LG Dare (Verizon Wireless)

Pros: Easy to use touch screen, intuitive display, highly customizable, great sound, great reception, Easy to Text, Rev A and tons more!

Cons: Texting could be slightly smarter

Summary: Well I got this phone on 06/30/08.
(I could have received it a tad earlier if I wanted but wanted to wait for some other first impressions (thanks HOFO)).

Size:
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The first thing you will notice about this phone is that its very light and smaller then one might be expecting.

It is lighter and a bit smaller then the (yes I will say it) Iphone.

My previous phone was the Motorola Razr V3m.
This phone is only slightly longer and wider then that phone when the Razr is closed.

Now for the size it is just about perfect, would like for it to be about a 1/4 of an inch longer and wider since I have huge hands (I am 6'2 =P ).

This phone is my first dive into the touch screen craze that current gen phones and the majority of future phones are sure to use.

Now when touching the screen you don't have to touch it hard or too lightly just treat it like a lady with gentle touches and "taps" and you will have no problem with using this phone.

When you touch it there is a pleasent very slight "haptic" feedback vibration to let you know that you touched a button, as well as a friendly "beep" (which can be turned down or off).

Texting:
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Texting is a breeze and far easier then any other phone I have used.
You can use either the T9 or rotate the phone and the screen will flip almost instanly to show a full QWERTY keyboard.

When you first view the keyboard it looks like the keys would be too small to easily use but even with my monster hands I found it really easy to use and 99% of the time didn't miskey.

*mini con*
So far the only con I have is I wish it would be a tad smarter when typing something so that it would do an educated guess as to the word, but with a full keyboard you really don't need it since you can usually type faster then the phone would be able to guess and be helpful anyway.


*****Also I highly reccomend calibrating the touch screen using a stylus. It makes it more responsive and precise then with a finger (for calibrating).*****
=)

Interface:
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This is by far one of the best Verizon UI.
You probibly have noticed by now that except for a few LG phones all Verizon phones have the same sloppy red menu interface.

Not so here.
Now we have a interface that was clearly designed by LG and with some of Verizon's Guidance instead of the other way around.

If you want a real taste of how it works I suggest watching some of the you tube videos with their hands on impressions.

I have been told that the on screen buttons are bigger then the Iphones and also that they are easier to use as well.

*Buttons:
Also there is screen lock button in the upper right hand corner that is easy to push to lock the phone before putting it into your pocket.

Don't worry no random calling people in your pocket here.

Below the locking hey is a easy to take off cover for the Mini SDHC cards and then below that is the speaker phone button and then below that is the mini usb port.

The volume keys are on the right and the camera key is right below that.

Then you have the standard answer key on the bottom right of the screen, the clear/record audo key in the middle and the end call/power key on the bottom right.


Calls:
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To make a call you simply select the phone icon in the lower left hand corner of the phone.

Then the screen pops up the familar phone pad for dialing.

Call quality is excellent. Better then my Razr and I thought very highly of that phone. The speaker is very rich and clear.

The microphone is also extremely powerful as my friend one the other line could hear me and some other people around me, bery clearly.

Reception is also very good.
Maybe not Motorola Startac good but still have great reception everywhere I go and even when it does only show one bar, calls are still loud and clear.

Features:
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This phone is NOT a smart phone.
So remember that when using it.
To me this is a very good thing because smart phones require Data plans that cost more.

*Web:
With this if you want to surf the web for unlimited amounts its only $15 a month with the VPACK, which I highly reccomend if you plan on using the internet for more then 7 1/2 mb as the per use is $1.99 per megabyte.

For surfing the web it is not too bad, but as I said it is a feature phone so its not going to be like browsing on a PC or a windows mobile.

The way it works is it does load full HTML however even so it will not load some plugins on certain sites and you have to use the zoom feature to get to some links so that they are clickable.

For a phone that does not have a data plan though this thing is amazering.
I was able to view youtube vidoes, access my space, facebook and my yahoo mail without a problem.

Also as you should already know this phone is 3G wich means that it supports the faster wireless internet via Rev A.

*Camera:
The phone has a 3.2 megapixel camera with some kind of fancy lens that apparently Kodak uses.

It takes pretty pictures, not as good as a standalone camera mind you but easily the best camera phone in the U.S. as of writing this mini review.

Also it records some pretty cool videos.
Up to 30 Seconds to send via MMS.
Again not a video camera here so don't expect amazing videos but it still is one of the very best camera's on a camera phone hands down.

*MP3 Player:
The phone has 200 MB of internal memory for music and 200 MB of internal memory for other data services.

This phone also has a micro SDHC memory card reader so that you can play (currently) up to 8 gigs running of the card. Also it should support the 16 gigs when those become availible as well (since they are still apart of the SDHC format).

It has a headphone jack on the top of the phone for 3.5mm headphones.

Now this is not primarily a music phone but sounds really good regardless, but it won't be replacing my Zen anytime soon.

If you don't have a standalone MP3 player this will still work very well.
It plays music in the background while you do other things so this is the "multitasking" that people talk about on this phone

*Favorites:
It features a really cool favorites feature where you can choose (I think) up to 9 of your favorite people that will show their faces (obviously once you set a pic ID for them) in a scrapbook layout.

You can drag them around to order them in any way you choose.

Once you select a person you then have the options in the lower left hand screen to either text, call, or edit their ID info.

To me its better then speed dial (it offers that too!).


BOTTOM LINE:
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If you want the best Verizon Phone that is NOT a smart phone do not look any further then this one.

Its amazing and highly customizable (especially if you do some hacks shown on the howard forums).

You will not be dissapointed, and if for some strange reason you are then you have 30 days to take it back.

But I really don't think you will!
= D