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The Tech Herald recently tested the LG Decoy from Verizon Wireless. The phone, slider style, is one of the newer models from LG, and has both an impressive set of features as well as some technological shortcomings. Overall, it still emerges as a decent phone, and one the younger set should enjoy greatly.
The Verison Wireless LG Decoy goes for a test drive.(IMG:J.Anderson/Verizon)
The LG Decoy entered the wireless arena in June. Verizon announced it with a price of $179 USD after a mail-in rebate of $50 USD, but the final costs will depend on contract type and services.
Briefly, some of the highlights for the Decoy include a 2.0 mega pixel camera, multimedia (music and video either downloaded or created) features, Bluetooth, and V Cast services. If you get this phone, and do not use the unlimited data plan, then you will lose about two-thirds of the features the Decoy offers, as most of them require online access. It is important to remember that most of the V Cast offerings are value-added services and will incur a cost if used.
The biggest feature on the LG Decoy is the headset. The Bluetooth-enabled headset is a part of the phone itself, and doubles as headphones for both music and video playback. The headset can be charged on its own, or take its charge from the Decoy’s battery.
For a phone that is mostly focused on recreation, the LG Decoy does not fail to please. Our testing was geared towards three core questions: Does the phone do as advertised? Is it something that would be used by the teenage crowd (clearly where the marketing is aimed) and the adult populous (who want 'on-the-go' access to music and other media)? And how solid is the handset's call quality?
The testing environment was simple. For one week, the Decoy was in the hands of myself and my son Dominic (13), who gave it a no-holds barred test. He called friends, text messaged, sent images and video, downloaded music, watched TV, and played games -- exactly what you'd expect a teenager to do with a phone like this. The other part of the week was spent testing all the features and bits of the phone that a teenager simply doesn’t care about.
The Decoy is a great phone with a decent screen (2.2-inch viewing area) that makes watching video or viewing images easy on the eye. The speaker on the phone is loud enough to hear calls, music, or video, but at times the highs and lows of various sounds can cause some noticeable distortion. However, with proper volume adjustments this distortion was mitigated.
The screen itself is another issue. It's stunning really, with a nice high-gloss finish. However, in direct sunlight or through some viewing angles, this same stunning finish will offer you a perfect mirror image of yourself rather than a clear view of the display screen. During testing this was a minor annoyance, but when using the phone outside to view or send text messages, it's hard not to notice the glare and perfect mirror image the glossed finish added. Another issue with the high-gloss finish is smudging. After a while of active use, fingerprints are planted all over the phone and screen, something that will be an instant turn-off to some more aesthetically-minded users.
[You can see an example of the mirror reflection below.]
Navigation through the phone's various menus is easy, thanks to the keypad and/or the directional joy-stick. This joy-stick makes one-handed navigation simple, but there is a price to pay. The joy-stick is sensitive, and will require some time to get used to its movement. That aside, the ability to move around the various menus and screens with your thumb is nice.
The Bluetooth headset, as mentioned, is the big selling point for the Decoy. Like most Bluetooth headsets, the sound quality on a call was poor. While you can certainly hear the person on the other line, the comment that: “You sound like you are in a tunnel,” would likely get a mention at least once during the conversation.
When using the handset alone, call clarity was clean and crystal clear. While using the Bluetooth as a headphone for music and video (games as well, according to Dominic), the sound was great for such a small device. The voice-command feature of the Decoy using the headset works if you are clear in delivering vocal commands. However, background noise and rushing verbal commands can cause the voice commands to fail.
The onboard digital camera (2.0 mega-pixel) included with the Decoy is not Nikon quality, far from it, to be honest. However, if users apply some of the adjustments, and are close to their target subject, they will get some decent photos. Below are some examples using the zoom and lighting adjustments. Some of the images were taken over the July 04 holiday at a family gathering, as well as random shots taken with the camera during testing.
These images were to show the detail abilities of the camera with the subject posed about two feet away using the zoom feature at fifty percent. The colors are decent, but as you can tell, the text on the lotion bottle is hard to read. The game case is easy to read, but the image quality isn’t as sharp.
By contrast, the color and quality of the images below were much better. These images were taken without the zoom feature applied and placed directly next to the subject. The colors came out well with a decent light source, and there was no need to adjust the light control on the phone itself.
This last image, taken of myself guarding food, is to demonstrate the picture when taken from about three to four feet away.
Overall, the camera worked great considering its spec limitations, taking crisp pictures when the subject was close. The zoom and lighting adjustments will help in some cases, but will do little to escape the limits of a mere 2.0 mega pixel unit. As long as these limitations are kept in mind, then the camera is a solid addition to the Decoy, supporting resolutions of 1600x1200, 1280x960, 640x480, and 320x240 pixels.
Dominic, who took some of the images displayed here, found the controls simple to use, and had no problems whatsoever with operating the camera.
Using the Internet for services offered by Verizon is required to take full advantage of most of the features offered on the Decoy handset. This is because of the various V Cast services used to round out the features the Decoy offers.
Music on the phone is great, most of which will come from V Cast. The file formats supported include MP3, WMA, AAC and unprotected AAC+ files. Using a microSD memory card, users can support up to 8GB of storage for various media. Playback, takes advantage of the phone's sound system, as well as using the Bluetooth headset.
The drawback to V Cast is that content is controlled. There is no moving back and forth between devices, and some of the DRM (digital rights management) is limited to single handsets. There are options to remove this restriction, but those too are value-added services offered by Verizon.
The V Cast testing on the LG Decoy appraised the download speed and quality of both the audio and media downloaded.
Music:
The music downloaded arrived in a few minutes, depending on where it was accessed from. Music downloaded in downtown Indianapolis arrived faster than music downloaded in Carmel, Indiana. The speed is still fast however, taking advantage of the EVDO network that Verizon uses.
Various songs were downloaded for this test, using the V Cast 'What’s Hot' listings.
Video:
The video quality was great, and the images clear. The aforementioned issues with screen visibility and mirror reflection did prevent viewing under certain conditions. The video content is streamed to the phone; it’s buffered slightly to offer a smooth display. The buffering can get annoying, but when this happened during testing, the EVDO signal was weak. In areas with a good network connection, video streamed fast, and offered no stop gaps.
CNN news and ESPN were tested for this feature.
Games:
Dominic played Guitar Hero 3 on the phone. The game was amusing, and barely touched the battery. The sound quality on the handset’s speaker was great, as was the sound using the Bluetooth headset.
Guitar Hero 3 as well as Harry Potter and two Tetris games were tested.
E-mail and IM abilities:
MSN, Yahoo, and AOL are the options for IM and e-mail access. The features are there but average, and offer nothing new to a user who has used them in the past. Verizon.net e-mail services are available as well.
Misc testing:
The handset is lightweight and will fit securely into pockets and purses. Battery life is insane. During the week-long test, the battery was completely drained, and recharged twice. After using it for extended periods, either surfing the Web or talking, the battery hung in there like a champ. There was one down side to the battery. By charging the built-in headset through the phone, users will drain the phone's battery, thus altering the expected talk time and standby limits. In testing, the alterations to the life expectancy of the battery were minor, but users will not get the full use as advertised should they not charge according to specifications. The phone does include a charger base station for the Bluetooth headset.
Network speeds are also another huge bonus. While you need to ensure good coverage, to stream video without buffering for example, the speeds are still positive when surfing the Web, and downloading Web page content.
Conclusion:
The LG Decoy is a solid phone. It better serves as a casual phone than a business model, so don’t expect to see this in the corporate arena any time soon. If this is a planned purchase for a family with teens, then remember the unlimited data plan, as the Decoy will get lots of online use. If you like toys, then the built-in Bluetooth headset arrives as an added bonus.
With the exception of the glare-friendly display, the other listed faults can be easily worked around. The display will take some getting used to but, other than that, there is only the matter of a learning curve to beat with the navigation issues and sound control to worry about. In the hands of almost all users, the LG Decoy will perform to their expectations; if not beat them outright.
Overall score: 8/10
[Disclosure: Verizon Wireless does run ads on The Tech Herald through a third-party vendor. With that said, Verizon Wireless is in no way affiliated with The Tech Herald or War of the Ring LIMITED (WOTR). The testing period was one week long with several hours of usage invested each day.]
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