LG Chocolate Touch Music Phone

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lg-chocolate-touch-fpThis is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of LG Chocolate Touch. All opinions are 100% mine.

After I purchased the first generation iPhone, I stopped using my iPod classic and transferred all my music listening activities to the iPhone. Do you use your phone for music? Did you buy your current phone based on its phone features or its multimedia features? Today I’d like to tell you about the LG Chocolate Touch Music Phone from Verizon. It has Dolby Digital for Mobile, which sounds pretty impressive. Let’s see if it really is.

This isn’t going to be a typical phone review where I go through all the features and focus on phone capabilities. I’m mainly just going to talk about the music features of the LG Chocolate Touch. Why? Because the phone that I was sent to review hasn’t been activated for Verizon and I don’t have a Verizon account to use with it.

Hardware Specifications

Technology: CDMA
Frequency: 1.9 GHz CDMA PCS, 800 MHz CDMA (Digital Dual-Band)
Data Transmission: EVDO† Rev. 0
Expansion: microSD slot
Bluetooth: 2.1 EDR
Camera: 3.2 Megapixel
Camera Resolutions: 2048x 1536 (default), 1600x 1200, 1280x 960, 800x 480, 640x 480 Pixels
Zoom: up to 1.6x
Video Resolutions: 320x 240, 176x 144 (default) Pixels
Video Recording Time: up to 30 sec. (for sending) or up to 1 hr. (for saving)
Video Player for WMV, MP4, 3GP, and 3G2 Formats
Dimensions: 4.30″(H) x 2.20″(W) x 0.47″(D)
Weight: 4.23 oz.
Display: 262K Color TFT, 400 x 240 Pixels, 3.0″
Standard Battery: 1,000 mAh
Usage Time: up to 306 Minutes
Standby Time: up to 470 Hours

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The phone has a chromed metal and plastic shell that you’ve probably already guessed is a fingerprint and smudge magnet. The back cover is easily removable. They even give you a 2nd one that has Purple rubber grips on the back like the Black one shown in the image above.

The front of the phone has a large color touchscreen and three buttons below it for call send / end, voice command and power.

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The right side has a lock/unlock button, camera app launch button and music app launch button.

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The opposite side has a micro USB connector that is protected by a small plastic cover, volume up/down buttons and a speakerphone button.

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On the top edge you’ll find a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. Next to the headphone jack is a Dolby Mobile label. I am pretty sure that this is the first mobile device that I’ve seen with this feature. I’ve seen Dolby labels on home electronics and in movies but I’m going to have to admit that I didn’t really know what the heck it was for. One of my co-workers saw the phone on my desk and asked about it. When I mentioned Dolby, he said he thought it was for noise reduction. I decided to google it and here’s what I learned from Dolby’s site:

Dolby® Mobile brings the excitement of live performance and state-of-the-art movie theatres to mobile phones and personal media players. With Dolby Mobile, you can enjoy the kind of full-body surround sound experience that you know from the cinema and the concert hall—anytime, anywhere. No longer will you feel like you’re watching a movie at arm’s length on your mobile phone. Dolby Mobile plunges you into the action with top-quality audio and awesome surround sound.

Dolby Mobile Benefits
Immerses you in surround sound for a more compelling entertainment experience
Extends bass response, adding depth that you can feel to the music
Enhances high frequencies so you can hear every detail

Ok, that all sounds interesting, but does music “sound” better on the LG Chocolate Touch than on a regular old MP3 player? To answer that question, I had to first get music on the phone. The first thing I tried was plugging it into my iMac using the provided USB cable. I expected the LG to show up as an external flash drive. It didn’t.

Then I went to Verizon’s Wireless site and downloaded the VCast Music Manager and installed it on my HP Mini netbook. I then plugged the phone into the computer using the same USB cable. No luck… The software would not connect to the phone (FYI – the LG Chocolate does not yet show up as a compatible phone for this software). My next try was downloading Rhapsody software from Verizon’s site. Rhapsody is sort of like iTunes. Unfortunately it didn’t work either. I finally noticed that the LG had showed up as a 2GB external drive on my netbook and I could drag and drop music into the Music folder. I was also able to take the back cover off the phone, eject the microSD card and copy music to it that way too.

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Accessing music that you have copied to the LG is really very easy and can be done two ways. You can press the music button on the right side of the phone or you can tap the musical note on the right side of the display.

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Doing either one will present you with the music application interface that you see here. You can then filter your music in different ways to choose the songs you want to hear.

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The what’s playing screen shows album artwork if you have it and gives you quick access to the EQ.

Guess what? The audio quality is very good. Listening to the same song on my iPhone and the LG, the difference wasn’t over the top noticeable, but I found the LG’s bass to be just a little deeper and the trebles to be a little bit sharper. After going back and forth between the two devices it is really a toss up as to which one I like better. That said, listening to music on this phone should not be a disappointment at all.

In addition to listening to music on this phone, you can also play music.

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There’s a drum pad that you can play with your favorite songs or even by itself.

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There’s a piano too. Kind of fun…

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There’s even an FM radio built into this phone. You can only use it when you have earphones plugged in though as they are used as the antenna.

Overall I’m really happy with the audio capabilities of this phone. I wouldn’t have a problem using the LG as my MP3 player.

Now let’s check the camera / video camera capabilities.

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The LG has a 3.2mp camera that can take still images and record videos. Let me say right now, you aren’t going to be blown away by images captured with this phone. To launch the image capturing app, you can just press the camera button on the right side of the phone. Almost the entire screen becomes the viewfinder. You can then tap the Take button or press the camera button on the side of the phone to capture an image. One problem that I did notice is that holding the camera to take a picture sometimes positioned my thumb on the speaker button on the opposite side of camera button. When I would use the camera button to snap a picture, I would also sometimes accidentally press the speaker button at the same time. Kind of a pain…

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Pictures can be saved to the phone or card.

camera sample 1 Camera sample 2

Click the sample pictures above to view the image quality. Regular shots turn out ok, but if you want to do macro pictures, forget it…

The video capabilities are about as good as the picture capabilities. Captured videos can have a maximum resolution of 320x 240. They end up being a little blurry and a bit jerky. I wouldn’t use this phone as your only camcorder.

When it is all said and done, I can’t tell you how well this phone functions as a device to make calls, but I do think the LG Chocolate Touch Music phone makes a decent feature phone for someone looking for above average audio features in their phone. I haven’t had the phone long enough to get a good idea of the battery life per charge, but so far it seems to last really long even when playing a lot of music.

Let’s hear from those of you that have this phone. What do you think of it?

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Product Information

Price:$129.99 with 2yr contract from Verizon
Manufacturer:LG
Pros:
  • Good audio quality
  • Built in radio
  • Touch screen
Cons:
  • Mediocre camera / camcorder capabilities
  • Speaker button is sometimes activated when taking pictures

42 thoughts on “LG Chocolate Touch Music Phone”




  1. Gadgeteer Comment Policy - Please read before commenting
  2. Absolutely love mine since I bought it a month ago today.
    Not a power user, always wanted a touch screen phone without those ridiculous data plan charges.
    The battery life is amazing, which is odd because many other review sights said that the battery life was poor, but this thing goes without a charge for more than a week!!
    Only con for me is, no flash.

    Love it, great phone for $130 bones 🙂

  3. Yeah, the call quality is pretty good, but I do hear a little of my voice echo, but it could just be that persons carrier (Sprint) with that issue. Reception is better than my past razr and moto q though

  4. Wudaya mean, “Sponsored Post”? Please tell us more.
    Also, I don’t think this is really part 5 of “Week with an HP…”
    But seriously, reviewing a phone without phone service? Fail. Sorry to be so negative, but this just doesn’t seem up to your usual standards and quality.

    1. @j3ff Hmmm, not sure how the HP series was assigned to that post, but I fixed it.
      Regarding your sponsored post question, a PR company representing LG sent me the phone for free and paid me to write an article about the phone. As I said in the post, the phone wasn’t activated and didn’t come with a time limited free service to test the actual calling features. I was asked to write an article that only focused on the music and camera features.

  5. its not supposed to be an iphone copy that was just a refrence that person made. Saying that the music capabilities were compariable to the iphone.

  6. i got mine yesterday and I’m overall extremely happy with the phone. it’s a great phone and I would reccomend it for anyone. it’s got great music and I think the camera is pretty good for a phone.

  7. It is a great phone music player amazing only thing i dont like is a pen didnt come with it for touch screen it is rele hard to text with buttons so small other than that one of the best phones i’ve had!

  8. I just got my phone today, I haven’t got to use it yet but in the store it was really cool. However, I can’t get the back off AT ALL. Is there a trick or different way of doing it??

    1. @steph See how there’s a little arrow at the top? Hold the phone flat and so the arrow is pointing away from your body. Grip the phone with your thumb in the center of the back and press down and slide forward with your thumb. Don’t worry, you won’t break anything.

  9. I own a macbook and I’ve heard several times that the phone is not compatible with macs. Will I be able to get music on the phone, even though I have a mac?

  10. I am trying to figure out how to connect my cholcolate touch to my computer. Is there anything specific to do? I connected my phone to the computer using the supplied usb cord, but my comp said it needed to search for software, it came up with nothing. …

  11. Stacey Chanthalangsy

    I too have a LG Chocolate Touch and I like my phone very much; However, as you stated the camera in not so many words, Sucks. But the music app on it is fairly awsome for a phone and I have no problems with the service of the phone. I too have a Mac as well and I can not figure out how to transfer music to my mac to my phone.

  12. I just got mine a few days ago. So far, I love it. I’d say the only problem I have is that when you txt or use internet, the buttons are quite small. But after getting used to working the screen I found that when you txt the phone still gets a sense of which button you’re trying to press and you can magnify web pages and easily click on the buttons you want.
    As for your issue with getting songs on there, I don’t know about MAC users but for Windows you hit the sync button in the My Music section and from there you can use the media player on Windows to transfer songs without having to download anything from Verizon.

  13. Where can I buy a mini SD car? I haven’t looked much, but I would much rather do that then continue looking for something that actually works to get music and photos on my phone. Waaay too complicated…

  14. I’ve tried everything to put music on my phone…nothing works. I used Rhapsody and stuff…mp4 and mp3 formats…but when i look at my music its not there. Also it still takes up memory on my phone but i cant find the songs.

  15. I was very hopeful for this phone as I was coming from another great LG phone. I do love the music player and think for a phone, it sounds wonderful. I do, however, feel that the camera is seriously lacking. I’ve had my phone for several months and I’m still convinced there is a film on the lense that I just can’t get off. My previous phone had a way better camera in it and it was only a 2.0MP. All my pictures turn out fuzzy, as if I’ve taken them through a layer of Saran Wrap. I’ve even run into trouble where the phone won’t save the picture I just took. I’m also not impressed with the color of the pictures. The colors don’t look “true”. I know this is only a PHONE, but when LG has already shown us that they can make a GOOD camera for a phone, i expect the same quality across the board for their products.

  16. I need help getting music on the phone i use the usb tht comes with it. and it says connection failed on my phone. i really want to use the music player

  17. Bobby, after connecting the USB cable (and after drivers are installed), just go into the Tools menu (via the blue/white 4-dot looking icon). Then, scroll to the bottom and hit “USB Mass Storage.”

    It will then show up in your OS as a new drive. Just drag and drop music into the my_music folder. Then, just hit Exit on the phone and there ya have it.

  18. Love the phone so far! I have had it almost a month now. Music capabilities are great. Also the calls sound very clear. Battery life is very long. The only negatives I have are the web browser is very hard too use and the texting can be difficult. That may be because my last phone (Alias) actually had a keyboard. The touch respose is very good, but I usualy end up hitting the wrong letters and I have to text much slower to get it right.

    1. @Laura I don’t believe there is a Mac version of the VCast Music Manager software yet. You can just copy music to the MicroSD card though.

  19. I love mine! I have to admit being a bit disappointed in the picture qualities. The music, however…EXCELLENT! Texting and being on the Internet has been so easy and fun with this phone. I would highly recommend this phone!!

  20. I plugged it into the computer, but it said I needed software to install it, where do I get this software? It didn’t come in the box.
    I LOVE this phone, the memory on the phone without an SD card is lacking though, I should have to buy more things just to be able to use my phone.

  21. I Have A Question That I Don’t Think Has Yet Been Answered To Anyone. Umm.. Would You Be Able To Take Pictures From The Phone And Put Them On Your Dell Computer? Please Reply Back On This Website.

    Thank You!

    Sarah Elizabeth

  22. hi – i have the lg chocolate touch phone- love it. the problem i have is that i put an mp4 video on the sd card. it shows up when the phone is connected to the pc, in myflix folder. when it is disconnected, it doesn’t show up anywhere on the phone memory or the card memory. i also have a video in the 3gpp format. that one works fine, but the resolution is really bad due to max pixels allowed in that format. i also put the mp4 on my friends htc android, and it worked fine there . please help if you can
    thanks
    mj

  23. ok, i found out that the converter had converted it to an m4v file which is itunes format. i went in and changed the extension to mp4 and it worked perfectly. hopefully this info will help someone else.
    mj

  24. I just got the LG Chocolate Touch last week. Could not get the USB Cable provided to work. I went back to where I bought it and they gave me a different USB cable and it worked. The cable they gave mis is Mdl LG D1C100.

  25. It’s 2020, and I still use this to listen to music. I have a 64 gig SD card chock full of music in there (even thought it’s supposed to be 32 gig max) and it works just fine. Maybe it’s my imagination, but damn this thing still sounds amazing to me. This thing must have a crazy good DAC and headphone amp. It pushes my Sennheiser HD 380 Pro’s like a champ. I doesn’t have the spaciousness of my most recent iPhone (Xs) but it’s great to have in a pinch when my other portable sources are charging. And the radio is great to have, I mean, who carries around a AM/FM Discman anymore?

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