LG Chocolate (KG800)

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Features
The KG800 Chocolate's phone book holds 1,000 contacts with room in each entry for four numbers and an e-mail address (the SIM card holds an additional 250 names). You can save contacts to groups, pair them with a photo, or assign them one of 44 polyphonic ring tones. Other basics include a vibrate mode, a voice recorder, text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calculator, a unit converter, a world clock, a calendar, and a memo pad. As for high-end features, there's Bluetooth, e-mail, and USB data storage and transfer capability, and you can use the phone as a modem. Unfortunately, there's no speakerphone or voice dialing. The omission of the former is especially puzzling on such a trendy phone.

The KG800's music player is serviceable but nothing fancy. You can play music in MP3 and AAC formats. Features aren't plentiful--you can't make playlists--but it does offer rudimentary equalizer controls and basic visualizations for when your music is playing. The included stereo headset is top quality, but be warned: it uses a proprietary plug. We loaded music on the phone with the included USB cable without any problems.

	The KG800's camera lens is hidden on the back of the slider.

The 1.3-megapixel camera takes pictures in five resolutions (1,280x960, 640x480, 320x240, 220x176, and 72x72) and three quality settings (normal, fine, and superfine). Additional camera options include a self-timer, brightness and white balance controls, a multishot mode and three color effects. There's also a flash, a self-portrait mirror, and a 4X zoom for use at the lower resolutions. The camcorder takes clips with sound in two resolutions (176x144 and 128x96); editing options are similar to the still camera. You can limit clips to a minute or record for as long as the phone's memory permits. With 128MB onboard, the GSM Chocolate does have more integrated memory than the VX8500, but there's no external memory card slot. Photo quality was quite good in our tests, with sharp colors and distinct object outlines. In bright conditions, the lighting was a bit washed out. Videos were decent but nothing special as they tended to be grainy and pixelated.

	We like the KG800's image quality. (click for larger image)

You can personalize the KG800 Chocolate with a variety of wallpapers, alert sounds, and menu colors. If you want more options or more ring tones, polyphonic or MP3, you can download them via the WAP 2.0 wireless browser. The phone includes one game (ZooZooClub) but the integrated Java (J2ME) support ensures you can get more. Be advised that gameplay through the touch pad is a bit difficult.

Performance
We tested the triband (GSM 900/1800/1900) KG800 Chocolate world phone and found that call quality was decent but not quite as sharp as on Verizon's Chocolate (VX8500). Voice quality had a slight echo effect, and volume was a tad low, so at times it sounded as if callers were talking through a screen. On the other hand, reception was great, and we encountered no interference from other devices. Music quality was fine but a bit tinny, so it's nothing we'd want to listen to for long. On the data end, the KG800 maxes out at GPRS speeds and does not support 3G networks.

The LG KG800 Chocolate has a rated talk-time battery life of 6 hours and a standby time of 8.3 days. According to FCC radiation tests, the KG800 has a digital SAR rating of 0.08 watt per kilogram.

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