Introduction

The LG Dare is a touch screen smartphone out to join the emerging brawl for dominance in the next big wave of cellular phone technology. Led by Apple's revolutionary iPhone, the fanciest of high-end phones must now engage touch screen technology head on.

LG Dare (VX9700)

Your Price: $49.99 with service

But Is the Dare up to the challenge? On the surface, all of the key ingredients are there - multimedia capabilities, a 3.2-megapixel camera, and a compact, keyboard-less design, complete a full-panel touch screen dominating the front of the phone.

Users navigate the menu with flick of a finger, flipping through the contact list for speedy texting, emailing and phoning. Favorites can be reached with a drag and drop photo interface. Featuring 3G VCAST capabilities, the Dare supports VCAST Music to download from over 2 million songs and VCAST Video to stream entertainment clips, sports highlights, breaking news and weather.

Design

The Dare is a PDA-style phone: a compact rectangle of a phone small enough to fit into the palm of a hand or the back pocket of jeans. It doesn't open or slide or flip, but simply is. Its dimensions are slight (104 x 56 x 13 mm) and its mass negligible (107 g). Simply put, the Dare is a professional-looking phone in a conveniently-sized package.

The front of the phone features a full-panel touch screen, allowing for beautifully customized wallpaper to dominate the look of the active phone. Of course, a full-panel touch screen leaves plenty of room for fingerprints and scratches, so buyer beware - treat the phone with love or buy a protective covering.

A Light Sensor on the upper left detects the amount of light and adjusts the brightness of the LCD to conserve battery power and extend screen life.

When close to the Proximity Sensor (within 2-3 cm) in the upper left corner, the LCD turns off, letting users only adjust the volume or end a call so that they don't inadvertently activate the feature. When blocked with the phone case, the LCD backlight also turns off. The sensor is inactive when the speakerphone or Bluetooth is on.

A simple 90 degree rotation, and the Dare transforms from phone to camera. The entire back panel of the phone is solid black, with the exception of a rectangular camera lens and flash pooling in an upper corner. The camera shutter button on the edge of the phone makes the transformation complete.

The edges of the phone feature the usual buttons and ports: Side Volume Keys, Unlock / Lock Key, Speaker Key, Camera Key, USB Accessory Charger Port, microSD Slot and Headset Jack. The camera face slides off to reveal the Battery Slot. With a sleek PDA-style design, the LG Dare presents a unified front of professionalism and convenience.

Out of the box, the LG Dare comes with a standard 1100 mAh Li-Ion Battery, Travel Charger, and User Manual.

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