LG Venus Review - Design & Features
Design & FeaturesVenus looks like the hi-tech luxury item it is. Slightly wider and larger than today’s average slider phone, Venus has an eye-catching chrome rim around its display and a grippy faux-leather backside that feels nice in the hand. My review sample was finished in classic black, and a pink version is also now available through Verizon. The back panel houses handset’s 2MP camera lens, and also snaps off to reveal the battery slot. Slide the display panel up and Venus reveals its 12-button dialing keypad, with soft-touch plastic keys that are easy to use. Side panel controls include a rocker switch for volume, voice recorder key and headset/charger jack on the left, and dedicated music and camera keys along with a microSD card slot on the right.
Venus’ big draw, of course, is that two-headed display. The main screen is a 2” QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) affair capable of rendering 262,000 colors. Beneath that is a smaller touch display that measures about 1.5” across. Both displays are beautiful to look at and VZW and LG did a great job designing Venus’ menus to go beyond the standard Verizon look. I had some qualms with the decision to relegate the touch-sensitive functionality to only one area of the display, however, which I’ll delve into in the Usability section of the review.
Venus offers a full array of functionality, including Web browsing, mobile Email and IM access, a media player with microSD memory card slot and 2.5mm stereo headphone jack, access to Verizon’s VCAST Music and Videos services, and the carrier’s VZ Navigator GPS navigation services. The integrated 2MP camera is actually a little better than the average cameraphone shooter, and can be used to capture short video clips as well as stills. You’ll also find the requisite personal information management apps and decent gaming support (check out my demo of Guitar Hero Mobile III in Unlocked Episode #2). The one problem with gaming on Venus is that the touch-sensitive area isn’t as responsive a controller as hardware buttons are - configuring games to use the keypad, where possible, helped.
Venus is an EV-DO device and so takes advantage of Verizon’s 3G network for fast data speeds. Web browsing on the handset was only a so-so experience, though, as the browser is capable of rendering HTML Websites but usually does so in a less than pleasing single-column way. A full touchscreen would have made navigating Web sites a lot easier, as well.
A welcome surprise, however, was VZW’s choice to leave Venus’ Bluetooth capabilities wide-open, something the carrier isn’t known for doing. Not only do you get stereo Bluetooth support on this handset, but you also get file and object transfer support - something almost unheard of for a VZW-branded non-smartphone.
Next: Usability & Performance »Fetch me more...Quickly jump to more information about related topics, cell phones, carriers or phone manufacturers mentioned in this In-Depth Review by using the links below. About our in-depth cell phone reviewsWe take great pride to ensure that the our reviews are thorough and accurate. In no way are our editors directed or influenced by any manufacturers, advertisers, or partners; we believe that honest, opinionated reviews -positive or negative - are the only way to maintain credibility and serve our users. Reviews by companyApple, BenQ, BlackBerry, Eten, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, o2, Palm, Pantech, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony EricssonCheck out Noah's sneak peak at Verizon's Voyager and Venus smartphones scheduled for release this November LG's KF600 "Bikini" is basically a non-Verizon version of the LG Venus with a different, and perhaps slightly sexier, name. Bikini is also a bone thrown by LG's Naming Dept. (is there such a thing) in the direction of LG's Sexy Marketing Dept., as evidenced by this recent flood of ads featuring a fine young thing in a two-piece swimsuit posing with the new handset.
Many thanks to JustAMP for archiving this bit of mobile marketing... Here's Part 2 ... And yes, KravvyKrav is my YouTube alias. porky247 Asks:samsung instinctnow ive been looking for videos showing if texting is good, internet, radio, tv, video recording, pics, stuff like that if theres any way sometime in june before it comes out you can get it and show that i heard from engadget its supposed to release june 20 or something thanksKravvyKrav Answers:Hey Porky ... Just... What’s Good: Beautiful display; Context-sensitive menus; Extensive feature set; VZ Navigation works very well
What’s Not Good: Half a touchscreen sometimes feels gimmicky and frustrating; Touch controls sometimes unresponsive; Poor voice quality with unacceptable hiss on some calls; Somewhat bulky overall
Bottom Line: Venus’ half-touch/half-not display is an interesting idea that ultimately frustrated me more than it charmed me. The... LG is not the world’s leading manufacturer of mobile phones but they may just be the leader in consistently bringing super hip, gotta have it cell phones to market. In the past six months or so they’ve unleashed an armada of eye catching handsets, including the Voyager, Prada, Viewty, Shine, Glimmer, and Vu. Not to be left out is the Venus, a Verizon Wireless slider phone with a unique split-screen display. At first glance... I tested Venus on Verizon’s CDMA network in the San Francisco Bay Area with less than pleasing results. Signal strength was generally good but voice quality was pretty shaky. Calls often exhibited digital distortion making the person on the other end sound a bit “robotic” or garbled. In a handful of cases calls came through with enough static that I hung up and tried again. I checked around the Web and noticed that a... Venus is quite the eye-catcher, as any product with its name should be. I might be a bit jaded since I get to test and write about almost all of the latest handsets, but I wound up thinking Venus suffers a bit from style over substance syndrome. At first glance the handset’s sleek slider design and beautiful front panel displays promise a world of interactive menus and enhanced ease of use. And they do deliver on that promise -... sorry my bad the word gay was overly used by me and i did not mean any offense to any readers well yah but its a cool phone. take the chocolate 4 example. not much features, doesnt mean its gay. venus no offense but the decoy is just plain gay no faetures except it charges ur headset just go buy a mini charger from staples for 20 bucks which phone should i buy between samsung glyde lg versa lg voager lg env2 lg dare lg venus or samsung alais see with me it doesnt matter, i always have to charge my phone up ... everyday. i have had the original EnV, the Venus, and now i have the Glyde and every single time i have had to charge it up during the day .. and most definitely through the night. i dont think it really matters what type of phone you have, if you are an avid texter, like playing on your phone, and make calls.. its going to die. i text a l o t and all of my phones hv died by...
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