You cannot find a lot of sliding phones like the LG Mach today. A few years back, the physical keyboard was a necessity for those who love sending emails, text messages, and other text-heavy activity. This is not the case anymore with better on-screen keyboards and bigger displays.

Design

With the a physical keyboard, the LG Mach will not win any thinnest phone contests. It measures 4.6 x 2.6 x 0.48 inches and weighs 5.9 ounces. The design is more about function and not style so you cannot expect this device to win any beauty contest. The body of the phone is crafted from plastic but has a brushed-metal finish for the rear cover to disguise the material. The back of the phone is a bit angled to make it comfortable when held.

The 4-inch display goes nice with a well-sized physical keyboard. The keyboard has a dedicated row for numbers with the comma getting its own assigned key. The space bar can be wider since you can accidentally hit the period key when you type fast.

Operating System

The LG Mach comes with Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich. We are pretty sure this will be upgraded to the Jelly Bean but we have to wait for the official announcement. LG installs its own touch of custom interface to make the experience more interesting. The LG layer is not as extensive as what Samsung or HTC did to their phones but it features some nice eye candy and a neat layout.

Hardware

The Mach sports a 1.2GHz Snapdragon S4 Plus dual-core processor and an internal storage of 8GB. With this setup, the device opens apps without any lag and responds well to finger swipes. The frame rates for videos and games are also very decent.

The rear-facing camera has a 5MP lens but its counterpart in front is a dismal VGA 0.3MP camera that is not reliable on low-light conditions.

Verdict

The LG Mach banks on its comfortable design and speedy performance. The keyboard is actually just an icing on the cake for those who love physical keyboards.

LG VX8700 is being sold as a cheaper version of the Shine. Like most LG phones it looks great, but it has some design issues that mean that it is not as good a phone as it could be. If you are willing to over look a few issues when it comes to design you may find that the LG VX8700 is a good quality phone.

The LG VX8700 is undeniably a good looking phone, that is one thing that is beyond any dispute. The metal casing gives it the look of being made of steel. It is quite a small phone so if fits comfortably in your pocket, although it is heavier than you would expect from looking at it. The external display of VX8700 is a little bit different than you would expect. Rather than having the rectangular screen that you get on most phones it runs vertically down the center. Another interesting feature is that when the backlight is off you can use it as a mirror for when you want to take pictures of yourself. There are no external music controls which is a pretty big oversight since you have to open the phone every time you want to play music.

The internal display of the VX8700 is outstanding. The colors are great which you can tell just by looking at the wallpapers, clearly designed to show off the quality of the graphics. You can choose from one of two different menu designs although both of them are quite simple and easy to use. The navigation controls are not really the best feature of this phone. They are flush with the surface with textured lines so that you can tell the keys apart. It works fine when you are looking at the keys but you can’t really use them without looking.

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