LG Dare Review in Real Time

I bought the LG Dare about three months ago, it worked ok, then it stops working so I take it in and they can't fix it so they give me a new phone, (yeah right) this phone breaks three weeks later because the keyboard will not display when calling voice mail, so I take it in again today, they can't fix it yet again, they give me a new phone, (yeah right) when I get home I am setting the features and notice on my brand new LG Dare Verizon authorized dealer phone that the volume control does not work, and probably never did, I'm not amused. Tomorrow I am taking it back and will get a new service provider and never buy LG or use Verizon again because it's either a lack of quality or ethics, and I can't tell which company is responsible.

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Sorry to hear that.. and welcome to the forum.

I too have wondered how invasive the quality control is on phones you get when turning in a bad one.

I think its common knowledge that you rarely really get a "new" phone but rather you get one that someone else has returned and it has been simply "refurbished".

Well really??? Sometimes I wonder if they didn't find anything wrong "because they never really found out the issue from the customer" and so assumed the customer was just stupid and so returned the phone back to service.

I know there are some computer stores that will do that will electronic parts like motherboards etc. If they suspect the customer is not real savvy, they will assume its operator error and return the part to service rather than find out the real complaint, investigate it, and fix it or trash the part.

Many don't care, Many are poor communicators, and Many don't want to spend the needed resources and time to find the real issue.

We are a throw away society any more.

I have experienced some of your same problem so don't feel bad.

But don't be too quick to jump out of the skillet into the frying pan... they all have their problems from time to time.

But I can vouch for LG as I really prefer their software and with the exception of a few glitches like you mentioned yourself, I have used LG for years and have really like their product. My wife usually gets another phone besides the one I choose and this time she chose a motorolla. Its a good enough phone, but very limited in what it can do software wise.

Verizon's service speaks for itself... very solid, reliable, easy to get help and a service person, but not always cutting edge.

But as we have discussed before.. cutting edge is not always good if you want reliability.... Ask microsoft about that one... they love to release products before they are ready and simply let the customer figure out all the bugs... I think verizons mistakes are honest.....

Although I think LG could often put more thought into what they are doing before they release a product, they are a fine product based on the competition I've experienced.... but I'm not an expert... nor do I frequent other products on a regular basis.

The tech world is very cut throat now a days and they all way to get their product out first to beat the competition.

Its all about how much money they are willing to spend up front to make a fine product or service before they ask for a return from the customer.

If you spend all of your time in the city... you may not need verizon... but believe me.... at&t's claim to have the best coverage is bunk in my neck of the woods as I am amused at my friends who struggle with coverage while I do great. I live in Central texas away from large towns about 45 min.

This phone will hold 1000 contacts... one problem is that the Verizon network's backup assistant "the utility to keep your contacts backed up on Verizons web site" only holds a max of 500.... what gives?


Second... I currently have about 330 contacts... I already have my "groups" maxed!!!! LG needs to allow more categories as well as amt of contacts allowed in each group.

I have so many restaurants for instance I have 4 categories for them... (Food, Food2, Food3, and Food4) because as I maxed the first one, I had to create a second, and a third etc....

I have the same for other areas... such a (Auto, Auto2, Auto3) for everything relating to automobile parts stores, maintenance etc.

I have two categories for (Bills/maintainence) because I can't get all of them into one.

I have three electronics categories, two family categories, and three sporting goods stores.

I am maxed out in the fact that I cannot create any more categories, nor can I add any more to any of the ones I have already created..... YET I still have many that are not assigned!!! They are simply under the "no group" category.. which seems to have no limit.

I think this must have been an oversight on LG's part.
If they are going to allow 1000 contacts.... they should allow a means to group them "all".

Lastly.. there should be a way to backup all these preferences, contact groups, assignments of what sounds and ringtones go to what contacts as well as picture assignments.... you know, all the stuff you have to do everytime you have to switch your phone out for some reason.

One little file kept on our memory card that the phone can read should do the trick! Similar to the file that Firefox and internet explorer keeps for history, bookmarks, another for preferences etc.

It sounds like what I'm asking for is a profile of sorts... so be it!... its a need, so why resist fulfilling the need? Isn't that how money is made.... to find a need and meet it?

It shouldn't take hours and hours to get everything back to the way it was when a phone needs to be switched because of a malfunction or upgrade.

I have recently bought the LG Dare , Last Monday
and it’s been nothing but a pain in my a** !!

I like the look, camera is cool,
Txt is a bit difficult to get used to but whatever
, but then ,
the phone would suddenly freeze with the lg logo on screen
This happened twice and once while hitting reply to a txt.
and I had to hold down the power button to get it back.

Then, this Monday , 7 days later , it did this and stayed that way.
I switched it at the store for a new one , feeling good and troubles gone.
But alas, today the 1 day old phone did the same thing on hitting reply to a txt. back to lg screen and had to reboot.

HOW IS THIS PHONE ON THE MARKET IF IT’S THIS BUGGY?

Does anyone else experience this?
I am returning this POS asap and now trying to decide if a voyager or the moto adventurer is the way to go

I want a cool phone that is easy for music and takes a decent pic.

Is there a firmware upgrade that fixes this? or is the LG dare OS hopeless?
It appears I ‘m not alone with this one..

I think the Dare may have been a desperate attempt to get something on the market "fast" to compete with the I phone... yes it was very buggy... the latest firmware fixes any obvious issues like you just stated.

Originally Posted by windstrings

I think the Dare may have been a desperate attempt to get something on the market "fast" to compete with the I phone... yes it was very buggy... the latest firmware fixes any obvious issues like you just stated.

ok so the whole shutting off at random to LG screen, and shutting off during txting is totally fixed with the upgrade?

i have until monday to return it, so maybe I 'll get the upgrade and use the phone for like 20 hours to make sure no issues remain.

damn telus player sucks too! is the verizon one pretty much the same?
you hold down the fast forward on the player and sometimes it responds ..
navigation and response in the player menu is terrible.
does the firmware fix this at all or am i out of luck on that?

thanks for the fast response.

update: I called telus and they said these issues were only for the verizon models and there is no upgrade needed for the telus. sounds like they are full of crap . how would I go about getting a firmware upgrade for this specifically for a telus model?

Hey guys,

I haven't done any firmware upgrades since I got the phone.

Have they fixed any of these:

- Cookies for e-mail not working after a while (having to re-enter username and password every couple of days)

- Not all camera settings save (auto flash, etc.)

Originally Posted by 1stepmore

ok so the whole shutting off at random to LG screen, and shutting off during txting is totally fixed with the upgrade?

i have until monday to return it, so maybe I 'll get the upgrade and use the phone for like 20 hours to make sure no issues remain.

damn telus player sucks too! is the verizon one pretty much the same?
you hold down the fast forward on the player and sometimes it responds ..
navigation and response in the player menu is terrible.
does the firmware fix this at all or am i out of luck on that?

thanks for the fast response.

update: I called telus and they said these issues were only for the verizon models and there is no upgrade needed for the telus. sounds like they are full of crap . how would I go about getting a firmware upgrade for this specifically for a telus model?

I'm not aware of all the fixes.... it sounds like you could have gotten "two" lemons.... I originally had the first firmware when it first came out and I didn't have your symptoms.

Unless you think you can recreate the problem standing in front of the tech counter so that you can retest it with the firmware update, I would ask for another phone "with" the latest firmware.

Whenever you get another phone, its always a "refurbished" phone.. I seriously question as to whether these phones are adequately tested before handing them to another customer.
I assume they must think allot of it is user dissatisfaction and the stories are made up to get another phone or something????

Nevertheless.. if you can get them to give you a genuine "new" phone would be even better.

I too had to go through 3 phones when I replaced my first one before I quit having bugs.

On the last one I thought I was home free and after several days of reconfiguring my phone and assigning all my ringtones, pictures, sounds etc.. I discovered the video display was bad and wouldn't display properly when viewing all my favorite icons etc.

At any rate, the last phone I got works great with the exception of an occasional nuisance of a delay when hitting a button such as the send button etc... I'm hoping the latest firmware that is just being released "06" will fix that too.

I think phone manufacturers just need to bite the bullet and put faster processors in phones and pda's... especially with the new introduction of touch screens that take up more processor energy.... That would speed up internet browsing also....

I know they say these are not computers.. but with the screen as small as they are, we should still have blazing fast internet speeds that are comparable to computers with large screens.
Video processing is a large chunk of processor power and ram memory.

Memory seems to be adequate now, but they are still dragging their feet on processor speeds to decode and uncompress signal info from the net and recompress to send it back.

I think that alone would alleviate many of the problems we see.

I often feel like I'm using a 486 computer or low end pentium to run windows xp... just now enough juice for the task at hand!

Well, for what its worth.. I upgraded to the 06 firmware today.
I haven't had time to really test it much, but I'm pretty sure my phone is faster and more responsive now when pressing buttons and general navigating.

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The 06 update fixed my problem... not only is my phone punchier and faster, I can edit my 40 min video thats 346 meg in size (640 X 480) and capture pictures out of it without crashing the whole phone!

BTW... I played with a Storm at the verizon store and was "very" disappointed!
Seems everything you touch on the screen takes anywhere from 1/2 to one second before it even responds!... way toooo sloooow for me.

I guess my dare has me spoiled... until they come out with a real touch screen, I'll either be keeping my dare or go with a conventions blackberry that has buttons as those are instantaneous!

hey thanks for the tip. i have the original enV and i edited the voice-mail number w/ the 2-sec pauses and it works.

I just got my Dare this weekend and right now I am a little frustrated. I can't use earbuds so have to use a headset for the phone. Problem is that the dare has a 3.5mm jack, not the standard 2.5mm and I've read that there are issues with shorting your phone if you don't get the right jacks. Any ideas on how I can accomodate this? Or any suggestions on what wired headsets work with the Dare? If i can't find any it looks like this phone will have to go back

Thanks for such a great review. Keep up the good work.

a local phone store or radio shack should have a conversion jack.