Reviewed by: Allen Tsai - Oct 11, 2003
Introduction
The new generation of color screens. LG released the VX6000 to become
the flagship model for Verizon Wireless. The clamshell design has both internal
and external displays for easy viewing. An internal 262k TFT color screen,
and an external rolling OEL screen.
Other features include CMX-MIDI polyphonic ring tones, and a built-in 640 x
480 pixel CMOS camera, voice activated dialing, and Get It Now service. The
VX6000 is released to compete in the high end cellular phone market.
Perhaps the biggest drawback with the VX6000 is beyond its control. LG
designed this phone specifically for Verizon's CDMA network, incompatible
with all other networks. But if you're a loyal Verizon subscriber, the you
will want to read this review.
If you haven't committed to a service plan yet, then you might want to
see what Verizon newest phone has to offer. So read on and see all the pros
and cons from our review. This just may be the phone you've been looking
for.
Design
The
LG VX6000 is Verizon Wireless's flagship model. Unlike GSM phones, the VX6000
was specifically design to work with Verizon's CDMA network. This phone is
incompatible with other CDMA networks.
CDMA varies with GSM and TDMA fundamentally based on how voice is transmitted
through the airwaves. The inherent technical properties of CDMA makes voice
quality more resistant to interference and noise. That results in cleaner
and clearer voices.
The VX6000 voice quality is much better than GSM phones. It has to do
more with the technology and service rather than to phone itself. But regardless,
superior nonetheless.
So if CDMA is the better technology why didn't it take off? Well, simply
put, because the rest of the world already had already settled on a standard.
GSM's appeal was its ability to store customer information on a SIM card.
So swapping phones was effortless. With Europe and Asia firmly embracing
GSM, CDMA came too late and was always the minority. So the VX6000 is not
compatible when outside the Verizon network. To many this may not be what
they are looking for. If a world phone is needed, then GSM is the way to
go.
From a hardware perspective, the VX6000 is stunning. With color internal
and external screens, the VX6000 is sure to be a hit. As for ring tones,
the phone is CMX 3.0 compliant. Midi files can to be converted to 16 bit
mono wav and used for ring tones. As opposed to midis which is like storing
a sheet music of notes to play. By using wav files, VX6000 has the ability
to not only play music, but use voices, or real music from CDs.
Additionally,
with the popularity of built-in cameras on cellular phones, the VX6000 does
not disappoint. In a market filled with camera phones, the VX6000 is the
first one to be released on the Verizon network. A built-in 640 x 480 pixel,
330k pixel resolution, CMOS camera is attached to the back. The camera as a
whole performed well, but where it really shines is the versatility of the
functions. In addition to a 4X digital zoom, the phone also comes with a
wide variety of image adjusting filters and tools. And for the playful side,
custom frames to add to your photos are available too.
So with all the great features what's not to like about the VX6000? Well...
for one, the difficulty in sending content to your phone. Verizon has made
it very difficult to transfer files from a PC to the VX6000. Coincidentally,
it is extremely easy to use the built in BREW platform to download Verizon's
online content... at a fee. Undoubtedly, people that buy this phone want
to take advantage of all the colors and multimedia features. And if you
want to customize it, it's going to take a couple bucks.
Another thing to consider is that the VX6000 does NOT have analog. It
only runs on digital CDMA 800 / 1900 bands. So if you do frequent traveling
to rural areas and use analog, then this will be a big setback.
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