rb1980
07-18-2007, 01:59 PM
Just under 2 weeks ago, my wife and I both got new phones: the LG LX-550 (Fusic). Then just a couple days ago, they released the LX-570 (Musiq), so I decided to trade in my Fusic and upgrade to the Musiq for $20 more than what I paid for my Fusic. Boy, what a difference. Overall, the Fusic is a good phone. I really thought the feature set of the phone was quite complete and functionality solid, however I was a little insecure in my manhood with the styling of the Fusic. Even with the black face-plate on, it still felt a little "girly" and toy-like to me. And coming from toting a brick of a phone for many years (Sanyo 4900) the Fusic was a little too small and petite for my tastes. The Musiq's styling is way more masculine and elegant. The keypad and screen are slightly bigger and easier for my middle-aged eyes to read. The feature sets are pretty much the same as on the Fusic, with a few upgrades. Nothing too shocking. The biggest being the adding of the java mutitasking manager. Now, you can fire up the music player and minimize it while you do other stuff. Oddly, you cannot surf the web without pausing playback, though. (what's up with that?). Another cool thing, is it comes with the Sprint Music Manager application which is supposed to allow you to sideload content onto your memory card. (I haven't had a chance to play with this yet).
Now on to the quirks:
Right out of the box, there were a couple of things that struck me as odd about the Music. First being where they put the volume rocker buttons: up on the flip part next to the screen. This makes it awkward to try and change the volume while you are holding the phone up to your ear, because you naturally tend to hold the phone lower, towards the hinge. I suppose I may get used to it over time. Second thing is the keypad: One of the things I really liked about the Fusic's keypad was how the each of the buttons had a little raised rib encircling them, which gave good tactile feedback. The Musiq's keypad is mostly flat with very slight grooves seperating the keys (a-la razor). This gives less tactile feedback and makes finding the keys a little more challenging without looking at em. As I mentioned previously, I do enjoy the larger key size though. So it's a trade-off. I'm sure I'll get used to it. Lastly: the power/usb plug is on the left side of the phone rather than the bottom. This makes it awkward to plug in. They also changed it to a proprietary data+power socket versus the standard barrel power socket on the Fusic.
Overall, I am much happier with the Musiq. It's a really nice phone. Well worth the $20 upgrade.
(PS: once they released the Musiq, the list price on the Fusic dropped $30, so the difference now is $50)
Now on to the quirks:
Right out of the box, there were a couple of things that struck me as odd about the Music. First being where they put the volume rocker buttons: up on the flip part next to the screen. This makes it awkward to try and change the volume while you are holding the phone up to your ear, because you naturally tend to hold the phone lower, towards the hinge. I suppose I may get used to it over time. Second thing is the keypad: One of the things I really liked about the Fusic's keypad was how the each of the buttons had a little raised rib encircling them, which gave good tactile feedback. The Musiq's keypad is mostly flat with very slight grooves seperating the keys (a-la razor). This gives less tactile feedback and makes finding the keys a little more challenging without looking at em. As I mentioned previously, I do enjoy the larger key size though. So it's a trade-off. I'm sure I'll get used to it. Lastly: the power/usb plug is on the left side of the phone rather than the bottom. This makes it awkward to plug in. They also changed it to a proprietary data+power socket versus the standard barrel power socket on the Fusic.
Overall, I am much happier with the Musiq. It's a really nice phone. Well worth the $20 upgrade.
(PS: once they released the Musiq, the list price on the Fusic dropped $30, so the difference now is $50)