The LG VX9400 by Verizon Wireless: Best Phone to Experience Verizon's Mobile TV ~ GAMES AND GADGETS

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Wednesday, August 15, 2007

The LG VX9400 by Verizon Wireless: Best Phone to Experience Verizon's Mobile TV


By: JWhite

Verizon Wireless has recently launched its V Cast Mobile TV service which allows users to watch digital broadcast TV over-the-air on their compatible handset. Currently, only two Verizon phones support the V Cast Mobile TV service, the Samsung u620 and the LG VX9400. Now, if you're thinking of subscribing to this service and you're wondering which is the best phone for use with the V Cast, then the LG VX9400 is for you.

The Specifications


The LG VX9400 has a 2.2 inch screen that has a 320 x 240 screen resolution and 262k color screen, a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth that can support stereo headset, and an expandable microSD slot. The phone runs on 1.9 GHz and 800 MHz CDMA network and weighs about 4.06 oz. Built-in software included in the phone is a calculator, calendar, alarm clock, world clock, notepad, tip calculator, and a phone book that can support up to 500 contacts.

The Low-down

The LG VX9400 has a sleek design and at first glance, it would look like a slider phone but the screen actually can twist to a landscape mode for better TV viewing. The phone has a built-in antenna on the upper left side but it is not for getting better phone signals but is actually a TV antenna. When twisted sideways, the phone will have a T-design and will expose the phone pad. The keypad is flat and hard to use. Below the phone's screen is the navigation buttons, at the center of which is an OK button. Surrounding the navigation button are two soft keys, the talk and end buttons and the clear button. The LG VX9400 screen is large enough to make watching videos worthwhile. The phone's camera has a nice range of settings like light metering and white balance. The VX9400 has a self-timer and built-in flash. The flash is not really that useful when shooting in low light conditions but the camera delivers fairly decent images in daylight scenes.

Music playback on the phone is okay but don't turn the volume up to high or your songs will sound distorted. I still don't know whether I like the phone's swivel design or not. Some of my friends like the swivel design and thought it was cool, and I guess when you look at it, it is kinda cool since I have to see another phone with the same design but the really irritating thing about the swivel thingy is that it is hard to receive calls. When you swivel the screen, the microphone goes with it so the only solution is to swivel it back to the original position.

But let's go to the really great thing about this phone: mobile TV. Watching TV on this phone is the bomb. Verizon offers their V Cast service with two packages. For $25 per month, you will get 8 channels, Fox Mobile, CBS Mobile, Comedy Central, MTV, NBC, Nickelodeon, NBC News, and ESPN and Verizon's V Cast Pack, and the other package is for $15 a month in which case you will only get the 8 channels sans the V Cast pack.

I love the fact that I can watch TV anytime, anywhere-well, except when I travel to other cities that doesn't cover Verizon's V Cast. If a show is looking fuzzy, I just extend the antenna for better coverage. Video playback on the LG VX9400 is clear and sharp, thanks to the 2.2 inch screen. Just be sure that you have good coverage because like I said, the videos would tend to get fuzzy when you're in a not so covered area like in the basement of a building. I just wish that Verizon would add more channels but then, that's not the phone's fault.

Final Word

All in all, if you want to experience Verizon's V Cast service, then you can't go wrong with the LG VX9400. The phone's large screen compared with the Samsung u620 would make your mobile TV viewing very enjoyable.

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