LG Clout Review

Introduction:

When LG first introduced the VX8000 flip phone nearly five years ago, it was an immediate success for Verizon due to the dual color displays, 1.3MP CCD camera, stereo speakers, excellent call quality, and overall good looks. Since then, the line has continued to evolve with the VX8100, the ever-popular VX8300, VX8350, and last year’s VX8360. Now comes the latest iteration, the LG Clout VX8370. Naturally, over the years the styling has changed, but the Clout VX8370 still retains its heritage, and actually reminds us of the VX8300 due to its overall shape and color. When we reviewed the VX8350 two years ago, we felt that it was a step-down from the VX8300, due to the overall poor build quality, but then when the VX8360 came out; our confidence in the line was restored. Let’s see if the Clout VX8370 is a step in the right direction.

Included in the retail package is the LG Clout VX8370 phone, 1000mAh battery, wall charger with detachable microUSB cable, and user guides.

Design:

LG has kept a higher bar for the VX8000 series of flip phones, which sets it atop their introductory and mid-level devices. The LG Clout VX8370 is no exception, as it is quality-made and feels sturdy and durable, which should hold up to normal daily use. Its dark metallic gray color with black trim is similar to the VX8300, as is the location of the stereo speakers on the sides of the hinge. Even though the Clout VX8370 is slightly larger than the VX8360, it still fits quite comfortably in your hand or pocket.




On the front of the LG Clout remains the small 1.17” 65K color TFT external display that is used on the VX8360. We’re not sure why LG has kept the front display this size with the past few models, as the one on the original VX8000 was a bit larger. Still, it useful enough to show your own wallpaper, check the date & time, battery & signal level, and even for viewing text messages. Above it is the 2MP camera, and below are the music player control buttons. Along the sides of the device are the volume rocker, speakerphone key, 2.5mm headset jack, microUSB port, speakerphone and camera key, and microSDHC memory card slot that supports up to 16GB memory cards.



The LG Clout opens and closes smoothly, but you can hear some of the plastic rubbing together. There is also a bit more flexing to the hinge than on the VX8360, but it still feels studier than the hinge on the VX8350. The internal display on the Clout is now up to 2.2” with QVGA resolution and 262K color support. When placed next to the VX8360, you can clearly appreciate the larger internal screen size on the Clout. The d-pad on the Clout is also a bit larger, which allows for easier menu navigation. Not only that, but the keyboard has also increased in size, as the buttons with white backlit numbers and letters are larger and easier to view. They all are slightly ‘bubbled up’ in the center, which allow for a good tactile feel, and also provide a noticeable ‘click’ when pressed. We also appreciate the checkered color pattern on the keyboard, as it visually differentiates the rows of keys.

Software and Features:

Not much has changed with the nomenclature of the Main Menu over the past few years, as the LG Clout VX8370 still has categories for accessing the media center, messaging, contacts, recent calls, and settings & tools. User customization includes a selection of three themes (white, spotlight, and glow scope), the ability to show the main menu in tab, list, and grid view, three font types and sizes, clock formats, and wallpapers. There’s nothing too out of the ordinary here, as these settings cover most of the bases. One thing that we do like is that when you are in a menu, you can actually change the font size on-the-fly by using the volume rocker to increase or decrease its size.


The phonebook on the LG Clout still allows you to store up to 1000 contacts, each with their name, multiple numbers, email addresses, IM screen name, picture, ringtone, and physical street address. Once a contact is saved, you can assign them to one of 999 speed-dial locations. There is also a dedicated favorites key to the left of the d-pad, where you can store 10 of your favorite contacts for easy viewing.



For messaging, there are no surprises here, as you can send and receive text, picture, and video messages on the Clout. You can also read incoming text messages on the external display. Also included is Verizon’s Mobile IM program, which will connect you to your AIM, WL Messenger, and Yahoo! buddy lists. Thankfully, the Adobe Dashboard program that is on the VX8360 is not on the Clout, which means that the phone does not require a monthly data plan. There is still a Mobile Web 2.0 browser, but when viewing standard HTML sites, it shows them in an ‘optimized view’ which eliminates the site’s layout and instead displays it in a list format. You can turn this off, but in doing so most pages will not fully load.



One common feature among the VX8000 series has been the ‘red’ music player, and unfortunately it makes an appearance on the LG Clout VX8370 as well. At this point, we’d love to see a better looking music player used here; one that actually loads album cover art when playing a song. Maybe next time LG? But the overall music quality is pretty good, as the Clout has two stereo speakers that are located on the side of the hinge, similar to the VX8300. You can also use the external display and font buttons to control music playback, and can also connect to a Stereo Bluetooth headset, but the wired headset jack is limited to the 2.5mm type.



The LG Clout VX8370 is the first in the series to use a 2MP camera (up from 1.3MP), but it is still missing an LED flash, which was last seen on the VX8300. For the first time since the original VX8000 model, pictures taken outside by the LG Clout have accurate colors, saturation, and white balance, lacking the ‘purple hue’ that we’ve seen on the other models. Image detail is also pretty good, considering it is a 2MP camera and lacks auto focus. For indoor images, color accuracy is still good, but the overall detail and quality starts to go down as the light levels decrease. Even though the Clout doesn’t have a flash (why?) it does has a Night Mode, but all it does is slows down the shutter speed to let more light in. We tried it a few times, and it really didn’t make a big difference, nor did the Noise Reduction mode. Videos can also be recorded with the Clout, but are still limited to 176x144 resolution, so they are only good enough for phone playback.





Other software features on the LG Clout VX8370 include VCast Video (which streams pre-recorded clips to the phone), VZ Navigator for GPS guided driving directions, Microsoft Bing search, voice commands, calculator, appointment calendar where you can save alerts, to do list, alarm clocks, stopwatch, world clock, and notepad. Naturally, you can also download additional programs and games through the media center menu. There is a total of 120MB of internal memory, of which 97MB is available.

Performance:

The call quality on the LG Clout VX8370 is quite good, even a bit better than the VX8360. Voices are clear and natural sounding, and lack any background noise or distortion. We also noticed that the earpiece speaker volume on the Clout is able to go louder than on the VX8360, which is good while in noisy environments. The speakerphone is also able to go a bit louder, and we are glad that it can now be used while the flip the closed. Signal reception on both the Clout and VX8360 are pretty close, with 2-3 bars showing in high coverage, and without dropping any calls.

The included 1000mAh battery that comes with the Clout is rated to provide up to 6.5 hours of talk time or 27 days of standby time on a full charge. During our testing we were able to get up to the 6.5 hours of continuous talk time on a full charge, which is about 30 minutes longer than on the VX8360, and almost double of that of the VX8350 and VX8300.

Conclusion:

Once again, LG has shown that it can produce a good quality flip phone with the Clout VX8370. We like its overall design with dual color displays, large keyboard, stereo speakers and 2MP camera. We would highly recommend the LG Clout for anyone that is looking for a nice flip phone with some extra features, and also wants good call quality and long talk times.

Software version of the reviewed unit: VX837V02

LG Clout Video Review: