Editor’s Note: Welcome to our Monday feature, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. In the coming weeks look for columns from Jupiter Research’s Julie Ask, iGR’s Iain Gillott and more.
Apple’s iPhone has everyone scrambling to compete, not just because of a single high-end product at one carrier, but also because Apple has shifted consumer attention away from just style and towards providing a differentiated experience. Nokia seems to understand the shift better than most and is investing in connected services along with usability improvements, but in the short term, simply offering a Web browsing touchscreen phone is imperative. In this regard, the LG Voyager is a tremendous success; it is Verizon Wireless’ first feature phone with either a touchscreen or full HTML browser.
The Voyager is a solid, entertainment-oriented feature phone jam-packed with technology and features for just $299 after rebate. While it is not an “iPhone killer,” it should appeal to anyone seeking an iPhone-like touchscreen phone at Verizon Wireless. LG has crammed an impressive amount of technology into the Voyager, including two large, very high resolution (400×280 pixel) screens, and yet the case looks and feels slimmer than expected. The Voyager’s exterior screen is touch sensitive with haptics (vibrations when a “button” is pressed), while the interior screen is complemented by a large QWERTY keyboard for text messaging, IM and consumer email. The Voyager’s highlights are its web browser and mobile television.
Web Browsing, TV, and Navigation
Apple has popularized the notion of full HTML browsing on cellphones, and the LG Voyager capitalizes by including the first full HTML browser on a Verizon Wireless feature phone. It renders complex pages well anywhere Verizon Wireless offers EV-DO service, which is nearly everywhere, not just at hotspots. (The iPhone’s browser can be painfully slow over EDGE.)
The Voyager is the first phone where Vcast Mobile TV (Qualcomm’s MediaFLO technology) really shines because the video remains smooth and TV-like even on the large screen-most mobile video is akin to watching TV on a postage stamp. The service works on either screen; the exterior screen is perfect for watching TV while waiting in line, while the interior screen allows the phone to be set down on a table and viewed while, say, eating lunch.
The iPhone offers Google maps, which are pretty, but can’t actually tell you where you are, or how to get where you’re going. VZ Navigator on the Voyager takes advantage of built-in GPS, either of two large screens, and a QWERTY keyboard for entering addresses to approach the functionality of dedicated GPS navigation units.
With added storage and headphones, the Voyager can be used as a media player; LG even borrowed a bit (and only a bit) of Apple’s Cover Flow UI for music-album art can be ‘flipped’ to display song titles. The 2-megapixel camera can also capture video (which the iPhone cannot), and pictures can be thumbed through in full-screen mode. Indeed, aside from a lack of storage-which can be justified by a lower price than the iPhone-the Voyager matches up well with the competition in terms of specifications:
|
|
Apple iPhone |
HTC Touch |
LG Voyager |
|
Exclusive Carrier |
AT&T |
Sprint |
Verizon Wireless |
|
Price after rebates |
$399 |
$249 |
$299 |
|
Size |
4.5" x 2.4" x 0.46" |
3.97" x 2.34" x 0.55" |
4.64" x 2.12" x 0.71" |
|
Screen size and resolution |
3.5” 320 x 480 touchscreen |
2.8” 240 x 320 touchscreen |
External: 2.8” 240 x 400 touchscreen with VibeTouch (haptics) |
|
Smartphone? |
Yes, Apple OS X |
Yes, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 with HTC TouchFLO UI overlay |
No |
|
Keyboard |
Virtual QWERTY |
Virtual 20 key |
Exterior: Virtual QWERTY |
|
HTML browser |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
PIM |
Sync via iTunes |
Sync via ActiveSync |
No Sync provided. Maximum 1000 contacts. |
|
Music sync |
Sync with iTunes |
Sync with Windows Media Player |
Transfer music with V CAST Music Manager |
|
Video sync |
Sync with iTunes for purchased TV and movie content |
Sync with Windows Media Center for recorded TV content |
No |
|
OTA music downloads |
iTunes over WiFi, $.99/track |
Sprint Music over EV-DO, $.99/track |
V CAST Music over EV-DO, $1.99/track |
|
OTA video streaming |
YouTube |
Sprint Power Vision. Can also add SlingPlayer or other third-party applications |
V CAST Videos |
|
Imaging |
2 MP |
2 MP with video |
2 MP with video |
|
3G |
No |
EV-DO |
EV-DO |
|
WiFi |
Yes |
No |
No |
|
Rated talk time |
8 hours |
3.5 hours |
4 hours |
|
GPS |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
TV |
No |
Sprint TV |
V CAST Mobile TV (MediaFLO) |
|
Internal memory |
8 GB |
128 MB |
128 MB |
|
Expansion memory |
none |
microSD/HC to 4 GB (512 MB card included) |
microSD/HC to 8 GB (empty) |
|
International roaming |
Yes, but restricted to AT&T partners |
No |
No |
|
Headphones |
3.5mm jack, headphones and microphone included |
Proprietary HTC miniUSB connector, headphones included |
2.5mm jack, no headphones included |
|
Bluetooth |
Yes |
Yes, with A2DP |
Yes, with A2DP |
However, the Voyager is not an iPhone killer, and will not generate the same pull to draw subscribers away from rivals. One of these days LG will get all of its user interface designers together in the same room, build a product that is not rushed to market, and the rest of the industry will sit up and take notice. The LG Prada phone came closest to this goal, but the Voyager does not build on its user interface, choosing instead to start from scratch. As a result, usability suffers in direct comparison to Apple’s iPhone. The main screen has one of two icon-driven menus, but key functionality like IM and email is still buried several layers deep. With the flip open, there is no shortcut menu, relegating mobile TV to the menu structure as well. The UI overall is fairly pedestrian, mimicking buttons on a screen; none of the flourishes Apple lavished on the iPhone can be found on the Voyager. For example, the iPhone’s photo viewer can be used by a two year old and displays gorgeous photos that take up the whole screen. The Voyager has an almost full screen mode, but touching the wrong area disables it and LG does not have finger motions for zooming in on photos. Similarly, the Voyager’s Web browser doesn’t always correctly distinguish between scrolling motions and link selection.
The Voyager is not a smartphone, and is not designed to interface with a PC. Not only does this mean that media synchronization pales next to the iPhone/iTunes combination, but it also means that basic PIM functionality is missing. While Apple’s implementation of PIM management has its pros (completely seamless synchronization via iTunes) and cons (no search by name, no To-Do list, one-way Notes synchronization), having all your contacts and calendar on a single device is a hallmark of advanced devices. The Voyager cannot move over calendar and contact information from a PC at all, which means users may still be left carrying a separate PDA.
The Voyager is not really a musicphone, either, at least not out of the box. It lacks storage, does not have a 3.5mm jack, doesn’t include headphones in the box, and the bare bones file transfer software Verizon Wireless uses cannot compare to any mainstream media manager on the market, let alone Apple’s iTunes. The MediaFLO capabilities are wonderful, but most Voyager customers won’t use them: the service is extremely expensive for a handful of channels that do not track their cable equivalents, and rollout of the service badly lags Verizon Wireless’ coverage footprint. Even the GPS navigation, which is preloaded, requires a separate subscription (by the day or month) and a data plan.
Conclusion
No phone is perfect, and LG has managed to cram a long list of technology-two big screens, 3G, an HTML browser, a physical QWERTY keyboard, GPS and Vcast Mobile TV-into a case that looks and feels thinner than it is. The user interface is nothing special, but it’s perfectly functional, and the Voyager should satisfy Verizon Wireless consumers looking for a high end multimedia phone. If LG ever concentrates on building one extraordinary product rather than a dozen interesting ones, Apple could be in trouble, too.
This column was adapted from the report, “LG Voyager at Verizon Wireless Ready to Take on the iPhone,” published on November 21 (the day the Voyager was first offered for sale). The full report contains additional analysis and recommendations for LG, Verizon Wireless, Apple, HTC, Samsung, Nokia, and consumers. Avi Greengart is the Principal Analyst, Mobile Devices for Current Analysis. He can be reached at [email protected].
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