http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/ Engadget Mobile Comments for LG Venus unboxing http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadgetmobile.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/Nov 20th 2007 2:04PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/Nov 20th 2007 2:05PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/
T-Mobile contract is up in February and I am sick of declining cell service around here. I used to have strong signal at home and at work with T-Mobile. Now it is completely random. No signal one minute and 4 bars the next in the same exact spot. I'm hoping the switch to Verizon/LG can solve this and other issues I've had with T-Mobile/Motorola. ]]>Nov 20th 2007 5:37PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/Nov 20th 2007 8:20PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/Nov 20th 2007 10:35PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/Nov 20th 2007 11:12PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/
The phone felt ok in my hand, but it was a bit awkward since it was still attached to the display tether. No way to tell how it would really feel in palm or in pocket. The touch screen was ok, but nothing all too impressive. The haptic feedback is definitely noticeable, but not nearly as satisfying as an actual button push. I don't know if there is an adjustment to the "feedback" level, but on the phone I checked out it could definitely be reduced. Smudges will also definitely be an issue. And my wife's first comment was, "It looks like the screen will be really fragile."

Navigation through the menus felt cluncky. And it could be just me not knowing the OS, or menu structure. (I'm used to a Razr on T-Mobile.) I think that the display menus on the lower touch screen are adjustable, which would definitely be a first step if I purchased the phone. Getting to the music (one of the biggest reasons to get this phone in my opinion) was kind of a pain. (Looking back, I think there was a "Music" button you could push on the side, that I never tried.) The sound quality was decent out of the phone's speakers, but the volume just wasn't there. Then again, how much can you expect out of a phone.

After my first hands-on dealing with the Venus, I'm just not sold. I actually found myself gravitating toward music enabled smart phones such as the Q after checking out the Venus. The drawback to those (for me) is the larger size, and the possibility of paying for unused features. All I really want is a compact phone that can maintain good signal strength, be comfortable in my pocket, and play a dual role as my ONLY DAP. I'm just not sure the Venus stacks up.

I left the store wishing once again that Sony/Ericsson provided more phones to the US market, and that they were willing to build phones compatible with CDMA.

Just my $ 0.02.
]]>Nov 21st 2007 11:41AMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/Nov 21st 2007 4:17PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/Nov 21st 2007 1:33PMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/
As noted, the touchscreen displays are REALLY sluggish. The structure of it is nothing more than a virtual D-pad. No sliding of your finger to go up and down menus. Those witout small fingers may find the nagivation arrows a bit too close to the corner menu items.

Things such as the feedback for button presses are adjustable, and it is definitely telling, but as somebody else said, not nearly as clean feeling as you would like and does not have the same satisfacion of a key for tactile feedback.

The phone "locks" automatically whenever you slide the phone closed, so if you open it to dial a number and then close the slider, you must hit the "music button" to unlock the device to use the screen menus to end a call rather than sliding back open to hit the End button. This is just an example of how unintuitive much of this phone setup is.

There are plenty of ways to customize the buttons and setting, so in theory you can come up with a layout and settings that work for you, but Out of the Box, it is just disappointing. ]]>Nov 26th 2007 10:31AMhttp://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/11/20/lg-venus-unboxing/Nov 27th 2007 7:38PM