i received an LX-VX8000 last night, one of verizon's new V Cast capable EV-DO phones - and although my first impressions were not very good, there are some pretty redeeming qualities here...
and let me start with that. the EV-DO speed is totally rockin'. DSL reports 80kbs but it is WAY faster than that, and i think that DSL reports tests are not accurate for mobile phones based on the tests i have performed. i'm sure this tech is optimied more than the 100-300K downloads that DSL reports uses. If you are looking for an phone to use as a high speed modem, this is certainly the best i have tried.
now for the bad news. you have to use the EV-DO via a cable. no bluetooth on this baby. for that you'll have to wait for the VX8100, and considering i saw the VX8000 at CTIA almost a year ago, who knows how long you will have to wait for that. at least with my Moto V710 people thought "how the hell is that guy getting to the internet" on the train - now they think "look at that dork with the cable going into his bag." Note: the cable is not included in the package, it's an aftermarket accessory
if you are getting one of these phones, let me save you the trouble on how to use the VX8000 as a modem:
1. create a DUN connection in windows
2. the phone number is #777
3. your username is [insert 10 digit phone number]@vzw3g.com for example if your phone number is 1234567890, you would put "1234567890@vzw3g.com" in the username field, without the quotes.
4. your password is "vzw" just like that, all lower case, with no quotes
at any rate, i'm looking at the google maps demo right now with no significant lag.
it's good to be a LPB again.
okay, so where do i start:
the looks
let's face it, this phone is fugly. you won't be impressing the ladies with this phone, although ladies, you might impress some men if you get one. what type of men, only time will tell. the VX8000 could be strapped on the terminator and feel right at home. this is a hunk of metal and every view, open or closed doesn't let you forget it.
the external screen however, is very cool - as it displays way more status than your average duplicate screen.
also external are a play, forward, and reverse buttons. since there is no external media, i'm not sure what they are for. once i figure that out i will post more.
the camera
the camera on the VX8000 is great. it's 1.3 megapixel (1280 x 960 )and you can see some examples of pictures taken with this camera here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveobd/tags/vx8000/
it comes with a few other settings i havent' seen before such as "ISO Setting" and the "flash" is a bright light that only comes on and off when the picture is taken.
i think this camera is on par with the Sony Ericsson S700/S710, and the video is on par with the Nokia 6630.
once you've taken a picture you email or MMS it to your favorite friend or moblog as you would come to expect.
the games
on the LG-VX6000, i thought most of the BREW games kind of sucked. on the VX8000, not so much. VzW has done a good job of getting developers to develop some new games to the BREW 3D game APIs, including a port of Asphault Urban GT that certainly beats the pants of the J2ME port of the same name. You'll also find some re-worked favorites such as Jamdat Bowling 3D among others.
These games are all downloadable via the Get It Now BREW vending machine on the phone, with unlimited prices around $9.99 and monthly subsriptions somewhat cheaper.
outside of the N-Gage, which is built especially for gaming, this handset has some of the best games i've seen. a big step up from the LG-VX6000 days.
Applications
oh, boy, when you pick News and Info from the Get It Now menu, you no longer get brought to the BREW category for these applications, but rather an Openwave xHTML browser, and in my case, i got prompted for $4.99/month to access any content via the browser. how entirely lame is that?
More disturbing is the VzW making the decision that access to this information is better served via WAP than specialized applications. i think this might be a bit shortsighted in thinking these media are mutually exclusive.
as far as i can tell, the usual BREW email applications haven't made this way onto this handset yet, so for now, there's no way to use the VX8000 to get email via an application. there's probably a WAP application in there somewhere, but i don't see that as a feasible model for email on a phone, even at these speeds.
as of my writing this i am having some provisioning problems getting to the WAP/xHTML deck. it was working, but after i signed up for V CAST, which includes WAP access, i am now in an infinite "you must subscribe and pay $4.99 loop" from the openwave browser, which no matter how many times i accept it, i keep having to re-enroll. not fun.
V CAST
one of the bigger selling points of the VX8000 is the availability of Verizon's V CAST service, which is their true 3G service offering that allows downloading of high quality video clips and other rich media.
as previously stated, the download speeds on this phone are pretty adequate to support this type of activity, and in general i've been pretty impressed.
i'm not really a "tv on your phone" zealot, but i can easily see entertaining my kids ar restaurants with the Sesame Street clips, or getting the weather or sports replays on demand via this medium. the video clips do stream, which pleasantly surprised me, however, a few times i did see them stop to buffer.
the service is $15 per month, which doesn't seem outrageous, but $9.99 would be a lot more palatable, i think.
the Get Tunes and Tones section is a little devoid of content providers at this point, and music downloading on demand would be a good service to add here, espeically with the phones music play controls on the outside.
provisioning V CAST took a phone call as the VzW website game me errors (or only worked with IE, which i wasn't using) - so i had to call. this was the "first one of these" that the agent had performed.
in summary
a good phone with a lot of potential, but lack of bluetooth makes me think you'll want to upgrade to the LG-VX8100 when that comes out. that's okay, you'll be able to EBay this handset, no problem. i've had a few issue provisioning the phone as a replacement for an existing Verizon account. at this price, you should get a data cable included in the package.
ratings
phone: 9
texting: 7
mms: 7
email: 0
browser: 7
pda features: 5
camera: 10
battery: 6
usability: 7
durability: 5
stability: 8
gameplay potential: 9
third party apps: 8
fashion: 4
out-of-box accessories: 4
legend:
0 = nonexistent
3 = below average
5 = average
7= above average
10 = the best i've seen
