www.LG-Dare.com

The LG Dare is a touch screen device from LG, only for the Verizon Wireless network. I was able to upgrade to the Dare exactly 50 days ago. Here, I will go into detail the things I like, and dislike about the LG Dare.

First Impressions: This thing is cool. That is what ran through my mind when I first picked up my LG Dare. I had been an active member of http://Lg-Dare.com, a very good Dare forum, and the hype of the phone was killing me! I was so excited to finally get the Dare. The most obvious feature of the Dare that draws attention is the touch screen. This is a resistive touch screen, meaning it senses pressure, unlike the iPhone's capacitive screen. The next feature that caught my attention is the 3.2 MP camera. This thing is loaded with photo editing options, fun frames, etc. I will go into more detail with the camera later in the review. 

Touch Screen: I will be brutally honest. I personally do not like the touch screen on the Dare. No matter how precicesly I calibrate it, the phone still causes me to make many errors when typing a text. Now granted, I am coming from the LG EnV phone with full QWERTY keyboard, but I expected the Dare to perform better with texting. The QWERTY on the Dare is very touchy. I dislike the landscape texting so much, that I have resorted to texting only in the T9 mode, which is a let down for me. One positive aspect of the touch screen however, is the haptic feeback...the phone makes a slight vibration when a touch is registered. This allows for slightly better accuracy. 

Theme and Menu: There are two theme options for the Dare...White and Black. The white theme is just that...white. Many of the menu screens have a white background, and the keyboard is a light grey color. The white theme also has a draggable main menu. You have the ability to drag and move the icons around in any way you please. The only negative to this is all the icons are turned in odd directions. The Black theme is opposite of the White theme. The menu backgrounds are mostly black, as well as the keyboard. Instead of a draggable main menu, the icons are set in a row and column format. I personally prefer the Black theme. 

Camera: The camera on the Dare is outstanding. 3.2 MP with autofocus, flash, face detection, etc. Simply put, this is by far the best cell phone camera I have used. Something neat about the Dare's video camera is it has the ability to record slow motion videos. This can be a great feature for athletes, or just for having fun with. 

Durability: With the Dare's face being almost entirely a touch screen, I recommend investing in a screen protector. I personally have the VZW $10 screen protectors, and they work great. If you are looking for something of higher quality, check out Invisible Shield or Phantomskinz...both are great products. I also invested in the VZW silicon case to protect from drops. So far, I have not dropped it, but in case I do (pun intended), this case should protect my Dare.

Call Quality: The call quality is great on this phone. I have never had a dropped call, and voices come in loud and clear. I have never had anyone tell me they could not hear me, or I sounded muffled. This is good, because in the end, the Dare is a PHONE.

Web Browsing: Web browsing on the Dare is decent. Not great, but not horrible. Although, I only have 2 other phones to compare it to; The Blackberry Curve, and the iPhone. I think the Dare is better than the Curve, but falls short of the iPhone. If you have good signal strength, the Dare will load a page quickly, however navigating a page can be difficult, especially if the links are tiny. 

Overall: Overall, the Dare is the best phone I have ever owned. It has many great features, great call quality, good web browser, and AWESOME camera. I can easily overlook its faults due to the things that it does well. 

To protect my beloved LG Dare, I purchased a silicon case, very similar to the one shown above. The only major difference between my case, and the one shown, is my particular case has a silicon layer covering the front hard buttons. 

I purchased this case from my local VZW store, for a hefty price of $22. Although expensive, the case does a fine job of keeping my Dare safe from bumps and drops. It was very easy to slip my Dare into, and it adds some extra grip to prevent a potentialy "deadly" drop. 

I have a few quirks with this case. At $22, it was not cheap. For a case of this quality, I expected a cheaper price tag. Another peeve I have with this product is the silicon has a tendency to "grab" onto your pants, making it difficult to pull out of a pocket.

All in all, this Verizon silicon case gets the job done, however it does cost a pretty penny.

When it comes to screen protection, there are many options available; Invisible Shield, PhantomSkinz, Verizon brand screen covers, etc. 

At varying prices, quantity, and application instructions, it is hard to choose between them! When I purchased my Dare from my local Verizon store, I also pickd up a 3-pack of the Verizon screen covers for $10. I figured, why spend over $20 on name brand products, when I can get essentially the same thing for half as much? 

Applying the covers is very easy. It is as simple as peeling off the protective film like a sticker, and placing the cover on the clean screen of my Dare. I was able to successfully apply the cover the very first time, and it only took me about five minutes to do so. This application process is much simpler than the adhesive/water based application process that some other brands require.

Once on, it is very hard to tell there is a screen protected on the Dare. It does not feel any different than the the naked screen, and it does not hinder the display of the phone. After a month and a half of use, I still have the original screen cover on, and it is in great shape! I still have two more covers at my disposal, should I need to replace the current one.

All in all, I am very happy with my purchase of the Verizon screen covers.

The LG Dare for Verizon Wireless has a very neat tool built into the phone. The Drawing Pad feature allows users to sketch pictures using their finger. The tool offers multiple settings such as changing the pen width, eraser width, and pen color. Using these simple tools, some users have been able to devlop some VERY good pictures, such as the one shown above.

Brett Rogers is an artist who has an LG Dare phone. He has found the Drawing Pad to be a different, and exciting new way to express his artistic side. Using the basic tools provided, he has created many cool pictures. Here are a few samples:

You may view his entire collection here: http://www.beatcanvas.com/index.asp?blogid=1&threadid=48