Hands-on Review: LG VX8700 Multimedia Phone

OK, I'll admit it—I'm a sucker for style when it comes to slender flip phones, and LG's brushed-metal VX8700 (which I first saw last month at CTIA) is no exception. Here's a handset that's pretty much your garden-variety multimedia phone; there's nothing much here that you won't find on Samsung's svelte M610, the old MM-A900 "Blade" or LG's own VX8600. But this flip-phone variant of the eye-catching LG "Shine" (a Europe-only phone, for now) got my attention with its cool brushed-metal finish, mirrored external display and animated menus. As John Malkovich might say, it's beyond my control.

With its brushed-metal shell and mirrored external display, the VX8700 is certainly a scene-stealer. I was impressed when I first picked up the phone; while it certainly looks heavy, the handset actually felt light in my hands (about 3.8 ounces). It's also about as thin (0.5 inches) as such slim flip phones as the Samsung Blade or the Moto RAZR, making it a good fit for a purse or a jeans pocket. And the narrow external display is pretty sweet; it looks just like a mirror until it powers on, giving you a digital clock, signal strength and battery life indicators. The 65,000-color external screen doubles as a viewfinder for the two-megapixel camera, allowing you to take self-portraits; however, because the screen is so narrow, it's not the greatest framing the perfect shot.

Flip the phone open and you'll find the two-and-a-quarter-inch, 262,000-color main display, which looked pretty sharp and vivid to my eyes. I'm also a big fan of the VX8700's brushed metal-themed menus, which glisten with slick animations and nicely match the phone's shell; it's a welcome change from Verizon's old, static menu scheme.

So much for looks. What's under the hood? The 3G VX8700 works on Verizon Wireless's high-speed EV-DO network, which gives the phone full access to the carrier's V Cast catalog of downloadable music and streaming video clips—nice, but nothing particularly special, given the number of V Cast-capable phones in Verizon's lineup. Also, keep in mind that the VX8700 doesn't support Verizon's new MediaFlo-powered mobile TV service; instead, you get the standard streaming V Cast video clips, which take about 20 seconds to load and look a little blocky and jittery. You can listen to your tunes over a stereo Bluetooth headset, which is a nice touch, but the phone doesn't have any dedicated music controls on the outside shell (although you can play tunes with the flip closed). You can store hundreds of tunes using the microSD memory expansion slot (cards of up to 2GB are supported), but LG has hidden the slot behind the phone's battery, so you can't swap memory cards on the fly.

Call quality on the VX8700 was pretty solid, and you also get voice commands (good for hands-free calling) plus a speakerphone and three-way conference calling. The phone's keypad takes a page from the RAZR playbook with its flat, etched-metal keys; they look great and there's plenty of room for your fingertips, but I found the buttons themselves to be a little stiff, which might be annoying for habitual texters.

Extra features on the VX8700 are good, if not great. The phone's two-megapixel camera was especially disappointing; despite its resolution, the camera's pictures looked hazy and washed out, even by camera-phone standards. You also get the standard complement of tools—including a calculator, alarm and world clocks, a tip calculator—and the phone is also compatible with the for-pay VZ Navigator, which offers up turn-by-turn directions and local searches. I wasn't expecting much from the VX8700 in terms of GPS, but it actually pinpointed my location within a few address numbers.

The VX8700 ain't exactly cheap—it retails for about $180, versus $100 for the Motorola KRZR K1m Verizon or just $20 for the Samsung Blade on Sprint—but it's certainly a solid phone, and if you're into style, the LG is one of the coolest-looking clamshells on the U.S. market right now. Give it a look.