LG Fusic / LX-550
Phone Scoop Review
Jul 7, 2006 by Eric Lin
Our In Depth review of LG's stylish and unique new 3G music phone for Sprint. NEW: Video Tour read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
LG FUSIC (Life's NOT Good)
My first cell phone was a bag phone in 1993. Since then I have had quite a few, but none that I have HATED as much as I hate this phone.
First off the display screens max character size is still way too small to read if you don't have 20-20 vision. I've had other phones, where the display characters were large enough that I did not have use my glasses for the important stuff like dialing a number or looking a number up.
But, the worst and I mean the absolute WORST thing about this phone is the battery life.
You can take all of the bells and whistles that this phone has and toss them in the toilet because they don't mean a thing.
I have every option (that uses power) turned off or at the minimum setting. This is the ONLY phone that I have ever owned that turns itself off after 12 hours of standby.
This is no joke.
I took the phone off the charger at 7:00 AM ... had three phone calls that lasted approx 6 minutes total ... check voice mail 2 minutes ... opened phone to check missed alerts twice and the stupid F&@%ING phone was out of battery at 7:30 PM.
That is completely pitiful.
IT IS THE MOST WORHTLESS PHONE I HAVE EVER HAD!
yeah i got that feature
Ok so I have had the phone for about 3 months now and personally i love it. It has some downfalls but alot of ups. Only problem is that if you have you the initial software version then your gonna have some probs but after upgrading the new software everything on the phone improved, and most probs i was having have faded away. the old version resets when receiving picture mail from other carries and such. New software is pretty solid so far
If Not For Sprint, It Would Be Great
Last week, I swapped my a960 for a Fusic. I like the Fusic, and it would be great if it could detach itself from horrible customer service and support at Sprint.
At .78 inches, the Fusic feels comfortable in the pocket, not bulky. Quality via the ear-piece is good. Some report that the keys are slick, but I don't find the keys hard to use. The phone doesn't balance well in one hand, so it may be a challenge to dial in one hand. If you sit it on its back, it tries to tip over. Beautiful keyboard. Good reception. I think that battery life is good to very good, although I am by nature a frequent charger.
The music player sounds good, not great. The FM transmitter displays some static, but mine is very useable, even at several feet away. The two part headset is a very neat feature. It allows you to use any headphones by plugging them into the microphone piece. You can instead plug in a $20 cassette adapter which makes the phone (or music) play through your car speakers. This creates a cheap speaker phone that works great.
Cons.
WMA Con-Job. My phone won't play WMA files as advertised. Many folks are having this problem, but Sprint seems to be doing nothing about the problem. Sprint tech support and LG customer support were useless offering only assorted guesses blaming third parties. Some Fusic users on the Sprint Users forum say WMA plays fine.
Speaker Phone. The speaker phone sounds bad, and the volume is low. A reported trick is to set one of the alarms to Alert 5. This seems to have made my speaker phone louder.
Software Boondoggle (always wanted to use that word). It's well known that Sprint has destroyed many Fusics with a bad software release. V.12 is available at Sprint stores, but my local store said that the software turned my phone "white," so they reinstalled the old software. There seems to be software problems.
Sprint is just horrible at customer service and support, and their staff laughingly agrees.
LG Fusic
Overall great phone!!!
I started with Sprint using the Sanyo 8200, then switched to the Sanyo 8300. Then the Samsung A900 came out and I had to have that. I used that one for about a year and loved it except for the battery life and the bluetooth reception. Then I heard about the LG Fusic. I absolutely love this phone. It has many features that other phones just don't.
Pros:
Battery life- great battery life as long as you dont plan on text messaging a whole lot.
Display- the display screens are colorful and easy to read in daylight and in the dark.
Bluetooth- I've only used to wireless earpeice so im not sure about anything else. (but it worked great!)
Reception- it has better reception than any other phone i've used with sprint.
Cons:
FM transmitter- the whole reason i wanted this phone was for the mp3 player so i could use the transmitter in my car. The sound quality is horrible and has lots of static.
Missed alerts- If you are on the phone and someone calls in on the other line and you don't answer it, theres no reminder to let you know someone called when you're done with the other conversation.
Overall, it's a pretty good phone. I would recommend it to people who want it for the things I mentioned above.
Overall, Great phone!
Overall, I think the fusic phone is great. I love having a phone,mp3 and video cam all in one.
PROs
- mp3 player has great sound quality
- video cam works great for me...
CONs
- You cannot put songs to ring-tones.
- If the headset is damaged you cannot replace the original headset because it is not sold as an accessory at sprint stores. It is almost impossible to find the original headset, and others are not compatible with the phone.
Overall, great phone!
Mmmmm my new baby
So I held off saying anything about this phone till I had had it a month. Now after my 30 days is up, I really cant stop singing The praises of this phone. After a heated battle with Sprint they sent me the Fusic free. Hands down its the best phone I've ever had. It makes my friends with Razrs jealous. I like that cause I was always the jealous one.
Pros that I see.
Style - This is a good looking phone. Its not super heavy and the "feel" is good.
Sound - as far as clarity of call, Its the best ive used in forever. Few volume problems and most of those come from the other side.
Ringers- being able to download my own ring tones is great. The volume has a tendency to escalate mid ringer but for me thats OK cause my phone always ends up where I'm not when someone calls.
Storage - The 64 mg storage that comes with the phone is sufficient enough for most of my tasks, but i got the 516 upgrade and now I've got an IPODesque library of songs.
Features - multiple alarms, easy to use calenders, calculator, web features, everything this phone has quick and easy to use, include the large list of programmable favorites.
Accessories - The phone comes with the basics. my old Sprint power cords work with it, so there was no need to buy car adapters or anything else. The included usb saves me from having to use picture mail, and the headphone/handsfree has good sound quality a good mic.
I could go on all day with my likes of this phone. But I'm real conservative with my ratings of anything so for this to get a 4.5 from me is stellar.
CONS
Battery life. If ya like to listen to music and do multiple things all day, your gonna either need the extended life battery or keep it plugged in.
Durability - while I've dropped this phone a few times. No scratches or gouges. But i wouldn't risk keeping it up. The finish more then the quality of build
Sprint service. Ive been fighting them for 5 years now. But ill stay for the phone
GET THIS PHONE
Best phone of all time.
Excellent ringer volume.
Excellent ear peace volume.
Great key pad.
Great display.
Outstanding OS software.
Excellent battery life.
On top of that you get sweet MP3 player and the phone manages content beautifully. It even recognizes mp4 codecs (itunes). The music transmitter is one of the best available in the US period, pretty amazing that this is a feature in the phone. All this in a tight small package. Sleek, classy, sexy and prestigious.
Great phone, love it.
I chose this particular phone because i lost my old cell phone, and i needed a new phone thats unique and that no one i know has it ,yet. This phone is a conversation starter in itself and has gotten a bunch of ooo's and aaaa's out of strangers. I've had this phone for 2 weeks now, no glitches, no problems. I dont think i have ever a any problem with any cell phone i've ever owned, i dont know what these other knuckleheads who gave this phone a bad review try to do with their phone, probaly tried to swim with it or something. The only bad thing about is u gotta pay 2.50 to download a song. Rather load music into your memory stick. No 3D games. But I dont need games. I have a PSP. The internet browser is quick, i use it to check scores or MySpace.
Nice phone...too many Flaws...
I've had the phone about 3 weeks...Its a great phone with lots of great features! Love the MP3 player and the MicroSD card. The outside display is pretty thick unlike most samsung phones Ive had. But there are far too many flaws with it. First is that you can not get pictures from other networks besides sprint without the phone restarting...EVERYTIME. 2nd is the message alert goes off every 5 minutes when its on wether you have a msg or not! Also about 1/2 of the text messages you try to send you can an error msg. Ive taken the phone to sprint and all they could tell me was it was software issues. Now Ive had sprint since 99 and have always had Samsung phones. Sadly there are too many "flaws" with this phone for me to justify spening 350$ on...so its going back,...Hopefully the new sanyo will be better!!
