A review of some of the latest 3G music-playing cell phones to arrive in our office, the Nokia N78, the LG Chocolate 3, the Samsung Instinct, and the LG VU.
Nokia N78
$520, AT&T, WCDMA
Cool but complicated.
Good: Good looks, comfortable, lightweight, kick-ass speaker, GPS with geotagging, bright display, music player with FM transmitter, 2GB memory card, 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, WiFi.
Bad: Tiny buttons are awkward to use, confusing interface, lousy call and picture quality, slow load time, expensive.
LG Chocolate 3
$199 (with $50 rebate), Verizon, EVDO
New flip-open version of the popular Verizon phone.
Good: Lightweight, fastest load time out of the phones tested, good music player with FM transmitter, easy-to-use mechanical scroll wheel, good GPS directions, 2.0 megapixel camera with self-portrait mode, excellent call quality, one-button speakerphone, super-fast EVDO network.
Bad: Reflective surface gets nasty, keypad a bit slippery, can’t transfer music via Bluetooth.
Samsung Instinct
$449, Sprint, EVDO
Simple-to-use touch phone.
Good: Great response from touch keys, easy to type, great GPS directions, easy-to-use e-mail, 2.0 megapixel camera, 2GB memory card, live TV player with great sports coverage, comes standard with extra battery, over 150 streaming radio channels, simple to use, a true iPhone competitor (not killer).
Bad: Erratic call quality, bad web browser, no instant messaging.
LG VU
$499, AT&T, HSDPA
Unreliable, but great Mobile TV
Good: Touch-screen Mobile TV is great, great looks, lightweight, 2.0 megapixel camera, decent photos, good call quality.
Bad: Slowest load time, very inaccurate touch keyboard, big learning curve.