LG Dare Review

The LG Dare was Verizon’s response to the iPhone. It was first released in mid-2008 with huge hype around it. As a user of it for over 3 months, this is my review on it.

The Design: The design of the Dare is very well thought out. The majority of the front of the phone is taken up by the touchscreen. Below the touchscreen is the basic Call, Clear, and End buttons.

On the right side there are the volume controls along with a camera button. On the left side of the Dare is a lock button, a slot for a microSD card, a speakerphone button, and the input slot for the USB charger. On the top is a 3.5mm headphone jack (which I love because not many phones have this feature) and on the back is a 3.2 mega pixel camera.

The Touchscreen: The touchscreen is good but not the best I have ever used. Every time it is pressed, tactical feedback in the form of vibration signals that the touch has registered.It can be very responsive at times but other times there is lag between strokes. Scrolling through lists is awkward because the menu sticks in certain places and makes it very difficult to get to the lower levels of your long lists such as contacts and music. Otherwise, when single clicking, the Dare is quite precise and makes it very hard to miss your target.

Homepage: The homepage on the dare is unique because it is fully customizable. Links can be placed on your wallpaper to your favorite items.

Calling: Calling is okay but once again not the best. It has good reception but the incoming voice often sounds fuzzy and not clear. The Dare has a clear microphone that allows the person on the other sie of the call to hear a crisp and clear voice on the other side.

Typing: The LG Dare has multiple ways of typing that makes it convenient for any type of user. In the text interface, you can choose to have the basic abc input. You can also use a basic word input that is Verizon’s version of t9 input. There is also a write-in section that allows you to write in the different letters one at a time. While this is really fun to do, it is very time consuming and you will find yourself using other way of input. Another way of text input is if you rotate the phone 90° to the left. The sensors in the phone switch the regular phone keypad to a full QWERTY keyboard that stretches across the screen. Having big fingers, I was skeptical of the QWERTY keyboard but the letters are large and the tactical feedback helps tremendously when trying to hit your mark. Fast typing is very easy and there is very little learning curve.

Music/Video: The LG Dare really shines when it comes to media. Music plays extremely clear and the interface is almost flawless. It has a ripoff version of cover flow and an unattractive theme to it. But who cares. It’s very easy to operate and has great musical quality. Video plays back very well. The Dare takes advantage of the whole screen by forcing you to watch any videos with the device rotated. Otherwise, the video is clear. That is, until you use it for a while in which case scratches and fingerprints make the image on the screen a little less appealing.

Camera: The 3.2 mega pixel camera really shines on the LG Dare. It has many features that no phones don’t in terms of cameras. It has the majority of the features that digital cameras have and that really sets it apart from other phones. It shoots a resolution up to 2048×1536 and features a full flash. Some other features include face detection, several lighting effects, ISO options, multi-shot, and scene mode. Overall the camera well exceeds any standards for phones. The video recorder also doesn’t disappoint. It has many features and settings that makes it a great phone to have. It can record in up to a resolution of 640×480 which surpasses many camera phones. It also has an option for high rate shots which basically mean you can shoot in slow-mo. SAWEET!

Web Surfing: The Dare had a lot of potential when it comes to web surfing. But, the potential was not met. Once again the scrolling makes it very awkward to navigate through pages and clicking tiny links is a pain. The only positive to the internet is Verizon’s EVDO network which is very fast.

Other Features Worth Mentioning: The LG Dare also includes the ultimate time killer… The drawing pad! This is a ton of fun and is actually really convenient when leaving yourself notes.

Overall: The LG Dare is a featureful phone for Verizon Wireless. It is very nice to have if you are big in to music and pictures due to the fact that media capabilities on the Dare far surpass any usual phone.

Note: This is a great phone if you want smart phone capabilities without the huge smart phone package.