Verizon has just launched the LG Dare VX9700, and Verizon sent us a unit to show you.
Read more for a complete unboxing, and initial impressions.
Buy a Dare from Verizon Wireless
The LG Dare arrived in a standard Verizon box. Nothing special there…
However, when you open up the box, one thing stands out (aside from how much the Dare looks like an iPhone). There’s no AC adapter! Instead, the phone comes with a USB charging adapter, and USB cable. On the positive side, you now have a USB cable with you, wherever you tote around your AC adapter for the phone.
Now, about that iPhone similarity… the device really does look like a cheaper version of the iPhone. However, there are quite considerable highlights. Namely, an vastly superior camera, voice recognition, VZ Navigator, and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR (yes, 2.1).
One final first impression, is the accelerometer. Unlike Instinct, which uses the camera as a faux (and dysfunctional) accelerometer, Dare uses a real one. And, it works well… showing itself off in all the key applications. And yes, the touch screen actually works, unlike the LG Voyager, which in our opinion should be recalled due to how unresponsive the Voyager’s touch screen actually is.
We hope to have a full review of the LG Dare in the near future.
lol please stop with the iphone comparisons… the dare has zero in common with the iphone except its a squarish touchphone with chrome accents… if my m520 was a touch screen it would look just as much like an iphone.. and the dare is based on a phone that was released before the iphone… please leave the opinions out i love this site except for that one thing
lol what should the dare be a circle or a triangle… come on i jus looked at them again and thats ridiculous
Celz, Dare was designed to be a direct answer to iPhone. I’m sorry you don’t agree with Verizon and LG on this, but if they’re making the comparison, we have no choice but to analyze it.
We certainly aren’t biased to iPhone. We will point out where it is better, just as we will point out where Dare is better. The people that think we’re the most partial to iPhone… gloss over where we have criticized Apple so closely.
I’ll take the Instinct over this, most likely will be less locked down
i agree on the voyager comments – i like the phone but the touch screen has issues, the browser is lacking in a number of ways, hmmmmmmmmm…………. recall????? it would be nice to be able to get a dare in exchange for the voyager but that ain’t gonna happen so….. don’t go there.
I just recently purchased the LG Dare. The screen definately isn’t as large as the I Phone but the things that I did like about it are the carrier for one thing. I also like having a battery that I can replace and the fact that I can get insurance on it. I lose and break too many phones to get the I Phone. I am really impressed with the camera. The pics are great. I also like the tactile feedback when I touch the screen ( I don’t know if I Phone has that or not) My brother and nephew both have the I Phone and it is a great phone but it boiled down to the carrier, insurance and battery issues that made my choice for me. If I used the calender a lot for appointments and so forth I probably would rather have something that can sync with Outlook but at this point in time I don’t need it that much.
I’M GETTIN THIS PHONE FOR MY B-DAY!!!!!! I’M SO EXCITED
!!! but i’m really tired of EVERYONE comparing every touch phone to the freakin iphone!! this is almost exactly like the lg prada that came out in england..it has nothing to do with the iphone! oh yea and btw verizon and lg had the prada out WAYYYYY before the iphone so, technically, verizon had the touch screen thing down before the iphone even came 
yea stick that in your juice bottle and suck it!!!
Three months is “WAYYYYY before”?
Prada: March 17 ’07
iPhone: June 20 ’07
DOES NOT WORK WITH MAC uggghhh!!!….everything else is AWESOME
don’t talk about the LG DARE because i am getting it on mi birthday.it is this month.THANX
apples and oranges the dare is a good phone the iphone is a good phone they are 2 seperate devices with 2 different options apple junkies will always druel over apple products does not mean there better or worse people grow up they are both good phone
Please email tom@tomking.com if you figure out how to import contacts from Outlook to LG Dare!
The DARE will work with a MAC Logan. Well if your just trying to get music and stuff onto it. You need to use bluetooth on your mac and send them to your phone. but your right about not being able to directly send files straight to the phone with the USB cable on a mac.
The DARE will work with a MAC Logan. Well if your just trying to get music and stuff onto it. You need to use bluetooth on your mac and send them to your phone. but your right about not being able to directly send files straight to the phone with the USB cable on a mac.
The dare is a great phone. Ive had it 3 days after it came out and havent put it down yet. I love the all touchscreen feature and the camera is a great add. I use to never take pictures with my camera phone till I got this phone. Pictures turn out great and the features the camera has are amazing. The multi-tasking music player is also a great add…coming from the voyager I love this feature alot. Texting I had to kind of get use to it but Im pretty good at it now. It does give me some glitches here and there though like restarting on me twice since I got it but that considerably lower than what my voyager did resetting every other day. I also found out alot of cool and neat tricks for the dare and how to fix some problems by visiting http://www.lg-dare.com/ They have alot of tricks and general information about the dare that really helped me decided to get this phone and easing the use of it. Overall this phone is very good 8.5/10 from me.
I have had 5 dare phones in 5 days. they are over heating and frying the phone. Has any one else had this problem? The carier whom I will not name, …………, will not compinsate their clients for loss, and they arebeing real a#& H&$@&.
Whenever my Dare has gotten hot (usually recharging while on the dashboard of my car), it stops charging and reports that an overheat has been detected. I haven’t had the phone crash due to an overheat.
when does the LG dare come out in england does any one know i really want one??
x
I hate to break it to you guys but the dare is a piece of crap. I really like the phone but the software has too many bugs in it to be an effective phone. call quality is great until you use a bluetooth headset. The bluetooth cuts out and all kinds of things. Now my bluetooth wont even power on. All it tells me is “bluetooth is not supported” Whenever you try to add a favorite website to the browser or pull up the ones you already have the phone will reset itself 9 times out of 10. The touch screen is also subpar. you have to touch it really hard compared to the iphone’s touch screen. the on screen keyboard is not worth your time either because you cant calibrate the screen good enough for the key you hit to actually type on the screen. my advice…. until the next software update comes out save your money and buy an iPhone. I have had my dare since a week after they came out.
you guys are all retarded. everything you buy when it first comes out has problems. its like blaming sony for you spending a thousand dollars on ebay to get it and it overheats and/or freezes beyond repair. for those of you who can get it switched for free. and those of you too stupid eat your loss and shut up.
Does the iPhone have a 3.2mp camera? The answer is NO. The Dare does! Can the iPhone shoot video? Again, the answer is NO. Again, the Dare does! So, when Celz said on June 28th “lol please stop with the iphone comparisons… the dare has zero in common with the iphone”, this person was right! The iPhone has nothing on the Dare when it comes to pictures and videos. Good going celz!
the voyager has lots of problems i woudln’t tell any one to get it i have had it replaced 3 times in about 2 months its freezes wile texting resets all the time i payed full for it so i am gunna go exchange it for the dare
does the lg dare open like the lg voyager???
Can anyone tell me if this phoneis available on Pay as You go in the Uk?
If so where am i able to obtain it and how much does it cost?
has anyone experienced a screen freeze on the dare? my phone is totally inoperable and it is the only phone I have! I cannot even make a 911 call. Of course, I will go back to the store where I bought the phone, but in the meantime does anyone know how to unfreeze and get it back to working order?
try removing the battery for 30 sec to do a hard reset
The iPhone and the dare are both touch screen phones. They have camera and some different apps, and are similarly shaped. Thats the only similarities, so everything else is a pretty big difference. Both are very cool phones, but are so different that comparing them feature by feature is kind of dumb. Also, the majority of people supporting the dare already own one, and the people supporting the iPhone already own an iPhone so they are going to defend what they have. (Generally)
d is right it workrd for me, but my phone was working
Does you Dare just shut down and reboots itself? Or just cut off while talking to someone? I haev had nothing but problems since I got my Dare….I love the phone, but I wish they cold fix this problem.
I got my Dare on Saturday and it’s rebooted twice on me, both times while browsing through my pictures. I called the Verizon store I bought it from and they said they’d take a look at it and if need be replace it, so hopefully this won’t be a problem forever.
Neal. I hate to break it to you but your an idiot. were talking about the phone here not the bluetooth headsets. If you have a problem with bluetooth take it out of your ear and quit being lazy! Talk like everyone else put the phone up to your ear and talk. And also if you have verizon you cant get the iphone????
Anyone have a problem with the phone not ringing or no sound at text? It will either anounce as i have set it or just vibrate, a few times will start to ring then stop. Its more of a problem with text than calls.
I have a problem with mine not ringing on IM messages, but it rings on text messages. Verizon says this can not happen since it is the same setting for both. Well, it does NOT ring on IM messages.
okay so the dare ,,, its a good phone. i got it as a christmas present and it was working fine. i was like this is a phone that willlast….. well thats what i thought. the next day i started having problems with the touchscreen. it would work, then it wouldn’t. now , on the third day that i have had it , the touchscreen stopped working completely. WANT TO EXPLAIN THAT TO ME??? !!!
I’M TAKING IT BACKKKKK !!!!!
I’ve had my Dare for 4 days now and love it, but have one issue with it, that neither Verizon nor LG customer service has responded to me properly. For the camera, the autoflash, smart pic, and face detection settings are defaulted to off, and the phone does NOT remember the settings if you change them!!!!!!! I want those features always on and am sick of manuall having to change them everytime I go back to the camera after leaving it. I hope the 2nd contact with Verizon will light a fire under their ass and demand LG address this issue. I was a software tester and this makes me pissed.
I have the dare since 12/28/08. I like it for several reasons. First, I don’t have to pay the required $30 data plan like other smart or pda phone. The iphone also requires the $30 data plan. I only pay $15 for unlimited web and another $5 for the mobile email. One thing I don’t like is the sensitivity of the touch screen. Obviously it is NOT the iphone, where the touch screen responsiveness is awesome. The Dare, I have trouble “accidentally” selecting instead of scrolling (it takes some getting use to). The second is the large screen. I like it when i use the navigation. However, I am considering going to either an env2 or even the chocolate3, both cheaper.
okayyy well now i’ve had the dare since 12.28.08 as well and the touchscreeen has been working fine. i agree with you on the camera thing. i don’t like having to constantly change the setting before i take a picture. it is RIDICULOUS. but other than that the phone is great. i like it alot . it does require some taking used to, but it is definitely the best phone i’ve ever owned.
but for real, you could have made it to where the settings stay the way you set them to be on the camera.
Verizon got back to me today, and they say that LG tells them that they have no plans to change their software to retain the camera settings. Argh!!!!!!! Interesting that the setting for color effects is remembered, when that is a setting that should go back to a default setting. It looks like LG didn’t think this through. If I want to take a quick photo of something, I have to take the time first to go into the menu and turn on flash, face detection, and smart pic. VERY STUPID. I know, I already complained to LG. If all of you would complain to them too, maybe the pressure will get them to modify their software.
ive had the lg dare since july and i was in love with it when i first got it but honestly now i think its a piece of crapola. i’m now on my 4th replacement phone of the dare, and each time ive had it replaced for teh same problem. whenever i scroll through my texts or my pictures it shuts down and then reboots itself. the verizon people keep upgrading the software or whatever, but it’s really proven to be nothing short of useless. yay verizon.
yea have the dare too and mines screwed up because everytime i try to import pictures it says it doesnt detect any when i have an entire gallery.
has any one had this happen? you are editing your pictures & when you try & save it.. you phone freeze up & it not do anything for like a minute or two? it really makes me mad b/c it just stops working. also has anyone bought a phone case & then the touch screen not work anymore? yeah that happened to me too. it makes me realllly mad b/c i am notorious for droppping phones. :/
Hey just be happy u have a phone that works my venus sucks!
i just got my dare today and everything is ok but every time i go to settings and choose display setting my phone resets. it sux. if anyone has any info on this problem let me know.thx
I have the LG Dare. I do not have an I Phone. I do have a friend that has an I phone. I like my Dare and think it was the best thing Verizon offered. But it is no I phone. The I phone is just incredible. And this is coming from a guy who hates that begins with i and comes from Apple! They did that phone right. I just wish it was open to more carriers.
If you think the Dare can take the place of an iPhone, you might be dissappointed. Unless you never see, touch, or use an iPhone.
The nice thing with the Dare is it has normal sized numbers and a QWERTY keyboard thanks to the touch screen.
Unlike the Smasung alias, which has VERY small number keys.
Anyone have any issues with the haptic feedback/vibration function on their phones? I bought a Dare about a month ago and just yesterday none of the vibration functions work.
Have the DARE for 5 days now an am experiencing the following problems:
1. Email notification does not work properly even though I have the notification setting to “ALWAYS”
2. After I finish dialing a phone number. press the “Call” button then hold the phone to my ear, the screen goes black.
Anybody else have these problems? Anybody have any ideas as how to resolve them? I was thinking about exchanging it for another Dare but after reading a lot of reviews, I am not so sure.
I just bought the dare, and love it, I just switched to verizon, AT&T charges alot for the iphone plan so it is Cheaper for the dare. Also the Iphone does not sync to your laptop as a modem for internet the dare does, I love the Dare. My only problem the battery is not very adequate but I may buy a 3000 amh battery
I read the comparisons on the Dare vs. iPhone and read the the Dare recieved the better of the reviews, so I bought the Dare in 2008. The Dare has been a good phn., but when using the web it doesn’t fit the page to the screen as the iPhone does, I am unable to download any apps. to it, and just recently (03/04/09) I am unable to use my camera. I keep getting error: “Camera Start Error.” To fix the issue, I have to go to a Verizon Store (3hrs. away) to fix it. In doing so, it will erase all info on my phn. that I am unable to back-up on VW website. Now I am not happy with the phone due to its limited capabilities in comparison to the iPhone. It all boils down to the fact that I should have done a more indepth comparison and really determined my needs.
Another quick note on when scrolling through my pictures. I reciently uploaded some family pictures on to my phone, and when scrolling through all of my pictures, they show up just fine. But when you actually click on the picture for the options of editing or just seeing it in full screen, the picture is erased and replaced by a Vzw default picture. As soon as you go back to viewing all of your pictures at once, its once again back on the phone.
I just learned that one of the features of the LG DARE is for the screen to go black when something is placed close to the front of the phone’s screen (ie your face when making a phone call…) This is done to conserve battery battery power. Once you remove the what was close to the front of the phone, the screen returns to normal. Hope that resolves some problems
I’ve had my Dare since December and I HATE it!!! My calls, texts or voicemails don’t come through 100% of the time, as they should. Of course Verizon is less than helpful and I’ve called 4 times in the last week and they are finally sending me a replacement. But, from what I hear from 2 of my friends with the Dare, they have the same issues. It’s a piece of crap…enough said.
I want to love the DARE so bad but I just can’t.
One of the main problems that I have is with the “so called” push email feature.Infact, that’s the reason why I got the phone–to check emails. It simply doesn’t work 100% of the time. I even had Verizon upgrade the phone to version 6 of the phone’s software. I was told by the representative that this would resolve the email problems NOT! The specific problem is that I do not get notification beep for GMAIL. The other email that I have accounts (AOL, MSN, Yahoo!) receive spotty notifications–that is sometimes it takes up to 30 minutes for the beep and icon notification, if at all I get it. I’m expecting a phone call from one of the Verizon techs today. And if this doesn’t resolve said problems, I’m throwing in the towel. I may get the Blackberry Storm.
I just received my dare yesterday and I am having the same problem with the screen going blank during a call. When I hold the phone away from my face, the screen does not re-appear. I have tried absolutely everything – to no avail. Is there a trick or software update which can be used to fix this glitch? Someone posted the following method – but I do not exactly understand how to enter ##program9700.
1. go to make a call type in ##program9700 and hit send
2. hit 000000 when it asks for the service code
3. go to field test
4. go all the way down to proximity call and just space your finger appx two cm away and hit yes and hold until it says test success
The “field test” fix worked for me. BTW…when they say dial “###program9700″ you just hit the numbers that correspond with the letters…so type “###77647269700″.
I was pleasantly surprised to see this work…it was awesome. I’m so glad I don’t have to go into a Verizon service center now and wait hours to have that done. THANK YOU to whomever posted that fix…you were a life and time saver.
I’ve had 2 LG Dares in the last 5 months. The LG Dare i had the first 4mnths one froze up when I sent a txt msg. It said “message sent” until the backlight went off. When i first bought the phone i loved that i could reply to texts faster than on my Samsung Alias [SCH-U740]. I could also send pic msgs in like 20 secs at the most. [depending on where the contact I was sending 2 was in my contacts]. After freezing up for two months, it froze up COMPLETELY after i turned it off and tried 2 turn it on again 2hrs later.
I got a replacement LG Dare since i have insurance and they boss told the employee he had 2 replace my phone according 2 the warranty.
Now I’ve had this Dare for one month and its already starting 2 freeze up when I send txts. It restarts EVERY TIME i send a pic msg. It cant be because I send and receive over 1000 txts per month. It has 2 be the phone.
if anyone knows how 2 fix this, please let me know. Im going 2 get a different phone before this phone doesnt come on like the last one didnt.
thanks 4 reading this whole comment
hey anyone,
i have a verizon lg dare. unlocked for mobi pcs. it’s a local company located in hawaii.
i have a problem with this phone. it the beginning it was good. till now. it’s telling me that the bluetooth isn’t supported and it freezes on me. anyone with a solution via email me at shortehbabyboi@gmail.com
thank you.
I am having trouble with the touch screen on my LG Dare. I was unable to unlock the phone to answer 2 calls and 3 voice mails. No matter how hard or softly I pushed on the screen, it wouldn’t unlock. I had to shut it down and then it would unlock. Anyone have any ideas?
Jerry
i found out that it’s a firmware problem. go to Verizon tell them you want your dare flashed. it’ll take up to 30 to 40 minutes max depending on how old your firmware is. and if it doesn’t solve the problem, Verizon will check you eligibility for warranty/upgrade. But i couldn’t get the warranty exchange or upgrade cause my phone is unlocked. oh and too check for your firmware version. Go to SETTINGS scroll all the way to the bottom to PHONE INFO. and on the next screen select SW/HW Version the [SW Version] should be VX970V06. if it has V03 than that means you haven’t flashed your phone since you got it.
Greg I’ve had the same problem with my dare, where the haptics function and vibration doesn’t work on my phone. Can anyone help us?
i bought my dare in sept of 09 and my phone has been flashed, its feb of 2010 and all those problems still are happing with it, my boss has an iphone and when i got my dare we compared them do to verison saying that this is compareable to the iphone, how im not sure, i wish i had did some checking before i bought this phone.
Ive had the Dare for less than a year and Ive replaced it two times. I just got the second replacement yesterday and not 3 hours after leaving the store my screen started freaking out. The colors are all messed up and it looks like it was pushed in too much or something. This phone sucks and thats why they dont make them anymore. Dont get this phone. Sorry to burst your bubble but the iphone isnt jesus either. You guys taking these comments so personally are idiots and should try to get off the computer long enough to see that. But as for this phone, its crap.
Period.
Oh and pretty much every touchscreen phone is gonna have problems with the touch settings. Its just how it is, and if you dont like it get a new phone.
Geez
My fiance’s Dare stopped working after only 7 months (he never dropped the phone and always kept it in a protective case.) It’s just a horrible phone. He ended up buying an ENV Touch but has not been able to get the Dare to boot up in order to transfer his contacts to the new phone. (He now uses the backup feature on Verizon’s site – but hadn’t been using it with the Dare.)
My question is whether anyone has a suggestion as to how to boot the Dare in order to view the contact list?
PS – He’s already taken the phone to the Verizon store and they were not able to get it to boot up. Only the red and white Verizon screen is displayed.