Monday, March 25, 2013

Verizon Wireless LG Chocolate VX8550 Phone

The LG VX8550 Chocolate Phone is slimmer and lighter than ever. Of course, you'll still be addicted on the silky-smooth design and high-end media capabilities. However you can also enjoy indulging in a few new treats just like the touch keypad with vibration feedback and an improved navigation wheel with trace motion light. The LG Chocolate is now sweeter than ever.

Verizon Wireless LG Chocolate VX8550 Red Phone
Verizon Wireless LG Chocolate VX8550 Red Phone | Cellular Country
LG updates its Chocolate slider phone to the Verizon Wireless LG Chocolate VX8550 Phone with improvements which includes a new metal navigation wheel (which traces your finger's movement with a small light), vibrating touch keypad, and the ability to run the music player in the background while using the other features of the phone. However many of the much vaunted features of the original Chocolate remain: silky-smooth slider design support for V Cast Music, integrated music/video player, a 1.3 MP camera/camcorder, stereo Bluetooth capabilities, and a microSD memory slot for up to 4 GB of storage. In addition to Verizon's V Cast Music feature, this Verizon phone is also enabled with the Get It Now service that permits you to simply download ringtones, games, and applications. It runs on Verizon's CDMA 850/CDMA 1900 frequencies and EV-DO high-speed data network.

On the front of the phone, the Touch-Sensitive Navigational Pad has been replaced by a metal Scroll Wheel, which functions in 2 different ways. You can move your finger in circular motion and move the wheel (which has red LED lights around it) to pick out different menu options, otherwise you can simply press and click on the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right areas of the wheel to make your menu selections. Between those two methods of use, we found that the press and click technique to be the best and most reliable, since moving the wheel with your finger doesn't work all that well. In the center of the wheel a tiny metal Selection/OK button that you just press to access the main menu. The only Touch-Sensitive buttons are for the Left & Right Soft Keys, Speakerphone, and Clear.

Sliding open the phone reveals the main keypad. The Send, End, and Camera keys have been moved to the top of the keypad and are a lot easier to access, than having the end and Camera keys on the side of the phone and the Send key being touch-sensitive, as they were on the LG VX8500. The buttons on the keypad are a bit larger than on the VX8500 and aren't slippery to the touch. This makes dialing and Text messaging easier with less accidental key-presses. Despite these changes, the keypad remains fully flat, that makes dialing by touch alone nearly not possible.

The left aspect of the LG Chocolate VX8550 Phone features a 2.5mm headset jack, so you don’t have to use an adapter. Directly below it are the Volume Up/Down and Voice Command buttons, and also the Charger/Data port. The right side has the Music button, Lock slider button (to lock and unlock the keypad), and MicroSD card slot (which supports up to 4GB MicroSD card). The display remains the same QVGA 320x240 Pixel 262K Color TFT, however it's easier to view since the protective plastic over it no longer has the “speckle” look to it.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Verizon Wireless HTC Imagio Phone Design

With the HTC Imagio you'll be able to connect your way, watch your way and acquire things done your way. Watch a variety of entertainment from your pocket on a large, vivacious screen. The high speed connectivity and ability to use multiple media formats create a powerful integration of work and play. Make the Verizon Wireless HTC Imagio Phone yours by customizing the home screen and adding applications to fit your style. You'll be able at a glance view streaming sports, news, movies, stocks, music and much more. The HTC Imagio Phone permits you to get life done, your way.
Verizon Wireless HTC Imagio Phone

Though the HTC Imagio touts itself as a multimedia smartphone, it is not as flashy as other multimedia-focused handhelds. This can be not to say it isn't attractive; indeed, we love the big touch-screen display as well as the smooth edges and tapered corners. But the dimpled bezel surrounding the display that doubles as the speaker, and also the thick plastic casing gives it more of a hefty industrial feel. The phone measures 4.6 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by zero.5 inch thick and weighing 5.25 ounces, the HTC Imagio has quite a sturdy construction and is not the least flimsy or cheap. The back of the phone is partially covered in a matte-black soft-touch finish, which supplies it a comfortable feel in the hand.

By far the most stunning thing about the Imagio's appearance is its large 3.6-inch WVGA touch screen. It has 65K color output, 480 x 800 pixel resolution, and a smooth glass surface, that lead to elegant crisp pictures and sharp text. The extra screen real estate lends itself well to web page scrolling and video viewing as well. Also handy is the built-in accelerometer that switches the screen from portrait to landscape mode when you rotate the phone. This is only applicable in certain circumstances, though, like with the web browser, e-mail, photos, and videos.

Even though the Verizon Wireless HTC Imagio Phone does not have the Touch branding, it uses HTC's TouchFlo 3D. Like that on the HTC touch Pro2, you get additional tabs for the Calendar and Stock quotes, and the ability to add and remove tabs on the Home screen. We also like that the Start menu is presented in a grid view that you'll be able to customize with completely different apps and settings.

The HTC Imagio Phone has a resistive touch screen rather than a capacitive one. The touch screen felt responsive and easy to use, even when we were just using our fingers rather than the included stylus. The onscreen QWERTY keyboard is good, especially since it supports XT9 auto word complete and tapping the keys provides haptic feedback. We do prefer using the keyboard in landscape mode rather than in portrait mode, however, as the keys are somewhat bigger, thus leading to fewer mistakes.

The zoom in/out bar underneath the display helped a lot when reading and choosing hyperlinks in the Web Browser as well, since you could just zoom in easily by sliding your finger on the bar. It will take a couple of seconds for the page to render when zooming in, though. Under the zoom controls are the Talk and End/Power keys, a media key, the Start menu key, and a back key. The media key may be mapped to any media application, like V Cast TV, V cast Video, or the music player. The keys are flat, but there is enough delineation between every key that they weren't hard to press.

The volume rocker is on the right spine and also the mini-USB port and 3.5mm headset jack are on the bottom. On the back is the camera lens and an antenna that doubles as a kickstand; merely press the release button and it will pop out. This way you'll be able to set this Verizon Phone on a flat surface and watch videos as if it were a portable TV. Also on the back toward the lower right is the stylus compartment. The microSD card slot is inconveniently placed behind the battery cover on the right side.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Verizon Wireless Samsung Juke SCH-U470 Phone

The Verizon Wireless Samsung SCH-U470 Phone is a fashionable music player with a difference - there's a Samsung mobile phone inside. And getting to that Samsung phone is half the fun. Somewhat flick of the thumb and the display spins up to reveal all the keys you need to dial, text, take photos or almost the rest you want to try and do. It is a great spin on the music phone.

Verizon Wireless Samsung Juke SCH-U470 Phone
Verizon Wireless Samsung Juke SCH-U470 Phone
When I first saw the Verizon Wireless Samsung Juke SCH-U740 Phone, we were not sure if it was a mobile phone or an MP3 player. Its shape is reminiscent of the lipstick design of the Nokia 7380, but unlike the 7380, the Samsung Juke contains a swivel hinge that swings the phone open to reveal a keypad. This distinctive design definitely offers the Samsung Juke some serious appeal, but that is about where it stops. Feature-wise, the Verizon Wireless Samsung Juke SCH-U470 Phone could be a bit of a dud. There's no video-recording capability, and most unsatisfying of all is that the lack of V cast access. For a music-focused phone like this, it would be very liked to have V cast Music access so we could download music on the fly. But the frustration doesn't stop there; the lack of an expandable memory slot and a few design annoyances create the Juke a lot less sexy than we thought it was initially.

The Verizon Wireless Samsung Juke Phone does indeed look like a distant relative of the Nokia 7380, one of Nokia's lipstick-shaped phones. It almost has the same dimensions at 3.82 x 1.18 x 0.83 inch, which makes it resemble a large pack of chewing gum. Since it is so small, it is also quite light-weight, at 2.82 ounces. On closer look, the Samsung Juke SCH-U740 Phone’s appearance is quite completely different. It has a spun-metal scroll wheel just like the LG Chocolate VX8550, and above the scroll wheel is a skinny, 1.45-inch display. The display supports 262,000 colors, which is great, but since the screen is so small, it didn't create a huge impact. Pictures still looked great though. You can adjust the screen's backlight time and brightness, and the design and size of the dial fonts. When holding the Juke closed with the scroll wheel on all-time low, the hold switch, the charger, and the headset jack are on the left spine, whereas the volume rocker is on the right.

The opening mechanism is where the Samsung Juke sets itself apart from other phones. You’ve got to turn the phone upside down (so that the "Samsung" brand name is upside down, too) then nudge the bottom-right corner of the display inward. The phone will then swivel open like a switchblade in a swift, satisfying motion to reveal the keypad. I found it somewhat annoying that we had to keep turning the phone around to read the screen, depending on whether the phone is open or closed. If the music player is activated when the phone is closed, the music track information is displayed horizontally, so that you have to read the screen with the scroll wheel to the right of the display. The scroll wheel is then used to scroll through the playlist as well as to fast-forward or rewind the music.

The keypad is predictably skinny, and all the keys have a slightly reflective surface that resembles mirrored tile. The navigation array consists of the same scroll wheel, the typical 2 soft keys, the Send and End/Power keys, a clear key, and an avid camera key. I found the keypad to be pretty crowded, and the slick and flat feeling of the keys didn't facilitate a lot of. There have been slight delineations between every key though, which made dialing by feel possible if somewhat tricky. On the back of the Verizon Wireless Samsung Juke phone is a camera lens and a speaker, and when the phone is open, you can see a self-portrait mirror. The Samsung Juke SCH-U740 phone is a very stylish phone that will turn heads when you're out on the town, but its lack of features ultimately disappoints. You can check out its price at CellularCountry.com and also the details about this Verizon Wireless Phone.