LG Accolade VX5600 Cell Phone Review

Screens & Keypads

The front of the Accolade is shown in Figure 3. The upper half is covered with a mirror-like plastic covering. This cover encompasses the 3.1 megapixel camera as well as the 1” color LCD, which has a 64-by-96-pixel resolution. This exterior screen shows the time and pertinent status information like signal and battery strength and the Bluetooth and location services indicators. This screen can be turned on by pressing any of the buttons on the exterior of the phone.

Figure 3: The front of the Accolade

Figure 4: The exterior LCD screen

Inside the phone is a 2-inch, 176-by-220-pixel LCD which can be seen in Figure 5. Although low in resolution, the screen is clear enough to be easily read. The wallpaper and backlight timing of each screen can be set individually and the interior screen can even have a personal banner as shown in Figure 5. Above the screen is the speaker.

Figure 5: The interior screen

The phones keypad and navigation buttons are shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: The keypad and navigation

This Accolade has a typical numeric keypad. The keys are clearly marked in large white numbers. The numbers and buttons have a white backlighting. The backlight can be set to Always On, which is a feature we really liked.

Above the keypad, six large function keys surround a five-way control pad. The control pad with its central “OK” button is used to navigate all of the menus. The two soft keys at the top which are marked with a straight horizontal line are used to choose the selections that appear on the screen. Below that on the left is the Speakerphone Key and the Send Key. On the right are the CLR (Clear) Key and the Power/End Key. All of the keys have a good “click” response and are large enough to be easily found and pressed.

When you open the phone, pressing the OK button will bring up the Main Menu which has categories for Media Center, Messaging, Contacts, Recent Calls, and Settings & Tools. The menu can be set to Tab, List or Grid view at your discretion. We liked the Tab setting which gives you icons on the top for the menu choices and listings below that, as shown in Figure 7. In this mode you can easily use the arrow keys to scroll through the menu choices.

Figure 7: The Menu in Tab view

At the bottom of the numeric keypad, the asterisk key is clearly labeled to also be use as a shift key. The pound key also works to conveniently turn vibrate on and off. Just below the keypad you will see a small hole for the microphone.