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Mac 'friendliest' Verizon LG phone?

K

kant

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 22, 2004
337
0
Lost my cell phone and am going to use the annual discount for a new one. (5 months short of the NE2 grrrr).

I absolutely require video and voice recording for one hour minimum, but have no use for a true smartphone. With Verizon, that narrows my choices to 6 phones, all LG.

My priority list is:

reception (I live on the boundaries of a tower; with my moto 815 I could get service in two bedrooms, but not the rest of the house) and call clarity. My next highest priority is Macbook Pro / Leopard compatibility.

VX8350
VX8550 (the updated 'chocolate')
VX8700
VX8800 'Venus'
enV2 (not the original enV - voice memo limited to one minute, which is a shame because it supposedly has fantastic reception and the camera has autofocus, which is helpful due to hand shaking caused by nerve damage.)
Voyager (but there would have to be a darn good reason seeing as how it's $150+ more than the others.)

As I said main priorities are: reception, call clarity, and MBP/10.5 compatibility.

All those being equal, I would prefer the 2mp camera versus the 1.3s of the 8350 and 8550.
AAC support would be nice (enV2, 8800, and Voyager only).
A2DP and AVRC support would be a sweetener (the 8550 and the enV2 lack AVRC).
Auto focus camera (Voyager only), but not important enough to justify the Voyager price premium.
USB charging would also be nice (8800, Voyager, and 8550).​

Texting is irrelevant to me, so the qwerty keyboard isn't important. (To paraphrase one of the Boondocks' characters, if it's important enough to contact somebody, call them; texting is communication masturbation.)

Thanks in advance for the help and advice.
 
VX8350- Nothing impressive to report. Barley does anything worthwhile with my mac. I occasionally use bluetooth to send it pictures or take pictures off it. Nothing to brag about when it comes to the pictures.

Reception is good and call clarity is on par.
 
Sony Ericsson and Nokia have far better iSync support than LG, see [guide]iSync compatible phones[/guide] for more details.

LG basically don't seem to do Mac support at all :rolleyes:, though exchanging files via bluetooth should work...
 
BigPrince said:
VX8350- Nothing impressive to report. Barley does anything worthwhile with my mac. I occasionally use bluetooth to send it pictures or take pictures off it. Nothing to brag about when it comes to the pictures.

Reception is good and call clarity is on par.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. With the 8350, I'd probably only use the bluetooth for syncing address book.

But, with any of the ones on my list, there is the possibility of using them for DUN. In two years, I only used that once with my 815 for a total of 6 minutes. But was extremely grateful that it was available.
 
Eraserhead said:
Sony Ericsson and Nokia
Click to expand...

Those two brands are irrelevant to me at the moment since Verizon doesn't sell them. And I'm stuck with Verizon because they're the only company with service where I live.

Yes, living in the boonies does indeed suck, but some things in life you just have to deal with.
 
The samsung Glyde and Blackberry Curve (8330) are coming out next week for VZW (May 9=online, May 12= in stores). People have reported being able to order them thru 611 and telesales. Check these 2 phones out before plunging into one of the LG you mentioned.
 
Eraserhead said:
Seriously, wow you Americans have limited choices of phones. What other makes can you get?
Click to expand...

The problem is because we have 2 wireless technologies, CDMA and GSM, each different cell phone manufacturer limits the number of devices it makes. There are more phones for ATT and T-Mobile (GSM) than there is for Verizon and Sprintel (CDMA)
 
Hey, I have Verizon, and both my home and work have mediocre reception. I used to have a Moto phone and reception was pretty good. Then I went through two LG phones and reception was much worse on both of them (lots of single bars and dropped calls). Finally having learned my lesson, I went with a Moto the last time and reception perked up again. I don't know if all LG phones have sucky reception but clearly some do.

I believe the last time I was there, the sales guy said something to the effect that Verizon used two generations of transmitters, and some phones were not compatible with both, hence some phones got worse reception in certain spots. I may have got that slightly wrong... ask the question.
 
My wife has Venus and it is nothing, but problem to download the pictures from the phone. There is a hack program out there that helps you do that to a Windows PC through USB. (I found through Google.) I guess Verizon is hoping that by disabling the Bluetooth file sharing and USB transfer capabilities, the users will end up paying a lot so that they can email the pictures to themselves. I'd stay away from Verizon as much as I can.
 
Teh Don Ditty said:
The problem is because we have 2 wireless technologies, CDMA and GSM, each different cell phone manufacturer limits the number of devices it makes. There are more phones for ATT and T-Mobile (GSM) than there is for Verizon and Sprintel (CDMA)
Click to expand...

Don't forget Alltel.. it's number five in the US and all we get are the VZW hand-me-downs... but excellent reception where I live.
 
Gasu E. said:
Hey, I have Verizon, and both my home and work have mediocre reception. I used to have a Moto phone and reception was pretty good. Then I went through two LG phones and reception was much worse on both of them (lots of single bars and dropped calls). Finally having learned my lesson, I went with a Moto the last time and reception perked up again. I don't know if all LG phones have sucky reception but clearly some do.
Click to expand...

I just found out today that the Moto Z6c and/or z6tv might also meet my requirements. The both allow video recording to max card size, but can't find anything about there being a time limit on voice recording.

Would MUCH prefer a moto phone for the verizon network. My e815 had excellent reception compared to other verizon phones that friends/family have tried from my house.
 
mets1125 said:
The samsung Glyde and Blackberry Curve (8330) are coming out next week for VZW (May 9=online, May 12= in stores). People have reported being able to order them thru 611 and telesales. Check these 2 phones out before plunging into one of the LG you mentioned.
Click to expand...


Hmmm. will definitely give them a look. thanks for the heads up.
 
kant said:
Those two brands are irrelevant to me at the moment since Verizon doesn't sell them. And I'm stuck with Verizon because they're the only company with service where I live.

Yes, living in the boonies does indeed suck, but some things in life you just have to deal with.
Click to expand...

Why not buy an unlocked sony ericsson or a Nokia??? Then just add the verizon SIM card????
 
DesignerOnMac said:
Why not buy an unlocked sony ericsson or a Nokia??? Then just add the verizon SIM card????
Click to expand...

Because SIM cards are a GSM thing. VZW, Sprint, Alltel, and U.S. Cellular are CDMA... their phones are interchangeable for the most part. I know with Alltel, you just call in and give them the new phone's ESN number.

However, VZW and Sprint by far the best phones of the four biggest CDMA carriers. I'm not sure any VZW customer would really be swayed by any of Sprint's offerings, though, and as I've said before, we Alltel users only get "new" phones after they've been on VZW for a very long time, sometimes years. USC users have it even worse: they get phones after we do! :(
 
kant said:
Hmmm. will definitely give them a look. thanks for the heads up.
Click to expand...


Your welcome! I got to say the E815 is a great phone. My mom still uses hers (still going after 2 1/2 years) and shes
uses a lot of mins. The phone grabs great reception and also uses Moto UI rather than the crappy VZW UI.
 
Vx8700

I have the LG VX8700. I use it pretty much daily with my iMac G4 with Tiger. I can upload/download sounds, ringtones, pictures, videos, ical events, phone contacts, notes, etc.... all with just using the Mac OS. The phone is also compatible with Bitpim, a fantastic program that unlocks even more functionality. It's a good phone. I've had it for 6 months, and I'm still very pleased.
 
shawnathan said:
I have the LG VX8700. I use it pretty much daily with my iMac G4 with Tiger. I can upload/download sounds, ringtones, pictures, videos, ical events, phone contacts, notes, etc.... all with just using the Mac OS.
Click to expand...

How do you do this? You don't use any 3rd party software?
 
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