Friday, June 09, 2006

LG FUSIC LX550 Streaming Music Phone

LG's motto is "Life's Good." With this new music phone, it just got better... by a bunch. The new FUSIC LX550 by LG is a communications and entertainment center that fits in your hand. In a package about the size and weight of a standard clamshell style flip-phone, you get a cell phone, MP3 player with up to 1 GB of storage, Bluetooth Stereo, streaming music and video, ability to buy and download music instantly, a Megapixel digital camera and an FM transmitter. Gotta have one right now? You're in luck.

So what does FUSIC mean? It's pronounced like FUSE-zick and represents a fusion of fun and music. FUSIC is an apt name for a wireless mobile device that combines the best of the technologies you are familiar with in portable entertainment. The footprint of this phone is about the size of a business card. hold it in your palm and it looks something like an Apple iPod. That's probably due to the circular navigation pad for music control. Just above the pad is a full color external display.

Flip open the FUSIC and you'll find a large high resolution color screen and the expected cell phone buttons. The high quality display is there to show both the excellent photos you'll take with the Megapixel digital camera and the streaming video content from Sprint TV.

Your camera features 1.3 Megapixels of resolution, a flash, 3x digital zoom and PictBridge support. PictBridge is a function that lets you print photos directly from your cell phone to a PictBridge enabled printer. If you have a printer that supports PictBridge, you won't need your PC to print off snapshots for your friends and family.

Streaming video is at the heart of the FUSIC multimedia phone. It is enabled by both the high resolution display and high speed downloads via Sprint's PowerVision EV-DO cellular broadband network. Available in most major population areas, EV-DO data downloads are up to 700 Kbps with bursts to 2 Mbps. That's easily the equivalent of many DSL and Cable broadband services in practice. Outside of EV-DO coverage, the system uses a slower standard called 1xRTT.

What this means is that you'll be able to enjoy Sprint TV with more than 50 live and on-demand channels that feature full-motion video and vivid sound. You can also subscribe to Music Choice with a variety of music channels, exclusive video clips, performances and interviews with your favorite artists. It's like having a TV on your cell phone.

Want to enjoy your own tunes whenever you like? Music download and playback with the LG FUSIC LX550 goes way beyond other music players. You can transfer audio files in MP3, WMA and AAC formats from your computer to your phone using the included USB cable. To get started, the phone comes with a 64 MB memory card, but you can increase that up to 1 GB to store a couple hundred or more songs. With the phone closed, you just plug in the included stereo headset and use the navigational controls on the front of the FUSIC.

But here's where the FUSIC goes beyond your standard digital music player. In addition to a wired headset, the FUSIC has Bluetooth Stereo communications. You can stream music wirelessly from non-DRM protected files to Bluetooth Stereo Headsets, home stereo systems or car stereos that support the A2DP Bluetooth Stereo standard. You say your car radio isn't Bluetooth enabled? No problem. The LG FUSIC has a built-in FM transmitter so you can "broadcast" your music to your car radio or home stereo.

Go ahead and load up your phone with music from your CD collection. Or get new songs immediately by downloading them from the Sprint Music store. The store has hundreds of thousands of songs in just about every music genre. You'll get two copies of each song you buy. One is for your phone, a second for your PC.

By the way, the FUSIC also lets you download your own video files in 3GPP, 3G2 and MP4 formats. This is truly a mobile device for today and tomorrow.

Here's a couple more cool features of the LG FUSIC LX550. You get to make your own ringtones using the built-in Ring Tone Composer. Hum a tune into the phone's microphone or compose your music on the keyboard. Of course, you can also download polyphonic or MP3 ringtones or pick one of the 25 preloaded selections.

Why have a phone that looks like everyone else's? Customize your graphics and your faceplate. You get blue, pink, green and black faceplates included. With all this music capability, I'm tempted to paint one of the faceplates yellow and turn my FUSIC into, yes, a Banana Phone!

Yes, the FUSIC is truly a fun phone. It's also a great cell phone, with support for email, text messaging, and hands-free communications with a Bluetooth headset or built-in speakerphone. Battery life for all this capability is an excellent 270 minutes or over 4 hours of talk time. Standby time is up to 180 hours or over a week away from the charger.

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