LG Voyager and I part ways, but amicably.
So I'm back from vacation where I tested the Voyager for twelve days. You know I love to take phones into the wild and really live with them. It was very revealing in this case.
Being on vacation I used the camera a lot. The pictures were acceptable, not great. I expected better phone quality. Isn't that quaint? But it's very important to me and the Voyager didn't have the greatest. Along those lines, I found you can't use the speakerphone unless the Voyager is in its rather ungainly open clamshell mode. Overall the Voyager is a hefty handful. And I really hated not being able to sync to my Mac; for me, that's a deal breaker. (See Tom Krazit's piece on Mac user passion!)
Now the good: I'm not a huge touch-screen fan, but this one works really well. I may be in the minority, but I like the haptic feedback feature that makes screen buttons feel a little bit like real ones. Cool and helpful.
You always have the option of opening the Voyager and essentially having a mini-desktop. Its physical keyboard is far better than the iPhone's touch version, reason enough to choose this cell if you plan on doing a lot of input. The GPS technology is fast and reliable. Music sounds great. And if you find the well-hidden antenna, it's a very usable TV under Verizon's VCast service.
Bottom line: Do I like it? Yes. Would I buy it? No, not even under the current promotional price that brings it in $100 less than an iPhone. Outstanding voice quality matters to me, and if you cross my Mac we're off to a bad start, regardless!
Ronn Owens is the host of a popular morning talk show on KGO-AM in Northern California. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. 
i'm sure there is no perfect phone but just because voyager will not sync with Mac makes it a bad phone?
What I'm waiting for is the N82. I really want a good camera and a videocamera that I can carry around without needing to have 2 or 3 devices in my pocket. Since the phone always come with me, everything needs to be attached to that.
I'm not happy about switching from Verizon, but they really need to catch up with the unlocked phones or something something more substantial in the way of a good point and shoot camera phone.
PS: the author is right, why isn't the Voyager compatible with all computers?
Do they teach you to verify your facts before you blindly post garbage on the internet at your college? Exactly where is 3G hit or miss compared to free wi fi? Oh and since when is $299 MORE then $399. And to be complete your data plan pricing is wrong as well. so lets recap. Your whole post is garbage. Hope your not a journalism major
The ability to sync the Voyager with a mac may not be as simple as syncing an iphone with a mac but that is because they are not made by the same company. There should be no problem establishing a connection between the Voyager and your mac, however you may want to try third party software like BitPim to communicate between the two devices.
The reviewer CLEARLY states that he likes the Voyager but since it can't sync with his computer (in this case a mac) its impractical. This is not a biased opinion its simple practicality. Sheesh!
In addition, it seems many people (particularly CNET reviewers) want to analyze phones on how many boxes they check off on a feature list, but for me, when I am deciding on a tech purchase, the most important thing is implementation. It doesn't matter how many features it has, if they are all too difficult or too annoying to use. They might as well not be there.
So many people were so ready to criticize the iPhone for too much hype and too few results. Let me be the first to say the same for its imitator (I'm sure its great for many people, but all this iPhone killer discussion! Please, they're Cell Phones).
I too am a college student and I would challenge your assessment that 40% of college students use Macs. That is compeletely false in my personal experience. I would estimate it might be 20% on the very highest end.
One thing I don't understand is why everyone feels they need to argue about these phones. In order to have a good idea of each phone wouldnt you need to use both of them in similiar situations to get a real idea. It seems weird for someone to keep saying how much they dislike a product when I am pretty certain you have probably never even used.
It would seem these phones are very different in their appeal. For example the Iphone is NOT as good for texting, while the iphone certainly seems better for music.
You may be correct that 40% is a bit high, but the numbers are on the rise, 40% is not impossible and 20% is, I think, low (http://www.twincities.com/business/ci_7030129?nclick_check=1). Regardless, I agree with every other thing you said. Let me say, I don't dislike the Voyager. I am simply tired of hearing about iPod killers, and iPhone killers, and even Windows killers (Windows may not be my preference, but this discussion is still ridiculous) . Please, lets just judge each product on its merits and not try to hype products to support some apparent agenda. You are right, they are different products targeting different audiences. I guess I was frustrated by the love parade that I perceived to be unwarranted, especially in light of the clear differences between the products. I was trying to bring some comparison and an opposite point of view to the biased coverage on this site.
- by dawsonmi January 1, 2008 10:11 AM PST
- the real question seems to be (for those of us in the market for one or the other): "do I leave Verizon or not?" the decision seems to be based on whether you use or need the features on whatever device, and whether those features could be met by staying with Verizon or not. PS. I like the word "implementation." You couldn't be more right.
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