LG VX-4400
Average Ratings
Bad news...
I have had this phone for about a year and within the last 9 months I have had problem after problem. The menu screen freezes often and the only way to get it to work again is to take out the battery and put it back in. Sometimes it doesn't let me make a call (even when it's in digital and i have full reception). Occasionally I can't receive a call (it won't ring) or tell me that I missed a call. The calendar function does not work, it leads to another freezing of my phone. The buttons on the side are annoying, they get in the way and I'm always accidently putting it on vibrate. When talking to my sister who lives on the other side of the country my phone will disconnect (with full reception while still being digital). It's just a horrible phone! I can't wait until my 2 years are up!!!!!
Holds up
Okay, I don't have this phone, but my boyfriend did, and it lasted a year before he completely destroyed it. I was impressed with how well the phone held up as he constantly was dropping it, throwing it, etc. If you take care of this phone at all, it'll last.
Pros
-Nice design
-Easy navigation
-Calls seemed loud enough for me to hear in public places
-nice size
Cons
-polyphonic ringer wasn't the best, but it worked
-doesn't hold too many text messages
-external display not in color, but this doesn't matter too much
Very Poor Reception/Call Quality
This phone has many nice features, but is lacking in only features that really matter in a cell phone: Reception and Call Quality. I have had Verizon service in the Denver, CO area for over 7 years and have always used Motorola phones until the LG. I was lured away from Motorola by the fancy color screen and other features of the LG. My family has 3 of these phones, and in the 8 months we have owned them, they have constantly dropped calls. If the call is not dropped it constantly cuts in and out even when the phone shows full signal strength, and I am not moving! Living in the same service area, my old Motorola StarTac never had this issue. The phone specs say the LG has analog service, but I have never been able to complete a phone call in analog mode. I certainly like the battery life, alarm clock, calendar, color screen, web browser, and other features that my StarTac did not have, but I purchased the phone primarily to use as a phone, not a toy. Hopefully LG has fixed the reception issue in their newer phones, but I will be hard pressed to purchase anything but Motorola in the future.
An oldie but a goodie
With the recent advent of picture messaging (and now video messaging), this phone seems like a relic from an era gone long ago. However, I just want to caution vzw customers from overlooking what has been a great phone since its purchase over a year and a half ago.
This little phone (and I do mean little, even in modern cell phone terminology) has been a pleasure to work with and I regard it as one of my most important tools at my disposal. It's always reliable (minus that one black-hole area where analog calls don't work) and I rarely have any dropped calls or other in-call problems. The battery life is superb, a year and a half after I bought it. This may not seem like much, but any vzw customer that has sampled "flip phones" knows that most models are not very durable. Nonetheless, I am proud to say that the original model I bought, is still operational and fully functional. This is a great quality, durable, efficient product that is sadly becoming fossilized among the newer cell phone models such as the 7000 and (soon to be released) 8000. I just wanted to tip my hat to LG for releasing such a wonderful phone and hope that their other products can live up to their established reputation.
Recap:
Pros
- long battery life
- durable
- tri-mode
- easy to access menus
- great user compatibility
- small
- light-weight
- attractive
- an antenna (for those hard to reach spaces)
- clear screen
- easy to see/press keys
- t9 for text messaging
cons
- that one black hole where cell service does not exist
- does not have a camera
- laughable ringtones
Was a good phone -- once
When I first bought this phone, I thought it was great! Battery lasted, I got good reception, it had the features I wanted (phone book, calendar).
Less than a year later things began going downhill.
First off, the battery seems to be going bad. I can charge the phone up at night, take it to work, not make *any* calls, and call home on the way home to tell them I'm coming (this is in downtown Salt Lake City, so I have a full & strong digital signal), and within 5 minutes the phone is beeping at me, telling me it's running out of power. If I talk for 15 to 20 minutes, the phone will *power*down*.
The weird thing is, if I turn the phone back on, it will come back to 2 or 3 bars, and I can make another call.
None of my other phones have ever lost battery life so quickly after buying them. Verizon has been less than helpful in this matter. Personally, I could not recommend this phone to anyone. I would hope this phone's successors don't have this problem, but I will not buy one of them, in case they didn't fix it.
My LG 4400 Experience
I've had the 4400 for about 5 months and until I jumped into a pool with it in my pocket, I was satisfied with it. Bottom line though, is that now that it's time to find a new phone, I am not returning to the 4400.
Pros:
- One of my favorite things about this phone is the outward display. It's easily seen in the daytime, colorful and has the right information (big time display, message indicator, etc)
- The voice recognition software has really impressed me, especially on the longer names.
- The number pad and navigation system is easy to use and the size of the phone (while ultimately a con for me) makes it really easy to talk w/o holding it.
- The phone itself is stylish and impressive. You can use the silver border of the inward display as a mirror (comes in rather handy). It is small enough to be a pocket phone.
Cons:
- The battery life leaves something to be desired. Mostly b/c it's deceiving when on stand-by for an extended amount of time. It will show a high charge, but then drop rapidly once you make even a brief call. Also, I do not talk much (always less than 400 minutes/month and I have to charge it every night.
- My least favorite thing about this phone is it's ring. The phone comes with no viable professional ring, and then non professional ones aren't very suitable either. The ring vibrate option is not simultaneous - it vibs then rings instead of at the same time. And the "manner mode" and "silence all" button is way too conveniently placed for a pocket phone. Very easy to trigger - or to set and think you rec'd a message when really you just set the manner mode.
- I also am not too fond of the message idicators which are confusing depending on what kind of message you're rec'ing.
- The color display inside is grainy and extremely difficult to see in the daytime.
- Desktop charger stopped working for me after a few months and had to trade it in for a travel charger.
LGVX4400 acceptable but still waiting for more
I've had about 7 cell phones. This is my third with Verizon. I had the LG 510. I loved this, but would not hold a charge. I then had the LGVX1. This was pulled off the market by Verizon stores. I never could hear it ring. They did not however make good on the phone so I had to buy another one...........LGvx4400. I can definitely hear the phone ring. That is, of course, if it doesn't slip into the manner mode. IT has done this many times on its own without me even touching the phone.
Pros - easy to see typeface, good color, easy navigation of menu, on/off features work well. don't have to press really hard like on lgvx1 to turn phone on/off. works most of the time
Cons-goes into manner mode without being touched
belt clip cumbersome-have to take phone out and open lid. lid is inside the belt clip area.
silly rings
phone is slippery without cover of some sort.
phone directory is difficult to retrieve previous number--goes back to first one in alphabet
can't use headset and charge phone at sametime at home
can't hear people talking to me many times-even when volume all the way up
LG VX 4400
All that you could want in a phone and is very sturdy. Great call quality. User Interface is the best I've ever used. Would highly recommend to anyone.
vx 440
US Cellular, Eastern metropolitan Iowa
A couple of my friends had this phone, and when my Nokia 3585 (USC Issued) phone got stolen, I had to look for a new one. They convinced me to buy the VX4400, and I now consider that a mistake.
The phone does have some good features, and not too many bad features, but for me personally, the bad features still are annoyances that still make it hard for me to look past the bad at the good.
PROS:
-Beautiful color screen. it really looks great.
-Nicely lit keys and screen -- very easy to read in the dark
-I like the feel of the keys, compared to the butter-soft Nokia keys. They are just firm enough and just soft enough.
-Ergonomics - the phone feels great -- rugged and solid like it wont break, but easy to hold.
-Menus are intuitive and simple, easy to navigate
CONS:
-A bit too "simple" for me. I prefer something more customizable. While the menu system is organized well, it limits itself.
-A lack of continuity. On Nokia phones, there is always an option to insert a number from the phone book somewhere. Predictive text is easy to toggle. This is not always true on the 4400 (especially with text messaging, which can be a clumsy task).
-I probably only recieve about 60% of the calls I recieve on this phone. Outlined below:
-The phone does not vibrate and ring at the same time. It can vibrate for a few seconds and then ring on high volume, but voicemail usually picks up by then.
-The ring is incredibly weak. I usually can hardly feel it
-Rings are very soft.
-Incoming calls can be silenced by pressing a side button once, and then sent straight to VM by pressing a button again. These buttons get pressed very easily in my pocket by accident, ignoring a lot of calls.
-Battery life isnt great. It isnt awful for a color phone, but I have to charge it every night (not something i usually have to do on Nokia phones).
-PC Sync options are limited.
-Phone must be on for alarm to work.
VX-4400 a dissapointment
I went out and bought a VX-4400 the day it came out. Overall, it possesses the strong quality and durability that my TM-510 had, but the 4400 had 3 major flaws that really turned me off to it. First, you can't charge the phone while your headset is plugged in unless you use a car charger adapter. Second, those damn navigation buttons are too close! An average size male can not easily differentiate between the three buttons "OK" "left/right" and the "soft keys" Finally, the ringer situation is annoying in that the vibrate / ring combination is poor. I returned the VX4400 and had my TM510 reactivated!
