Review of LG Venus Mobile Phone

Review of LG Venus Mobile Phone
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Introduction

The LG Venus is a mid priced phone with a dual screen design and a good array of multimedia functions. It conspicuously has a flash-less camera but makes up for it with its great performance.

Design (4 out of 5)

The LG Venus has two screens- the first of which is a regular QVGA display located on top, while the other is a touchscreen that displays onscreen navigation controls. The upper screen serves as the main display while the lower screen serves as a navigational array. The first screen has a measure of 2 inches diagonally, supporting up to 262,000 colors. The screen can show amazingly brilliant graphics and animation. The other screen measures 1.5 inches diagonally with touch sensitive navigational features.

The LG Venus measures 4 inches in length, 2 inches in width and 0.6 inches in depth. It has a stylish and sleek figure and a nice, comfortable feel when held in hand.

When the phone slides to open, a number keypad is shown with keys like End/Power, Send and Clear found on the top row. The sliding mechanism feels sturdy when the phone is opened and closed. The keys have generous spacing in between them, while the raised, curved texture of the keys allow users to have an easier time in texting. The keypad comes with some sort of innovation- alternating colors- a refreshing way of making the keypad easier to use. The left spine of the phone features the volume toggle, voice recorder shortcut, and headset jacks. On the other side are the music player shortcut, camera key, and microSD card slot. At the back of the phone is its camera lens.

User Interface (3 out of 5)

The onscreen controls of the phone leave a lot to be desired, however. Users may find the lack of tactile buttons disappointing as they have to be more conscious about pressing the keypad, especially when it comes to accidental presses. The touchscreen interface of the LG Venus also lacks haptic controls and vibration level adjustment.

The navigational screen presents various layouts depending on its application. For instance, the default layout features a Menu button in the center with various shortcuts to contacts, messaging, and recent calls.

Features (4 out of 5)

LG Venus

The LG Venus comes with an address book capable of storing up to 1,000 entries. Each contact can have up to 5 numbers and a couple of email addresses. Contacts can also be grouped into caller groups or assigned with LG ringtones and alert tones.

The LG Venus comes with basic features like text and multimedia messaging, vibrate mode, speakerphone, notepad, calendar, world clock, calculator, voice recorder and voice command support. More advanced features of the phone include USB mass storage, e-mail, instant messaging, PC syncing, wireless Web browser and Bluetooth.

The LG Venus also comes with a music player that can support popular audio formats. The music player also comes with options like repeat and shuffle mode, 11 preset equalizer settings and an Airplane mode which turns off the RF and basically turns the phone into a MP3 player. The phone can also allow multitasking even while playing music through its music player. The phone has an internal memory of 64MB although the memory can also be expanded up to 8GB thanks to its microSD card slot.

The Venus comes with a 2 megapixel camera capable of taking pictures in four resolutions, five color effects and five white balance settings. The camera also has other settings such as self timer, 2x zoom, brightness setting, shutter sounds, night mode, and spot metering.

The phone can be personalized in multiple ways as wallpaper, color themes, alert tones, screen savers can be changed. A single LG mobile game, VZW board games, is pre-installed in the device.

Performance (4 out of 5)

The phone camera lacks a self portrait mirror so it can be quite difficult to take self portrait images. Photos taken using the phone camera are of good quality, with accurate and realistic colors. Videos taken using the phone camera are also impressive enough despite the limited options available, although users should expect jerky video clips when recording fast movements. The LG Venus’ music player can play loud and clear music thanks to the integrated speakers of the device.

When it comes to voice calls, the LG Venus does not disappoint. Voice calls made using the device are loud and clear. The fully charged LG Venus can last for up to 4 hours of talktime and 20 days while in standby.

Verdict (4 out of 5)

The user interface of the LG Venus is probably the only thing that prevents it from becoming one of the best handsets to come out of LG. The Venus combines good multimedia features, creditable performance and a sleek design in one package.