LG Dare Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls

Dialing a number on the Dare was a bit slower than we'd like, but the Vibrate alert was very good.

Dialing Speed (4.88)
Dialing a number on the LG Dare took an average of 4.1 seconds. You can see below that this is slightly below average and sits right in the middle of our comparison phones. Like most touch screen phones you're going to be slowed down some by not having proper tactile feedback on a real keypad, you just can't move as fast without that specific feedback to your fingers letting them know where they are. That said it's certainly not super slow. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Dialing Speed (sec)

Send and End Buttons (6.5)
Unlike the iPhone and the Samsung Instinct the LG Dare has real send and end buttons, which we appreciate. Located below the screen flanking the back button the buttons are a bit narrow, but wide enough that you shouldn't have trouble hitting them. There's not a lot of key travel when you press them, but you do get good tactile feedback with a firm click. They're not the best send and end buttons we've ever seen, but they aren't the worse either.

Call Management (8.0)
The call history on the LG Dare is pretty fully featured. You can access the history by going through the menu or by simply hitting the send button from the home screen. You get a list of all calls you've made, but you can tap on the All Calls button at the top of the screen to get a menu that allows you to filter by missed, received or dialed calls. Tapping on the small menu button in the bottom left, which is a standard button in the interface, will bring up a menu that will allow you to erase calls or view your call and data timers.

During a call the you see the phone number you're on the call with at the top and just below that a timer showing how long the call has lasted. The center of the screen is taken up by six buttons that give you access to the Dial Pad, Speaker, Contacts, Notes, Messages and Bluetooth. At the bottom of the screen are a mute button and an end button with the standard menu button in the bottom right. This button will let you access some of the same options on the main screen, but it does give you access to call recording, which is a nice feature not always seen on phones.

One annoyance about picking up a call on the LG Dare is that if the phone is locked you first have to unlock it, we'd prefer to have a system like the Instinct or iPhone where the act of picking up a call unlocks the phone and does it in a way that is resistant to accidental pick-ups. One nice extra is that like the iPhone the Dare will automatically shut off the screen when it senses an object near, like your head. Overall the Dare's call options are very good, there are few options you might need that you won't find.

Update: As noted by a commenter below you can pick up the Dare without unlocking it by simply hitting the send button, an oversight in our original review.

Startup to Call (3.83)
Getting the LG Dare to start up and make a call took an average of 26.1 seconds. You can see below that this is faster than average and comparable to the fastest of the other devices listed. It's certainly much faster than a smart phone like the Palm Centro. Less than thirty seconds is reasonable to get a phone going and make a call. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Startup to Call (sec)

Ring Volume (9.64)
The LG Dare's ring volume came in at 96.4 decibles. You can see below that this is just above average and right in the middle of our comparison phones. The LG Dare's ring volume should be loud enough that you can hear it in all but the very loudest settings. To test ring volume we set the phone volume to maximum and run through every ring tone on the device. We use a sound pressure meter to measure loudness in decibels.

Decibels

Ringtones (0.0)
The LG Dare does not allow you to use your own songs as ring tones, if you want additional ring tones you'll have to buy them from Verizon. You also can't use your own voice recordings as ring tones.

Non Audio Alerts (7.0)
The LG Dare's vibrate alert is actually pretty good. We were actually able to feel it in our rather voluminous shorts pocket and we think you'll even notice it vibrating in a jacket pocket. If you're looking at the screen you'll probably notice it light up with information about the incoming call, but it doesn't blink at you in order to grab your attention.

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