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
Great Phone!
I have had this phone now for over a month and I have to say I am very pleased with it.
It is a vast improvement over my previous Samsung and it actually is a pleasure making phone calls now.
The battery life is outstanding - I used to have to charge my old phone every day. I only have to charge the Fusic every four or five days depending on my use. The reception quality is excellent and I never have dropped calls - something that was a common occurrence with my previous phone.
I am pleased with the speaker quality and the ringtones are loud and clear. The display is nice and bright and I can see it clearly even when out in bright sunlight.
All in all, I am very pleased with the Fusic and I am glad I purchased this phone!
Nothing but problems...
as a consumer, be sure you read ALL reviews of a phone before buying! most of these reviews are very positive, but i've had my FUSIC for 3 weeks and have had many problems with it, so be aware that all have not been so lucky.
1. reception: the phone i got only rings 2 out of every 3 calls...in other words, i'll get a voicemail notice and the phone didn't ring. this has happened with all different carriers incoming. irritating to say the least when my wife calls and says "why didn't you answer your phone, i called you 3 times"...
2. powers down while online: while downloading a web page, it will occasionally power off and back on again...this is mentioned in some reviews below.
3. no separate ringer/alarm volume: this is such a simple concept but the phone does not have it. i've been thru every menu and it does not differentiate. in other words, when ringer is on vibrate, alarm vibrates. ringer off, alarm is silent. i travel for a living and i use my alarm often, but don't want to be awakened by calls. IF YOU USE THE ALARM FUNCTION OFTEN, i would NOT recommend this phone.
4. volume fluctuates: it seems that callers' voices get soft for 20 sec. or so and then return to normal volume. this has happened from different callers with different phones, and thru the handset as well as earpiece.
there are so many good features about this phone (the size, bluetooth, fine mp3 player, EVDO, FM transmitter, etc etc...) but they are overshadowed by the problems stated earlier. i may have gotten a lemon, so keep that in mind, but i know from experience that the more "stuff" a company crams into a little phone, functionality is always compromised. shop carefully, and i hope this helps your decision.
best phone yet
This phone is a great phone.. I'm a big mp3 fan and i like my cell phone but when i went to sprint to up grade my phone. i saw a couple of cell phones but they did not compare with this one... I have been waiting for this phone all my life. Its nice to have a mp3 player in your car and a phone all in one,
pros
extra memory
kewl screen front and back
easy to get around in the phone system
cons
not many ring tones
"but you can make some"
if you are a mp3 mad man with 10 gigs of music on you hard drive this phone is for you
My weekend with my Fusic
Picked up my Fusic on Saturday, replacing my trusty Sanyo PM-8200. I love the phone so far. Its a lot faster online than my 8200 was, even in a non-Power Vision area like I live in right now. In the closest PV area its awesome.
I love the form factor it has, failry thin but not paper thin.
PROS:
Power Vision Capable
Expandable Memory
MP3 Player
Camera/Camcorder
Blue Backlight for the keypad
CONS:
No Power Vision in my area (not the phone's fault)
Inability to upgrade the firmware using the menu option
Slight bug with T9 for me, 11 twice will give me ** or random characters when I try to choose something else
Cool phone but hidden flaw…
The LG Fusic phone is all that I expected when I purchased it back in August of 2006. The functionality is great and the radio transmitter works better than I expected. The only issue I have found with the phone is rather bothersome.
Soon after receiving my phone from Sprint I noticed a popping sound in the speaker while pushing buttons and making calls. It is a really odd issue it does not happen all the time but when it happens itâs like the phone gets into this âmodeâ and in addition to the speakers popping and cracking the backlighting to the ipod like controls will not turn off. To make it stop I have to shut off the phone and turn it back on. The reoccurrence happens maybe once a week or so after charging the phone.
This became an issue one day after my 30 day trial with Sprint and they wouldnât exchange the phone and wanted to charge me $30.00 just for a tech to look at the phone. Being a manager (not in the cell phone industry) this to me was absurd I have not even received my first bill just signed a two year contract and stuck with a flawed phone. Since the local company store was not willing to work with me I called the customer service number and after hours of phone calls and much persuasion I got a customer service agent that understood and agreed to send me a new phone. I received the phone and much to my surprise it behaved the same way occasionally making a series of loud pops while making calls and backlighting that wonât shut off.
Iâm not bashing this phone donât get me wrong its an awesome phone and has some unique features but if you are picky about your electronics working 100% the way they should this phone may not be for you.
The Fusic is The Best
I bought the Fusic when it first came out, first one was returned, because it kept vibrating all the time, so I got another one, and it did the same thing I went to Sprint and they figured out that if you have your alarms set it will vibrate constantly so I use my scheduler until there's a software upgrade. But, aside from that I love the phone.
PROS: Small compact
Music plays good
nice screen and lots of features.
CONS: None.
My Fusic Power off When Access Pic Mail
I started with a Sanyo 8200 that randomly powered off. I then purchased a Sanyo 8300 that did the same thing. My Sanyo 8300 have been replaced 5 times. I called Sprint and told them about the problem. They stated it was a know issue that the Sanyo 8300 was suppose to corrected but some didnt.
Sprint offer to upgrade me to the Fusic for free. I really like all the features of the phone, but this phone power off too but not randomly. It only power off when I access Pic mail or saved pictures in phone. I took it to store tech and he stated never heard of this issue. The tech didnt replace my phone under a warrenty issue because he said not that big of a problem and the rest of the phone works fine. When I called customer care they state once again this was a know issue and was working on a software update.
I called the Corporate office and they called the store and order them to replace my phone because they stated only some of them had this issue. I now have another Fusic only to have the same problem and not update on when will have a software update.
Fusic is Fun! But?
Ok so like many of us out there; I'm a phone Junkie!!! I love to have the newest phone with all the gadgets. So when sprint came out with the Fusic i was sold. And after reading the early reviews from this site i figured that i couldn't go wrong. Now I've been with sprint for nearly 6 years and have had a wide range of cell phones. But ill review this one.
I love my phone to a point. I use it quit a bit as an MP3 Player for work. I upgraded to a 2GB flash card and i can roughly hold around 500 songs which is plenty for me. Now coming for a Samsung A-800 its hard to say that my upgrade was worth it. I find that sending a text message gets me an error or server code failure about 4 out of 10 text pages. Using the sprint live radio works good on some days but not others. Using the FM transmitter with the media player i found that you need have the phone directly next to the radio for it to work, and even then it still has static. For me the buttons are definitely two small for my big hands. when using the camera you need to be standing perfectly still or it will come out fuzzy. I definitely think reception could be better. Also i have found that when i place all sounds on vibrate the phone will vibrate every couple of minutes. that is extremely annoying to me, and for some reason the phone likes to power down on occasion while I'm using it and then power back up... Now this is just based on my 2 week use of the phone... and last but not least i still just cant get over how flimsy the phone feels when i flip it open.
So at this point i cant recommend this phone to you...
Bluetooth work?
First off, this phone is very cool. Top of the line if you ask me. However, I've been a Sanyo man for the past two years using the 7400 so the switch to a totally different layout is a little annoying.
-The FM transmitter works, but the range is limited. Sounds good when you get it close enough.
-The Bluetooth signal is very week. I've tried three different headset, (all high end) and it's very staticy. I've also tried pairing all three of those headset to the demo Fusic at work and still have the same out come. If I have the phone on my desk, and I'm looking straight forward it seems to work ok, but if it's in my pocket or on my belt, or I'm not looking right at the phone, no one can understand what I'm saying, and everything is garbled on my end. I've pretty much ruled out it's the Fusic, not just my phone. Unless we got a whole bad batch at work then I dunno...
-The speaker is VERY quite. Switching from a Sanyo phone I'd have to say the LG needs to work on their speaker a little...I don't understand what the point of having an MP3 phone that you can hear over people talking normal around you. I guess the argument would be that "Well it has an FM transmitter"
So overall the phone is pretty cool. I don't think I'm going to bring it back. First I'll have a tech look at it to see if the whole Bluetooth thing is normal, then I'll decide.
In response to mags0304:
I had the same problem too with the vibrating thing. If you turn off "Message Reminder" in Menu > Messaging > Settings(9) > Message Reminder(2) > turn off, that might fix your problem as is did you me.
I'm Lovin it
-Great Service
-Great Call quality
-Good battery
-Simple to use
-Great speaker phone. Perfect for listening to songs.
-You can compose your own songs!
Cons
-T9 is not very good
-You have to buy a memory card if you want more than 10 songs on the phone
-Composing songs is really confusing
-Some of the ringtones are more than annoying.
I just got this phone about a week ago, and i LOVE it.
