Camera Phone Reviews

LG Chocolate VX8550

LG Chocolate VX8550 Reviews

LaptopMag reviews the LG Chocolate VX8550 and writes, "In most other respects the Chocolate VX8550 is a solid if unspectacular V CAST phone. Streamed videos started playing within about ten seconds, but the quality was only decent. We watched a couple of YouTube clips and a CNN news update, and there were noticeable artifacts, especially in full-screen mode. The 1.3-MP camera still lacks a flash, and some of our pics in daylight appeared washed out, but the results are okay for e-mailing or sharing via MMS. The 176 x 144-pixel videos, on the other hand, are too tiny for YouTube or for enjoying on your PC. Voice quality and voice and data coverage were excellent on our tests in New York City and New Jersey. Callers could tell we were on a cell phone, but we didn't experience a single dropped call."

CNET reviews the LG Chocolate VX8550 and writes, "The LG VX8550 Chocolate has a 1.3-megapixel camera much like that of its predecessor. Camera settings include three different resolutions (1,280x960, 640x480, 320x240), a self-timer, white balance, color effects, night mode, spot or average metering, plus the choice of three shutter sounds (with a silent option). There's also 2x zoom for use at lower resolutions. The built-in camcorder has two recording times--30 seconds or so for MMS, and an hour or more for as much space as there's available. The white balance and color effects settings are the same as the still camera. Photo quality was pretty amazing. Images were saturated with color, and objects weren't blurry. Low-light photos did not fare as well because of the lack of flash. Video quality was all right but pretty grainy and shaky as is to be expected from a camera phone."

PCMag reviews the LG Chocolate VX8550 and writes, "The built-in 1.3-megapixel camera takes sharp shots, though it does tend to overexpose images slightly and wash out the brightest areas. There was refreshingly little blur in low-light shots. The video camera mode takes the usual for-novelty-value-only, low-res 176- by 144-pixel videos. The new Chocolate is Verizon Wireless's best music phone, meant for folks who intend to use their phones for multimedia. For other uses, I have other picks. ... Still, the Chocolate 8550 should satisfy music fans who've been oh-so-longingly looking at the iPhone, but are unwilling to leave Verizon."

PCWorld reviews the LG Chocolate VX8550 and writes, "I found the wheel a mixed blessing: It simplified navigation in some menus, but made it more onerous in others. Sometimes, I preferred to press the wheel like a four-way button in order to navigate up/down and left/right. ... This Chocolate may not be the best platform for handling multimedia or messaging: The lack of a keyboard makes texting difficult at best, and the interface for music playback lacks the finesse of those on competing phones such as the Nokia N95."

InfoSync reviews the LG Chocolate VX8550 and writes, "Unfortunately, the 1.3-megapixel camera has seen no discernible improvements. Images were blurry and surprisingly noisy, even in well-lit areas. Edges of objects were messy-looking in our shots. Color seemed accurate, but with all the other issues, we're still declaring these photos unusable. Even viewing pics on the small phone screen, it was obvious that they weren't going to look good at full resolution. If you have low standards for pics, you can still print and transmit photos via Bluetooth, or send them using MMS or e-mail messaging. You won't want to, but you can."

MobiletechReview reviews the LG Chocolate VX8550 and writes, "Even though there’s no upgrade in the camera department on the LG VX8550 from the VX8500, weren’t terribly disappointed. The LG VX8500 Chocolate had an excellent 1.3 megapixel camera that took sharp photos with balanced colors. The LG VX8550 Chocolate continues that tradition and offers an excellent 1.3 megapixel with fixed focus lens. The photos are sharp by 1.3 mp camera phone standards, colors are balanced with no obvious colorcast, have good level of exposure and noise is minimal even in indoor shots. You can tweak the settings for brightness, colors and more, and the phone has options to send photos as MMS, print them, transfer to the desktop and more. The LG camera phone can take still photos in three resolutions: 1280x960, 640x480(default) and 320x240 pixels. It also comes with a self portrait mirror...The new LG Chocolate can also record videos with audio. The camcorder records video in 3G2 format and you have the option of shooting 30 second videos for messaging or up to1 hour long video to save on your storage card. You can record video clips in 176 x 144 pixels resolution."