LG Voyager Cell Phone Review - Hardware
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Alfredo Padilla Published on December 04, 2007 Comment on this |
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Keypad
Text Words Per Minute (8.80)
To see how easy it is to type on the LG Voyager we time how long it takes to enter a standard piece of text using two hands. We do this test five times and take the average for our score. Because the Voyager has two forms of data entry, a touch keypad on the external screen and a full QWERTY keyboard when the phone is opened up we had some question about how to approach this test. We decided that anyone who had to do serious data entry on the LG Voyager will use the internal QWERTY keyboard, so that's what we used for this test. We were able to type an impressive 44 words per minute (WPM) on the LG Voyager's QWERTY keyboard, which is just about what we would expect from a decent QWERTY. We have done better though, as you can see below. In the case of the Voyager, our biggest stumbling block was keyboard's size. Our reviewer has fairly small hands and found that reaching some keys near the center of the keyboard was a stretch. We also didn't really like that the keyboard is off center and that instead of having a standard space bar at the center of the bottom row it's been divided in half and located at the bottom left and right of the keyboard. That being said the LG Voyager's keyboard will allow most users to quickly type out text messages, and we imagine this is it's principal purpose.
| Cell Phone | Words Per Minute | Score |
| LG Voyager | 44 | 8.80 |
| HTC Touch on Sprint | 25.9 | 5.18 |
| Pantech Duo | 48.43 | 9.69 |
| Nokia E90 | 49 | 9.80 |
| Helio Ocean | 53 | 10.60 |
| Apple iPhone | 39.6 | 7.92 |
T9 and Auto Complete (5.0)
The LG Voyager supports T9 predictive text entry when using the virtual keypad to enter text on the exterior screen. There is no predictive text for the interior QWERTY of course, and there's also no support for word completion using either entry method.
One Hand Usability (7.00)
Because we know that many users like to text on their phones using one hand we do our words per minute (WPM) test using only a single hand. In the case of the Voyager we felt that people entering text with only one hand would likely be using the virtual keypad on the exterior screen so that's the text entry method we used for this test. We also turned on predictive text entry. As with our two-handed test we type our sample phrase five times and take the average time for our final score. Using this method we were able to type 35 WPM on the LG Voyager, which is pretty good. You can see below that it did better in this test than any of our comparison phones, and in particular it did significantly better than the HTC Touch, where we also used a virtual keypad for this test. We were actually surprised to see it do better than the Pantech Duo which has a real keypad. Those who like typing out words one handed will appreciate how easy it is to do on the LG Voyager.
| Cell Phone | Words Per Minute | Score |
| LG Voyager | 35 | 7.00 |
| HTC Touch on Sprint | 24.2 | 4.84 |
| Pantech Duo | 31.77 | 6.35 |
| Nokia E90 | 24 | 4.80 |
| Helio Ocean | 28.3 | 5.66 |
| Apple iPhone | 32.1 | 6.42 |
Keypad Backlighting (7.0)
The LG Voyager's keyboard and controls are backlit well in an aqua blue light that clearly and evenly illuminates all of the characters on the keys but doesn't burn your retinas like some keyboard backlights. We were also happy to see that the LG Voyager has separate controls for the keyboard backlight, allowing you to choose from three different time out times, or the options to always leave it on or off. About the only fly in the ointment is the lack of a light sensor to automatically turn the backlight on or off.
Controls
D-Pad/Joystick (3.0)
The LG Voyager's D-Pad is located to the right of the QWERTY keyboard when you open the device up. This is the only D-pad on the phone as the touch screen is used to navigate the interface when the phone is closed. The D-Pad on the LG Voyager is not very good. Although well placed to be used with the thumb of your right hand, or perhaps not so well placed if you're left handed, it has several problem. The major problem is that the center select button of the D-Pad is too large and protuberant. We found ourselves constantly hitting the center select button when trying to hit up/down/left/right on the D-Pad. We also found that when we did hit the right direction we didn't get very much tactile feedback. Compared to the excellent D-Pad fond on the HTC Touch or Helio Ocean the LG Voyager's D-Pad is sub par. Touch Screen (8.0)
The LG Voyager's exterior touch screen is the principal method of interacting with the interface when the phone is closed. The interface here is very similar to what we saw on the LG Prada and we found that the touch screen worked fairly well most of the time. This in part thanks to the generally large buttons that are used in the exterior display, and we found that in areas where the buttons were much smaller, like when using the virtual QWERTY to enter a web address in the browser, the touch screen was less useful. But these are isolated cases and in most situations the touch screen worked well. In fact we would venture to say it's the best touch screen we've seen on any phone apart from the iPhone. It's certainly better than the TouchFlo interface we saw on the HTC Touch. And it even one ups the iPhone with haptic feedback that causes the phone to vibrate slightly when you've touched a button on the touch screen, giving you some much appreciated tactile feedback.
Jog Dial (0.0)
The LG Voyager does not have a jog dial or scroll wheel for easily moving through long lists.
Soft Buttons (4.0)
The LG Voyager has a set of soft buttons on the interior of the phone to be used when it is opened. When it is closed the soft button functions are assigned to on screen buttons. We found the soft buttons on the LG Voyager had some issues. First of all we didn't like the placement above the QWERTY keyboard. Although we understand this makes sense from a visual perspective, in actual use they were inconveniently placed. We would have much preferred to have them in easy reach of the D-Pad, perhaps where the internal send/end keys are currently placed. We also found that the buttons were a little hard to press, didn't have much key travel and didn't provide enough tactile feedback when you did press them. We've seen much better soft keys on phones like the Treo 750 or any Razr phone.
Volume Control (5.0)
Volume control on the LG Voyager is located on the left side of the phone and is the lowest of a set of three control buttons there. When the phone is fully opened you can also access the buttons as they sit just below the screen, but this isn't nearly as convenient as you have to kind of reach up and over the lower part of the phone and your finger bumps into the upper part holding the screen. When closed we found the buttons easy to find by feel, and there's a small indentation in the rocker to differentiate between up/down by feel, but we also found that their placement lower on the body and on the left side of the phone meant they required us to shift our hand in order to use. When pressed they provided decent tactile feedback but not much key travel. We've seen better, but they do their job in a reasonable fashion.
Power and Standby (5.5)
In both closed an open mode the power button on the LG Voyager is a secondary function of the end key. We spoke in more detail about these buttons in the Making & Receiving Calls section, and we recommend you refer back to there for more details about the buttons themselves. In either case to turn the phone off you press and hold the buttons. You also have to press and hold to turn the phone back on, but not as long. They do their job in a reasonable fashion, most users won't find the need to turn their phone on/off a lot so we can't nitpick to much.
Other Buttons (5.0)
In addition to the buttons mentioned above the LG Voyager has several other control keys to help you navigate the interface. Above the volume keys on the left side of the phone is a dedicated camera key and a switch that locks/unlocks the phone. On the exterior of the phone between the send and end keys is a dedicated back/clear key and this is replicated just below the D-Pad in the interior of the phone. The exterior version of the back/clear key has a secondary function, when you press and hold it it launches the voice memo application. For some reason though the interior version of the button doesn't do this. Right next to the interior back/clear is a dedicated button that activates the speaker phone. We're not sure why the designers decided this function could only be accessed by opening the phone up as there's no way to turn on the speaker phone via the software. All of these are useful in their own way however. We didn't award two points for each of the back/clear buttons, but we did award a bonus point for the secondary function of the exterior version of the button.
Display
Primary Screen Gross Resolution (0.0)
Both of the LG Voyager's screens have a resolution of 400 x 240 pixels, which is significantly higher than the standard 320 x 240 pixel screens we've seen on most phones. It's not the best out there though, you can see below that both the iPhone and the Nokia E90 had higher resolution displays. Still, the LG Voyager has an excellent set of displays and we appreciate the higher pixel count as it gives you a nice sharp on screen display.
| Cell Phone | Resolution | Score |
| LG Voyager | 400 x 240 | 8.5 |
| HTC Touch on Sprint | 320 x 240 | 8.00 |
| Pantech Duo | 320 x 240 | 8.00 |
| Nokia E90 | 800 x 352 | 10.00 |
| Helio Ocean | 320 x 240 | 8.00 |
| Apple iPhone | 480 x 320 | 9.00 |
Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (8.30)
Pixels per inch (PPI) is a measure of how tightly pixels are packed into the screen real estate. A higher pixel density makes for sharper images and richer colors, while lower pixel density displays can seem granulated and washed out. The LG Voyager's pixel count is 166 PPI, which is around the mid range of what we see on phones. This is because, despite the LG Voyager's high total pixel count, it also has fairly large 2.81 inch displays. This is why the Pantech Duo, which has a lower resolution display, has a higher pixel count than the Voyager. Still, 166 PPI is good enough that you shouldn't have any problem with how well things are displayed on the Voyager's screens.
| Cell Phone | Pixels Per Inch | Score |
| LG Voyager | 166 | 8.30 |
| HTC Touch on Sprint | 142.9 | 7.15 |
| Pantech Duo | 181.82 | 9.09 |
| Nokia E90 | 219 | 10.95 |
| Helio Ocean | 168 | 8.40 |
| Apple iPhone | 164.8 | 8.24 |
Screen Physical Size (7.03)
Both of the LG Voyager's screens are a very comfortable 2.81 inches diagonal. This is as large as the display on the HTC Touch and is much bigger than most phones whose displays range from 2 to 2.4 inches diagonal. Of course it's not as big as the iPhone or the Nokia E90, but these are the exception for phones rather than the rule. We very much appreciated the LG Voyager's large display, especially when browsing the web or viewing media full screen.
| Cell Phone | Size Diagonal (inches) | Score |
| LG Voyager | 2.81 | 7.03 |
| HTC Touch on Sprint | 2.8 | 7.00 |
| Pantech Duo | 2.2 | 5.50 |
| Nokia E90 | 4 | 10.00 |
| Helio Ocean | 2.4 | 6.00 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.5 | 8.75 |
Screen Brightness (4.95)
To test how bright the LG Voyager's screen gets we point the browser to a blank white web page and use a lux meter from a couple of inches away to see how bright the screen gets. We found a significant disparity in the brightness of the LG Voyager's two screens. The exterior screen measured 85 lux in our test while the interior one measured 113. Both are good scores, with the latter being amongst the brightest we've ever seen. Because we can't make assumptions about usage in this case we've decided to average the two scores so the LG Voyager will be scored on it's average screen brightness of 99 lux, which as you can see below is pretty good.
As with the keypad backlight the LG Voyager provides timing controls for its screen backlight, which can be set to one of several presets. Only the interior screen can be set to never go off or on however. There are no controls over screen brightness and we didn't see a light sensor that would adjust the screen brightness for you. The LG Voyager has some very bright displays, and they will always be very bright, even when you might want them not to be. It's the lack of any control over how bright the screen gets that gives the LG Voyager it's poor score in this section, despite it's very bright displays.
| Cell Phone | Brightness (lux) | Score |
| LG Voyager | 99 | 4.95 |
| HTC Touch on Sprint | 105 | 8.00 |
| Pantech Duo | 74 | 4.70 |
| Nokia E90 | 54 | 3.95 |
| Helio Ocean | 63 | 4.35 |
| Apple iPhone | 168 | 15.40 |
Screen Bright Light Performance (1.0)
To see how the LG Voyager's screens handle bright light performance we shine 3000 lux of light onto them (equivalent to a bright sunny day) and judge how legible they are. We found that the LG Voyager's displays were almost illegible, you could barely make out icons on either display and we don't believe that most will be able to navigate the interface under bright light situations. We expected this from the exterior display as touch screen displays traditionally don't do well in this test, but were surprised to see the interior display with its over 100 lux of brightness had just as much trouble. The issue may have been that both screens seem to have a shiny plastic cover that contributes to the extreme glare.
Color Depth (8.00)
Both of the LG Voyager's screens can display 262 thousand colors. This is higher than the 65 thousand colors we see on many phones, but isn't as much as the 16 million color displays we saw on the Nokia E90 and some other high end Nokia phones. Still, 262 thousand colors is sufficient that most users will have all their needs met. Higher color depth like this means that the screen does a better job reproducing subtle colors, which is nice if you want to use the phone to show off pictures.
| Cell Phone | Colors (thousands) | Score |
| LG Voyager | 262 | 8.00 |
| HTC Touch on Sprint | 65 | 6.00 |
| Pantech Duo | 65 | 6.00 |
| Nokia E90 | 16000 | 10.00 |
| Helio Ocean | 260 | 8.00 |
| Apple iPhone | n/a - unknown | 6.00 |
Secondary Screen (19.37)
You may have noticed that as we wrote this section we did not focus on a single "main" display for the LG Voyager. We did this because both displays are virtually identical and we feel they will also receive a similar amount of use. This is the first phone we've seen with two displays that are so similar and so we decided to treat them as equals. We also, however, want to give the LG Voyager credit for having two displays so we will score the displays in our secondary screen section as well. Because all of the stats we use for this section are the same for both screens either would have received the same score here. Based on their resolution, pixel density, and size, the LG Voyager receives a pretty good score here, as you would expect.
Ports & Storage
Power & Data Ports (2.0)
The LG Voyager uses a single proprietary port for both power and data. As you can see from the LG Voyager's score here, we don't particularly like proprietary ports.
Headphone & Jack Compatibility (6.0)
Thankfully moving away from proprietary ports the LG Voyager supports a standard 2.5mm headset jack. We have to admit we would have liked to see a 3.5mm jack here, but at least you don't have to go to LG to buy a headset for the phone, especially since one isn't included in the box. The LG Voyager also supports wireless stereo headphones via Bluetooth.
Internal Storage (1.0)
The LG Voyager has 184MB of internal storage, which is much higher than most cell phones. It's more than enough to store all of your contacts, calendar entries with storage left over for a bunch of photos. If you want to use the LG Voyager as a music of video player though, or if you take a truly impressive number of photos, you'll want to invest in a memory card.
Expansion Slot & Format (8.0)
The LG Voyager uses a standard Micro SD slot, which is accessible on the right side of the phone near the bottom. The port is protected by a cover that has a nice slot for your finger nail to slip into to open and then rotates out of the way conveniently. The slot for the card is also spring loaded, which makes getting the card in or out much easier. Kudos to LG for making one of the nicer memory card slots we've seen on a phone lately. The LG Voyager supports high capacity memory cards so you can get Micro SD cards up to 8GB in size, as much storage as an iPhone.
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