LG Venus Review - Introduction
IntroductionLG 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 Venus looks like a full-touchscreen device, but really it features two separate displays on its front panel: A 2” QVGA screen placed above a smaller touch-sensitive display used for navigational controls.
Venus was launched around the same time as Voyager, as part of VZW’s “Next” campaign. While Voyager is a kind of next-gen enV, Venus is like a next-gen Chocolate. Smaller, lighter, and less expensive and complicated than Voyager, Venus is nonetheless a hi-tech device with a plethora of features. You won’t get the larger device’s QWERTY keyboard or VCast TV access here, but you will get 3G data including Web, Email, IM, and access to Verizon’s music store and streaming video service. You’ll also get Stereo Bluetooth support, something lacking in Chocolate, and a luxurious look and feel somewhat reminiscent of a smaller iPhone, what with its black and chrome styling.
Unfortunately, Venus has some issues when it comes to voice quality during calls. And that split screen half-touch design proved more frustrating than innovative, at least for me. After a few days with Venus I found myself wanting to poke the entire display with my finger instead of being relegated to using what essentially is a touch-control D-Pad on the lower half. Still, Venus has a lot going for it, and it does look pretty snazzy.
 Next: Design & Features »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... Venus 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... 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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