Venus, Voyager, Alias...phones.

August 13, 2008 12:27 PM

Which cell phone is the BEST?

I have the option of upgrading my current cell phone (which has lasted me three faithful years) to a newer model. I have Verizon and have been perusing their selection online. Does anyone have input on the LG Venus, the LG Voyager, or the Samsung Alias? Anyone?

Thanks!

posted by gracious floor to technology (16 comments total)

I don't know if they have all of the phones that you are looking for, but Mobiledia is a great site for cell phone reviews and comparisons.
posted by inatizzy at 12:38 PM on August 13, 2008

This isn't a very well-formed question. What are you using the phone for? Making phone calls? Browsing the internet? Texting? Taking pictures?
posted by meowzilla at 12:41 PM on August 13, 2008

It would be best if you could narrow down what you'd like it to do and what your price limitations are. I have a friend with the Voyager and was able to play with it for an hour and I found the interface, responsiveness and pretty much everything about it to be awful (save for call quality which was pretty good actually). I'm very partial to the BlackBerry from RIM - the Pearl or Curve (8130 and 8330 respectively) are excellent, you would choose whether you're more comfortable with a standard candybar phone or would prefer a QWERTY keypad for texting and email. The OS is rock-solid and the battery life superb. But narrowing down what you'd like to do outside of regular calling and texting would help quite a bit.
posted by cgomez at 12:44 PM on August 13, 2008

Wife had the Alias (for less than 30 days). Felt flimsy to her. She traded it for the LG VX-9100 (enVy 2) and has been very pleased.

Chocolate 3 works with Rhapsody-to-go ($15/mo all you can download music) and has a built in FM transmitter for use in the car.
posted by Dorri732 at 1:01 PM on August 13, 2008

if all you are after is a phone, which is to say something to make telephone calls with and maybe the occasional text message, the Motofone F3 is hard to beat. it's ridiculously slender, works well and gets fantastic battery life. it is a bit tricky to find outside the developing world (the market I suspect it was designed for), but not that hard.
posted by object-a at 1:02 PM on August 13, 2008

Thanks, sorry I wasn't more to-the-point. I've had an old LG flip phone for a few years. It has perfectly suited my needs: mainly calling, texting, calendar, alarm, occasional pictures. I'd like to upgrade to a better camera, though this seems to be pretty standard. Dorri and cgomez are right on- if you or someone you know has touched one of these phones and found them to be lacking, I'd like to hear it.
posted by gracious floor at 1:03 PM on August 13, 2008

I just got an LG VX 5400. I too have had LG flip phones for a while and they've never disappointed me. It's very sturdy, keys are bigger, has basically all the functions of the old LG flip phones, it has bluetooth, and you can set shortcut keys. If you want more of the same with a slight upgrade on the basic things (service, batter + speakerphone) I say look into this one.
posted by saxamo at 1:08 PM on August 13, 2008

sony ericsson has the best cameras and UI from my experience.
posted by By The Grace of God at 1:21 PM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Disagree on the sony ericsson UI: it stunk in '05-06. Nokia early series UIs are the fastest and least crashy.
posted by lalochezia at 1:32 PM on August 13, 2008

The Venus and Voyager are media-centric phones, designed for browsing the internet, playing music, and other things that you don't do regularly. I looked at both of these while shopping for an iPhone competitor (eventually went with the real thing), and they were unimpressive. The touch screen performs poorly and the flip out/slide out keyboard makes everything bulkier. Also in the same category is the LG Dare, which does without the additional keyboard (touch screen only).

These phones also require additional costs to your phone plan for unlimited data and such.

I think you're better off with a more traditional flip phone. The MOTORAZR has huge screens and is very thin. The V750 Adventurer is a little thicker, but is supposed to be more durable. I was happy with the UI on both (which don't deviate that far from the Verizon standard).

There's always the Samsung FlipShot, which is supposed to be more camera-like in a flip phone form factor.

I was very happy with my last LG phone (VX6000), and if I were in the market for another phone I would choose its successor.

The Motofone and Sony phones won't work on Verizon's network. You can only use Verizon phones. Verizon does have a single Nokia phone on it, but the UI has been replaced with the Verizon "standard" UI, making it unimpressive.
posted by meowzilla at 1:48 PM on August 13, 2008

Thanks, meowzilla...that was exactly the input I was looking for!
posted by gracious floor at 1:55 PM on August 13, 2008

For a general purpose phone, Nokia all the way. They are simply the gold standard in cellphones. I love the iPhone but it is pretty specialist; if you're just looking for a phone, Nokia.
posted by Lleyam at 2:13 PM on August 13, 2008

I use the LG Voyager, and I like it. But if you're not interested in the internet or TV, then it will be overkill for you.
posted by kidbritish at 2:20 PM on August 13, 2008

I upgraded from a Razr to a LG Chocolate 3 when my Verizon contract came up for renewal and I could use the New Every Two discount. I'm happy with it, although to my ears the reception isn't as good as the Razr's reception was and the door covering the USB port makes it tough to plug the phone in for charging overnight unless I turn on lights and pay attention to what I'm doing. The interface is pretty nice, though.

No Mac support as far as I can tell, but I'm not interested in putting music on my phone.

I toyed with the idea of getting one of the touchscreen phones, but I decided those phones were better suited for people who didn't like the iPhone for some reason. I want an iPhone but can't have one on Verizon yet, so I wasn't going to settle for a knockoff.
posted by emelenjr at 3:02 PM on August 13, 2008

I have a Motorola W385 flip phone from Verizon. It does all the general things I need it to do - calling, texting, photoing, alarming - and none of the things I don't need it to do - music, tv, etc. It's thing and sleek, with clear, loud call volume, nice outside display and good reception. I'm very satisfied with it.
posted by geeky at 6:09 PM on August 13, 2008

My verizon salesman loves his razor but it seems to have the most problems on howards forum. my wife loves her EnV 2 and I'm liking it too so far. If she has no big probs I'll get one too. soon....
posted by Redhush at 7:36 PM on August 13, 2008