LG Venus Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls
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Mark Brezinski Published on December 05, 2007 Comment on this |
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Dialing Speed (7.58)
To test dialing speed, we clock the length of time between the phone being closed and unlocked until we hit the send key. We pull our numbers from a pool of many, in order to get a more accurate average.
The Venus showed itself capable of dialing a number in about 2.64 seconds. This is actually pretty fast, similar to the result for the Samsung Juke. The keypad was a good size: not so big we were fumbling to get our thumbs from key to key and not so small we were prone to mistakes.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| LG Venus | 2.64 | 7.58 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 2.96 | 6.76 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.96 | 5.05 |
| HTC Touch | 6.98 | 2.87 |
| Razr2 V9m | 3.48 | 5.75 |
| Samsung Juke | 2.64 | 7.58 |
Talk and End Buttons (7.0)
The Venus's talk and end buttons are located in the top corners of the keypad. On their outer edges they have small bumps to aid in touch navigation, but they're so small it would be hard to rely on them too much. The best things they have going for them is their location. It's hard to miss the key when you just have to move to the top left and right until you feel the end of the keypad or bump into the top half of the phone. They do have good play and tactile feedback.
Call Management (5.0)
As far as handling actual calls, the Venus performs well up to a point. An incoming call can be answered or quited. After you quiet a call, you can choose to ignore it. In a call, the D-pad will yield the choices of mute, options menu, send, end, and speaker. The options menu will let you access several applications, such as messaging and the contact list. You can also opt to write notes or record the call. The issues mainly crop up when a third person enters the picture. There is no menu option for new call, so feel free to just start plugging away at the keypad. Once you've made that outgoing call, it puts the first call on hold, but there's nothing on the screen that would even give you a clue this is what's happened. There doesn't seem to be a way to make conference calls; the menu doesn't provide any hints, and holding send did the same thing as pressing it normally. Also, once you've switched calls, pressing the Send key again will hang up on the caller. We'd recommend sticking to one caller at a time, because otherwise it's thoroughly confusing.
Startup to Call (3.98)
The title of this section fairly well describes the procedure. We shut the phone off, then time how long it take to get a call outgoing. We stop the timer when we press the send key. The Venus was able to perform this action in 25.11 seconds on average. This is a bit slow, though not the minute or so the HTC Touch received though, to be fair, it doesn't have the same complexity of software either. This is just another score that suffers from the Venus dragging its feet a bit.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| LG Venus | 25.11 | 3.98 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 22.37 | 4.47 |
| Apple iPhone | 26.12 | 3.83 |
| HTC Touch | 70.24 | 1.42 |
| Razr2 V9m | 22.82 | 4.38 |
| Samsung Juke | 11.9 | 8.40 |
Ring Volume (8.58)
Ring volume is tested by holding the phone two inches away from a sound pressure meter. We then play through all the phone's ringtones, keeping track of the maximum decibel output. As you can see from the table below, the 84-85 range is a popular one to fall in. Somewhere around 80% of the phones we've reviewed fall within this range. The Venus will notify you of calls about as well as most other phones.
| Cell Phone | Volume (decibels) | Score |
| LG Venus | 85.8 | 8.58 |
| LG Chocolate Vx8550 | 85.4 | 8.54 |
| Apple iPhone | 84.9 | 8.49 |
| HTC Touch | 84.8 | 8.48 |
| Razr2 V9m | 85.7 | 8.57 |
| Samsung Juke | 85.8 | 8.58 |
Ringtone Customizability (0.0)
While you can download ringtones from Verizon's store for a fist full of cash, you can't use your own songs as ringtones.
Non Audio Alerts (8.0)
The phone's non audio alerts are actually pretty good. The vibration is loud enough for you to hear, and we definitely felt it shaking around in our pocket. The on-screen displays aren't particularly eye-catching, though the simple act of the sceen backlight coming on might be enough to get your attention. Overall, the Venus performed ever so slightly better than average.
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