Review: Verizon's Answer to the iPhone?

The scoop: Voyager V Cast Multimedia phone (LG-VX10000), by Verizon Wireless and LG, about US$300 (with two-year activation and rebates).

What it is: In a nutshell, the Voyager is Verizon's answer to the iPhone. The multimedia phone lets you watch TV, play music, take photos (2.0-megapixel digital camera) and browse the Internet, as well as make phone calls and perform messaging, including text messages, and mobile instant messaging (with AOL, Windows Live or Yahoo's messaging clients).

The external color display has a touchscreen like the iPhone, with the added feature of tactile feedback (the phone vibrates a bit when your finger touches the screen), and the menu items have the iPhone-like black background and colorful icons.

The Voyager also has a side-hinge design that lets you rotate the device and open it up to reveal an internal display with a qwerty-style keypad, which makes it easier for Web browsing and messaging. Unlike the iPhone, the Voyager includes GPS functionality, with access to Verizon's VZ Navigator application for turn-by-turn driving directions. It also can access a faster wireless network, Verizon's EV-DO network, which makes content downloads go faster than the AT&T Wireless EDGE network.

Why the Voyager Is Cool

Verizon Wireless customers who've been waiting for a device that could match the iPhone in terms of features, functionality, and yes, maybe even the 'cool factor' should be impressed by the list of multimedia and entertainment features of the Voyager device. Verizon and LG have done a respectable job at duplicating some of the features that make the iPhone so appealing, including a zoomable HTML browser, touch scrolling of different menu items, and the ability to play music (although there's no cool Cover Flow for songs) and watch videos.

Some caveats: Like the iPhone, the lack of serious e-mailing capabilities will turn off the corporate customer (or at least the IT manager). The touchscreen is decent but not great (several times my finger either accidentally activated a menu item that I didn't want, or pressing continually failed to activate an item, especially in the browser). The tactile feedback is nice, but after a while it got annoying having the device buzz every time I wanted to do something.

The Mobile TV application still confounds me -- not only because it didn't work during my testing (Massachusetts doesn't have coverage yet), but the whole concept of watching live TV on my phone is one that I still don't comprehend, or would be willing to pay for.

The overkill of features like the Mobile TV application led me to believe that as the company was designing the phone, they asked something like, "Make it look like an iPhone with the black background, the touchscreen and other stuff, but make sure that we can still have the 20 other features to support the carrier's content initiatives."

Bottom Line

If the iPhone is a home run, then the Voyager is more like a long double that the runner legs out to get to third. This is the best option available for loyal Verizon Wireless customers who want to have an iPhone-like experience with their mobile phone without having to switch carriers. But to be on an equal platform with the iPhone, the Voyager needs some fixes to its interface. And it shouldn't try to cram everything into the device just to say that you have that feature.

Grade: 3.5 stars (out of five).