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More…LG's new phone, the Chocolate, will attract your attention for its high-concept name as much as for its rich looks. While I admired the slick design and amazing sound quality, I was frustrated by the navigational controls.
LG Electronics KG800 Chocolate Cell Phone (GSM, Bluetooth, 1.3MP, 128MB)
2.5
6 User Reviews Add your own »
$130.00 - $149.99
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LG Chocolate
KG800 Chocolate Cell Phone (GSM, Bluetooth, 1.3MP, 128MB) Review, by Melissa J. Perenson September 8, 2006
With its compact form and shiny, piano-black finish, the slider-style Chocolate is certainly eye-catching. The phone lacks the usual complement of buttons on the front, instead offering touch-sensitive controls. The face of the phone features a navigational ring that consists of four programmable buttons for accessing various phone features, plus a fifth button in the center. The front of the phone also presents two additional touch-sensitive buttons; their function varies depending on the phone's use. Controls for the music player, camera, and volume, along with a send/end button, ring the sides of the handset.
When the unit is activated, the center controls and the four navigational buttons (which double as controls for the audio player) illuminate in red, causing the phone to glow. The buttons certainly look cool, but in practice they proved to be a mixed bag. Although the sensitivity of the touch controls is adjustable, I often found myself invoking operations I hadn't intended.
But the Chocolate is no slouch on features. In fact, it's so chock-full of capabilities that I'll start by calling out the one glaring omission: It does not have a speakerphone.
If you can get past that detail, you'll find tons of functions inside. The phone supports Web-based e-mail and instant messaging, and it includes support for Verizon Wireless's high-speed EvDO network. It also has a microSD Card slot; video and audio playback; a 1.3-megapixel camera/camcorder that was surprisingly capable even in tricky lighting conditions; and stereo Bluetooth.
While the handset offers some impressive audio (and video) playback features, you will need to purchase extra accessories and services to take full advantage of its capabilities. I tested a basic handset priced at $200 (as of 9/8/06, with a two-year contract from Verizon Wireless). A kit that includes a stereo headset, Music Manager PC software, and a USB cable for transferring tunes costs $30.
If you're interested in using Verizon's V Cast service, you'll have to spend an additional $15 per month, on top of your voice plan. After paying that surcharge, you can download tunes to your PC for 99 cents (from there you can transfer them to the phone for free) or to the phone directly for $1.99.
The Chocolate's sound quality on calls was quite impressive. Generally speaking, I found it to be one of the best phones I've heard: virtually crystal clear, with little noticeable background noise. Unfortunately its talk-time battery life is less admirable. It lasted only 2 hours, 46 minutes in our lab tests, the shortest life span among all standard cell phones we've recently tested.
The difficult-to-use navigational controls temper my enthusiasm for the Chocolate and its far-out design. But its sound quality was stellar, and for that alone I can heartily recommend the phone.
Melissa J. Perenson
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User Reviews
Average User Reviews for LG Electronics KG800 Chocolate Cell Phone (GSM, Bluetooth, 1.3MP, 128MB)
1 Review Add your own »
- Latest User Reviews 1 review
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Reviewed by: ambition
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
User Reviews From Around the Web
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Reviewed by: Elmine
Strengths: sleek appearance
Weaknesses: bad microphone quality, difficult keyboard
Overall: Sent it in to have the microphone "fixed" and it's no better now than before. No-one can ever make out what I'm saying and apparently I sound tinny and muffly to those speaking to me. Never had this problem wih any phone previously. Would trade it in for an older less fashionable phone anyday if people are just guaranteed to understand what I'm saying!
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Reviewed by: shinings
Strengths: Coolest design ever; solid made quality
Weaknesses: maybe lack of some features for somebody, but i don't know
Overall: got this phone for a couple of days. absolutely slick! everyone's comment was "wow!!!". yeah, right! it's just such a great design phone. The most drawback for me is that it lacks of a microSD slot. other than that, everything i want is in this phone: bluetooth, mp3, basic camera, ... everything. if you want a real multi-function phone, go for iphone, consider that is at least $400+ more. if you are under 35 years old and just need a nice phone and use it for talking, get this. you won't regret. bottom line: best minimalism-design aesthetics on a phone.
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Reviewed by: drmurali
Strengths: sleek and compact, easy to access music
Weaknesses: buttons are too small, battery life is poor, touch keys need to be understood well with the manual
Overall: Because of its unconventional design, this phone needs some getting used to. I had to read the manual especially to understand the touch key operation. The phone is sleek and is well-liked by my kids who use it a lot for its music capabilities. This does drain the battery quickly and I am having to charge it more often compared to my previous LGVX4500 which had no music, photo or video capabilities. The chocolate seems to take decent photos and video too. It is quite easy to download music from your Windows PC using Windows Media Player v. 11. The instructions to do this are not very clear but you can figure it out in a few minutes. You do need a special head set to connect to the phone. This comes in the Music Essentials Kit from Verizon. You do need this kit ($30) to download music from the PC. Over all, a good phone for music lovers.
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Reviewed by: kschuman
Strengths: Looks great, sound quality is good, 1.2 mega pixel camera takes good pictures.
Weaknesses: No flash on the camera, can't manually set the clock time, touch pad hard to operate.
Overall: I wouldn't buy this phone again. One reason is that I'm in Iraq with no signal (I knew I wouldn't have one) and can't set the clock, which makes it worthless to use as an alarm clock. It doesn't display the time unless you're receiving a digital signal. You'll have to buy a lot of accessories to get it to work like you want (Bluetooth headset, software to load music which should be free like it is with any other mp3 player, headphone adapter which is long and ungainly if you're trying to walk around, and a 2gb memory card which doesn't stay in well if you try to close the plastic cover). Reception isn't as good as it was when I was with Sprint. I find it dropping off all the time. I will buy a good mp3 player and a good phone next time
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Reviewed by: curcafeno3231
Strengths: Good sound and picture quality, easy to use, sleek
Weaknesses: Buttons take some getting used to, and are not easiest things in the world to use
Overall: At first, this phone may not seem as a great phone, because it is hard to get the hang of, but after a few days it is the best darn phone you could have! I think it has great picture quality and has lots of cool features. Downloading music is also very easy, thanks to VCast. This is also a great phone to use as a "glamorous phone."
Shop for the LG Electronics KG800 Chocolate Cell Phone (GSM, Bluetooth, 1.3MP, 128MB)
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