LG Dare hands-on
By Paul Miller 
posted Jun 25th 2008 9:25AM
posted Jun 25th 2008 9:25AM
Unfortunately, where things start to fall apart is polish. The phone inexplicably carries two app menus, one a "shortcut menu" accessed by a button off to the side of the home screen, the other a full-fledged affair accessed by the primary soft button row... which is also on the home screen. We also had trouble with the QWERTY keypad despite the abundant horizontal real estate the Dare commits to it. We got better as we became accustomed to tapping with our fingernails (thumb presses don't work, it's not a capacitive touch screen). Other things like the inability to fling your way through menus and long web pages are minor niggles, but detract from the overall experience.
It's also quite clear that the Dare is a featurephone, not a smartphone, so if you were hoping to manage email effectively or keep up with your appointments, you're probably better off sticking with one of those Big Kids phones -- even if the Dare's messaging and contact integration is admirable. The browser is also a "full HTML" browser in the most minor of senses. Sure it understands HTML, but it won't be rendering web pages anything like they're supposed to look, other than specially formatted mobile sites -- which sort of defeats the purpose. At least the anti-aliased fonts are a step up from traditional Verizon fare.
In all we'd liken the phone to its incohesive and boring external design: all the right elements are there, but they might need some more time in the oven to really make sense.
sold!
but what bout battery life?
exactly what I was thinking (both things)
I have had mine for bout 3 weeks and the battery life is really good. I jst mine constantly and i get 2 days out of one charge.
The battery life is good on the LG dare..u can learn more about it at http://lg-dare.com..it has lots of info!!
The battery life is good on the LG dare..u can learn more about it at
http://lg-dare.com it has lots of info!!
why doesn't it have windows mobile or s60?
Obviously this is trying to compete with the iphone (which i am no fan of) why would they put a crappy verizon os instead of making it a real smartphone?
Because it doesnt. Also WM6 will just crash all the time like any other Windows OS!
Well,it's verizon.And if they didnt put it on the voyager then what would make ya think the would put it on here?
funny, b/c the last night ive had any windows OS shut down unexpectedly on me (between my laptop (XP/Vista), work computer (XP), home computer (Vista), media center PC (XP), secondary home computer (XP)) was when lightening struck the power lines outside my work over night and cut power to building, but im sure whatever you use would be able to not shut down after that right? and in case your wondering, the time before that was when i was overclocking my graphics card in my home computer from 600Mhz to 800Mhz.
seriously... grow up
Verizon? Putting a crappy OS on a nice device?
Dude, that's their SOLE PURPOSE as a wireless carrier.
I think the only phone they didn't jizz all over was the Motorola E815, debatably one of the best mobile phones ever made.
Jizz all over lol... ya the e815 was a solid rock, that or the v325. Blackberrys are still the best for me anyways
this phone isn't aimes toward the smart phne audience, it's aimed toward the cool phone audience. For me, a 14-year-old, if anyone got this phone they would be the envy of everyone else at school. They don't need a smart phone. It is a functional phone, has a calendar, and is still cool, which smart phones are not. I am the audience Verizon is aiming this at.
its not a smart phone its a touch smart phone and its not trying to compete with the iphone its been out before the iphone in south korea
clak?
he must be gone today
Mmmmm...nope, the curve it is.
If you are going to use a real camera to take a bunch of photos of a device and actually have more than a millisecond to review the photos prior to publication can't you, you know, arrange the lighting so there are no device-obfuscating bright spots in the photos?
You know...clickety click...oh, that one could be better..clickety click...yeah, that's a good one...etc
what ever happened to "tactile response"
Looks sorta phoney.......... no i didnt mean iphoney *rolls eyes*
Dude, cut your nails. That's gross.
Wow, this just goes to show you guys don't know what real women's hands look like lol!
thats a woman, dont you hear a woman talking, saying did u get that? Shows how much time you been around women hermit!
Long nails on a woman is one thing......on a guy it's another.
That's not your mother it's a man baby!
Man, woman, or alien, thems the damn fugliest hands I ever seen!
Yea, that hand needs a manicure or some French tips or something. Some lotion wouldn’t be a bad idea either, just sayin...
there is a new cool phone out and yet yall are focused on cuticles and nails......dont call yourself men anymore.
Come on cut your nails
And funny enough, you can't use the iPhone's touchscreen with your fingernail, it won't recognize it. So, I guess the Dare has an advantage there, if you're like this person with long, nasty fingernails.
Looks like ET's thumb with manicured nails.
Sounds like the only negatives are that it's not an iPhone and doesn't try to be one either. Sounds good to me.
that click click of those long nails drove me crazy! Other than that its pretty neat. All phones have their problems and downfalls. Hopefully the benefits outweigh the negatives. Also would have been nice to see how responsive it is with fingers not nails. Specifically my meat paw's when using this thing. Also *crosses fingers for firmware update later*
Looks great! .... if I had fingernails that long to operate the touchscreen. Blah.
And why can't portable devices handle voice to text (other than Nuvi 800 series that cost as much as a laptop)?
Some people would rather buy a Iphone ripoff then go sign their life away to AT&T. Also is it not a good thing all the companies are trying to compete? instead making the Iphone a fluke and no one tries to do anything about it. Like say the Ipod? Remember it took companies a lot longer to answer or at least try to answer the Ipod. I think its a good thing we are getting so many alternatives so soon. Competition=Consumer Wins
That was for the guy under you lol
looks cool, but it still fails.
Nice phone pretty much everything you would want but 2 bad about the camera, they could of really took advantage that the iPhone only has a 2mp camera but putting a 5mp into it instead of a still fairly mediocre 3.2mp unit.
3.2MP is still damn good for a phone.
lol 3.2 MP is better than my old pos digital camera
Hmm, where have I seen that VZ Navigator icon before???
If all you IPhoner people are so happy, why are you reading reviews of other phones. That's like having (insert name of most beautiful woman) in your bed, and you're on the computer looking at porn. If you love your Iphone, go play with it. Leave the rest of us alone.
Keep you friends close but your enemies closer?
And who's to say that just because we like the iPhone, we can't like other devices? Am I not suppose to look at gadgets because I have one that I like. If I owned a Ferrari, should I never go to car shows, read car magazines? I'm a Honda guy, I think domestics domestics are POS's but that doesn't stop me from reading Hot Rod magazine... because some of it interests me. Windows is a s***y OS, but you can do things on Windows you can't on OSX, so I keep up with PC developments.
Way to kill off the moderates who can respect all technologies.
You call Windows shitty and say you respect all technlogies.
Yeah right.
what he's saying is people are tired of bashing a new touch cell phone just for the fact it is not an iPhone. Because there is no apple on it, it must be crap. I wonder if any of you f**king fanboys remember the old days of the 90's, when APPLE spelled FAIL, in the days of the PowerPC and Infared ports, or the days of BBS that you could only goto one site out of a hundred that was made only for Macs.
Apple has had it's share of failure. All companies have. Don't treat it like it's a bullet-proof idol of gold. Whats being said here is if you like your iphone, good, but don't belittle people for not having one or the phone is terrible because it's not an iphone... it's the same mind frame as racism or sexism, its called bigotry and ignorance.
Iphones are innovative is many ways, but blatantly primitive in others, no MMS, 2MP camera, barely out with 3G on a network that only has 2% of the country covered with 3G speeds. Thats why ATT phones all have WiFI, because EDGE is like a canker sore on your junk that won't heal, and WiFi is an ointment so you can pretend you don't have a phone that can't have high speed data access.
I salute the phone as a good stab at innovation and triumph over the Voyager (hopefully), and its going to sell. They don't say It's The Network for nothing...
so we are supposed to look porn at on our iPhones not our computers?
iPhone for one, please try and spell correctly if you're bashing.
I also hate to tell you this, but I sleep next to a beautiful woman every night, and we BOTH look at porn every day....I'm not really sure what you're trying to say there.
I didn't know I am married to my iPhone?! So now I can't look at other phones? Is that in the contract?
There used to be a time when I would stroll through the mall here in Asia and look at all the shiny new phones from all the different manufacturers. Nokia, Moto, Samsung, and all the others and a few chinese brands you have never heard of. A plethora of phones on offer. There would be new models every week. I would go through and pick the ones with the nicest design and check prices. That used to be one of my favorite pastimes when the wife went on a shopping binge.
Since the iPhone, it has become extremely boring, to the point where I don't do it anymore. Everything else is just so far behind, it sucks. There's iPhone wanna-bes, some with nice hardware design (HTC Touch). But if you try them you find the touch screen doesn't really work and the software sucks big time. There's traditional candybar phones, they just look so bland. Can't do anything on that itty bitty screen, and maybe some comically slow version of Symbian S60 - it feels like 1999.
So there you have it - I am interested in this review because I want to know if somebody, somewhere can get something out the door that is either a good clone of the iPhone or even - gasp - something else entirely which doesn't feel like it's 5 years older than what I am already carrying in my pocket.
I wish Nokia and the others get back on track with their stuff, that they wake up and realize how crappy their offerings really are and how lame it is to pack a million barely-working features into their phones.
My only hope is Android at this point, but I am missing the enthusiastic embrace that would be necessary to make this a real competitor any time soon, instead they waste time on old, broken systems (winMo, S60). The mobile market is seriously lacking for competition right now.
Good enough for you? And please don't mention the F... word - we are gadget freaks that's why we are here, and we demand better.
Probably. He does the stupid apple symbols.
Dam it! I just trimmed my nails!
are you guys looking at the same interface i am? cuz that's friggin' OOG - A - LAY!! just brutal!!
definitely gonna get this. much better than the original red bars UI
Yuck. No capacitive touchscreen. It would drive me crazy to have to use my fingernails (or lack of) to use the phone. If you're going to make an iPhony at least make it have the same type of touchscreen tech.
Zak??
Why is no one but apple doing doing multi-touch? Other than that, this is a really tight phone.
Don't they have a patent on that?
Well, we've just confirmed that this phone is drag-queen friendly. I want to see more of this phone though! How does it compare to the instinct I just dropped $129 on?
Yay! More shitty crap from Verizon!
Yay!
To everyone complaining about the nails:
"We got better as we became accustomed to tapping with our fingernails (thumb presses don't work, it's not a capacitive touch screen)."
So it looks like this is a touchscreen that's designed to be used with a stylus... that's why nail taps work better than "finger presses".
Ergo failure. I know that it'd be easier, for example, to scroll through contacts with a fingertip as opposed to a nail.
Man, woman, or alien, thems the damn fugliest hands I ever seen!
I couldn't even watch the video, scariest hands ever man.
A year and a half after the iPhone (and whether you like it or hate it is irrelevant), and this is what the telecom Big Boys are capable of!?
Where's the innovation? (And please, it's not in the greater #mp for the camera, or video-recording, or flash, or the primitive haptics).
Still lightyears ahead of the joke that is the iPhone. And the neonode and the LG Prada were out long before Cupertino crapped out the polished turd.
"Where's the innovation? (And please, it's not in the greater #mp for the camera, or video-recording, or flash, or the primitive haptics)."
Ok, then tell us what exactly "innovation" is to you because from what I can derive from the musing on the internet it boils down to this:
What Apple does = innovation
What other companies do that Apple did not do = not innovative and gimmicks until Apple does the same thing then we can call it innovation.
Thus the bar for what innovation is is constantly moved around so Apple fans can always say what company X does is not "innovative".
The Apple Protection Racket at its bare essence.
@fred says:
"What Apple does ..... Apple did not do = not.... Apple fans can always ....... Apple Protection Racket...."
You've got an Apple obsession, buddy.
Grow up. Get over it.
A year and a half after the iPhone (and whether you like it or hate it is irrelevant), and this is what the telecom Big Boys are capable of!?
Where's the innovation? (And please, it's not in the greater #mp for the camera, or video-recording, or flash, or the primitive haptics).
Apologies for the double (and now resultant third) post.
iPhone was "inspired" by LG Prada, remember the lawsuit?
Anyone else notice that if you go to the page on verizonwireless.com, and click through to open the huge picture of this phone, the letter in the little envelope icon has a weird message?
http://news.vzw.com/images/releases/LG_Dare_Right_H4Web.jpg
Maybe its just me.
Couple things:
1. Dumb comments about the camera. The lens used on the camera is actually very good for a camera phone. The number of megapixels is sort of irrelevant these days, as anyone who reads this site ought to know.
2. Hands were definitely scary, dont care who they belonged to.
yeah apparently its a verizon CSR's phone.
The letter says:
Dear Mr Lee
I never really try to be
positive. I'm too damn busy
being negative. So focused on what
And never understand what it mean (ends)
Strange message. The writer is probably talking about this phone. I'm trying to be positive about this phone but really, c'mon--LG/Verizon OS?! Reeks of failure (ie LG Voyager, EnV, etc). Any other specs than the touch screen and 3.2 MP camera? No GPS? Been with Verizon for almost 3 years now and I must say, they have the crappiest phones.
I don't know but the goofy Verizon logo kills the deal for me.
Nice. UI looks a little better than those cheap iphone ripoffs selling on ebay for $100.
Another iphone killer bites the dust
any news on price??
"Reeks of failure (ie LG Voyager, EnV, etc). Any other specs than the touch screen and 3.2 MP camera? No GPS? Been with Verizon for almost 3 years now and I must say, they have the crappiest phones."
Try again... Had them for 3 years and never heard of VZ Navigator? Back to the analog black and white phone with you.
it has GPS, you should really look at the specs before you post. It also has 3G, as do most other Verizon phones. It is actually an impressive phone. Verizoon just cripples it so you can only use those features for certain things and sometimes have to pay extras for them.
You call VZ Navigator GPS?! Gimme a break. Try using a REAL navigation to get around.
But you're right on one thing, using a VZW phone is like using a B&W analog. The only thing good about VZW is that I can hack the BT profile with QSPT, use Bitpim with it and do some seem edits to use it as a free wireless modem.
@ Argot. I don't think you saw the same video the rest of us did. Hater.
I don't ever want to see the word "niggles" used in a tech/gadget post, again.. Evar! It rates up there with "preggers" and "fashionista".
I think this is the perfect luxury phone for Verizon. I felt the Env2 was too childish and just couldn't cut it as a serious competitor in the touchscreen field. As much as people would love to hate the iPhone, it's hard to ignore that the iPhone has influenced it's UI.
The big advantage this handset has over the iPhone is being on Verizon's network. I'm excited by the big three networks pulling their own flagship touchscreen offerings.
women with long finger nails = Verizon wireless. Now I get it....
those fingers are gross.. i couldnt finish watching this
what he's saying is people are tired of bashing a new touch cell phone just for the fact it is not an iPhone. Because there is no apple on it, it must be crap. I wonder if any of you f**king fanboys remember the old days of the 90's, when APPLE spelled FAIL, in the days of the PowerPC and Infared ports, or the days of BBS that you could only goto one site out of a hundred that was made only for Macs.
Apple has had it's share of failure. All companies have. Don't treat it like it's a bullet-proof idol of gold. Whats being said here is if you like your iphone, good, but don't belittle people for not having one or the phone is terrible because it's not an iphone... it's the same mind frame as racism or sexism, its called bigotry and ignorance.
Iphones are innovative is many ways, but blatantly primitive in others, no MMS, 2MP camera, barely out with 3G on a network that only has 2% of the country covered with 3G speeds. Thats why ATT phones all have WiFI, because EDGE is like a canker sore on your junk that won't heal, and WiFi is an ointment so you can pretend you don't have a phone that can't have high speed data access.
I salute the phone as a good stab at innovation and triumph over the Voyager (hopefully), and its going to sell. They don't say It's The Network for nothing...
amen
Did those fingernails freak anybody else out? Or was it just me.
what if i want to slide to unlock?
Why does everyone here continually make every new touch screen phone an iphone competitor. In my eyes.. and i would think you guys would feel the same way fellow engadgeteers.. but the only phone that is ever going to be considered an " Iphone killer " or " more innovative " will be the phones HTC makes with Android. I dont think anyone elses OS will be capable of doing what OSX does, and what Android will do.
"Some" Verizon employees I know are touting this as a Verizon version of the iPhone. So yes, people are thinking that this phone is a legitimate competitor. But seriously, no one outside of Verizon thinks this will ever beat the iPhone in features and usability.
I'll stick to my first gen LG Chocolate until the HTC Touch Pro comes out. Android or not, it's a sick phone!
those are some creepy ass fingers, geez...
I find the article kind of confusing:
What's the difference between a feature phone and a smartphone?
When does one device crosses the line between these 2 categories?
And what does it mean that it manages e-mail "effectively"? Either this thing manages e-mails or it does'nt. What's the way in between?
Man I am so bummed I want to cry.
I am about to the end of my contract with vzw so I was totally counting on this phone to be great. It seems it might be if the touch screen actually worked. Who is going to grow their fingernails out just to type on phone?
vzw = sucky phones
att = sucky service/network
me = screwed
you don't have to grow your fingernails out to use this phone, if you can't handle the QWERTY, then don't turn it sideways and use the t9 just like every other phone
I find the article kind of confusing.
What's the difference between a feature phone and a smartphone?
When does one device crosses the line between these 2 categories?
And what does it mean that it can't manage e-mails effectively?
Either it can manage e-mails or it can't
"Either it can manage emails or it can't"
I take it you haven't owned a Symbian phone before. My N73 had a plethora of features that it did very badly. So it could do _________ (fill in the blank), but it did it so badly that you used it once to try it out and then never again.
I have to agree though that then calling it "feature phone" sounds like marketing speak.
Can you play videos that you upload to the phone?
I was gonna wait till the Venus got a lower price then get that, but even if the Venus went down to $100, I think getting this might be worth the extra money!
Like Verizon (for the most part) hate the crappy interface.
This would have been alot better on a smart phone OS, or better yet, a future smart phone OS, like say Android.
I agree with RC. I've even gone so far as to voice my opinion directly with Verizon re capacitive screens. They don't understand that this is a distinguishing feature that sets the iPhone apart from all other phones. Resistive screens wear so fast. If it was glass or high quality polymer capacitive (like the Prada phone), Verizon would have a true viable contender since they have such a great network.
okay. I like it. closet thing to an iPhone on Verizon.
BUT what about the touch screen? Is it better then the Voyager?? Because I thought that sucked and returned it.
If it's better then the Voyager then I'm sold!
**Closest**
I hate when people don't check their typing... I guess I hate me now?