LG VX-5500
Average Ratings
The Little Black Device
Like a little black dress, the LG VX5500 is essential, straightforward, and modish.
PROS:
- Sleek and comfortable to hold.
- Keys are wide enough for a man's fingertip and suitable for a lady's fingernails.
- Bright Display of vibrant colors, and perfectly portioned LCD screen both inside and out.
- Crisp sound quality.
- Extensive battery time.
- Unproblematic familiarization of the phone's functions.
- In Case of Emergency contacts/notes.
- Picture quality is adequate.
CONS:
- No zoom during picture mode. (However I find if you move your arm closer to you or further away from you, the picture is still satisfying to one's taste. After all, camera phone's aren't for distant shots.)
LG VX-5500
PROS:
--Very compact and fits easily in your pocket.
--Clear voice quality; loud & easily understood.
--Bright, colorful screen. Easy to read.
--Intuitive menu, a snap to navigate.
--Loud, clear ringers. Decent vibrate function.
--Surprisingly sturdy construction. I've dropped my handset a few times with only minimal scratches and superficial damage.
CONS:
--Not exactly a smartphone. You won't be surfing the Internet with this basic, no frills phone.
I've used this phone for a year and a half on Verizon's network in South Florida.
Ed. note: Replaced text at request of author on Jan. 9, 2011.
Seemingly a decent fone
Pros:
1. Clear display
2. Adjustable display fonts (in size)
3. Small, lightweight fone
4. Better reception than my Kyocera
5. Can change the display to a black background which has an effect on #1 above.
6. Clarity in receiving calls and not having any issues with being understood on the other end.
7. Has got so many speed dialing location that I couldn't even tell you how many it has--well over 200.
8. Has got 3 ICE designated "people to call" (ICE=in case of emergency).
9. It's bluetooth compatible although I doubt that I'll ever use it.
Cons:
1. Not sure about the life of the battery between charges. The jury is still out on this issue, but I hope to get LG's performance.
2. Doesn't have an easy-to-use voice actuated calling feature. Again this is compared to my no longer in use Kyocera.
3. Not much control over the icons in the various displays
4. I could only find 1 wallpaper that was decent and not too busy.
I am not a sophisticated cell fone user. I don't need a camera (although this fone has a basic camera), nor do I need to d/l all kinds of music. All that I want is a basic fone for making calls to my wife and a few friends. And the LG has all that and then some.
You can control all the alerts that you would want to control. The fone has a number of standard ringtones and quite a few melodies. Take your pick.
Usual options: how you want to answer your incoming calls, auto retry, 1 touch dialing, et al.
As long as the battery doesn't require constant recharging, I think that this is a pretty good fone for the average user who doesn't want to worry about digital photography or d/l music.
Inconsistent Quality in battery life?
The LG VX5500 is the kind of phone I would personally find very attractive: it is minimal on features and easy to use. I use a cell phone to make calls for work and to friends and family. I do not text or use email or any other advanced or use any high demand features. I have also been buying LG phones for the past few years and have been satisfied. I purchased my LG VX5500 because it was advertised as having a very long battery life; I returned my previous new phone after one week because it's battery life was unacceptably short to me.
I am completely dissatisfied with the LG VX550. When one phone call of approximately 8 minutes was made and the phone's alarm clock feature was used once, the charge from full lasted 36 hours. After fully charging it I made no phone calls and used the alarm again once and yielded less than 24 hours of battery life. I had full bars the entire time so the 'it was searching for service' excuse does not seem to work.
From sniffing around reviews about this phone (foolishly after the fact) it seems that quite a few other people have this same problem. Since not everyone has this problem, it is probably inconsistent production quality.
Great user-friendly, inexpensive phone.
I've had the LG VX5500 for a few months now, and it doesn't really fit me, but I couldn't afford anything much better when I got the phone. The "You get what you pay for" saying doesn't apply here.
I like the size of the phone; it fits perfectly in the fifth pocket in my jeans and is comfortable in my hand. It's sleek, although the front and main displays are smudge magnets. A quick wipe across your pant leg usually does the trick. The phone is pretty durable, too. I've dropped it a few times, and the back and battery usually go flying, but the phone works just fine when I power it back up. The phone's hinge seems fairly sturdy, although I've seen and felt sturdier. The keys aren't meant for heavy texting (I do 3000/mo), but they've held up rather well so far. The keys themselves are laid out nicely, and they're neither too big nor too small. I don't like how close the Clear button is to the End/Power button. There have been a few times where I've accidentally hit End while trying to fix a typing error and exited my browser.
The phone is very responsive, although it slows on rare occasion. It has shut off on me randomly a handful of times. I don't like how my learned words with T9 aren't usable in the browser. The camera is average and, under the right lighting, takes some pretty good pictures. The voice recognition is fairly good, providing there's little-to-no background noise. Sound quality during calls is good, although the speaker phone is only average.
Signal strength is okay (2-3 bars average), but no dropped calls. I live on the edge of suburban Chicago.
PROS:
Small, lightweight and sleek
Durable
Very easy to use
Keypad setup
Call clarity
Responsive and quick
VZ Navigator capable
Decent camera
Loud ringer and heavy vibrate (not too heavy)
CONS:
Not meant for heavy texting, although T9 is good
Learned words don't transfer to browser
Battery life is okay at best
All in all, it's a great phone if you're not going exceed its abilities.
Great phone, especially for the money.
My previous phone was an LG VX8700 and I must say, my 5500, functionally, is superior in every way.
I will comment up front on the design: the 5500 is a smudge magnet but my 8700 wasn't great about that either. The 5500 is light and feels quite sturdy, despite the fact that it's plastic and my 8700 was metal. The 8700 was slimmer, but it was also wider and I find the 5500 slightly more comfortable because it lacks that width.
Call quality is similar but battery life is FAR superior on the 5500. This was my biggest complaint with the 8700 but my new phone fits the bill! I'm on my 4th day since the battery's first charge and I still have 3 of 4 bars left. My 8700 in the same environment would last 2 days, at best, if I was lucky.
The bluetooth hands-free kit that I have in my car, which would echo terribly for the people I was talking to using my 8700, no longer echos at all. The integrated minijack on the phone is nice too: better than the dongle that my 8700 had.
I like the UI on the 5500 better: it feels cleaner to me. The 8700's camera was junk and 5500's is worse, but I've accepted that: I don't use my phone for pictures at all.
In the end, the only reason this phone doesn't get 5/5 is because I will have to put up with the smudges on the screens but otherwise, this phone is fabulous. I highly recommend it and it's an unbelievable deal for the money I paid.
The best
There are way too many reviews of the more basic phones out there that mark them down for the features they DON'T have. Listen, the specifications are available before you buy! Instead, I'm looking at how this phone performs with what it DOES have, and boy is it a winner!
Small, light, sleek...everything I want in a phone. I'm not willing to take extra bulk and weight for silly things like music players and video players. It's a phone - it's goofy to even have a camera in it, but that's pretty much a given any more.
This phone is very sleek, light, and just the right size. It's about the same width and depth as my previous favorite, the Motorola W385, but considerably shorter. It rides in a shirt or pants pocket comfortably.
Battery life is phenomenal. I charged it exactly a week ago and give it light to moderate use, much of that in a reception-challenged building. As of today, it has only lost one bar of battery charge, and manages to receive where others failed.
Voice clarity on both ends is quite good - I have had no complaints from others, and everything I hear on my end is crystal clear.
Build quality is quite good, though there is the smallest amount of play in the flip when closed - my only quibble with the phone as a whole, and not enough to mark it down overall. It is quite solid when open. The battery charge port is behind a rubber plug, but for once LG put a retainer on the plug, so this one won't get lost like my last one (on a VX5400). I love the trend toward phones without external antennas, but the earlier antenna-less phones I've had struggled a little more with reception. Not this one - reception is strong and reliable.
If you're looking for a multi-media messaging, video, and audio brick, this isn't the phone for you, but if you need a phone that makes great calls and rides with you comfortably all day long - Five Stars.
LGVX5500
Lightweight, small, and the battery life is very good. Pictures are clear and sound is good. Lights are bright and buttons are easy to see and push.
Definately a fingerprint magnet. No video is a bummer. If someone sends one to your phone, you'll get a text telling you to go to a website to view the video.
It's a rebate phone so it's not bad, considering. If you're not into taking a lot of video's, this is a great phone to have.
best basic phone
this is an entry level phone. it has all the standard features that a cell should have.
bluetooth
speaker
camera (vga)
color display (in and out)
great battery life
call clarity and reception is very good, as all LG's have.
considering that this phone is free after rebate, you cant ask for anyhting better. it does not feel cheap. it has a fairly solid feel to it. it only gets finger prints on the the screens (so dont eat greasy pizza then touch your phone... problem solved)
in summary, if you are not into all the music and pics/vids, then this is the phone for you.
Good enough
The LGVX5500 is good enough for those users wanting a basic phone. Let's get real. The cell phone industry really isn't working for us. They continue to develop multi-purpose phones for the 15-30 year old "on-the-go" crowd. That's fine, but it is nice that they have't totally forgotten about everyone else. Phones like the 5500 have many of the features as the "on-the-go" phones, just scaled down.
What I like about this phone: 1) low cost, 2) excellent battery (best I've seen), 3) call clarity, 4) great signal, 5) very light and compact.
What I don't like: 1) plastic, 2) fingerprint magnet.
My last phone was a MOTO KRZR. I loved the sturdy construction, but became disappointed when the battery stopped holding a charge 18-months into my contract. Motorola really needs to fix that or risk losing more market share to LG and Samsung.
Bottom line: the LG VX5500 is just fine for people needing a basic phone. For the ney-sayers out there: "Have you ever found a phone you completely like?"
