PLUS
Two big, bright screens
Touch interface
Large, comfortable keyboard
Smartphone-ready

MINUS
A bit large for just texting
Slight metallic vibration when closing phone

More of a multimedia handset than a traditional phone, the LG Voyager has a touchscreen and supports both push e-mail and Web-browsing, driving its price up to $430 without a contract from Telus, or $80 with a three-year plan. It can be used without a data plan, which is a plus for those who will use it only for voice and text messaging. If you want to use the Voyager for e-mail and/or Web-browsing, you'll definitely want to add a data plan.

The Voyager's clear and bright 2.8-inch touchscreen doesn't quite measure up to those found on handsets like the Apple iPhone or Samsung Instinct, but it is undeniably handy for interacting with menus and even typing via the phone's touch keypad (we appreciated the slight vibration each time we tapped a virtual key).

What's more, a second screen of similar size and even more impressive sharpness is revealed when the phone is flipped open to access the Voyager's QWERTY keypad. That means users essentially have their choice between two completely separate and different interfaces; one based on touch, the other a standard keyboard. Switching between them is as easy as unfolding a typical flip phone.

The only thing that mars the Voyager's elegant design is a slight metallic vibration that can be heard and felt each time the phone is snapped shut. Most users will hardly notice it, but it could turn off the sort of folks who judge the build quality of a car by the sound it makes when they shut the doors.

As a texting phone, the Voyager scores high marks. Users can access text-messaging functionality at any time by selecting the envelope icon on the touchscreen or pressing the top left softkey when the handset is open. The keyboard features large buttons and is comfortable to use. The only problem we noticed was that pressing the corners of keys occasionally resulted a stroke going undetected. Still, that's a niggling complaint. Texting on the Voyager is a far superior experience to working with a cellphone keypad with just a dozen buttons, and dealing with the aggravations of predictive text.

It functions well as a multimedia machine, too. The Voyager is capable of receiving streaming television, and video looks great on either screen. Plus, shooting video and taking pictures is a snap: Just tilt the handset on its side like a traditional camera, use the big, bright touch display to frame your shots, and tap a button on the top edge to begin shooting.

A bit of flash memory would have been nice (especially for users keen to use the Voyager as a music player and picture/video viewer), but onboard storage would have raised the price even more. Besides, the Voyager's MicroSD card slot lets users swap out as much as 8GB of portable storage.

It took almost a week of casual use to completely discharge the battery, though it's worth noting we didn't make many calls. On the subject of voice communication, the Voyager had the loudest ear speaker in our test pool, making it easy to hear people on the other end of the line, even on busy urban streets.

Simply put, I liked the Voyager a lot. It's a rock-solid texting phone, and it's nice to know that the keyboard has potential to be put to even greater use should you ever decide to upgrade from a call-and-text package to a data plan and turn the Voyager into a true smartphone.

Article Tags:  LG, VX-1000, Telus, voyager, phone, users, keypad, touchscreen, keyboard, touch, texting, handset, video, smartphone, multimedia, messaging, browsing, SMS