Rating  - Inexpensive functionality imperfectly implemented for the Audiophile...
I have had this phone for about a year. Just wanted to add my two cents regarding my experience. Use it about every day for music- and the phone.
First, I am a Mac user. Another reviewer noted that one could not use the Sprint Music software- USB cable to sync music from the Mac to this phone. Yes, indeed. However, loading music onto the Muziq is best done- quickly & most easily- by using a mini-SD card reader & a 4 gb. SD mini card memory stick. This can be done quite easily on the Mac. However, you will need to know how to create a mu3 playlist. I would be happy to give instruction on how to do this on the Mac.
Now, 4 gb. is a fair amount of music- and the main reason why I have this phone. It is a convenient substitute for the $150 or so IPod Nano. At least in that it holds the same amount of music. Further, it offers bluetooth capability, a music transmitter, and, of course, a phone- that the venerable IPod just can't provide. It however, should not be considered as an IPod substitute. Let me explain.
The bluetooth capability is great. However, it is not always reliable. There are many times when it takes me several minutes to pair the phone to the headphones. And, there are times when the pairing will deteriorate on its own. It is annoying- but also can be rectified. The distance I can travel from the phone- using a Plantronics stereo headset- is about 10-15 ft. The sound quality is excellent. However, there is no way to adjust treble & base. And, if your headphones are substandard- the music will be too.
The music transmitter is a nice touch. However, my phone needs to be within 3 ft. of the receiving radio in order for it to work. This means that it will not transmit to the typical car stereo. Again, the sound can be quite good- depending upon the transmitter receiving the signal.
It is also appreciated that the Muziq does have a speaker. The sound from the mono speaker is surprisingly good.
However, the Sprint LG Muziq does have some significant drawbacks. The major one being the Sprint Music Store application. It is slow loading. Particularly if your music is recorded at a high bit rate. In other words, I learned the hard way that having music recorded at bit rates above 128 kb. results in serious penalties in load time. But, even more damming, is the way in which the Sprint music application makes you play your music.
It is extremely cumbersome to listen to music without a preset play list. This means that you must make play lists. I have about 1,000 128 kb. songs on my player. To make play lists on the phone itself is really not possible given a library this size. The only way to do so is on your computer- and transmit the music and play lists to the Muziq using the 4 gb memory card.
Since you can not mix and play songs & play lists on the fly- it should not be considered an Ipod replacement. And, the Muziq's usefulness as a music player depends a great deal on one's ability to plan and create engaging play lists. One can use the shuffle feature to change the order of music within a play list- which does reduce the tendency of the play lists to become stale.
And, for those who have interest- Sprint Music does have radio channels which may add to your listening pleasure. I did not think it worth the additional, monthly cost.
So, the upshot is that for my needs- at this time- the Muziq has been adequate for me- needing an MP3 player/phone combination. However, when my contract is up a year from now- I will certainly change my player. Either I will switch to ATT and the IPhone- or, if that proves too expensive in continuing costs- will spring for a dedicated music player & get a cheap, serviceable, no frills phone. Either way, I will need a player that more competently plays my music. The hardware on the Muziq is fine- not so the software.
That reminds me. One of the reasons one might want a dedicated music player is because of the battery drain playing music may have on your phone. You may either find yourself not being able to listen to music as much as you want- or conversely, not be able to use your phone to talk as you might wish. Fortunately, for the Muziq- the battery life is pretty good. One can easily listen to up to 5 hours without the battery being drained. A key here- to reduce battery drain- is to make sure that the phone is set to utilize only the Sprint network for calls. If you allow roaming- it will eat your battery life!
Hope this helps those considering buying this phone!
Rating  - Sprint Customer Service is the WORST
A word about Sprint: They used to be the best, and they are now the worst. The absolute worst.
If you call them today, July 15'th 2008, the system will acually tell you to call back later and HANG UP. You will get through the prompts until you are given a wait-time and then.. I'm not surprised at all. They got rid of 80 % of their customer service workforce.
Things have appeared on my bill for a year that shouldn't be there. I have made 5 attempts to fix this and finally gave up. They always say it's fixed but never is.
Plan on at least a two-hour call to get something accomplished and then prepare yourself to be utterly crazed with anger when you see that nothing was actually done (several times).
A telemarketer from Sprint called me trying to sell something and extend my contract, I laughed so hard, that she actually tried to fix my problems. She said she did and of course, it's still on my bill. They're really useless.
I'm turning off my phone today... That'll take at least 3 hours.
Rating - Was great, Now Terrible!
I bought this for my daughter, and it was pretty sweet until a couple of months ago (Spring 2008). Then her phone would not connect to make phone calls. We had a replacement policy, so we had the phone replaced, but the replacement phone does the same thing. My older Fusic phone has no problems...what a shame!
Just says "Looking for Service" most of the time which eats up the battery. If you do get to a strong service area, it will connect, but then drop you within a minute or so.
This used to be our best phone, now it is our worst, and with the second phone, I am starting to think Sprint did something to their network and now the phone will not connect. We have tried Roam, Automatic, and Sprint network settings and none of them work.
Rating  - Great phone, not so great features
So many others have written great things about this phone and it's every detail so I won't go there. I gave it 4 stars for those great reasons, but subtracted one star for 2 reasons. First being a minor issue for me personally, but might be a big problem for someone looking to buy this phone for that feature...the FM transmitter. The phone is capable of it, but has to be inches from your cars antenna for it not to give you a headache from the static. I never use that feature so it doesn't bother me really. The lack of being able to store an address in your contacts list really frustrates me. You can enter a web address, but not a mailing address. I have tried using the memo field...but it doesn't let you enter enough characters for an address. How many friends do you have on your contacts list that actually has their own website?? Probably NONE! USELESS!! I think this is an LG thing because I had the LG Rumor before this phone and it didn't have an address field either. Prior to these phones I have always had either Sanyo or Samsung, which both had address fields. I use my phone to store all of my friends, business partners, etc. contact info so this is a problem for me not being able to input an address. I will be getting a different phone as soon as my contract is up.
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Customer Reviews for Sprint,MUZIQ,652810513821,B000TTAQQK, |
