Features and Design

The LG Voyager's nice curves and beefy body (4.6 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches) are reminiscent of a classic American car -- big but beautiful. The 2.8-inch, 240-by-400-pixel exterior touchscreen invites iPhone comparisons, and the similarities don’t end there; unlock the screen by touching the virtual Unlock button and tap the center, and you'll see an icon layout that will look familiar to Apple fans. There's also a locking switch on the side, but we preferred using the on-screen button.

Although the Voyager's touchscreen supports swiping for scrolling pages or dragging sliders, it doesn't have Apple's multi-touch interface or supremely responsive feel. But it does vibrate (haptic feedback, which you can disable) when you dial or use the pop-up virtual keyboard -- something the iPhone conspicuously lacks.

Dialing on the touchscreen is a snap thanks to a virtual keypad that appears when you tap the phone icon. The screen occasionally mistook our swipes for taps when we scrolled through our contacts, but overall touch navigation was pretty smooth. There's a touch calibration feature, but we didn't notice a difference before and after using it.

The Voyager opens sideways to reveal an internal LCD (also 2.8-inch and 240 x 400 pixels) flanked by a pair of stereo speakers and set in front of one of the finger-friendliest QWERTY keyboards we've seen on a phone. There's also a directional pad and OK button on the right, as well as call controls. Unfortunately, in flip mode you lose access to the volume buttons on the left (hinged) side of the phone, making it a pain to adjust volume while watching video on the internal screen.

Inside, there's 183MB of flash memory, which looks pathetic in comparison to the iPhone's 8GB until you uncover the microSDHC slot, which supports tiny memory cards up to 8GB. Of course, for $349 USD (with 2-year contract), the Voyager should really come with at least a 2GB card.

Image Courtesy of LG