Camera Phone Reviews

LG MUZIQ

* Sprint Music Store(SM), powered by Groove Mobile, which allows users to browse and wirelessly download full-length songs directly to their phone from a selection of more than 1.6 million songs.
* Pandora Mobile, a downloadable application that provides personalized streaming radio by allowing customers to enter a favorite musical artist or song and automatically receive a radio station with songs that have similar qualities.
* Sprint TV(SM) with more than 50 channels of live television and on-demand video and audio.
* Sprint Navigation, powered by TeleNav, providing full-feature GPS navigation including voice and on screen turn-by-turn driving directions and more than 10 million business listings. (Standard data charges apply to all downloads from Sprint.)

MUZIQ by LG offers multitasking capability that allows users to play music in background mode while also using the phone for text messaging or playing games. It also features advanced stereo Bluetooth® and a dedicated music button and camera button for quick operation.

"We are very excited to add MUZIQ to our portfolio of industry-leading music phones," said Oliver Valente, Sprint's senior vice president of product development. "This device reaffirms Sprint's commitment to offer innovative music devices that enable customers to get music wherever they are and listen to music however they desire, whether that is through Bluetooth headphones, their car stereo or the device itself."

MUZIQ by LG comes packaged with Sprint Music Manager, powered by Smith Micro, giving users the power to quickly and simply transfer, or "sideload," unprotected songs from a PC to the handset via a USB cable. Provided on CD-ROM, Sprint Music Manager allows songs to be managed on a PC through an intuitive interface. The box also contains a 64MB MicroSD memory card and a USB cable.

"LG Mobile Phones is thrilled to introduce Muziq," said Jon Maron, senior director of marketing, LG Electronics MobileComm, U.S.A., Inc. "Muziq is the latest innovation in mobile music technology and allows consumers to merge their love for music with a high functioning mobile handset."

MUZIQ by LG is the first Sprint device to offer a microSD card slot capable of managing 4GB of memory - or up to 4,000 songs from Sprint Music Store. Additional features include a 1.3MP camera/camcorder with flash, PictBridge support for printing pictures directly to supported printers and Wireless Backup to quickly restore contact information if your phone is lost or stolen.

MUZIQ by LG measures 3.80" x 1.94" x 0.61" and weighs just 3.14 ounces. MUZIQ by LG will be priced at $99 with a two-year service agreement. It will be available at Sprint retail stores, www.sprint.com and 1-800-SPRINT1 on July 15. Customers can already register to be among the first to purchase MUZIQ by LG at www.sprint.com/music.

Customers purchasing MUZIQ by LG as a replacement for an existing mobile phone are encouraged to donate their current phone, battery and accessories to Sprint Project Connect. Donated equipment, regardless of make, model or service provider, will be recycled in an environmentally friendly manner or refurbished and resold with proceeds benefiting K-12 education. More information, including a prepaid mailing label, can be found at www.sprint.com/projectconnect.

LG Muziq Reviews

LaptopMag reviews the LG Muziq and writes, "True to its name, music is what really sets the Muziq apart. LG has separated the music player from the Sprint Music Store, so you don't have to wait for a Web connection to start listening to tunes. But once you click on Music from the Main Menu, you still have to hit "All My Music" and wait five seconds or so to get your track list. Tracks aren't listed in alphabetical order, but if you switch to Artists view, you'll see the songs listed by artist, which helps you find the one you're looking for. ... The Muziq doesn't measure up to the iPhone, but at only $99, it's not trying to. Although the identically priced Samsung UpStage is sexier, the Muziq sports a more practical design and lets you listen to your favorite tunes in the car without a bulky adapter. We just wish the touch-sensitive controls weren't so touchy and that the music player were faster and more polished."

Infosync reviews the LG Muziq and writes, "The camera displayed photos with fairly accurate colors, but blurring was a serious enough issue that we won't be taking pictures with the phone unless we run into Chris Rock on the street again. ... Unlike the overly flashy Chocolate, with its unresponsive buttons and stodgy menu setup, the LG Muziq leaves a very good taste in your mouth. Though far from perfect, the Muziq manages to surprise in ways that reinforce the music experience. The FM transmitter, usually a disappointment, was surprisingly good. ... Overall a solid phone at a good price, considering the 3G capabilities and features that are still rare for most phones, like the FM transmitters and the vibrating feedback."

Crunchgear reviews the Sprint Muziq and writes, "There are lots of musicphones out there. There’s the 5300 — quite nice — and the Chocolate — urm… — and the UpStage and even the vaunted iPhone. All are good in their own way, and none of them will win the Blue Ribbon at the County Fair for best music-playing cellphone. If you need something now and you want to play music, however, the Muziq is a safe bet."

MobileTechReviews reviews the LG MUZIQ and writes, "Photo quality is good; there is some noise in outdoor shots, but not bad at all for a 1.3 megapixel camera. The camera adds a little contrast to the photos and it sometimes darkens scenes. But it captures plenty of data in outdoor shots to allow constructive editing on desktop. Indoor shots show much more noise compared to outdoor shots, which is common. The built-in flash is quite weak, and thus doesn’t help indoor shots much. You can store the photos on the phone or on a microSD card, send them to people as MMS (up to 25 contacts at a time), upload them to Sprint’s picture mail or other online photo albums, or use them as picture ID photos, incoming call images, screen savers and more."

PCMag reviews the Sprint Muziq LX570 and writes, "The phone's 1.3-megapixel camera isn't great. In my test shots, it blew out bright areas and put a slight haze over my images, though color balance was decent. The 176-by-144-pixel video mode is run-of-the-mill for a midrange camera phone. You can print directly from the phone with the included USB cable and a PictBridge printer, but I couldn't get Bluetooth printing to work. You can also send your photos to your PC using Bluetooth or USB."

MobileBurn reviews the LG MUZIQ and writes, "The MUZIQ sports a 1.3 megapixel fixed focus camera with flash and offers video recording in QCIF (144x176) or sub-QCIF (96x128) resolution. In video mode, clips for video mail can be up to 30 seconds in length, and when in regular mode the MUZIQ will keep recording until it runs out of memory. Photos taken with the device tended to be a bit overexposed, and indoor photos looked a bit warm. The automatic white balance seemed a bit shaky, but with some minor adjustments photos will generally look fine. Moving photos to and from my Vista PC was an easy task. Sprint also offers its Picture Mail application, which allows for photos to be sent directly to friends (MMS) or upload directly to its site to view online, though they will be downsized in resolution."

Digital Trends reviews the LG MUZIQ and writes, "The Muziq main menu features the usual Sprint additions, such as Sprint TV, which features downloadable clips, and On Demand, a Reuters-like news service with the latest in sports, entertainment and business. It comes with a 1.3 Megapixel camera. The visual quality is OK, but well below anything in the Smartphone category."