Screen

Probably the first thing that caught your eye was the impressive seven-line 262k TFT color display. Many phones on the market are just releasing 65k color screens, when 4096 colors is still considered mainstream. But 262k colors is in a league of its own. Pictures does not do it justice.

Another plus is the TFT screen. TFT, as opposed to STN, has the circuit transistors placed on the glass at the pixel location instead of the need to scan the pixel location. This results in greatly increasing the response time and allows for very fast refresh rates. It comes in handy when playing action packed games, where fast refresh rates are needed.

The VX6000 also comes with a 96 x 38 pixel external organic electroluminescent (OEL) display. OEL displays were developed to consume less power than traditional displays. On the screen, you'll find the time, battery strength information, network signal indicators, along with caller ID and message icons when you have a call or message. Also, along the top of the screen a cool three color dot scrolls across the screen.

Controls

Overall LG designed a traditional keypad. Key spacing and ease of use when typing is excellent. On the side of the phone is a dedicated camera button, and two soft keys for additional controls.

One problem that was encountered with the keypad was the illumination. The VX6000 has a 7 second keypad light. When typing in the dark this isn't long enough for those situations when you fumble with the phone, and there is no way to change the delay settings.

Lastly, the VX600 includes a 4 way keypad for navigation. It's similar to all the other phones' keypads. Nothing LG could have really done to make it any different.

Battery and Charger

A lithium-polymer 950mAh battery is used with the VX6000. LG claims the battery will work for 2.5 hours of talk time and 110 hours of standby, however those numbers are maximum times. Realistically the times are much lower.

Minimum Rated Standby Time: 100 hours
Minimum Rated Talk Time: 135 minutes

When reading our reviews, you should view the test results of mobile-phone battery talk time and standby time as relative information only. Many variables, including carrier signal strength at your location, signal consistency (including incoming and outgoing calls), display and ringer settings, and battery charging methods and history, will affect performance.

When handset manufacturers and mobile phone carriers list talk-time and standby-time ratings, they usually include disclaimers about variable performance and often refer to the times they publish as maximum times. Some quote expected battery life ranges, and in this case you're probably safe to assume you'll experience at least the minimum rated range.

Note that manufacturers of dual-mode digital and analog handsets publish battery-life rates for both digital and analog modes, as analog mode consumes much more power than digital mode.

Storage

The VX6000 comes with an 1.6 MB of internal memory for storing pictures, ring tones, text messages, and games.

This is an average amount of storage. Nothing like the 5 MB in some Nokias, but not 500 KB like some other phones. There's enough room to store a few of games, backgrounds, and ring tones comfortably. But if you tire of the same thing, expect to clean out your phone from time to time.

Since the memory is dynamic, you can share memory between your ring tones, pictures, and games.

< Prev Next >

This article is Copyright 2002-2008 Mobiledia Corp. and the review in part or in whole may NOT be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from Mobiledia. For information on reproducing any part of this review (or any images) please contact us.