LG Voyager in Titanium
(Credit: Verizon Wireless)Verizon and LG have brandished a new color for its popular Voyager, this time in Titanium. This "lustrous titanium finish" is poised to make the LG Voyager a showcase for a couple of new Verizon services, namely V Cast Music with Rhapsody and Visual Voice Mail, both of which we've heard about before.
Also, it looks as if Verizon has dropped the Visual Voice Mail subscription price to $2.99 a month per line. This is good, but we still would much rather Verizon offer the visual voice mail without a monthly fee at all. The LG Voyager in Titanium is available at the same price for $149.99 after a $50 rebate and a new two-year contract.
The LG Voyager gets visual voice mail.
(Credit: Verizon Wireless)Even though we reported Verizon would bring visual voice mail to the LG Voyager a couple of weeks ago, apparently we jumped the gun because the application went missing from Verizon's Web site shortly after we posted about it. Well today, Verizon has finally made it official that it will indeed be implementing visual voice mail for the LG Voyager, but it won't be for free. It is available for $2.99 a month per line. This is disappointing, to say the least, since the visual voice mail option for the Samsung Instinct and the Apple iPhone do not appear to have a monthly charge associated with it.
The visual voice mail system implemented by Verizon is the same as the others; it has a simple interface that lets you pick and choose which voice mail message to listen to, plus you can delete, reply to, and forward each message. You can even reply with a voice message of your own if the other person is also a Verizon Wireless customer. You can view certain information like date and time of receipt, message duration, and more, in order to prioritize your response. Verizon lets you store up to 40 messages for 40 days. Alcatel-Lucent is helping to enable this service.
Currently available only on the LG Voyager, Verizon says that customers can find the application under the Messaging menu under option 6. Or customers can take the Voyager to any Verizon Wireless store to receive a free software update. Verizon expects to offer visual voice mail on more devices, but they haven't said which ones.
The LG Voyager gets visual voice mail.
(Credit: Verizon Wireless)The Apple iPhone was the first to get it, then the Samsung Instinct, and now it's the LG Voyager's turn to get visual voice mail. Yes, as of Friday, all LG Voyager customers can get a free download to their phone that will add visual voice mail capability.
As with the other visual voice mail systems, the Voyager's version will allow customers to listen to voice mail messages in any order; plus you'll have the ability to erase and archive messages directly from the Voyager's touch-screen interface. You will also be able to access the voice mail with a single button, and get instant playback.
Verizon customers can send each other voice mail messages.
(Credit: Verizon Wireless)Each voice mail will have details, like the number or name of the caller, the day, date, and time of the message, the message length, and when the message will expire. You can then also choose to call back or text the contact. You can even choose to send a voice mail back to the person, as long as he or she is a Verizon Wireless customer.
If you want this new visual voice mail feature, you'll have to go to Messaging on your handset, select the Visual Voice Mail link, launch it, enter your voice mail password, and then follow the prompts to subscribe to visual voice mail (it's a free subscription). Existing Voyager customers can bring their device to a local Verizon store to get the upgrade, or you can download it directly by visiting this page. Here's hoping that Verizon adds this visual voice mail feature to other phones in its lineup.
Update: Apparently Verizon took down the download page, and as of 4:27 pm PDT Friday, we're not able to find the application by searching through the directory. However, I did find this cached page, which might work. We'll check back to see if the download page emerges again.
CORRECTION July 9 at 10:48 a.m. PDT: This article misstated the BlackBerry Bold's display type. It does not have a touch screen. The story has been updated to reflect this change.
Apple's iPhone 3G hits store shelves on Friday, but if you haven't been struck with iPhone fever, don't fret. There are plenty of alternatives that offer similar style and features. And they may even be easier on your wallet in the long run.
To some Apple fans, phones such as the Samsung Instinct or the HTC Diamond are simply iPhone wannabes. But to others they are cool phones in their own right with unique features and capabilities. Below I've compiled a cheat-sheet that highlights key features and points out short-comings of seven possible iPhone alternatives. I've also thrown in pricing information, not only for the phone, but also for the service plans that go with them.
But before I dive deeply into these iPhone alternatives, let's take a look at what the new iPhone 3G offers and what it's still missing.
The biggest change to the iPhone in the new version is speed. As the name implies, the iPhone 3G will operate over AT&T's HSDPA 3G network. Today, that network can theoretically deliver download speeds of about 3.6Mbps. But in the real world, speeds are closer to 400Kbps to 700Kbps. Recently, AT&T's wireless chief said the network is being upgraded and will soon offer theoretical download speeds of 20Mbps and actual download speeds of between 4Mbps and 6.6Mbps.
Apple also added GPS to the iPhone 3G, allowing the device to take advantage of location-based applications and services. The company also opened up the device to third-party developers and will soon launch an Apps Store for new iPhone applications. The new iPhone will also support Microsoft Exchange server, which means subscribers will be able to get their work e-mail on the iPhone 3G. And finally the company has greatly improved the battery life of the device stating that it should get a solid five hours of 3G talk time.
But there are also plenty of features that Apple left out of the iPhone 3G, including support for multimedia messaging or MMS. This means users can't send or receive pictures taken on cell phones via the MMS messaging platform. The device also lacks video recording and voice command. And it only supports Bluetooth for headset voice calls, which means it won't allow Bluetooth file transfers to and from the iPhone.
These missing features could help give some phone manufacturers an edge with consumers looking for the perfect multimedia smartphone. But features aren't the only thing that consumers consider when buying a new phone. They also consider price. And even though AT&T is selling the 8GB model for the subsidized price of $200, the carrier still charges more than any other mobile phone operator for its bundle of services, making the iPhone 3G one of the most expensive to own phones on the market. For 450 minutes of talk time a month, unlimited data, which includes Web surfing and email, and text messaging, AT&T charges about $90 a month. Add unlimited voice and the price shoots up to $150.
Below is a list of seven alternatives to the iPhone 3G. Most of these phones have a touch-screen. All are 3G capable. All offer MMS messaging, which the iPhone doesn't offer. And all come with a full HTML browser. Some offer Wi-Fi, which even the original iPhone offers, and some have embedded GPS just like the iPhone 3G.
LG Voyager - $199
LG Voyager
Carrier: Verizon Wireless
Carrier service plan pricing: Verizon's premium smartphone service with all you-can-eat data and messaging starts at $79.99 per month for 450 minutes a month of talk time. Add unlimited voice, and the price is $139 per month.
What makes it cool? The LG Voyager, which has been on the market for nearly a year, supports Verizon's VCast Video service, which offers a slew of TV channels, including CBS Mobile, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, and NBC 2Go. It also offers VCast Music, which allows users to purchase music directly over the cell phone network. By contrast, the iPhone plays movies and TV shows purchased from its iTunes media store and doesn't allow for over-the-air music downloads. The Voyager also flips up to expose a full QWERTY keypad.
What are its shortcomings? The phone doesn't offer Wi-Fi, which means it can't access the Internet when not in cell phone range. The lack of Wi-Fi also means that users can't Web surf at super fast speeds when in a Wi-Fi hotspot. And lastly, it's not integrated with Microsoft Outlook, which means subscribers can't access work email. They can only get Web email.
LG Dare - $250
LG Dare
Carrier: Verizon Wireless
Carrier service plan pricing: Verizon's premium smartphone service with all you-can-eat data and messaging starts at $79.99 per month for 450 minutes a month of talk time. Add unlimited voice, and the price is $139 per month.
What makes it cool? The LG Dare has a touch screen that allows icons to be dragged and dropped so that it can be customized for shortcuts on the home screen. It offers a sketch pad that allows users to draw pictures that can be sent via MMS to friends. It also has a 3.2 megapixel camera with face detection, panorama photo stitching, and SmartPic technology designed for taking photos in low light. It offers an embedded camcorder. And like the Voyager, it can be used with Verizon's VCast Music and Video services.
What are its shortcomings? The Web browser and media player is not as good as the iPhone, according to CNET Reviews editor Nicole Lee. There's no Wi-Fi. And also no integration with Microsoft Outlook to access work email.
Samsung Instinct - $129.00
Samsung Instinct
Carrier: Sprint Nextel
Carrier service plan pricing: Sprint's "Simply Everything" plan with 450 minutes of talk-time and unlimited messaging, data services that include email and Web surfing costs $69.99 per month. Add unlimited voice, and the service costs $99 a month.
What makes it cool? This is the "first cell phone we've seen that throws some direct competition Apple's way," CNET editor Kent German wrote in his review of this phone, which just hit the market last month. Physically, the Instinct looks a lot like the iPhone. It also has integrated GPS and works with Microsoft Outlook to allow people to get work email on the phone. But it also offers some unique features. Unlike the iPhone 3G, the Instinct offers Sprint's mobile TV service and has a built-in camcorder.
What are its shortcomings? The screen lacks multi-touch functionality. This means you can't pinch a page and blow it up like you can on the iPhone. It also offers much less memory than the iPhone. It doesn't support Wi-Fi or instant messaging. And German said he wasn't impressed with the email interface. And its call quality wasn't up to snuff to boot.
LG Vu -- $299
LG Vu
Carrier: AT&T
Carrier Plan pricing: Subscribers can get 450 minutes of talk time, unlimited mobile Web, texting, and live broadcast TV for $105 per month. Add unlimited voice, and the service is $165 per month.
What makes it cool? The coolest thing about the LG Vu is that it offers live broadcast TV. AT&T uses the MediaFlo network to deliver the service, which is operating in more than 55 markets in the U.S.
What are its shortcomings? The device lacks GPS and doesn't support Wi-Fi. The MediaFlo TV service isn't available everywhere yet. And the monthly charge for the live TV service along with the data and messaging service charges, makes this an expensive phone to own.
BlackBerry Bold: $300 (estimated price)
BlackBerry Bold
Carrier: AT&T (expected later this summer.)
Carrier plan pricing: This phone hasn't officially launched on AT&T's network. But judging from AT&T's current BlackBerry service plans, subscribers can expect to pay $90 a month for 450 minutes of talk time, unlimited data and unlimited texting. With unlimited voice, that price jumps to $150 a month.
What makes it cool? This device doesn't have a touch screen. Instead, it sports a full QWERTY keypad. But it does have Wi-Fi, and it features an improved Web browser that allows the option of viewing pages in a full desktop HTML style or a mobile version. The phone also comes with an embedded camcorder and GPS for location-based services. Research in Motion is also working on something called the Blackberry Media Sync, which will allow BlackBerry devices to sync with Apple iTunes, so that BlackBerry users can listen to music from their iTunes library.
What are its shortcomings? The BlackBerry Bold doesn't have a touch screen. And it's not available yet. It is expected to hit AT&T stores later this summer and will likely be added to the other carriers' line-ups later in the year.
RIM is also rumored to be readying a new phone called the BlackBerry Thunder that will be the company's first touch screen device. The phone hasn't been announced yet, so this is all rumor. But it's expected to be released on Verizon Wireless and Vodafone networks in the third quarter of 2008, according to the blog The Boy Genius Report. It will likely be launched on other networks after that.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 -pricing not yet available
Sony Ericsson Experia X1
Carrier: This phone will be released mid-September. And a U.S. carrier hasn't been announced yet.
Carrier service plan pricing: Not available.
What makes it cool? This is the first Sony Ericsson phone to use Windows Mobile from Microsoft. It also has a very cool arc slider design. The phone has a touch screen on top and a full QWERTY keypad underneath. It has Wi-Fi and comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera, assisted-GPS, a multimedia player, 400MB of internal memory, and a microSD expansion slot.
What are its shortcomings?
It won't be available until mid-September and even then it could take a while before any U.S. operators pick it up.Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 CNET Review
HTC Diamond --$700 for an unlocked phone without a subsidy
HTC Touch Diamond
U.S. Carrier:Not announced yet.
Carrier service plan pricing: Not available.
What makes it cool? The HTC Touch Diamond has a cool 3D interface and what CNET reviewer Bonnie Cha calls, "a beautiful touch screen." It uses Windows Mobile 6.1 and offers Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and a 3.2-megapixel camera. It also offers voice recognition for dialing and a pre-loaded YouTube application for viewing videos.
What are its shortcomings? The Touch Diamond won't be available in the U.S. for months. And the current version isn't optimized for the U.S. market. Cha also described it as sluggish and said the call quality is subpar." There's also no expansion slot for more memory.
I'm number one!
(Credit: Verizon Wireless)It appears the the LG Voyager had a very good November. According to a study conducted by Compete, a Boston-based Internet analytics company, the Voyager was the most-shopped cell phone during the last month. While Compete's definition of "most shopped" is a tad loose--the number of unique visitors to a handset's detail page on a carrier Web site--it's still noteworthy that a model only launched in November would beat out even the super-hyped Apple iPhone, which won fourth place. The Voyager also did better than the most shopped handset from November 2006. According to Compete's blog, it attracted 131 percent more visitors than the Samsung SGH-T609 had. (Compete didn't release raw numbers).
After the Voyager, the other Top 10 shopped phones from November were a diverse lot. The Sidekick Slide took the No. 2 spot, followed by (in order) the Samsung SGH-T629, the iPhone, the Sidekick LX, the Sidekick ID, the LG Venus, the Sony Ericsson Z310a, the Sony Ericsson W580i, and the Pantech C150. And in case you're counting carriers, that's four AT&T phones, four T-Mobile handsets, and two Verizon Wireless models. Poor Sprint.
Complete also compiled a list of the most-shopped smartphones in November. The iPhone earned the top spot here, which makes much more sense than its number four position (though I'm not sure why Complete included it on both lists). The remaining top 10 in order where AT&T's Pantech Duo, the RIM BlackBerry Pearl, Verizon's Samsung SCH-i760, AT&T's Motorola Q9h, a refurbished RIM BlackBerry Pearl, the T-Mobile Dash, AT&T's RIM Blackberry Curve 8310, T-Mobile's RIM BlackBerry Curve 8320, and the AT&T 8525.
LG Voyager VX10000
(Credit: LG)It's become a rite of passage that the autumn season brings more than pumpkins and turkey dinners; it also brings another high-end messaging cell phone from LG and Verizon Wireless. Two years ago, we said hello to the LG VX9800; last year, it was the LG enV VX99000; and now in 2007, we greet the next model in the series, the highly anticipated LG Voyager VX10000. More of a thorough revamp than a simple redesign, the Voyager features everything that we liked from the VX9800 and the enV, but it raises the bar immensely by offering redesigned controls, V Cast Mobile TV, and a huge external touch screen that's both luscious and easy to use. Read our full Voyager review or check out our slide show.
Ohh...touch screen
(Credit: LG)Though Verizon Wireless isn't announcing the LG Venus and Voyager at CTIA, the cell phones are making guest appearances. I got a few minutes to play with both handsets, the first time I've seen them in the flesh, and I all I can say is, "wow." Both the Venus and Voyager sport throughly lovely designs that will do a lot to bring more style to the formerly stodgy Verizon. Yes, they're a bit on the hefty side, but they back up their bulk with sleek and shiny profiles.
As an update the the LG enV, the Voyager features the same folding design that hides the full QWERTY keyboard. They keyboard itself is about the same as on the enV with a similar set of shortcut options. We noticed, however, that the keyboard feels a tad more spacious, and the redesigned toggle is somewhat easier to use. The internal screen doesn't show a lot of changes either, but its landscape orientation will lend itself well to displaying V Cast Mobile TV. The Voyager also has the same twin speakers on both sides of the display.
Tap away on the Voyager's full keyboard
(Credit: LG)But it's the Voyager's exterior that holds the most changes. While the enV's exterior keypad and tiny external display were less than stellar, the Voyager's has an expansive touch screen. I gave the display a test run and was impressed with its vibrance and color resolution. The touch feedback felt a tad pokey, but that could be due to the sensitivity settings. I also fancied the rounded edges--it's not nearly as boxy as the enV--and the slick black color, though I didn't like that the rear-facing camera lens has no lens cover. But on the whole, this phone promises to be a design winner.
The Venus also has a large touch display, and I loved the design of the onscreen navigation controls. What's more, colors were bright and the graphics were sharp. Sliding up the display reveals a keypad in an attractive two-toned color. The keys were spacious and user-friendly, even if they are flush with the surface of the phone.
The Venus' sexy slider design
(Credit: LG)The Venus should be out November 7, while the Voyager is scheduled to be available one month later. We'll review both phones just as soon as we can get them, so stay tuned.
On Sale Now: $135.00
View the latest prices for LG Voyager - VX10000 (Verizon Wireless)
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