For A Good Time, Call Venus
LG showed off its latest at CES 2008 including the Venus, also known as the LG VX-8800. Billed as the successor to Chocolate, the Venus does indeed combine style and quality in a way that at least meets, and in some cases, exceeds the Chocolate bar.
First off, Venus isn’t a girly-phone, so guys can relax, knowing that it comes in a manly black version. You’ll find some sexy in it though, with glass-faced touch screen interface like the iPhone, and plenty of shiny chrome round the edges of the phone, too. Keep a polishing cloth handy to get all of the smudgy fingerprints off of it.
The front isn’t cluttered up with hard navigation keys. A numeric keypad slides below the touchscreen for dialing and other dialing/data entry functions, but the navigation is all done by touch. Venus returns a little haptic love when you press the navigation “keys” on the front face.
The VX-8800 is designed to be a music phone so its feature set takes this into account. A one-touch music key unlocks the music functions of the phone. You can download music or store it on a microSD card. You can also store playlists on the Venus. If music isn’t enough for you, you can also use the Venus to play videos. Touch controls allow you to play, pause, rewind, fast forward and stop the video. It comes with a 2-megapixel camera, which is below par these days, but it’s better than nothing, I suppose. You can record videos with it, but you’ll definitely want the microSD option if that’s how you plan to use the phone.
Venus offers all of the features you expect from a phone: email, web services, chat, instant messaging, voice mail and so on. It also maintains a contact list, usage logs and a host of personalised settings. Bluetooth 1.2 is also part of the package, so you’ll find hands-free calling capabilities, headset support, A/V remote control functions, basic printing and imaging with Venus.
It’s not the highest-ranked phone by LG - that honor goes to the KS20 - but it’s a step up from Chocolate. If you’re in the mood, check out Venus and all the other LG phones at TestFreaks.