LG Chocolate KG800 - black (Unlocked)

CNET Editors' Rating 6.7/10 Good Editorial policies >>
Average user rating from 30 users 5.0/10 Average Read user opinions >>

Product Summary

The good: The LG KG800 Chocolate has decent call quality and offers Bluetooth, world phone support, and a gorgeous display.

The bad: The LG KG800 Chocolate has tricky controls, and it lacks a speakerphone, an external memory card slot, and voice dialing.

The bottom line: The LG KG800 Chocolate is indeed pretty, but its feature set and performance don't back up its trendy design.

Specs: Band / mode: GSM 900/1800/1900 (Tri-Band); Talk time: Up to 360 min; Combined with: With digital camera / digital player See full specs >>

See all products in the LG Chocolate series

CNET editors' review

Reviewed by: Kent German
Reviewed on: 11/02/2006

Even before its formal debut last July, the LG Chocolate had been one of the most discussed cell phones of the year. Though it offered nothing new in the way of features, its slim slider design captured two hot trends currently streaking through cell phone design houses. As of this writing, Verizon Wireless is the only carrier that offers the CDMA LG VX8500 Chocolate, but LG has also produced an unlocked GSM version of the handset that is available stateside. The LG KG800 Chocolate sports the same eye-catching design as the VX8500, save for a few adjustments to the still-tedious touch pad controls. The feature set is also similar, but the KG800 lacks an external memory slot and does not support 3G networks. The KG800 should cost about $300.

Like the VX8500, the KG800 Chocolate has a rectangular shape that's vaguely reminiscent of a chocolate bar. The sleek form factor and straight lines are familiar as is the basic black color scheme (an all-white model is available as well). The KG800's dimensions (3.7x1.9x0.6 inches) are only slightly different from its cousin's, and it's a tad lighter but still has a comfortable and solid feel in the hand. Just keep in mind that as with other slider designs, the KG800 doesn't cradle your head when held against the ear. The slider mechanism slips up and down easily but firmly; we needed only one finger to make it work.

Though the KG800's display has a slightly lower resolution than the VX8500's, it's still a treat to view. With support for 256,000 colors, the two-inch (176x220 pixels) display shows off everything beautifully, from photos to graphics to its simple, user-friendly menus. The screen is more difficult to see in direct light and disappears completely when the backlighting is off. You can change the backlighting time, the font color, and the brightness.

The KG800's touch-sensitive controls are rather difficult to use.

For menu navigation, the KG800 Chocolate uses the quirky touch-sensitive controls found on the VX8500. But instead of arranging the controls in a wheel, the KG800 puts them in a square. Though we like this version a tad better for aesthetic reasons, the new design doesn't improve usability. The controls still take a lot of acclimation--we didn't know quite where to put our finger at first--and are too sensitive even at the lowest setting. Overall, these flaws caused a lot of misdials. Also, the controls disappear completely when the backlighting is off. The other navigation controls are carried over from the Verizon Chocolate. There are two soft keys, a talk button, and a clear key. They're touch sensitive as well, so you don't get the tactile feel of pressing down on a button.

We've griped about it before and we'll gripe about it again: we can't imagine what LG was thinking when it moved the Chocolate's end/power button to the left spine--we kept forgetting where the control was. A covered headset jack and a dedicated control for launching the camera and the MP3 player sit on the right spine, while a sole volume rocker is on the left spine. The camera lens, flash, and self-portrait mirror are on the rear face of the slider, so you must have it open to take pictures.

While somewhat slippery, the keypad buttons are easy to use and have a slightly better design than on the VX8500. We liked the alternating black and gray color scheme that resulted in a checkered effect. Also it's great that the backlit keys are tactile and have a clear separation between them.

The KG800 Chocolate's phone book holds 1,000 contacts with room in each entry for four numbers and an e-mail address (the SIM card holds an additional 250 names). You can save contacts to groups, pair them with a photo, or assign them one of 44 polyphonic ring tones. Other basics include a vibrate mode, a voice recorder, text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calculator, a unit converter, a world clock, a calendar, and a memo pad. As for high-end features, there's Bluetooth, e-mail, and USB data storage and transfer capability, and you can use the phone as a modem. Unfortunately, there's no speakerphone or voice dialing. The omission of the former is especially puzzling on such a trendy phone. Verizon released a firmware upgrade to add a speakerphone into its Chocolate; we only hope the same will happen with the KG800.

The KG800's music player is serviceable but nothing fancy. You can play music in MP3 and AAC formats. Features aren't plentiful--you can't make playlists--but it does offer rudimentary equalizer controls and basic visualizations for when your music is playing. The included stereo headset is top quality, but be warned: it uses a proprietary plug. We loaded music on the phone with the included USB cable without any problems.

The KG800's camera lens is hidden on the back of the slider.

The 1.3-megapixel camera takes pictures in five resolutions (1,280x960, 640x480, 320x240, 220x176, and 72x72) and three quality settings (normal, fine, and superfine). Additional camera options include a self-timer, brightness and white balance controls, a multishot mode and three color effects. In an improvement over the VX8500 Chocolate, there's also a flash, a self-portrait mirror, and a 4X zoom for use at the lower resolutions. The camcorder takes clips with sound in two resolutions (176x144 and 128x96); editing options are similar to the still camera. You can limit clips to a minute or record for as long as the phone's memory permits. With 128MB onboard, the GSM Chocolate does have more integrated memory than the VX8500, but there's no external memory card slot. Photo quality was quite good in our tests, with sharp colors and distinct object outlines. In bright conditions, the lighting was a bit washed out. Videos were decent but nothing special as they tended to be grainy and pixelated.

We like the KG800's image quality.

You can personalize the KG800 Chocolate with a variety of wallpapers, alert sounds, and menu colors. If you want more options or more ring tones, polyphonic or MP3, you can download them via the WAP 2.0 wireless browser. The phone includes one game (ZooZooClub) but the integrated Java (J2ME) support ensures you can get more. Be advised that gameplay through the touch pad is a bit difficult.

We tested the triband (GSM 900/1800/1900) KG800 Chocolate world phone with Cingular Wireless service in San Francisco. Call quality was decent but not quite as sharp as on Verizon's Chocolate. Voice quality had a slight echo effect, and volume was a tad low, so at times it sounded as if callers were talking through a screen. On the other hand, reception was great, and we encountered no interference from other devices. Music quality was fine but a bit tinny, so it's nothing we'd want to listen to for long. On the data end, the KG800 maxes out at GPRS speeds and does not support 3G networks.

The LG KG800 Chocolate has a rated talk-time battery life of 6 hours and a standby time of 8.3 days. Our tests resulted in a talk time of 5 hours and 45 minutes. According to FCC radiation tests, the KG800 has a digital SAR rating of 0.14 watt per kilogram.