In our in-depth LG Decoy VX8610 review, Philip Berne checks out this unique slider with a built-in Bluetooth headset.
Review summary of the LG Decoy VX8610:
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 The real question with the LG Decory VX8610 is whether the phone is a better buy than a multimedia slider and a Bluetooth headset separately. We were inclined to say it is not, but then we remembered all the Bluetooth headsets we've misplaced, or kept just out of reach. Oh, and there's that police ticket we could have avoided with a handsfree device. Bluetooth call quality is usually poor anyway, so it would be redundant to complain about the poor quality of the Decoy headset, though we wish it could have recognized our voice commands, at least. In any case, it's a design that makes so much sense it just has to exist, and Verizon Wireless' effort is solid, if imperfect. Release: June 2008. Price: $180.
Pros: Headset and handset in one neat package. Dedicated keys for useful calling features. VZ Navigator worked well, sensitive GPS.
Cons: Bluetooth call quality is unsurprisingly poor. Lacks some IM and e-mail messaging clients. V Cast music and video aging, not worth the cost of entry.
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Full review of the LG Decoy VX8610:
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Design - Good
We weren't testing the LG Decoy VX8610 a couple weeks ago, when a local police officer pulled us over on our commute home to New Jersey. If we were testing the LG Decoy, we probably would have been talking on the attached Bluetooth headset, and we wouldn't have been pulled over for driving while using a cell phone. True story, and this was not a warning ticket, either, but a real, bona fide $35 hassle, simply for talking on the phone. So, when we saw the LG Decoy a couple weeks later, of course it seemed like a great design idea, one that should have come to market much sooner.
Even though the phone is bulky, perhaps bulkier than it needs to be, it isn't huge, and the piggy-backed Bluetooth headset adds a slight hump, but not a lot of extra bulk. We'd like to see some competition in this market, and we can imagine Samsung bragging about the world's slimmest slider-and-headset-combo in the future.
Besides the snap-on Bluetooth headset, the LG Decoy VX8610 is a shiny, somewhat attractive phone. The mirrored front picks up fingerprints too easily, but it looks nice when polished clean. We're usually skeptical about using a tiny joystick to navigate a phone, but the stick on the LG Decoy was sensitive enough, without overdoing it. Under the slide, the numeric keypad is wide and bumpy, which made typing easy. We like the two dedicated buttons for speakerphone and speaker-independent voice dialing, both useful features for convenient, handsfree dialing, which is what this phone is all about.
We also appreciate the liberties LG has taken with the Verizon Wireless interface. Compared to older V Cast phones, like the LG Chocolate, the interface is completely changed, almost entirely for the better. Instead of burying features under confusing menu titles like "Get It Now," menus make sense, and even the top-level menu has been reorganized. We're not sure why the calculator is now a top-level menu item, and we would have brought the Web browser to the top, but useful features like VZ Navigator and e-mail are now on the first menu screen.
Calling - Good
With its built-in Bluetooth headset, the LG Decoy is certainly all about calling, and for the most part the phone does a fine job. Call quality sounded much better on the actual VX8610 handset than on the Bluetooth headset, but this isn't a surprise. We've never been a fan of Bluetooth for sound quality, so we weren't too disappointed by the muddy sound of the Decoy headset. What really bugged us was the imperfect fit of the Decoy earpiece. The phone does not come with interchangeable earpieces, nor does it include an earloop, so if the LG Decoy VX8610 doesn't fit your ear, this isn't the phone for you. It didn't fit our ear at all, and continually fell out until we pitched it sharply downwards, an arrangement that produced less than ideal sound quality.
LG promises four hours of talk time from the handset and two hours from the Decoy headset. Our tests have been even better than these estimates, at closer to five hours with the phone itself (with Bluetooth inactive), and a little more than two hours of talking with a fully charged headset.
For calling features, both the phone and the headset are rich with our favorites, though they don't all work perfectly. Speaker-independent dialing gets its own button on the LG VX8610, a very nice touch, and is also accessible via a single press of the Decoy headset's button. This worked perfectly from the phone itself, but we had a lot of trouble completing a call from the headset. Usually, the voice dialing feature would choke when it couldn't understand our answer to the "Work" or "Mobile" question. Otherwise, the phone had a good speakerphone, very easy conference calling and, obviously, Bluetooth for handsfree, with a preset in place to pair quickly with the Decoy headset.
Messaging - Good
For users of AOL, MSN and Yahoo, the LG Decoy is a fine messaging phone. Those services get pre-loaded settings for a WAP-based e-mail program, as well as clients for instant messaging. Unfortunately, users of any other service are out of luck, with the notable exception of Verizon.net e-mail. We other users (Google is our preference for e-mail and IM) aren't missing much, as the messaging clients are quite basic, but it's always nice to have the option. Otherwise, the phone does a fine job with SMS and MMS messaging. Typing on the keys was just fine. The individual digits are well rounded and soft to press, though the keyboard is much wider than it is narrow, and we would have liked a few millimeters extra height.
Multimedia - Good
The LG Decoy VX8610 is a full-fledged V Cast phone, which means it has access to the full V Cast store for music and videos. By now, you should know that the V Cast store offers a surprisingly deep selection of poor quality encodings at inflated prices, but if you didn't, we just told you. Songs sounded good enough for a cell phone, but even on the small screen, videos looked blocky and pixilated. The video and music players could both use a visual overhaul, as well. We did like that the LG Decoy automatically plays audio through the Bluetooth headset for V Cast content. It was obviously only in mono, but it was still convenient when we didn't want to disturb our cubicle neighbors.
Navigation - Very good
The LG Decoy VX8610 uses VZ Navigator 4.1.1, which includes the enhancements for live traffic updates. The navigation software isn't the best looking, but the Decoy found our position quickly, and was sensitive enough that it had no trouble in the concrete valleys of New York City. We liked the joystick for this app. It was helpful in scrolling down our route maps to find our next turn.
Accessories - Good
LG includes a cover for the open charging port on the phone when the BT headset is in use, as well as a small charging dock if you want to charge the headset away from the phone. We would probably lose both of these accessories in a matter of days, and neither seems to add much. We do applaud the use of micro-USB ports, both on the phone and on the headset charging dock. These ports aren't yet common, but they are an industry standard, so it's nice to see a charging option for the phone and headset that relies on the new, smaller plug.
Price and availability
The LG Decoy VX8610 is available now from Verizon Wireless for $180 with a two-year contract agreemnt.
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