LG Dare VX-9700
Phone Scoop Review
Jul 10, 2008 by Eric M. Zeman
LG's Dare is its best touch-screen phone yet, but it's not perfect. See what shines, and what fizzles. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Not there yet...
I have been a Dare owner for 3 weeks now. Overall the phone is cooler than the enV that I had, but I do miss the keyboard because I am a heavy texter (it took over a week to get used the the touchscreen with texting).
Pros:
- small
- touchscreen
- vibrant colors
- light
- tones
- user interface
Cons:
- no wifi / even though it is better, the browser is still slow
- battery life not a long as enV
- only 2 options for display settings
- cant adjust picture/screen size with fingers
- camera tools are not easy to use
- freebies (it would have been awesome if VZW included a free 3.5mm ear bud, strap)
- fingerprints (clear plastic shields helped but are $11 for 3)
- cant see the display when in sunlight
Very Nice Phone but.....
This is a very nice phone. I got the phone in the middle of August and on Tuesday 9/30/08 of this week had to get it replace. The problem I kept running into was that the phone would automatically reboot while I was on a call. I also had problems with my bluetooth not connecting to it and acessing my emails which would also cause my phone to reboot. When I took the phone back today 10/2/08 I was told of a new problem...if you are scrolling thru your text your phone can also reboot. Needless to say I am switching to another phone after 40 days of the Dare. I really hated to switch but just couldn't deal with the phone rebooting while I was on the phone.
Good luck to future users
This is an awesome phone
This is a great phone! I recently upgrade from my LG 8550 Chocolate phone to the LG Dare. I love the fact that this phone is all touchscreen. It does take a while to get used to be it's so worth it. Dare has great battery life. I love the fact that when texting you can turn phone and there is a full keyboard. Its hard to text while driving but hey at least now I can't text and can keep my eyes on the road. Being able to edit pictures is awesome! I must say the internet is slower than I'm used to but hey it's not a computer. Well I must say LG has out done themselves with this! I can't wait to see what they come up with next
Not all its cracked up to be
This phone is a good phone. Not a great phone. It does an OK job for the phone part. The rest of the phone, while the features look nice, is ultimately difficult to use.
The touch screen is OK. I have been using it for a couple of weeks now and I still have some problems with hitting the wrong key.
I was unable to successfully transfer my contacts from OUtlook. I even downloaded BitPim and tried that and it did get most of my contacts in there. When I went to send a text message, it did not default to the cell phone number for the person and I lost quite a few the first week that never went through. It is common sense that you would have the cell number default for text messages.
While I know this is not a smart phone, the email feature is horrible. You can get the basic email but nothing more. No links show up. I even tried to shut down the email program because I didn't want to it to remind me every time I got an email. Couldn't do it.
The web is also pretty poor. I couldn't log on to get my email when I wanted to. Also had trouble accessing other web pages because of java script.
The calendar function is a joke. It should at least be able to sync with an outside calendar (i.e. google, heck even outlook).
I came from the Blackberry curve to get away from email but I am going back and will put up with the email just to get calendar function and easy text messaging.
As a phone it is OK. Everything else is pretty poorly implemented. I am going back to the curve now.
Amazing Phone!
This Phone is Amazing!!
I love it! has everything i need in a phone.
PROs
Everything!
I really like it. I believe we have our first iPhone Killer.
best touchscreen short of I phone (and im not an Iphone fan)
I love this handset. Had it for 72 hours, traded my venus for it. Typically I've been really hesitant to get the new touch screen only phones, primarily because I text a lot, and on top of that, tactile buttons are important to me.
well.. I changed my mind. I love the dare. It is perfect in almost every way, with the below noted negatives :
1 - can take two taps to make touchscreen respond appropriately
2 - sometimes getting the camera to take a picture instead of going into video mode is irritating.
3 - scrolling through the alphabet indicator in your phone book is uh.. interesting.
but everything, including battery life and reception are PHENOMINAL. I love this device
I LOVE IT !!!!
I went in expecting to buy this phone and try it for a couple of days and return it like I do with a lot of technology related products. I bought this 3 days ago and haven't put it down since. Of course it has it's PROS and CONS...but doesn't everything? Awesome phone. I love it I love it I LOVE IT !!!! IT's way cool and works WAY better than anything Verizon has out there now.
Nifty Gadget
I really really want to like this phone. I'm a total fan of the LG, I believe it's the best cell phone manufacturer out there. I purchased this phone on Sunday and I'm still discovering the features that it has. It is apparent that they put a lot of thought into this phone. However, I recently ran into a problem with the phone, all of a sudden out of the blue the ringer and sounds that would normally come out of the speaker isn't working! I use my phone for everything I do, calendar, alarm and constant phone contact. So when I lost the sound I'm totally lost.
I don't purchase the insurance on the phone because i'm a fanatic about taking care of my investments. I'm hoping that this is not a constant problem with the phone. I'm going to Verizon today to exchange the phone and hopefully I won't encounter the same problem.
The customer service rep I spoke to yesterday was excellent!!!! Verizons customer service we great!
Pros:
* Cool looking
* Fun
* Easy to use
* Responsive
* It can actually read your text messages back to you
Cons:
* High technology, may encounter more glitches in future
* Not having the feel of buttons while texting
Nice if it is what you need
After returning the phone 2 times for software issues I finally got one that worked perfectly. After purchasing my Dare my company provided me with a BB Curve. I will say that if you are looking for a cheap smart phone alternative this is a nice option ($15 compared to $$$$). After working with my Curve and Dare I realized that I do not like talking on a "brick" style phone. The voice quality is not as good because the microphone is too far from my mouth. I returned the Dare for the LG Chocolate 3 and love it.
Good
Signal strength
Battery life
Browser
Cheap internet
Bad
Voice sound quality
Hard to see screen in sun
Hard to dial while driving
Scrolling - Stylus helps
So much possiblity, so far to go
I upgraded to the Dare last week from the LG 8350. After hemming and hawing about switching to att for the iPhone or giving sprint a shot with the Instinct, I decided to remain with VzW. And now that I've had the Dare for a week, I'm undecided as to whether or not I'll return it.
Overall, the phone has loads of potential with 3g, full gps, full touchscreen, beautiful camera, great size, etc. But some of the phone's features were letdowns for me.
PROS:
* Nice u/i - very intuitive
* Great size
* Reliable VzW network
* Great screen, even in sunlight
* Solid battery life
* Loaded with features (full html browser, 3.2 mp camera, vid cam, gps
* Responsive touchscreen (non-browser features)
* VZ Navigator looks great on wider screen
CONS:
* Browser is HORRENDOUS - Touchscreen becomes so non-responsive - it can take up to 15-20 clicks to get a link to respond. For a 'full html browser', it sure loves to load wap/mobile versions of sites such as espn.com and cnn.com rather than full html versions. Can't describe how disappointing the browser is, except for the fact that pages do load quickly when you actually get a link to work.
* No third-party browser available, such as opera mini
* Texting was easier on my old 8350
* VZ Navigator takes more time to enter locations b/c of the touchscreen. My old 8350 used to cache previous entered values (like cities and states)... Dare doesn't do it. Have to re-enter same city every time I use it.
* No visual voicemail
* Have experienced a few random freezes
* VzW Mobile Email app could be so much better - it accomplishes its basic goal, but could be so much more robust with a better u/i - so much waste of screen space. Prefer accessing my email directly from browser (much better u/i) but takes forever to get browser to behave properly.
Overall, this phone could be spectacular. No, not an iPhone killer nor competitor, but an excellent feature phone. It just comes up way short in execution.
