LG Voyager Cell Phone Review - Value & Comparisons
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Alfredo Padilla Published on December 04, 2007 Comment on this |
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Value (3.0)
The LG Voyager is available exclusively from Verizon for $299.99 with a two-year contract after a $50 mail-in rebate. The LG Voyager has a lot going for it, from an intuitive and effective touch screen interface to decent battery life and a nice web browser. What causes us pause though is that $300 is as much or more than you would expect to pay for a high end smart phone like the AT&T Tilt or BlackBerry Curve. This means your same dollars could buy you a phone with email support, Wi-Fi, smart operating systems and GPS capabilities, all of which the LG Voyager lacks. As such we can't consider the Voyager to be a good value at this price. We expect the price will fall within the next few months, and if you can pick up a Voyager for less than $200 at some point in the future it will be a much better deal.
Comparisons
HTC Touch on Sprint - The HTC Touch is a Windows Mobile smart phone with a touch screen driven interface using HTC's TouchFlo technology, which is supposed to make it easier to interact with the interface using just a finger. The only problem is it doesn't work particularly well. We found that the LG Voyager's touch screen interface worked much better in practice than the Touch's. In particular we found that it was very difficult to input text on the Touch, while the Voyager provides users with both a full QWERTY keyboard and much more usable touchscreen text input. Of course the HTC Touch has all the benefits that come with a powerful smart phone operating system like Windows Mobile, but in this case we have to lean towards the Voyager as the more usable handset.
Pantech Duo - The Pantech Duo is another Windows Mobile smartphone that on paper provides a lot more features than the LG Voyager. In practice though we found that the Duo had poor construction, a sup-par camera and at only $100 less than the LG Voyager was over-priced. If you're looking at these two handsets go with the Voyager.
Nokia E90 - The Nokia E90 is everything that the LG Voyager isn't. A powerhouse of a smart device with a better camera, longer battery life and better software. With a similar form factor to the Voyager, albeit lacking a touch screen, you might ask yourself why not get an E90 instead? The answer is that you're going to pay for all that extra functionality. Because the E90 isn't offered by any U.S. carrier you will need to pay it's full price, starting at around $800. For that much extra money you bet you should expect better functionality. If you like the Voyager's form factor though and are willing to spend the extra to get the ultimate powerhouse phone the E90 might be for you. Otherwise we expect most reasonable shoppers will stick with the Voyager.
Helio Ocean - The Helio Ocean is not a smart phone, but like the LG Voyager it packs a lot of high end features in that would lead one to compare it to smart devices. There are a lot of similarities between the Ocean and the Voyager, from the QWERTY keyboards both share to the large displays. The Ocean lacks a touch screen, but it does have a slide out keypad, and it also one ups the LG Voyager with GPS functionality. We also found that the Ocean has a more intuitive and attractive interface. Throw in the fact that it's $100 less with a contract and we have to go with the Ocean here.
Apple iPhone - This is a difficult comparison to make. The iPhone does offer more functionality out of the box than the LG Voyager. The browser is better, it has better organizer features and unlike the Voyager it has a real email client. We also feel like the iPhone is a more attractive device and the touch screen is more responsive than the Voyager's. The biggest thing that sets the two apart though is the iPhone's multimedia capabilities, which are far and away better than the Voyager's, and the 8GB of built in storage it comes with. So, the question then becomes whether all of this functionality is worth an extra $100 to you. Of course an 8GB Micro SD card is going to set you back at least $100. Throw in the fact that come early next year the iPhone will be opened up for third party applications while the Voyager never will be and we have to give the nod to Cupertino's finest here.
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