LG Chocolate Touch

Call Quality

Calls and speakerphone: We found calls loud and clear on the LG Chocolate Touch. In fact, we rarely used the side volume keys to adjust the sound up or down. Using the speakerphone didn’t degrade call quality on our end and we appreciate how easy it is to activate the speakerphone and that it will also automatically turn itself off after a minute of inactivity. Additionally, you don’t have to be too close to the cell phone when using the speakerphone to be heard by callers – a definite plus.

Audio quality: Playback of songs is pretty good through the cell phone’s speakers with little distortion; a definite plus over other music phones. This can probably be attributed to the inclusion of Dolby Mobile. The LG Chocolate Touch sports a 3.5mm headset jack so you can use your own headphones to listen to music. In our tests, using our own headphones we really couldn’t tell the difference between listening to music stored on a cell phone vs. listening to music stored on an MP3 player. A nice touch is that the cell phone will inform you if your headset lacks a microphone for taking calls. Since the LG Chocolate Touch supports Bluetooth stereo, you can also purchase an optional Bluetooth stereo headset if you want to listen to music without wires.

Ease of Use

Menu/phone book: Like many Verizon Wireless cell phones, the LG Chocolate Touch has the carrier’s standard menu system with a few extra enhancements that offer more customization. For example, there’s an arrow in the right-hand corner of the display, tap on that and you’ll see two tabs. One with pre-defined shortcuts and the other for My Media where you can add your own shortcuts. In the first shortcuts menu there’s one application that is of particular note: an icon for social network message. Press that key and you’ll see Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace keys. If you’re cell phone number is associated with any of those accounts you can press it and send a text message that will automatically appear on the associated feed. Just below the arrow on the right hand side of the screen is another tap with a music note on that. This obviously launches the music menu. There are five one-touch access icons (Messaging, Phone, Menu, Contacts, and Favorites) at the base of the main screen.

We did find that menu fairly straightforward, however, we didn’t like that some of the features have so many windows that backing out of them one screen at a time can take way too long. Instead we often found ourselves hitting the End key for a fast ext. That said, we particularly like how easy it is to use the phone book, which can store 1,000 contacts, each with five phone numbers, two e-mail addresses, two IM addresses, street address, dedicated ringtone, and a picture.

Camera/video: The LG Chocolate Touch sports a 3.2-megapixel camera that can take photos and record short videos. A large portion of the back of the cell phone does double duty as a mirror that can be used to help take self portraits. Unfortunately, the Chocolate Touch lacks a flash, which is sorely missed. We found if there was not sufficient lighting available when snapping pictures our images turned out much too dark. That said, when there was ample light, we found colors were bright and details could be sharper. You can snap a picture by either pressing the dedicated camera button or tapping “Take Picture” on the screen. About taking pictures, we’re happy to report the shutter is pretty fast so we rarely missed action shots. The entire screen turns into a viewfinder (similar to digital cameras), so it seems like you have more room to frame your photo. Additionally, there are a ton of settings including white balance, color effects (normal, negative, aqua, black and white, and sepia), panorama mode, facial makeover (a feature that automatically removes blemishes that may appear in the face), and timer.

Music: The real heart of the LG Chocolate Touch is its MP3 player. Since the cell phone comes with 1GB of internal storage space, you’ll easily be able to store about 24 albums of music. If that’s not enough space, you can add more memory via an optional MicroSD media card, as this cell phone will support up to a 16GB MicroSD card. You can play MP3s, Apple’s AAC, and Windows WMA audio files on the MP3 player. As noted, the audio quality is impressive through the cell phone speaker and even better when listening through headphones.

Since this is a music centric cell phone, it does have some music centric features such as an Equalizer (Manual, Flat, Bass Boost, Treble Boost, Vocal Boost, and Classical), Shuffle, Repeat, and Skip songs. From the drop down menu you can choose song info, add a song to a playlist, move the song to a MicroSD card or from the card to the cell phone, and erase a song. Plus, music will play in the background while you’re using other features, such as composing text messages. When necessary it will pause the music like when a call comes in or when taking a picture, but then it will resume where it left off once you are finished using that application. We should note that we really liked the interface for playing and controlling music. It’s not the typical Verizon music system where it looks like you’re accessing the web. Instead, it’s a refreshing blue interface that also displays album art. There’s also a mini player that appears on the main screen as well for easy access to your music.

In addition to an MP3 player there’s also an FM radio on board. In order to use the radio feature you will need to attach a wired headset since the wire acts like an antenna. Unfortunately, the LG Chocolate Touch doesn’t come with headphones, but any headset with a 3.5mm headset jack will work. We were happy to see that MusicID was included with the FM radio.

Connectivity/Bluetooth: We were able to pair the LG cell phone with a Plantronics 925 Bluetooth headset. We found call quality to be acceptable with the headset. And callers had no idea we were using a headset let alone a cell phone.

Design

Look and feel: The LG Chocolate Touch is by far the most attractive “Chocolate” music phone we’ve seen to date – looking more like a high-end MP3 player than a cell phone. It’s thin, sleek and not much longer than a credit card. The cell phone’s shiny silver casing and minimalistic approach to side buttons gives the LG Chocolate Touch a streamlined look. Turn it over and things change a bit. In the box are two back faceplates from which to choose. They both sport a design that looks like something from the 80s only difference is that one is black and the other purple. While we aren’t particularly excited about the design we do appreciate the ability to choose a back. Another plus is that the cell phone’s spine isn’t too littered with extra keys and the keys that are there are sufficiently spaced apart. One side of the Choclate Touch has dedicated keys for the speaker, volume keys, and microUSB connector. The other side has lock, music, and camera keys. On the top is a 3.5mm headset jack.

We’re happy to report that the LG Chocolate Touch feels comfortable in the hand, fitting just right so that you can still easily maneuver through the cell phone’s features one handed. It fits well in a front pant pocket and the shiny exterior makes it easy to find a purse. It also isn’t too uncomfortable when you hold it up to your ear or cradle it between ear and shoulder for longer calls. However, since the screen comes so close to your face, it can attract a lot of face grease. About that screen, it’s pretty bright. We are also happy to report that we found the screen easy to view in direct sunlight when looking directly at it.

Keypad: We’re just going to come right out and say it – we really like the cell phone’s touch screen. We didn’t even have to adjust the settings to be more or less sensitive to the touch. We like the huge numeric keypad that appears when you press the phone icon at the base of the main screen and the QWERTY keypad that appears on a reoriented horizontal screen when you touch the keyboard icon on the side of the number keypad. For the most part, the letters we tapped were what appeared in a message, which is a definite plus. In particular, we like that the letters on the numeric keys mirrors a standard keypad – meaning we never had trouble trying to figure out if we were selecting the right keys when we dialed a number or short code that included letters. If you want to respond freestyle, there’s also a PEN feature where you can draw letters or pictures to include in messages. In our tests we were much better at drawing a happy face than accurately writing a message.

Battery Life

In the battery life department, the LG Chocolate Touch did not disappoint. Before we get to that, let’s talk about the charger. It’s essentially a USB-to-micro-USB cable that can either plug into the computer or into the wall charger. The idea behind this is so that you can use the cable to sync the LG Chocolate Touch with a computer. The good news is that cell phone will also recharge when its attached to the computer. Now for the overall battery life: We found that the cell phone could last about four to five days before recharging when using the LG Chocolate to make some calls, occasionally surf the wireless Web, and send/receive text messages. Heavier cell phone users, who surf the web a lot will likely need to charge the LG Chocolate Touch every few days.