Product ReviewsLG Dare VX9700 - Black Silver (Verizon) Cellular Phone

LG Dare VX9700 review

The LG VX9700 is an old, reliable cellphone with most basic features prominent with current with the new cell phones. The ability to subscribe without constant inclusion of data contracts is a plus for those with only occasional use. The QWERTY touch screen feature is handy as well as a good camera.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: maven_technologies

disappointed.

I bought it to replace the same model due to low battery life but this one is just as bad. Have to charge it on a daily basis because by the end of the day it has 0-2 bars.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: tech4wireless

Dare to Compare

I've been using my LG Dare on Verizon (bought used about 3 months ago). As with many other touchscreen phones, the interactions can sometimes take a few tries to get right. Texting is one of those things that takes a while to get used to. It has a qwerty keyboard if you flip the phone on its side but you have to get used to where to touch the screen over the keys. It does have a feature that I use instead and that is a "hand writing" method where you basically write in a letter or two at a time and it types it on to the screen.

The full HTML browser works pretty well, but the smallish screen makes it difficult to do more than quick jaunts onto the web to check email or the occasional bit of info. Of course without a data plan even those quick tasks can add up at $1.99 per megabit.

The other features like, the music player, the camera are useful but I wouldn't count on them replacing dedicated devices just yet.

A BIG plus for me is the ability to tether the phone to a laptop and use it like a mobile modem... again don't try this at home if you don't an unlimited data plan with Verizon.

My two complaints as it were is that the phone is not wifi capable and that the form factor is two scare and flat to fit comfortably in your hand and forget about holding it up between your head and shoulder if you need your hands free momentarily to open a door or some-such-thing.

Over all I would say this phone is a great alternative to some of the more expensive ones if you don't need to have your phone be secondary portable PC type device. If you don't NEED to have email and internet access but would LIKE to have some access to these than give the LG Dare a try.Read full review...

Great phone for not needing a data plan to use

I've had this phone for years now, just had to replace it because it fell in the water with me. I really do love this phone but the one thing I must say I don't like about it is the sound quality on the other end. I've sent back two phones so far because of faulty problems, but one I've had (four total) has had a problem giving the person on the other line a feedback problem where they hear themselves repeat. The only way I could get away from others hearing themselves talk is by turning down the volume. I don't have a Bluetooth but the speaker phone button is easily accessible and can be turned up quite loud which makes it easy to talk hands free while driving, just keep in mind when doing this the person on the other line WILL hear themselves talk.

This phone is great, I highly recommend getting the rubberized case for it as it is under $4 on eBay, this will prevent butt dialing which has happened with this phone in my side pocket (guess it isn't really butt dialing then). One of the other complaints I've had with this phone is not all the time it will ring or state the name of who is texting me, luckily I have a 2 minute reminder set so even when it doesn't ring for the messages I will get the reminder 2 minutes later, this has been a common problem with these phones.

So other than the feedback and text ring problems this is a great phone and will continue to use it for years as it is NOT considered a smart phone and you don't need a data plan to use it.Read full review...

Fun phone with a ton of great features.

I really like the touch screen. All of the menus/keyboards are a breeze to navigate. The built in digital camera takes excellent pictures, and the MP3 player is very intuitive. This phone, of course, has the directional sensor so that the screen will flip and turn and you rotate the phone. This is a company phone for me and my company does not pay for a data package, so I cannot comment on the Vcast or GPS services ( But the demo that is loaded on the phone looks cool ). I really like the standard headphone jack size, b/c I can plug this phone directly into my car cassatte adapter to listen to music while I drive.Read full review...

best phone i have had

this phone is the best i have purchased. i have had an EnV, a sway, and a glyde, all from verizon and the dare is the best overall. most phones these days each have one unique feature that makes it better than the rest. an example of this could be a juke. the juke is unique and better because it has a very good music player and a huge internal memory right out of the box (2GB). the Dare has alot of unique phone features combined and that is why this phone is so great. untill recently it had the best camera on a phone. it also has picture and video editing software built in. the touchscreen is self dimming with an ambiant light sensor, so it always seems bright for where you are yet does not use too much energy illuminating the screen. the screen by the way is fantastic for texting and using the interface. calibrate the screen with a soft touch from a mechanical pencil so it will learn to be perfectly accurate and sensitive. i also love the 2.5mm headphone jack. it allows you to use your ipod headphones or any other standard headphones. the music player is great because you can text (including picture and video) message, use notes or other tools, check contacts, etc. while listening to your music. there is a proximity sessor so when you hold the phone up to your ear, you dont push any buttons by mistake. the entire phone is scratchproof as long as you dont use the same pocket as your keys or other things. the only con i can think of is that the touch screen takes a little time to get used too. the black/ silver/ chrome looks great, but i wish there were more color options.
P.S. get a memory card off ebay! you can get a $50 8GB card for like $10 including shipping!Read full review...

LG Dare VX9700 replaces Motorola Krave ZN4

I purchased a used Dare (LG VX9700) because of good comments given to me by satisfied owners of this phone.

I had been using a Motorola Krave ZN4 and was becoming increasingly frustrated by the terrible touch screen response and cracks in the clear flip.
It took Verizon over six months to finally realize the cracks were a manufacturing defect and replace the phone twice (so far).

In my frustration, I purchased a used Dare from eBay.
I've been using the Dare only a few days and so far I am happy with it.
The touchscreen response is FAR batter than the Krave and the phone sports some nice eye candy that the Krave lacks.

Most of the standard Verizon software is on the Dare (Vcast, tip calculator, etc.) but the Dare lacks Mobile TV (FLO) that the Krave has.

Web browsing is better on the dare and seems faster than the Krave.

One of the best features is the fact that I could download BitPim (free) to use for sync'ing the phone to Outlook and it also works on my Linux PC.
It even sync's to Google Calendar.
A trillion thanks to the BitPim folks !!!!!

On the flip side, the Krave required $50 for the purchase of Motorola Phone Tools for Windows only and it was buggy on the good days.

Some of the nice features of the dare are:
Music will continue to play while accessing other features of the phone.
The music player will rotate 360 degrees depending on the phone's orientation.
The movie player will rotate 90 degrees between full screen and player mode depending on the phone's orientation.
The Dare has the option of using handwriting recognition and includes a stylus.
The desktop (home screen) can be customized with your favorite shortcuts.
Hardware button for turning on the speaker phone. Anyone who has owned a Krave can appreciate gaining this feature.
The camera has a ton of features and settings but the quality still says "Cell phone camera".
USB Mass storage mode - SWEET !!

On the downside:
Touch typing on the virtual qwerty keyboard is far better than the Krave but not as good as having real buttons.
Heavy text-ers will probably get frustrated but not if you previously owned a Krave.

By the way - I really wanted a smart phone since I was looking for a PDA replacement and thought it would be nice to have that combined with a phone.
I didn't want to pay Verizon an extra $30 a month for a data plan I would rarely use just to own a smart phone so I settled on these near-smart phones.Read full review...

Love my Lg Dare!!!

I love the Lg Dare! It is an easy phone to navigate and the touch screen is so much easier and faster to navigate than traditional buttons. The sound quality is excellent as is the screen function and color. Text is convenient, fast and easy to access. Everything is easy to access from the main screen and there are many options for sound, font, screens, ect... More to choose from than you could possibly ever have the chance to use. The only trouble I have is with the camera, getting it to snap pictures on demand but maybe I just need to read the owners manual! I would rate this phone 9/10 stars.Read full review...

My Experience so far

I bought this phone as a flashed-to cricket phone. The internet and picture messaging do not work. But for as the rest of the phone, I'm mostly impressed. It's very easy to use, takes wonderful pictures/videos, and with the right programs (specificlly bitpim) its fairly easy to transfer music/pictures between your phone and PC. My only big complaint is the texting. You have three options for texting; QWERTY keyboard, T-9/ABC, and a handwriting tool that recognizes strokes. I really don't like the QWERTY board. There's no spell check, for instance, so if you make a mistake and don't catch it, you'll have to erase the word and start again, since there's no real way to highlight a specific letter. The t-9/word is nice, but sometimes it takes several hits for it to recognize a letter. And there's no dictionary to add words into! The handwriting tool is actually pretty nifty, and I've found out a little trick. When using the tool and you have abc selected, write the words in UPPER CASE--it's more likely to recognize them this way. I often use it for puncuation marks at the end of sentences, and smily faces,etc. So overall, this is a pretty good phone, and in comparison to phone's I've had in the past, it's very nice. But dont' EVER drop it!! And get a screen/hard case protector immediately, because this phone is meant to be had with extreme care/caution.Read full review...

Good Phone

Not the greatest, but does better than any other non-smartphone. The 3.2MP camera is one of the greatest features of this phone, the photos are sharp and clear. Voice quality is OK, not the best, but better than some phones. The on-screen keyboard is a great feature (but in my opinion, i would love a dedicated keyboard) and the full HTML web browser renders faster than any other phone. this phone is FREAKING DURABLE i washed it in the washing machine and drop it about 10-20 times and it never broke. only some dirt under the screen because of the wash. overall it's a great phone for people who don't need to run custom apps(i would of loved this feature, but i couldn't afford a smartphone at the time) and who likes touch screens.

Pros:
Great Camera
A lot of Texting Features
Full HTML Web Browser
Small Form Factor
Extremely durable! (can get washed a few times and drop a lot)

Cons:
OK Call Quality
No Custom Apps - since it's BREW :(
Small amount of appsRead full review...

This phone is okay, nothing to write home about, but not bad.

There are a couple of cons to this phone. It doesn't differentiate well between scrolling in a menu and choosing a menu item. Often when you try to scroll it chooses and option and exits the menu, forcing you to re-enter the menu and try again. Also the screen is not very sensitive. Sometimes the screen has to be touched multiple times before a button engages. The qwerty keyboard is nice, but too small. I have small hands and I find it hard to use the keyboard without hitting wrong buttons all the time. Also, the silver housing scratches easily.

The battery life is great, and service reception is relatively good. The phone is a nice size and weight. It is particularly nice that you don't have to get the data package to have this phone. I had an authorized dealer try to tell me it was required, so I called Verizon to activate the phone and they confirmed no data package was necessary.Read full review...

Not quite an iPhone but it does a very nice job!

I got so tired of texting from a numeric keypad and wanted a QWERTY keyboard phone. My daughter had a DARE and really liked it, more so than the VOYAGER, so I thought I would give it a try. It took some getting used to, but once I got used to the differences between a keypad phone and a touchscreen phone, I found that I liked it and could maneuver around the functions with relative ease. I really like being able to turn the phone on its side and use the almost QWERTY keyboard. It is much faster and accurate than a keypad, which is also available. The phone has an excellent battery life. It is a bit more delicate than a Boulder, but with reasonable care, it should have a good service life. I would have gotten a Storm but did not want to pay the $30 extra a month to take advantage of its capabilities. Both of these phones could be considered a "poor man's" iPhone. I think most touch screen phones will eventually catch up with the iPhone's slick interface. In the meantime, I am very happy with the DARE. You could do a lot worse, and once you have made the switch to a touchscreen phone, you will probably never go back. Now if they just made one to Military Spec 810F, I would be ecstatic. Keeping my fingers crossed. Thank you, LG! Keep up the good work!Read full review...