LG VX-8100
Phone Scoop Review
Nov 17, 2005 by Jesse Lewin
In-depth review of LG's mainstream EV-DO phone for 2005. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Great Gadget - Bad Phone
I fell in love with this phone the minute I opened the box after ordering it from Verizon on line. It's got great looks, great features. The camera works great, the menus are very user friendly. Then I made the first call... not so great. I thought that it was not MY new phone, it must be the other guy, a bad connection or a weak signal something other then my beautiful sexy new phone. (which made me feel like a teenager again) So after about 5 days of denial I started to realize that it wasn't them, it was ME. Poor sound quality is the main problem when your on a call to another cell phone the speaker cuts out making it seem like you have dropped the connection so you are always saying "are you there" the speaker phone is loud but not clear and picks up a lot of background noise. The signal strength is poor. People are annoyed with you because they have to repeat everything. I called LG They told me to go to Verizon to get the version 5 software flash even though I had the ver. 4 which was supposed to correct all the sound quality issues. Verizon told me that ver. 4 was the latest and there was no ver. 5. So I decided after 10 days of use and reading a lot of reviews with similar problems to return it for a Motorola E815. The sound quality is 100 times better. Its basically the same phone but not as good looking.
Pro's
Good looks, solid feeling, flashing lights, flash light, easy menu, Strong vibrate
Cons
HARD TO OPEN WITH ONE HAND (no finger notch)
POOR SOUND QUALITY & SPEAKER PHONE
SMALL FONT SIZE- very hard to see who's calling or read the clock on front screen
DIFFICULT TO TURN ON SPEAKER PHONE and it stays on for the next call until you turn it off. I prefer it to go off when flip is closed
Its a shame LG missed the most important thing, clear communications. Maybe they will fix it. But I bet they are more interested in the next new model then fooling around with this one. I wasn't willing to wait and find out.
Mark
Poor Design
I bought the LG 8100 and love the phone, but fail to understand why cell phone manufacturers won't design a phone that is a great phone, blue-tooth compatible, with loud rings, good reception, small and easy to use WITHOUT a camera... WITHOUT an MP3 player... WITHOUT video capabilities! I own an IPOD... I have a great digital camera... and my home theater is a much better venue to watch movies, than having my fiancée and me huddle around my cell phone. Never the less, I ignored these frivolous and useless features because the phone had the quality I coveted. But within 18 hours I returned it!
The ONLY reason I returned it, is that I received an audible alert every time I missed a call. Now let's think about this. LG / Verizon provide me with the ability to assign a silent ring to an individual, or to use a silent ring as my default ring, but they insist on beeping me audibly when I miss a call. Hey dummies, I want them to be silent. I assign a silent ring to someone because I choose to ignore their call until it is convenient for me to respond, and to not let others around me know I failed to answer a call. But you guys still feel you have to announce to the world by beeping me â and all those around me, that I just ignored a call!!!
Think LG! Don't be stupid!
8100
This is a great looking phone with great bells and whistles,but-
I went back to my 4400b after 3 days because of the folllowing.
1.4400b has much better reception
2.Mobile web is slooooooow.
3.Volume is weaker.
4.I dropped calls where I naver have before.
So I waited a long time to get it hoping they would get the bugs out,but it still has issues.If you need PHONE with good volume and reception I would think twice about it.
POS
This is by far one of the worst phones I have ever owned. This phone was sent as a replacement for my v710 when it broke. Thanks lockline! The sound is terrible at best, very tinny like talking into a coffee can. The reception is just as bad. In my home, my 710 always had 4 bars, this one is lucky to have 2. Even without the antenna my 710 got higher signal strength. My wife's Samsung 670 has better signal strength. When it comes to phones, I could care less about a camera, but I have to say, this thing is slow. Don't attempt to take a picture of the youngsters for wallpaper (the backgrounds that come as part of the camera suck so you need to do this) cause by the time you push the button, they're gone! MP3's, go buy a Dell, IPod or Iriver. Voice recognition, I might as well try speaking German (which I know almost nothing). I have seen "Extended Network" more on this phone in two weeks than I have in the last four years. I now have a new wheel chock to keep my toolbox from rolling away!
E815 works better than VX-8100 for me
I had a chance to actually use both the E815 and the VX-8100 with Verizon. I decided to stick with the E815. Here's my comparison:
VX-8100
- Has a better hinge than the E815. Feels more solid.
- Has poor reception compared to the E815
- Does it have a speakerphone? I looked through the manual, and found nothing even though it's supposed to be there. If it's there, it's hard to find.
- Better form factor than the E815. More compact.
- Has crippled Bluetooth: Doesn't work with iSync for Mac out of the box. There may be some ways to hack it, but this requires more than 0 effort.
E815
- Seems to be more configurable than the 8100.
- Bluetooth support is more complete. I can sync phone numbers, addresses with my Mac without hacking. There seem to be better hacking options for the E815.
- A little on the bulky side, but this is a plus for folks like me with big hands.
- Excellent Reception.
- The battery life sucks, allegedly due to the fact that the phone is wasting power looking for the new EVDO network which isn't working yet in San Francisco. Supposedly this will be fixed when the EVDO network is launched here.
- I like the user interface better on the E815. This might be simply because I used the E815 longer and got more used to it, but I think there is more to it than that.
The E815 had much better reception than the 8100 in my area. With the E815, I never had dropped calls, but with the 8100, I sometimes would, or worse, calls wouldn't go through at all. I don't think this is necessarily because the 8100 has bad reception, but rather that the E815 has above average reception.
I chose to stick with the E815 for two main reasons:
- Synching with my Mac 'just works' over bluetooth
- The reception is way better
If a smaller phone with a solid feel is more important to you than above average reception and iSync for Mac, than you might prefer the 8100.
ringtones
I used 2 have the 8000 I loved 2 b able 2 recored my voice then set as ringtone any body know how 2 make this happen also what good r the mp3 buttons if no mp3 player I only had 8100 4 the past 3 weeks I just found this site I am thinking about going back 2 8000 but have been reading how good 8100 is please if this is as good as everyone is say help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
