Sound Quality

The LG VX7000's sound quality is exceptional. There is minimal distortion with both incoming and outgoing calls. Voices are loud and clear, and tonal qualities are well balanced.

Unfortunately, the VX7000 doesn't come with a loudspeaker function, so tests were not able to be performed. However, the microphone does a good job picking up the voice with adequate volume and minimal background noise.

RF Performance

One of the main appeals of the popular LG VX6000 was its ability to connect to small signals and hold on, resulting in outstanding reception. Partly due to the external antenna, the VX7000 is able to pick up weak signals with relative ease. However, once located, the VX7000 may have difficulties holding on. Users may experience dropped calls or spotty coverage in weak or almost nonexistent coverage areas. However, with any decent coverage, the VX7000 performs exceptionally.

The benefits of external antennas are that they are free from obstruction. Often times, internal antennas suffer poor reception because the user inadvertently places their hand on the top of the phone, diminishing the incoming and outgoing signal strength. However, external antennas can transmit unobstructed. Typically the radio strength of today's phones with internal antennas is 15% to 20% less powerful than phones with external antennas. Therefore, the VX7000 receives a reception rating of:

Phone performance can very significantly depending on how well covered your service provider is, landscape, multiplexing technology, and other conditions. The phone with the worst reception can still work well if you live under a tower. These results are just a measure of the raw RF capabilities. Factoring everything else would rend it almost impossible to compare phones.

Pros

· Excellent internal and external screens. The internal 262K color TFT display is crystal clear even in direct sunlight, and handles fast changing refresh rates with minimul ghosting. The external STN 4096 color STN screen is vivid and colorful as well.

· Assign MP3 ringtones. Don't worry about the realistic sounds on the VX7000. Set the ringtone to the actual music itself with MP3 capabilities. Creative users can set any sound as the ringer whether it be music, voice, or sounds. Anything that can be recorded can be a ringtone.

· Rotating camera lens. With the lens mounted on the top hinge, users can take pictures from any angle.

· Built-in flash. A new feature that wasn't found on the VX6000. The added flash allows users to take pictures in darkness.

· Record up to 15 second video clips with audio. Instead of just taking pictures, users can take short clips as well. The VX7000 uses 3GPP2 format Quicktime videos in 3g2 format.

Cons

· No speakerphone feature. Very common on most phones these days, and also very useful. It's a shame it wasn't included in the VX7000.

· BREW and Get It Now. Since the VX7000 is solely available on the Verizon Network, it has taken the opportunity to integrate their distribution system for multimedia. With the lack of infrared, the only other options are by purchasing the data cable accessory or buying pictures, ringtones, and games through Verizon. For those who aren't technology savvy, this is a plus, but most others it will be an unexpected cost.

Conclusion

The LG VX6000 was a popular phone. And it was ahead of the market with its wonderful multimedia and features. As the successor, the VX7000 takes the solid foundation of the VX6000 and improves on them.

The VX6000 was one of the first phones to features a 262K TFT screen capable of displaying up to 7 lines of text. LG upgraded it by increasing the VX7000's screen size to a large 176 x 220 px display capable of showing up to 11 lines of text. Even though 4 lines doesn't sound much, it makes an incredible difference whether it be text messaging, reading emails, or playing games.

LG also took a page from Samsung phones by including a rotating camera lens. With fixed lenses such as the VX6000's self-portraits were often difficult - required multiple tries to get the shot framed correctly. Some models solved this by adding a mirror. However the rotating lens allows users the versatility to capture shots previously not possible. Now users can take pictures over a crowd while seeing exactly what the lens is aimed at.

Unfortunately LG hasn't increased the photo resolution and supports only up to 640 x 480 px images. While decent for picture IDs, it is hardly large enough for sharp and clear print outs.

The audio capabilities of the VX7000 is much improved as well. Aside from the CMX MIDI ringtones, the VX7000 allows users to record their own or download sounds from the web. Instead of having the same ones everyone else has, people can now record and create their own unique ring.

It is obvious that LG designed the VX7000 to attract the VX6000 faithful. Many of the features are similar, with improvements where the VX6000 was lacking. And as part of the Verizon Netowrk, the VX7000 is sure to be one of the most impressive multimedia phones in the lineup. With all the multimedia capabilities, it will surely become a top selling phone, appealing to consumers looking for well-rounded audio and video capabilities. Therefore, the LG VX7000 gets a phone rating of:

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