Here's a surprise. LG got extra generous this round. Instead of just asking the men to do reviews of what I think is really a very feminine phone, they decided they'd asked a female blogger tell them what she thought of the phone.
The cool thing for me of course, I was that female blogger who had the privilege of testing the KG810 for a week. In fact, I had the opportunity to sport not just ONE PHONE, but TWO Chocolates during the Raya holidays. And I'm going to give you my unadulterated, as non-biased as I can be, point of view on the phones.
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Let me first begin by saying that I've been using mobile phones since I was a school kid. I was one of those students with a mother who would only allow me to go to school with a phone with me so that she can contact me all the time, and my very first phone was one of those bulky motorolas. In fact, I used to have a 010-prefixed mobile number.
I've also lost many phones along the way, on average,one phone a year. Because of this, I'm a pretty experienced phone-owner, having graduated from 2 motorolas to 2 nokias to my second Sony Ericsson, a K508i. I previously said I wanted a new phone, something with a good MP3 player and a better camera than the one on the SE. Instead, my BOYFRIEND got himself a new gadget–The Nokia N73. And I've been playing with that 3G beauty for several weeks now.
Being in touch with Eric's phone some how helped me decide I'm a no-frills person, I don't really need a phone that has a kick ass camera, and I don't exactly need a phone that's over two thousand bucks. And even though my Sony Ericsson is buggy (Sony Ericssons ARE BUGGY) I'm not complaining that much, because it allows me to receive, and make phone calls. And I can do a quick sms with one hand on that phone. (It's important for me to be able to do fast sms's on my phone because I send out media alerts to my colleagues in that manner, sometimes.)
My mom owns a Philips mobile phone, btw.
OK I've digressed. You wanted to know about the Chocolate phones. I was TOLD to do a full review of the Chocolate clamshell phone. On advertisements, they call it the 'FOLDER'. Here goes nothing:
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Looks and Aesthetics
This phone is sleek. When I saw it, I thought, 'Wah looks nice. Better than the motorola razor.' BUT THEN HOR, the casing is super shiny. it's supposed to be made of extremely durable fibre glass material, and Kenny has confirmed that it's not easily scratchable.
The problem is, it's beautiful, but my fingerprints get all over the place on this phone.
Eric says if you need to get someone's thumbprint discreetly, this phone would come in very handy. All you'd have to do is let the suspect hold the phone for five seconds, and voila, you'll have all the prints you need to investigate the crime.
On the other hand, I MUST SAY IT AGAIN, this phone is far better looking than my candybar SE.
Oh I like the little window on the front. I like it a lot because I get to put on my photo on it. I think it's a handy way of showing ownership.
Functionality
I like the screen, the colours are cool. And I THINK PHOTOS turn out looking awesome on the phone. Let me first say I know nuts about number of pixels and how they effect what it looks like to me, the temporary owner, but I REALLY, REALLY liked what I saw on screen.
Except when I started to dial in the numbers.
OMG SO BIG!
OK lah. Maybe it will appeal to some people, but I'm the kind who likes to see my contact's number appearing in ONE LINE.
Oh another thing, the software works pretty fast. Or at least, Eric thinks so. Then again, his N73 probably works slower because it has got so many virtual offices to visit prior to giving him a response. And of course, I use a buggy Sony Ericsson phone, which scrambles up all my previous caller's details and makes me crazy everytime I check my missed calls.
This LG hardly makes any mistakes here.
But the numbers thing. The huge numbers thing. That's irritating.
Games
If you're wondering what Zoo-Zoo Club is, it's actually BEJEWELLED with animal heads instead of Jewels. A bit morbid I know, but highly addictive. And VERY, VERY loud.
The Sudoku on the phone is a little bit too tough though, but then again, I suck at Sudoku. Actually it's the usual game, except the colour scheme for LG's Sudoku sucks. It's blur, and looking at the screen when I try playing Sudoku is a terrible strain on the eyes.
Thank goodness for Zoo-zoo Club. It's such an awesome game, Eric actually wanted to try transfering the game to his Nokia. No luck there.
Camera
This is the best part. OK. so 1.3 MP isn't much to shout about. But like I said, I'm feebly shallow, and all I want in a camera is photos of myself turning out like I'm some hot gucci mama.
I look like this with the LG Phone Camera.
And because I look good, my pimples are covered for. I think the camera is awesome.
Plus I can put my PHOTO on the cover of the camera.
See how much I love the camera? It can turn a non-camwhore into a temporary one. It's addictive. Eric thinks it's bad for my mental health though.
Sound
This phone. Is. AWFULLY LOUD. DEAFENING. I believe Jeff has mentioned this before. Actually this is good, because most women I know are quite adverse to ringing handphones. I've seen far too many women put up their handbags to her ears to hear if it were their phones ringing from their bags.
My mom, for instance, always needs me to tell her, 'OI MA! That's your phone lah. Pick it up lah.'
She'll bring the bag up to her ear to confirm that it IS her phone that's ringing.
So being loud gives the LG 810 extra points for being a true Lady's Phone.
I like the sounds on the phone too, especially how I can customize different themes for every function. Close and open clamshell also can have sound! Imagine! So nice!
Eric found the sounds annoying. But I don't care. I'm all fluff. I like sounds. Actually, I turn off the sound-functions on my SE because the sounds are boring, too common (every one i know has an SE). But the sound files you get on the LG are quite special, and it's fun changing the themes on the phone just for the heck of it.
Other things
The phone works on Bluetooth, but doesn't have Infrared. It also comes with a cable, which didn't work on my house computer, but worked on the office computer. So I suppose it's my house computer that's buggy, not the cable.
But then again, maybe it IS the cable.
Anyway the Bluetooth works fine. We tried transfering files via the GigiBiru function to Eric's laptop and everything went very smoothly.
I wish it had infrared though, so that I could transfer the files to my SE. Then again, Infrared is getting old fashioned, so I can't complain on that-lah.
The Verdict
This phone is not mine. Sniff. If I had money, and I had to replace my Sony Ericsson (because it is getting a little old), I think I'd skip the Nokia 3G series and come after this one. I don't listen to music on phones, I have an MP3 player for the gym, and I usually only do Yoga at the gym, which means I hardly use my MP3 player.
And I still think, this phone is a very, very lady's phone.
Oi wait. That's the Chocolate Pink. Ok THAT phone, is a girl's phone. Very fuchsia, very psychedelic, not very suitable for me in the office.
But I like this one.
It makes me look like the professional Corporate Queen I'm supposed to look like.
And it's easier, and faster to use than the Nokia N73 (which is about RM2000) and less buggy than my very practical Sony Ericsson K508i (which I think has been discontinued).
And it costs around Rm1300 1200 before discounts and all.
If I had to get a phone, I would definitely consider buying an LG.
Although I'll still be complaining about the ugly colourful numbers that appear everytime I dial for a friend.
Well, decisions, decisions. What's a girl got to do? Life is so difficult sometimes.
