LG Venus

“Hey there's something you don't see on a cell phone every day: a split screen. Well sort of. Technically, LG's Venus handset has two screens: a 2-inch, 320 x 240-pixel LCD on the top half and a 1.5-inch, 176 x 240-pixel touchscreen anchoring the bottom half. The touchscreen contains almost all of the phone's navigational controls and shortcuts to several applications. When you press a virtual key, you get a mild vibration feedback indicating your selection went through. Touch-sensitive controls are generally a nice idea, but they aren't always responsive on the Venus. On multiple occasions, a key press didn't register immediately. If it didn't respond after a few tries, we resorted to pressing the end key on started all over again. Although the touch mechanism has greatly improved over previous generations of LG phones, this is the same issue we've had with the older models (hello LG Chocolate). It's a minor quirk that's forgivable - unlike the handset's call quality - which is punctuated by a constant din of static.But as a music phone, the Venus is kinda awesome. The audio player can be activated with one click. (Two clicks if the screen is locked.) Sound quality is loud and consistently crisp. And unlike the Chocolate, you can use stereo Bluetooth headphones to rock out to your tunes. Plus, LG throws in a USB cable so you can sync music from your PC to the phone with ease. If it weren't for the borderline horrid call quality, the Venus might have been music to our ears.WIRED Voice-prompted driving directions from Verizon's VZ Navigator are actually helpful, we didn't get lost once. 2-megapixel camera yields surprisingly detailed images plus decent video capture. MicroSD slot located supports memory cards up to 8GB in capacity. Access to AOL, Windows Live, and Yahoo Web mail and instant messaging.TIRED Call quality is sub par: our review model yielded a hiss in the background at the high volume levels. Phone's plastic housing feels as cheap as it looks.”

“While the name Venus will suggest a ladies phone to many people, I think that the VX8800 Venus is suitable for both men and women. Men will appreciate the clean lines, solid feel, and high-tech dual-screen wizardry. Women will like its compact form factor, and how pretty the user interface and touchscreen are when compared with other phones. I think it is a win for both groups.Personally, I really like the Venus. If not for the recently launched VX10000 Voyager, I would have probably thought the Venus to be the most interesting phone in Verizon's handset stable. It is stylish and different, it has all of the core functions that people need or want, and it has no major problems. That is what I call a winner. I give it a Highly Recommended rating.”