation. This is fast compared to the N73 (15.12 seconds), which was the fastest in that series of phone. Most phones that have note-taking software are smart phones, however, with full keyboards that are much faster. For example, the Treo 700p only took 8.3 seconds.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
LG Chocolate VX8550	13.73	3.64
Sanyo M1	N/A	0.0
Motorola Razr V3m	N/A	0.0
LG Chocolate VX8500	33.80	1.48
Nokia N75	15.52	3.22
LG Shine KE970	14.00	3.57

Note Interface (5.0)
The note functionality of the LG Chocolate remains unchanged. Opening up the notepad will reveal a list of notes. Each note displays the time and date it was created along with the first 21 characters. The search function is identical to the one used for events: you can search for any fragment of the note.

Note Formatting (0.0)
You can't format text in notes on the Chocolate. This is the norm, as even most smart phones don't allow this.

Voice Memo (6.0)
Creating a voice memo is very easy on the Chocolate. Just hold down the voice command button and press the select key to begin recording. You can record for up to one minute at a time. When the recording is stopped, it will be automatically saved in the "My Sounds" menu. You can find this menu by opening up the main menu, going to "GET IT NOW", and then opening up "Music and Tones."

[page title="Multimedia"]

Accessing Music Software (9.8)
This test shows how easily songs can be accessed. We start a timer with the phone in the closed, unlocked position and stop it when we get a song to play. The LG Chocolate completed this test in 2.04 seconds, thanks largely to its dedicated music button. It only took two key hits to play the song. This time is a 2.69 second improvement over the old model, probably because you didn't need to interact with the iffy touch buttons this time. The new Chocolate is also faster than the Razr V3m (12.1 seconds), the Sanyo M1 (5.5 seconds), and the N75 (4.04 seconds). We were very impressed by the ease at which a Chocolate user could access their songs.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
LG Chocolate VX8550	2.04	9.80
Sanyo M1	5.50	3.64
Motorola Razr V3m	12.10	1.65
LG Chocolate VX8500	4.73	4.23
Nokia N75	4.04	4.95
LG Shine KE970	2.80	7.14

Dedicated Music Controls (4.0)

For this section, we place the phone in the closed, unlocked position, at the home screen, with music playing. From here, we score based on how many different control functions are dedicated music controls. Despite being marketed as a music handset, the Chocolate really doesn't have many. The volume rocker controls song volume. The MUSIC key brings up the media player. The scroll wheel brings up a transparent pulldown menu of your playlist, and you can select a new song with the select key. You can't pause, stop, or fast-forward/rewind while on the home screen, though the playlist pulldown could count as a reverse/forward skip. Though the new Chocolate provides more functionality than the old, we were still disappointed in the lack of a full set of dedicated music control keys.

Music Software Functionality and Organization (7.0)


The Chocolate sports some decent music software. You can create playlists using a checkbox selection mode, very similar to managing pictures and videos. It supported all our audio files: AAC, MP3, and WMA. The Chocolate also recognizes Idv3, iTunes, and Windows Media Player tags, so you won't have to worry about converting files. The Chocolate also automatically updates your library when new songs are added, but only if they're located in the "my_music" folder. The phone will also play music in the background as you do other things. Also included is a "Music Only" mode, which most cell phone users know as "Airplane Mode"; it allows the phone to solely function as an MP3 player and turns off all the wireless radios to make it safe for use on a plane.

Searching is fairly robust, allowing you to sort by song title, artist, album, and genre. There is also a multi-tap search feature, but unfortunately it uses the contact menu's letter-by-letter search as opposed to the calendar/note menu's fragment search. This is especially disappointing in a playlist, as you might only know part of the artist's name, are unsure of an album's exact name, or forgot a song actually began with "a" or "the."

The Chocolate also has an equalizer, though for reasons unbeknownst to us, chose to call its menu "Sound Effect." Said menu is bordered by a graphic claiming you are choosing from 12 preset "3D Effects". Regardless of what the Chocolate wants us to believe, however, we remain confident this feature is just an equalizer.