Digital Trends

LG VX8100

February 19th, 2006 | by Stewart Wolpin

Features and Design

This phone is designed for music, but physically, no one is going to confuse it with any of the iPod models. At 3.58 by 1.92 by 1.03 inches and 4.16 ounces, the VX8100 is short and dumpy. There are music transport controls -- play/pause, FF/skip and RW/skip on the front flap so you can control your tunes without opening the phone, and the speakers are mounted on either side of the clamshell hinge, meaning you'll get the same stereo sound of music, ring tones or speakerphone chatting if the flap is up or down.

Volume toggle, voice memo key and the stereo headphone jack are located on the left spine, the camera key and miniSD slot on the right. There's a 1.2-inch external color LCD that clearly displays time, date and phone signal strength and status. The VX8100's stumpy antenna makes tight pocket fit awkward, and it doesn't telescope.

Inside the clamshell, the VX8100 sports a 2-inch LCD that displays deep color saturation and blacks. Keypad buttons are large, well-spaced but nearly flush with the handset surface, with large readable fonts and backlit blue for bright nighttime usage. Once the backlight goes off, however, keys become bland and, especially the SEND and END keys, almost indistinguishable.

In addition to its V CAST music and video viewing capabilities, the VX8100 is packed with a 1.3 CMOS megapixel camera with both flash and video light and an 8x zoom, Bluetooth and a massive internal 45.5 MB user memory (64 MB total) that can be supplemented by a MiniSD card for picture, video and music storage -- although, as noted, no card is included. Because the VX8100 is an EV-DO phone, there's speedy EV-DO Web surfing, text, picture and video messaging, and both MSN and Yahoo instant messaging. The VX8100 also has the usual raft of PDA tools -- voice memo recording, a 500-contact phone book (five phone numbers, two email addresses with picture CallerID and personalized call and message ringtones), a world and alarm clock, 99 speed dials (including one for voice mail), a calendar/scheduler, notepad and an EZ Tip Calculator for the percentage impaired. The only thing missing is POP3 email.

Image Courtesy of WireFly