LG Chocolate 3 Cell Phone Review
By Marianne Schultz
Reviewed.com Editorial Staff
September 30, 2008
The LG Chocolate 3 is an update to a popular music-oriented phone on Verizon's network that now packs in even more internal storage than its predecessor. However, it's now a flip phone instead of the slick slider style of its predecessors, rendering it a bit less stylish and unique. It is still a capable phone that can easily double as your music player and it can be purchased for $129 when ordered online from Verizon with a new 2-year contract.
It’s easy enough to make a call on the Chocolate 3 using its keypad, although it requires very firm presses and it clicks louder than we’d like. Or, you can dial a contact using its voice dialing software that works very well to select a contact by speaking a name.
You can store notes and keep your calendar on the Chocolate 3, but you won’t be able to sync any of this data easily with your computer. You can send and receive emails on the Chocolate 3, but you must have web access in order to do anything. This is not a smartphone meant to keep your life completely organized.
The Chocolate 3 has very good music player software, along with external controls that make it easy to use it as your digital music player while you’re on the go. It has 1GB of internal storage and also takes Micro SD cards up to 8GB in size so you can expand its capacity to hold more music, pictures, and videos. Verizon makes it very easy to download songs directly on to the phone through its VCAST service with links to the online store in many menus, though we think it’s a bit pricey. Watching videos on the phone isn’t the greatest since the screen is pretty small at 2.2 inches measured diagonally. It can play back most of the common video types and didn’t have many problems doing so.
The Chocolate 3 now includes GPS, allowing you to get turn-by-turn directions and locate businesses and events around you, though you have to pay Verizon to use it to the tune of $2.99 per day or $9.99 per month. You can download games to kill time, though the phone doesn’t come with any installed, and you can use custom ringtones, but you’ll have to buy all of these from Verizon.
Performance (read the full lab performance results at wirelessinfo.com)
The Chocolate 3 can capture both still pictures and video, and though its resolution has improved over previous versions, it does not capture color very well and won't be able to replace your dedicated digital camera. It will work just fine for quick pictures to catch those fun moments out with friends. The interface for the camera and video capture is straightforward and offers a decent selection of options to adjust white balance (using presets), brightness, or add special effects. You can also edit the still pictures you take using the built-in camera software more than you can on most cell phones.
In terms of audio quality, the sound of your voice won’t always be transmitted as it should to the people you speak to, though the audio you’ll hear will be okay. It does pretty well in terms of sidetone, which is the amount of your voice piped back to you to help you judge how loudly you need to speak - the Chocolate 3 is close to the ideal level in this area.
The Chocolate 3 disappointed us with its battery life for talk time, falling under the claimed 4.5 hours by 30 minutes, putting it below the average of all the cell phones we've ever tested by nearly 1 hour and even below its predecessor. It lasted longer when browsing the web and playing back music at 4 hours and 31 minutes and 11 hours and 24 minutes respectively. If you like to listen to your music more than talking on the phone, you should be just fine with the Chocolate 3.
Comparisons (read more in-depth comparisons at wirelessinfo.com)
If you're looking at other Verizon offerings, there is the LG enV2 that includes a full QWERTY keyboard, though it has less internal memory and a worse camera, but it can be great for the frequent texters over the Chocolate 3. The previous-generation Chocolate is also still available from Verizon, though the Chocolate 3 is still a better phone overall unless you really like the slider form factor of the old one. If you want a phone that handles multimedia really well, an alternative is the iPhone 3G, which is an all-out media phone that would better suit those who want lots of internal storage and killer music and video capabilities.
The Chocolate 3 is a decent phone if you don't want to carry a separate digital music player. The prices of cell phones tend to decrease a few months after release, so the Chocolate 3 could be a very good value in the near future.
|
|
