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
Another Solid LG.
This phone is fantastic. It's a shame that it is now officially discontinued, as its successor, the LG Muziq, isn't nearly as enjoyable of an experience. This phone just feels right. From its tactile buttons to the overall feel, it is a joy to handle. Everything just seems to work. The included multiple faceplates is a nice touch and the customizable themes, although limited, is nice to see for a change.
Pros:
+ The display is fantactically clear and vibrant.
+ Sound is very nice, as it should be for this type of phone.
+ Beautiful finish.
+ Bluetooth works very well.
+ The camera is absolutely flawless. It is VERY fast and highly responsive to movement and the flash is perfect.
+ An overall solid build.
Cons:
- The menu, while mostly very competent and easy-to-use, has a few areas that seem a tad more convoluted that what they should have been. But, this is a minor issue that in no way detracts from the phone.
Obviously, this is another winner from LG. You won't be disappointed.
Sanyo Who?
I waited in the weeds for the new Katana to come out, after having to return a Samsung A920 due to it dropping tons of calls.
I travel the Upstate NY area, and the network works fantastic on my former phone, the MM7400 by Sanyo. I loved this phone, and it have owned it the longest of any since becoming a wireless customer.
Pros:
Fantastic signal strength, and will not drop calls.
Battery life is way better than expected, especially with all the web-browsing, Text Messaging, and fooling around I do with this phone. (keep in mind also that I use this phone for 2900 minutes on average peak-time a month to boot)
Screen is beautiful, and very clear to read. The outside screen is a treat, also... Very large and doesn't distort screensavers.
Customizing lets you basically operate this thing like its a Sanyo, so you can get to most anything very easily. The quick launch and favorites is actually a nice feature to let you get to everything pretty rapidly.
Bluetooth intergration is a snap, tends to be a tad balky with my Tellphone 4000, but that is something that has plagued each phone that I have owned. (the A920, and I used my PPC6700 for a long time on it... BRUTAL HANDS FREE KIT)
The music player and music store is a pretty awesome setup, and the FM Transmitter works pretty decent. (as long as you can find a blank station, and have a digital tuner on the radio)
Cons.
Not wild about having to carry a white phone... So far the finish seems to be pretty resilant to scratches and such... But still not wild about it. Dropping this phone is probably going to make me cry when it finally happens.
I am not wild about the hinge setup, and the phone answers WAY to fast sometimes on flip-to-answer mode to ignore a call without answering it. I like to be able to push a phone against my face without the hinge letting it stretch backwards. But this is a MINOR thing and I am getting used to it.
Anybody that buys this phone will love it.
And then there was the FUSIC
I recently purchased the FUSIC by LG with a lot of hesitation and skepticism. I have had a turbulant relationship with Sprint, and a very bad expeience with my PM-325 LG phone. My âCingularâ friends all tried to convert me to Cingular and made fun of LG phones, stating that LG makes refrigerators, not cell phones. Despite a few of their convincing arguments, I still had a very small streak of faith in Sprint; however, I had convinced myself to NEVER buy an LG phone again. That idea lasted for about a week. I surprised all my friends when I purchased the FUSIC by LG; they thought it was an insane move. But looking at all the phones that Sprint had to offer, I concluded that this FUSIC LG, despite my bad LG experience, was the phone for me. It had everything that I was looking for, mp3 player, an FM Transmitter for the car, removable memory, USB cable, picbridge, Bluetooth, 4.5 hours of continuous talking time, high quality flash camera, I canât live without my music and this phone brings the music with me everywhere I go. And to top all of that off, the phone comes with blue, pink, green and black faceplates! This phone can compliment anyone.
PROS:
- Very good signal!!
- Goes exactly back to the same place your song was at when interrupted by a call
- Insanely good Speakers!
- Mp3 buttons on the front of phones makes it very easy to use
- Fairly-fast internet connection
- Fun ringers and two very clean themes
- Red blinking light when you have a missed call or text
- Can record a movie and put it as the main screen of your phone...
- USB and memory are easy to plug in and remove
- long battery life!
CONS:
- FM Transmitter has been a bit shaky for me. I have been told that it could possibly be my car? I drive a 2006 Scion TC, anyone have similar difficulties?
- 64 mb memoryâ¦not enoughâ¦That only holds about 12 songs for meâ¦.Upgraded mine to a 1GIG for 60 bucks
- Not a very attractive style, (clamshell with an antenna poking out? noo)
GOOD PHONE SO FAR!
Slim and speedy
I have been a Treo owner (Treo 600 then Treo 650) for a few years and loved all the Treo connectivity (web, txt msgs, picture mail, etc.), but hated having such a large weight in my pocket. Also, the Treo 650 (especially) was not a very good phone--it dropped a lot of calls and had an uncanny ability to lock-up when I was trying to make an important phone call.
Enter the LG Fusic...slim, reliable, and speedy (EVDO data service). I have loved this phone and have had no technical problems with it. I have had this phone for nearly two weeks and have only dropped one call. Reception is excellent and the battery life is as good or better than what I was used to with the Treo.
I really like the 1.3 MP camera...I could actually print some of these shots as 4x6's. If you would like to see some examples, check out my Fusic pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cadetx/tags/fusic/
My favorite feature is the EVDO data access--wow is it FAST! I pay for the Sprint "phone as modem" ($39.99 per mo.) option so that I can connect my laptop through my Fusic to get online at coffee shops that either don't have Wi-Fi or want to charge for it. Setting this up is very easy using the Sprint PCS Connection Manager software as long as you have the "phone as modem" option enabled on your account (haven't found a way around that).
Pros: Great camera, FAST EVDO data service, slim/light (fits in my pocket nicely), and excellent reception.
Cons: FM transmitted performs poorly...needs to be less than foot away from antenna (really). Typing txt msgs on numeric keypad after Treo's QWERT keyboard is hard to get used to.
the fusic is great
I just got the phone on Saturday (6/10) and I love it. Not only can I make it pink, I can load the expandable micro SD slot with whatever music I'm in the mood for, I can also sync it to my car stereo with the FM transmitter. I can control which songs I want to listen to in the car just like with my ipod. Unlocking the keyguard is quick and easy making perusal of the playlist much easier than opening the phone to do it. I really like how I can have videos of my favorite bands play on my outside display when I receive a call or voicemail. The bluetooth is easy to pair and the voice dial works well with my bluetooth headset. I can't seem to figure out how to send photos via bluetooth yet but I haven't even touched the handbook and I'm not about to. I'm sure it's just user error.
One of my favorite things about the phone is that I can custom-build my everything that falls under the category of "Favorites", which is the accessed by hitting the left soft key. The right soft key is contacts. This way everything is truely "at my fingertips".
The battery even lasts longer than I expected. I've barely had the phone for two days and I'm fully using each and every feature of the phone and the battery seems to hold strong. I work in the cellular industry and see battery problems nearly every day. With the LX550, I'm impressed.
The only fault I can find with the phone is that screen leaves a little to be desired. If it were a little bigger I feel I'd be completely confident that this is the best phone that Sprint has to offer at this time. It's slimmer than the 9000, 920 and the 940 and has more features.
Overall: great phone. Definately worth the buy.
Best phone I have ever owned!
I bought this phone 3 days ago and still can't put it down. This is by far the best and most full featured phone I have ever owned. I have had just about every higher end phone Sprint has offered in the last 4 years, (A920, 9000, 7400 being some of the most recent) and none of them compare to the LG LX-550.
PRO's
*1.3MP camera takes a great photo (not the best in low light situations, but remember, this is a phone)
*MP3 player built in with up to 1GB worth of music with the expandable Micro SD slot.
*Nice music controls on the front of the phone. Easy to use and easy to unlock when needed.
*Wireless FM transmitter works surprisingly well up to around 10ft with a good antenna on the radio. (seems to work better once the clamshell is closed, probably due to less power being consumed)
*The most unlocked Bluetooth features of any phone I'm aware of.
*Great screen quality inside and out. I can even see it pretty well in direct sunlight.
*Animated wallpaper is pretty cool. (though I wish I could turn off the time/date on the inside screen when using the animated clock/date wallpaper)
*User definable Nav keys (this is always nice to have)
*Keypad layout is well spaced out and easy to locate with the rubber texture outline on each key. It also lights up well for night time use.
*PowerVision.
*Signal strength and sound quality are great as well, even when there is a "no bar" signal (used near Pittsburgh PA)
CON's
*The phones music volume does not get very loud though the sound quality is excellent and the FM transmitter helps to make up for this in my opinion.
*Battery life could use a little help. For a phone with this many power draining features, a much stronger battery would have been ideal.
*Every time you reply to any text/MMS message, a pop-up asks you how to reply. Either Text or Other. I use anywhere between 3500 and 5000 texts a month, and this extra step is already a bit annoying.
All in all, I am very happy with this phone.
A real power house -- not just bells & whistles!
LG has a winner here! Coming off of a Samsung a900, then the a920, there's no comparison. What I'm really excited about with this phone is it's Bluetooth performance. INSTANT call transfer to my headset and no loss of connectivity after almost 1-week of use (The Samsungs routinely dropped the BT connection and would not re-connect without re-pairing first). Also, no issues x-ferring all my Outlook contacts, AND...I can even x-fer Outlook appts via BT! I'm hoping to score a the new Sony/Erricson stereo BT headset and try A2DP. This phone is a breeze to use with it's fast menu and contacts browsing (no delays anywhere), and it's fullly-learning T9. Some other pros and cons:
PROS
- good, all around camera for both day and low light shots (much better than my 700p's camera)
- compact size
- bright, crisp displays
- can launch music playback for either songs on memory card or Sprint's music service with external controls
- FM transmitter - great feature to allow you to listen to your music when in the car!
CONS
- keypad letters are tiny
- speaker volume doesn't adjust very loud for music playback through headsets
- stub antenna ...why???
After one-week, I'm still discovering & learning new features that makes this phone a standout over any that I've previously owned. Way to go LG!!
1st Impressions of the LG Fusic
First let me say I am in no way some kind of a phone professional, just a bit of a techie type that wanted to solve a problem. I don't own an Ipod, yes, I am the one guy that doesn't have one, sorry Apple. I have been looking for a phone that was also an MP3 player for sometime and I wanted one that would work with Sprint and was at least 1 Gig. The Fusic along with a microSD memory card purchased at Best Buy for $79 and I had what I wanted ( if your the patient type you can order the same microSD card from newegg.com and save $20 or so ). I have had this phone for a total of 2 days but here are my thoughts.
Bluetooth works great with my Plantronics Pulsar 590 Headset. The A2DP profile is in full effect. You can in fact listen to music in Stereo and if a call comes in the music will pause you can answer the call and when its done you can resume listen to music in stereo again by restarting the Media Player. Seems to me it should not be that complicated. When the call ends, just make my music play again, I don't want to have to do anything, its my hope this will be addressed in some sort of firmware update but like I said I am no phone pro.
Pro's
1. Super MP3 player, holds 250+ songs easily
2. FM Transmitter works as good as any others I have tried.
3. Screens seem good to me.
4. Menus were good enough I didn't really need the manual.
5. Wife looks good as my Background/Screen saver (Your results may vary)
6. Voice Dial Stuff works very well with my headset.
Con's
1. Bit cumbersome to get back to music after making a call.
2. To much info on the small screen when a call comes in. I just want to see the picture id I have setup, not the time, date and additional info.
I think this phone is a firmware upgrade from being having a 5.0 rating. Its certainly the best phone I have every used. If you use sprint it will be the best flip phone you have probably used too.
The Truth Is...
Hi folks, Let me first say that I'm a consumer like most of you probably are so this is the good the bad and the ugly of my experience so far with the new LG Fusic.
Pro's & Con's:
*MP3/MP4 player is the main reason for buying this phone. Quality is good for playing music. I'm upset that you can't run multiple applications at once such as start the music and then use another function like your calendar, contacts, etc. A function at a time is all the OS will support.
*Micro SD Slot - 64mb card is included & you can upgrade to a larger storage card. Just be sure you get MICRO SD size. I bought a 1 Gig card ($35 on an auction website) and it allows me to use the phone as a USB flash drive...
* USB Cable - With this, I donât need to pay for Picture Mail! I can download all my pictures and videos from my phone and then send them via regular mail. NOTE when the phone is in USB mode, it will NOT receive calls! For insance a 1 Gig transfer of files from phone to laptop w/ USB cable takes about 45 min's! The USB cable & phone can also be used as a wireless internet service (with additional software). I haven't tried it on this phone but w/ past phones I find it's not worth the hassle as the internet service drops constantly unless absoluately necessary.
* Video Camera â Video & Audio Quality is decent for a cell phone but NOT good enough to become your âend allâ for recording family memories! It's nice to have in a pinch if you're primary camera isn't around.
* FM Transmitter â Don't count on this feature! Even though I've tried every station known to man, I can BARELY hear my music behind all the STATIC! Ugh.
* Speaker Phone â has below average sound quality and loudness.
* Earphones â Within 30 days I started having to restart the phone in order to get it to recognize the provided head phones. If I don't restart, audio just keeps coming out the main ear peice.
* OVERALL â The features of this phone are offset by the fact that LG needs to stop making low quality stuff! :(
Best mp3 phone for sprint, but not the best mp3 phone
I have been wanting an mp3 phone for some time. The selection with sprint isn't that great however. When the Fusic came out I was very excited and headed down to the Sprint store right away to try it out. I was ready to walk in and buy it but it just kept turning me off.
Reasons:
1. External antennae. If they could lose it for the Chocolate they could have lost it for the Fusic. I mean come on, my nokia i purchased 2 years ago is even external antennae free.
2. FM transmitter but no FM radio. The FM transmitter doesn't work that great anyway. All reports I've read is that it has to be about a foot from the antennae for it to work. The FM radio is a nice feature (it's on my Nokia) when I'm at the gym and want to listen to one of the TV channels.
3. 2 music players. One for your music and the other for music purchased through Sprint. This is very annoying. Absolutely no reason these shouldn't merge. Plus the non Sprint player does a poor job of reading ID3 tags. And neither of the songs (transferred or from sprint can be used as ringtones)
4. Color choice. Ok, maybe this is a weak reason and you can change the inset face plate but the overall white phone is just not attractive to me.
There are some great features such as the great player controls and the bluetooth stereo. But I just couldn't justify the purchase.
In this day and age most phone companies are pretty similar when it comes to coverage. It's the phone that sells me. After over 6 years with sprint, i had to finally leave because i felt they were behind when it came to phone selection. I did enjoy their service and the fair and flexible plan was great but none of their phones could convince me to pull out my checkbook. Where are the cool sanyos these days?
I just switched to Cingular because they carry the Sony Ericsson W810i. That is by far the best mp3 phone I've seen. If you have the option to leave sprint and are looking for a good mp3 phone, I highly suggest you take a look at it.
