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LG Voyager Review

Posted by John Pastor • February 6, 2008 • Printer-friendly • Feed •

LG Voyager

The iPhone has been the star of the show in the cell phone market, and other manufacturers are trying to get competitors out to steal the buzz, but none of them have been able to succeed thus far. Today we're taking a look at one of the latest competitors, the LG Voyager on the Verizon network.

Let me just tell this right up front, if you're thinking of buying this phone and expect it to be exactly like the iPhone, it isn't. The LG Voyager is Verizon's "iPhone", but over the past several weeks I've been trying it - it isn't the same after using the iPhone for several months. The Voyager has two 2.8" LCD screens, one on the front of the device, and one on the inside, paired with a full QWERTY keyboard.

On the front are three buttons: send, clear, and power/end compared to the iPhone's single "home" button. Unlike the iPhone's aluminum and glass enclosure, the Voyager's exterior is made entirely of plastic, with a "chrome" edging to make it look similar. This definitely makes the device feel cheap. On the side of the Voyager is a slot for a microSD card which can be used for storing music and photos in addition to the built in 180MB of shared memory

The touch screen doesn't have the multi-touch technology, and doesn't have the same gestures that the iPhone has like flicking through your contacts, or pinching photos. Aside from the lack of these features, the touch screen on the Voyager does the job fine, and offers tactile feedback when navigating throughout menus and icons on the device.

The Voyager isn't all bad either, it has VCAST Mobile TV for watching live TV and other shows on the go. The video quality isn't the best, but it's nice to have TV on the go, isn't it? A couple of other features are Verizon's VZ Navigator for GPS turn-by-turn directions and VCAST Music for purchasing tunes on the go. Compare these features to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store and Google Maps with Location on the iPhone, and you can really see the difference. For instance, the iPhone doesn't have GPS or voice directions, but it does have cell tower triangulation. The music you've purchased from the iTunes Store however, will not play on the device.

The QWERTY keyboard on the inside of the Voyager is spacious and isn't cramped like keyboards on similar phones. Photo quality from the 2 megapixel camera is decent but it is missing a flash for low-light situations. Since the device doubles as a music phone, it supports the Bluetooth Stereo Profile (A2DP) while the iPhone does not. The web browser renders pages in full HTML similar to the iPhone, but the Safari browser on the iPhone seemed a tad faster at rendering. However the Voyager has EVDO which provides super fast browsing.

In terms of call quality and battery life, the Voyager received about 3.5 hours of battery life and excellent call quality. The built-in speakerphone was very loud and wasn't distorted at higher volumes.

Compared to the iPhone, the Voyager does offer some features that Apple's first offering does not, and this should make it a consideration if you are looking for a touch-screen device that combines a phone, music, email, and web browsing into one device. The LG Voyager is available immediately for $249.99 with a $50 online discount and a 2-year contract from Verizon Wireless.

Pros

  • Dual 2.8" screens.
  • Spacious internal QWERTY keyboard.
  • Built-in GPS and mobile TV applications.
  • Stereo over Bluetooth with A2DP.
  • Fast EVDO connection.
  • Great call quality.
  • Loud speakerphone without distortion.

Cons

  • Phone feels cheap.
  • Touch screen somewhat hard to use.
  • No multi-touch or gestures.

Final Verdict
4 out of 5 stars.



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