LG Fusic Review

Cell phone conversion isn’t pretty. After years of trying to shoehorn an ergonomically viable digital camera into cell phones, only now have a few manufacturers worked out most of the kinks. Wedging in an MP3 player presents even more difficulties, both ergonomic and operational. After all, few standalone MP3 makers other than Apple have figured out how to make a usable music player, never mind shuffling the function into a cell phone.

 

On the surface, LG seems to have succeeded with its Fusic (pronounced fyoo’ zik, the word being a clever convergence of the words "phone" and "music"). This cell/MP3 fusion is available from Sprint ($149.99 w/contract and rebates).The Fusic’s physical resemblance to the iPod is barely skin deep. While offering a bevy of brilliant innovations that are sure to be copied (we hope), such as an integrated FM transmitter and a headphone jack adapter that lets you use your own headphones, at the end of the day Fusic’s frustrating failures ultimately outweigh its novel features.

 

In a world of macho black or metallic silver cell phones, the clamshell Fusic dares to exude Laguna Hills aesthetics. With its circular control ring beneath its 1.1-inch external screen, Fusic is more of a wink to iPod’s iconic familiarity than a thief of it. Instead of the iPod’s stark Stanley Kubrick white, the contoured Fusic is a satin silver white and comes with a choice of four metallic-colored, easily swappable faceplates — Dodger blue, magenta/pink, lime green, and basic black.

 

Inside is a 70s retro white-on-silver numeric keypad and control panel with well-spaced keys, all illuminated with a ghostly blue backlight, and topped with a bright 2-inch LCD screen. At 3.80 x 1.90 x 0.8 inches Fusic is compact enough for a tight jean pocket marred only by the stub antenna, but at 4.2 ounces, heavy enough to force a dress shirt front pocket to sag.

 

Inside you’ll find an advanced series of features, aside from the music player, which we’ll get to in a minute. On the phone side, Fusic is a broadband EV-DO dual-band CDMA phone for the Sprint network, equipped with text, voice and multimedia messaging, voice memo recording, and speaker-independent voice control. On the digital camera side, the 1.3 megapixel imager can snap stills at up to 1280 x 960 resolution and 15 frame-per-second 3G2-format videos, matched with a 15-step digital zoom and PictBridge for PC-less picture printing via the included USB cable. There’s a microSD flash memory slot, and LG included a 64 MB card to get you started.

 

Among Fusic’s more exotic features is a Music Composer that lets you compose — even hum — your own ringtones. Included are 25 ringtones, but the phone allows you to playback MP3 ringtones you can buy from Sprint’s Music Store. You can dial up the Web, there’s email, Java 2.0 support to run mini-apps and 3D games, and you get the usual scheduler, alarm clock, notepad, calculator, world clock, and Ez Tip Calculator.

 

The phone supports both Bluetooth 1.1 and Bluetooth stereo with a spate of profiles covering all current wireless functions including hands-free, dial-up networking, object push, basic printing, advanced audio distribution, audio/video remote control, and file transfer profiles.

 

As a Sprint Power Vision phone, Fusic is compatible with Sprint Power Vision TV and music services, which leads us to the phone’s paradoxical music capabilities.

 

Fusic adds two major advancements to the cause of cell phone/MP3 convergence. First and foremost is the "why didn’t someone think of this before" headset adapter. Instead of the god-awful stereo headphones usually included with music cell phones, LG has included half a cable — the 2.5mm stereo jack to connect to the phone and a 32-inch cable terminated with a clip-on in-line mic with a 3.5mm female jack to which you can connect any standard stereo set of headphones. It’s kind of cool to listen to callers through your own headphones, and you’ll never again have to hold one ear while trying to hear your caller above the din of a noisy environment.

 

Fusic’s second contribution of cell phone/MP3 player convergence is the integrated FM transmitter, which allows you to broadcast Fusic’s music through any FM radio (such as your car radio), an unprecedented feature no standalone MP3 player maker has deemed necessary.

Image Courtesy of LG Electronics

 

As a cell phone, the Fusic is above average in voice and ringtone quality and volume. Reception in fringe areas was weaker than other Sprint phones we’ve used, and battery life is a bit lower than LG’s 4.5 hour rating, which won’t be helped by music playing.

 

But that’s not why you called.

 

While admirable for its varied phone and camera attributes, the reason you want this phone is its music capability. Or, more precisely, the reason you don’t want it is for its lack of music function common sense.

 

Let’s start with getting music into the phone. LG and Sprint assume you’ll want to spend $2.50 a track to download music from Sprint’s Music Store, which you can then download to your PC. More likely, you have a pile of tracks already encoded in MP3, WMA, AAC, or an MPEG-4 format such as RealAudio. This is where the trouble begins.

 

When connecting via the included USB cable and using Windows Media Player, the Fusic shows up not under its own name but as a generic hard drive. You can sync music as usual, but for some reason when you go to the Sprint Music Store player, none of the synced tracks are listed and we could find no way to access them from the Sprint store player, which enables you to create playlists. Your tunes are accessible, however, to play via the Fusic’s external controls. (We say we couldn’t find a way, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way; our test phone came sans manual. However, it is our contention that if a manual is necessary to figure out basic functions, the device is poorly designed).

 

You can also use a media card reader and use Windows Explorer to drag-and-drop tracks. However, you’ll be confronted by two folders on a Fusic formatted microSD card, Media and Music. Music downloaded from the Sprint Music Store goes into the Music folder, natch. But the external player controls will only access music stored in the Media folder. (Mac users will have to transfer music via a card reader; Mac’s won’t recognize the phone using the USB connection).

 

If you don’t intend on buying tracks from Sprint’s online Music Store (and why would you at $2.50 a pop?), most of these issues can be dealt with.

Fusic’s Bluetooth execution is also strange. After pairing, you need to activate the connection between phone and headset, which is compulsory. But for some reason, Fusic has separated out the Bluetooth 1.1 and Bluetooth Stereo connections. To listen to music, you have to connect via the Bluetooth Stereo choice. We tried connecting Bluetooth stereo headphones using both, which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t. The bottom line is that the ability to answer a call via the headphones while listening to music was hit-or-miss. We tested Fusic with several Bluetooth stereo headsets, and sometimes we could answer a call, and sometimes we couldn’t. Once we successfully answered a call, sometimes the music resumed, but mostly we had to either start it again manually or reconnect the stereo connection.

 

This problem disappeared using the wired in-line mic adapter. We could answer a call simply by hitting the single call button and the music snapped back after we hung up the same way.

 

Execution of the FM transmitter is also clunky. While you could activate and deactivate the feature from the music player’s Option’s menu, you have to switch to the Tools menu to actually choose or change the frequency. Drilling through cell phone menus isn’t exactly healthy when you’re most likely to use this feature — while driving, when you are frequently required to find a new, clearer FM frequency.

 

Not all of Fusic’s music functions are this awkwardly executed. When listening to a track, the inside screen displays an animated 10-band equalizer, and you can switch between normal, 3D, Concert Hall, Rock, Jazz, Pop, and Classical equalization, all of which present some interesting choices when listening through good headphones, wired or wireless. We particularly liked the ethereal "surround" sound produced by the 3D effect. Once the external screen goes black, Fusic’s KeyGuard automatically activates.

 

Sound-wise, the Fusic’s MP3 player is superior, and comparable to any standalone MP3 player, both in wired and Bluetooth Stereo. Speaking of which, the Bluetooth Stereo connectivity is 99.9 percent as robust as a wired connection, even in RF doused midtown Manhattan. However, we’d go with a wired connection if even minor music hiccups are unacceptable and you want seamless music-to-phone-back-to-music switching.

 

The LG Fusic is a superior sounding music cell phone with a full slate of phone and picture technologies, flawed only by its music management and music feature implementation. We find it hard to believe that the problems we’ve cited couldn’t be solved with a software update, and the phone is equipped with Firmware Over the Air (FOTA) capabilities, so that shouldn’t be a problem if and when. But until then, the Fusic represents some great leaps forward that can be just as many steps back.