LG - Dare VX9700 Cell Phone Review

I have had the LG DARE/VX9700 touch screen phone for over a month now and it is a great phone and certainly the best touch screen Verizon has to offer and a great alternative to an iphone over on that other network AT&T. Remember you will need phone plan, internet plan, picture/text plan and they have many to choose from. Myself I went alacart and chose specific things I wanted and know I would use and it cost me less than several of the packages offered. NOTE: This is not a SMARTPHONE, it doesn't promote itself that way but some may expect that and it is not.

Side note for comparisons:
I have an Apple iPod Touch mp3 player which is basically a first generation iPhone without the phone. The Touch is a superb product and the screen is unsurpassed in it's size and clarity, identical to the iPhone and I even get free wi-fi on the iPod Touch, something you pay for with a data plan with the iPhone. If the iphone had more features and fair plan/price options it would be more desirable, maybe it's next iteration?! For example for the $59.99 plan I have with Verizon, the same plan/options with the iphone on AT&T would cost me $99.99. Again I have no affiliation to either and would prefer NOT to be a customer of either one but sadly we have little choice but to select a company and their pricey offerings.

Back to the LG Dare, it is a superb product the screen is exceptional and if it were as big as the iPhone/iPod Touch screen it would be even be more exceptional. However, LG went with a little smaller footprint but packed it with many goodies that you can't yet get in any other touch screen phone including the Apple iPhone 3G.

I am not a fan of any contract to any service provider, I just happen to have been on Verizon a long time, they do have in my experience the best call quality and coverage coast to coast but I still hate signing anything for 2yrs. Remember you have 30 days to test out the phone and if it's NOT what you expected or want, return it and get another or go out and try another provider.

I didn't return mine as I really like it allot and yes the biggest gripe would be to have a larger screen thus less need to scroll during internet use as the net takes up allot of real estate when dealing with a small screen. I am not on there to do long term surfing or intensive seraches. I get onto the net to check my hotmail email and to look at weather, movie times, news headlines for brief periods. Sometimes it can be slower then you'd like but that depends allot on the signal strength of the area you are in.

You can view horizontal or vertical as the screen will adjust to however you hold the phone. This also happens with typing text for text messages or using the internet. Hold the phone horizontal and you will get the onscreen qwerty keybord, hold it vertical and you get the phone like keyboard to enter text. There is a button on each of the screens to select either one you like best for your typing.

The call quality is exceptionally clear and loud, the screen adjusts to indoor and outdoor lighting which is great and better than many other phone screens and even digital camera screens. Of course you have bluetooth as well for connecting to headphones, your computer if it bluetooth equiped etc.

You have the ability to drag and drop icons/buttons on the main screen, arrange them to your liking. You have an abundance of menus that are quite easy to click/scroll through and easy to follow or test and see what your options are with many of the features.

It does have hand writing recognition, it is not easy for me with big fingers to draw things, or a map and with a stylus pen certainly better. You can craft something and email or text it someone, it's a nifty little feature and something unique for now and you will see more of it in the future and of course it will be improved with each iteration.

You have many sound settings and vibration settings for the phone, tactile feedback when typing/scrolling and a load of ringtones to choose from or go buy/download others.

Speaker phone is loud and you can even have it verbally read your text messages to you which can be amusing with the computerized voice.

This phone has the best camera of any cell phone sold in the U.S. It comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera, with face detection, zoom and editing in the phone to name a couple things off the photo menu. The photos I have taken are exceptional for a cell phone and close to what I had in my first digital camera several years ago. They are more than exceptional for emailing and online posting. Remember when emailing them to users on a smaller phone that the photo text messages will be very pixelated because they are trying to view it on a much lower resolution screen and a 1-2 inch screen at best.

I recommend getting a micro SD card and you can get them pretty cheap on amazon, search and do a little research and you'll find a good cheap 4gb card and thus you will have ample room for photos and videos and not suddenly run out, but in saying that make sure to download stuff so as to keep the phone pretty empty allowing you to photo and video when out and about or when you forget your digital camera.

As for it being an mp3 player that is another great option and of course Verizon wants you to use their store but you can plug the phone in and download/rip music from your computer but not from itunes of course, all about file conversions and all that proprietary BS. In any case it works just like an iPhone for music minus the very good itunes store that can be accessed direct from an iPhone. For me I don't use this phone for music being I have the iPod Touch and it also saves me concern on draining the phone battery. I have gone several days without charging when using the phone, texting, taking photos and sending them as well as accessing the net. The charger has a plug for the electrical outlet and a usb plug to connect to your computer to charge as well.

It is a little smaller over all from the iPhone a tiny bit thicker but almost not noticable. Slowly I see more and more accessories for the Dare and many are here on Amazon and much cheaper than Verizon or other retailers. I recommend a cover, silicone, rubber ones are great and I have dropped my phone several times without any damage or marks as it almost bounces with the silicone cover I have. I also purchased a few of the screen protectors.

By having the screen protector I often use a stylus pen on the screen as I have very large fingers and one thing that happens with any touch screen when you have big fingers it is easy to select the wrong thing or more then one thing. The LG Dare will allow you to actually set the sensitivity in the options menu. It comes preset but you can actually run a test and change the sensitivity to make it more pressure sensitive to how you tap the screen.

I have touched on many things and many more things I have easily missed but go to Cnet, ZDnet, Amazon and check out Reviews, or just google LG Dare reviews. The best way would be to go take it for a test drive at a local Best Buy, at the Verizon stores and check on the 30 day trial as well via Verizon.

As with any electronics product, they could always be better and this is the first version of the LG Dare and hopefully they can improve the next version just like Apple did with it's iphone, however, Apple didn't go nearly far enough so maybe the 3rd generation iphone will be great and the 2nd generation of the Dare even further unique than it currently is on the market today.