LG Dare VX9700 Phone, Silver (Verizon Wireless)

The LG Dare for Verizon dares to be different with its bold looks and advanced capabilities--boasting a spacious three-inch touchscreen with handwriting recognition, a 3.2-megapixel camera with face detection and flash, and unique in-phone photo editing capabilities. It's compatible with the V Cast Music and V CAST Music with Rhapsody services, which enables you to purchase songs through your phone and download them via Verizon's fast EV-DO data network. Other features include stereo Bluetooth streaming, MicroSD memory expansion up to 8 GB, access to your mobile email, and up to 4.7 hours of talk time.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #13 in Cell Phone Accessories
Color: Silver
Brand: LG
Model: LG-VX9700
Released on: 2008-07-03
Features
Multimedia-oriented smartphone boasting spacious 3-inch touchscreen with handwriting recognition
Access Verizon's V Cast Music and Video service via fast EV-DO data network; GPS-enabled for turn-by-turn directions
3.2-megapixel camera/camcorder with Schneider-Kreuznach lens; Bluetooth stereo streaming; MicroSD expansion up to 8 GB
Up to 4.7 hours of talk time, up to 360 hours (15 days) of standby time; measures 4.1 x 2.2 x 0.5 inches (HxWxD)
Includes: Handset, travel adapter/USB cable, user guide, quick reference guide, music CD

Verizon Service Options
With support for the EV-DO high-speed data standard, you'll enjoy fast access to the Internet and Verizon's multimedia services (additional charges applicable), with average download speeds ranging from 400 to 700 Kbps and peak rates up to 2 Mbps. (Learn more about where EV-DO coverage is offered.) The V Cast Music service enables you to download songs instantly to your phone, or purchase music through your PC and transfer the files to your phone. If purchased from your phone, you'll receive two copies of the song: a Windows Media Audio Pro Plus format at 64Kbps stereo is sent to your phone, and a Windows Media Audio 9 format at 160Kbps stereo is sent to your account in the V CAST Music online store for downloading to your PC. V Cast Music offers nearly 2 million songs, with more being added all the time.

In addition to the V Cast Music service, this phone is also compatible with Verizon's V CAST Music with Rhapsody, which enables you to access this exclusive digital music service for RealNetworks and for MTV Networks. V CAST Music with Rhapsody delivers unlimited monthly access to music on up to three Rhapsody-compatible mobile phones and players and online on multiple PCs and Web browsers. In addition, customers who purchase music over-the-air are able to download the master copy of the songs or albums to their PCs free of digital rights management (DRM) software that restricts how and where music can be played.

The V Cast Video service enables you to stream or download video clips to your phone from a variety of news, entertainment, sports, and weather channels, including CNN, ABC News, E!, CBS Sports, The Weather Channel, and VH1.

Verizon's Mobile eMail gives you access to your Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and AOL accounts so you can read, write, and reply. Access your address book, receive e-mail alerts and more, right on your Verizon Wireless phone.

With this GPS-enabled phone, you'll be able to access Verizon's VZ Navigator service (additional charges applicable) for voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions, heads-up alerts, local search of nearly 14 million points of interest in the US (such as landmarks, restaurants and ATMs), and detailed color maps.

Phone Features
Measuring just 0.5 inches thin and weighing 3.76 ounces, the LG Dare feels lightly comfortable in your pocket. It features a large 3-inch touchscreen that recognizes your handwriting and provides tactile feedback when pressing onscreen buttons or typing on the onscreen QWERTY keyboard. The display has a 240 x 400-pixel resolution and support for 262K colors, and its home screen has several shortcut icons including your messaging inbox, phonebook, favorites menu. The phone provides just three buttons on the bottom of its face for send, end and clearing calls, and it has a stainless steel border along its sides and black soft touch surface on the back.

The phone has an internal 148 MB memory, which can be expanded via optional MicroSD memory cards up to 8 GB in size. It can store up to 1000 contact entries, with fields for five numbers per contact. It connects to your PC via USB, and it offers USB mass storage capabilities.

The 3.2-megapixel camera with Schneider-Kreuznach certified lens offers several resolution options, ranging from 2048 x 1536 pixels to QVGA 320 x 240 pixels--perfect for sending via MMS messaging. It offers advanced features including face detection, SmartPic Technology (which helps to compensate face color), four ISO settings, six preset scense, panorama and split shot capabilities, white balance settings, multi-shot, and multiple color effects. It also features a flash, self-timer, and multiple shutter sounds (including off). Once you've snapped your photo, you can edit it right in the Dare--zoom, rotate, crop, add frames, or add writing over the image. You can also capture video up to 640 x 480 pixels for storing onto a memory card, or QCIF 176 x 144-pixel resolution for sending via MMS. You can record videos up to 120 frames per second (fps) and then play them back on the Dare at a slow motion rate of 15 fps.

This phone provides the latest version of Bluetooth connectivity--version 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate), which makes pairing with the included headset as well as other Bluetooth devices a snap. And with EDR, you'll get a faster connection than with the previous version 1.2, which makes transferring files and using the phone as a modem for your laptop hum along nicely. And with the embedded A2DP Bluetooth profile, you can stream your music to a pair of Bluetooth stereo headphones or other compatible devices.

In addition to compatibility with formats offered by Verizon's V CAST Music and CAST Music with Rhapsody services, it's also compatible with unprotected MP3, WMA, and AAC/AAC+ formats. The digital audio player features a preset sound effect equalizer, ability to create and manage playlists on the phone, and backbround music mode that allows you to multitask (write email, check your calendar, surf the Web) while continuing to play music.

Other features include:

Organizer tools: Calculator, EZTip calculator, calendar, alarm clock, stopwatch, world clock, notebook, notepad and drawing pad with handwriting recognition
Speaker-independent voice commands
One-touch speakerphone
Mobile email: Yahoo! Mail, Windows Live Mail, AOL, AIM, Verizon.net
Messaging: SMS, MMS
Voice Recording: 1 minute or 1 hour (standby
Favorites: add up to nine contacts with Picture ID
Speed Dial: up to 996 entries
HTML Web browsing with touch navigation and favorites
Music ringer support (clips from hit songs)
Hearing Aid Compatibility = M3/T3
TTY compatible
Bluetooth version 2.1 with the following profiles: A2DP (stereo music streaming), AVRC (remote control), HFP (hands-free car kits), HSP (communication headsets), BIP (for sending images to another device), BPP (basic printing profile for text, email), DUN (dial-up networking), FTP (file transfer), HID (support for mice or joysticks), OPP (object push for business cards, calendar items, and pictures), PBA (transfer contacts)
Vital Statistics
The LG Dare weighs 3.76 ounces and measures 4.1 x 2.2 x 0.5 inches. Its 1100 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 280 minutes (4.7 hours) of talk time, and up to 360 hours of standby time. It runs on the 800/1900 CDMA frequencies as well as the 1xEV-DO r0 data network.


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Customer Reviews
verizon customer support poor
This phone is OK but Verizon support is poor. I would recommend you avoid verizon. They want to add so many charges to your bill.

Phone OK but read between the lines
The Dare Phone is Ok, and i like it but the scrolling to find a number is very difficult even after using it for a couple of months now. The internet access is rather limited; entering usernames and passwords is a real trick. You have to tap on the screen over and over tot get it to bring up the data entry screen. It's rather wide to hold up to talk on; my wife hates it and practically refuses to use it.
When i bought mine privately, i was told by Verizon that i could keep my data plan (took data use off of my minutes instead of charging for them). That is the only reason i bought one privately instead of getting one from VZN. When i went to activate it over the phone the rep said "no problem" when i clearly stated i wanted to say on my original plan. I got my bill and found massive data charges. I called and the rep told me that they were mistaken; that I had to go with either the Vcast service or the Data plan. I told her i would have bought one from VZN and gotten a warranty on it if they had been honest from the beginning. They did agree to recend the data charges as long as i agreed to sign up for Vcast @ $15/month extra. I thought this was an isolated insodent till a friend called and they did exactly the same thing; changed him to the data plan with no permission or discussion. After several calls to service, they recended his charges but still required him to stay with the data plan. When i used to use teh internet on my old phone it was free on weekends and after 9PM. if u are on a data plan you will be charged for ALL use no matter when U use it

Amazing and well worth it
I purchased the LG Dare after comparing it with the iTouch and the new Blackberry Storm, I have to say, I am completely amazed with it! Overall, I really love this phone and am satisfied with my purchase.

Screen:

The touch screen is amazing, and I love it. Its easy to use and is easily accessible after you get used to finding it. Amazing, it works BETTER with fingernails, so I'm free to have them as long as I want to [which was a problem with many touch phones out there]. I have only two problems with it: one, when texting in the QWERTY mode, you have to be precise in typing, its very easy to miss the letter and hit the one next to it. I've found that as long as my fingernail is directly in the middle, its alright. My second issue is the noises available for the touch screen. You have you're choice between water drops, rings, and various bloops and beeps. All of these are extremely annoying after long amounts of time so I have mine set to vibrate instead.

The Menus:

Are amazing. I've had such fun and easy clicking through these that it just seems impossible that some people don't like them. The icons are big, but not big enough that they are annoying and not small enough that you have to squint. I've never had them freeze on me or had any trouble with them at all.

Battery:

Another great thing about this phone is that it's battery life is superb. I've gone almost four days with phone calls, texting, and web surfing before I've had to charge it.

Music and Camera:

The camera is really good. I love the clarity in which it takes photos, and it's much easier to take and then download the photos into my computer and they handle just as if they were from a real camera. I do miss my photo editor that I had on the SLVR phone, as it made it seem bright and beautiful, but that might be a feature I just haven't discovered yet.

One super cool but useless feature is the 'Drawing Pad' its loads of fun and colorful, easy to use, but also only useful for solving boredom.

Like previous reviews, the Dare doesn't let you sync music from your itunes, but I am simply copying the songs I want onto CDS and then loading them into WMP and syncing them from their, so far, that's been working. I haven't yet used Rhapsody.

Size:

The phone is thin, which is awesome, and its still thin even with the silicone cover I have on it. Its lightweight, but heavy enough that I never forget it. Its the perfect weight!