The slimmed-down VX8300 sheds some weight and adds stereo Bluetooth headset support. Did this eye-catching music phone manage to rock our respective words? Ben Patterson gives it a listen.
Review summary of the LG VX8300:
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 The slimmed-down, stereo Bluetooth-enabled VX8300 represents a marked improvement over LG's popular (but bulky) VX8100 mulltimedia phone. Unfortunately, the eye-catching clamshell comes saddled with the V Cast Music player -- which won't work with stereo Bluetooth (for now, at least) -- and lacks bundled earbuds and a memory expansion card. Release: June 2006. Price: $80.
Pros: Impressive music quality; good photo quality; smaller form factor; microSD memory expansion; stereo Bluetooth headset profile; good battery life
Cons: No stereo Bluetooth over the V Cast Music player (yet); no bundled earbuds, USB cable or memory expansion card; no conference calling
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Full review of the LG VX8300:
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The original LG VX8000 was one of the first 3G handsets available in the states -- and it was also notable for being a big, bulky brick of a phone. Now, a couple of years after the slightly less monstrous VX8100 comes the new and improved VX8300, which boasts a trimmed-down profile, stereo Bluetooth headset support, V Cast access and a 1.3-megapixel camera.
Multimedia - Good
The VX8000 was the first V Cast phone we'd ever laid eyes on, and the VX8300 continues the tradition with its access to streaming V Cast video (complete with a full-screen mode) and downloadable music which flowed over the EV-DO connection at a relatively speedy clip). The phone's mobile Web browser did a good job of rendering the tricky Google personalized portal, although it ran out of memory when it tried loading the lengthy front page of the New York Times Web site.
Music - Good
First, the good news: the VX8300 adds stereo Bluetooth headset support, which means you won't (theoretically, at least) suffer a tangle of wires while listening to your tunes. The bad news? The stereo Bluetooth profile doesn't work with Verizon's V Cast Music player (not yet, at any rate), so don't toss those wired earbuds (which you'll have to buy separately).
Luckily, the VX8300 boasts impressive music quality for a phone, and the music player lets you purchase and download music, sync up with your PC music collection, view album art, and create playlists (although the V Cast music player still lacks a repeat mode).
Camera - Good
We got above-average snapshots from the VX8300's 1.3-megapixel camera -- our images looked relatively sharp, with decent (if somewhat flat) shadow detail, although bright colors appeared a bit washed out. Of course, the phone's pictures pale compared to those of a similar-resolution dedicated camera. The VX8300 doesn't come with a flash-memory card, so shutterbugs are well advised to pick one up.
Messaging - Good
We had little trouble tapping out text and picture messages on the VX8300's roomy keypad. Composing new messages was an easy process, although the screen only displays about 100-odd characters. We also wouldn't mind the ability to create and organize text-message folders.
Calling - Very good
Call quality on the VX8300 was quite good -- we could hear our callers loud and clear, even over the speakerphone and on our Bluetooth headset. We also found it easy to add recent callers as contacts. That said, the phone lacks live contact searching and conference calling, and you'll have to pony up for a PC software kit and USB cable if you're looking to sync your contacts (an annoying problem on most current Verizon Wireless phones).
Battery life - Good
We got about four-and-a-half hours of talk time from the VX8300 -- pretty good for a 3G music phone -- and about six days of standby time. We also got in the neighborhood of 12 hours of music playback -- again, not too shabby.
Price and availability
The LG VX8300 will start selling for $80 to $150 ((Verizon Wireless)) in June 2006.
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