Introduction & Design
4.3Beyond its thin clamshell design and solid feature set, Muziq brings something else to the table: Access to Sprint’s industry-leading Music Store. I say industry-leading for a specific reason: Nobody else offers Sprint’s combination of selection and price for over-the-air downloads. While the Sprint Music Store software leaves something to be desired, it’s hard to argue with 99-cent per song downloads direct to your cell phone. Combine that with Muziq’s attractive design, and you’ve got the makings of a very appealing mid-range flip phone.
Where the Fusic was cute in a compact but chunky sort of way, the Muziq tries to be sleek and sexy. The glossy black finish helps the cause (though it is a bit of a fingerprint magnet), as does the longer, narrower body and rounded edges. And losing the external stub antenna? Excellent move. At 97 x 49 x 15 mm, Muziq isn’t the absolute slimmest flip phone out there, but it certainly slides into a pants pocket with ease. It also weighs a scant 89g, and feels entirely feather light - though the flip snaps shut with a solid “thwack,” giving the device a more solid feel overall.
Muziq’s gloss black exterior is smartly accented by bands of matte grey along the sides, hinge and interior borders (of the display and keypad), and silver accents on the hinge and front-panel media controls. Said controls - a circular arrangement like those found on LG’s Chocolate models - feature red backlights that lend a hip, hi-tech feel to the look. Muziq’s front panel also houses the sensor for the 1.3MP camera and two LEDs: a status indicator and a flash assist light for the camera. The back of the device is blank save for an LG logo and the slide-off battery cover.
Dedicated music and camera buttons and plastic-capped ports for microSD memory cards and headphones (2.5mm) grace the right spine of the handset, while a volume rocker switch and capped charger/accessory port can be found on the left side. Oddly, all side-mounted buttons are built into the top half of the phone (the part that flips open) - I found them less comfortable to use than similar controls mounted on the lower portion of other flip phones I’ve tested.
Open Muziq and you’ll find a fairly standard layout - screen on top and keys on the bottom - finished in matte black with grey borders. The control layout on the lower half is noticeably easy to read and use, especially considering it makes use of flush-mount keys. Raised silver ridges separate the twelve alphanumeric keys and talk, back, and end keys above them, making for easier blind dialing. The five-way directional pad is enclosed in a silver ring and flanked by two softkeys and dedicated buttons for camera and speakerphone. All of the buttons are responsive and provide good tactile feedback; in other words, they’re nice to press on.
Overall, Muziq’s look is sleek and just a bit dark and futuristic (in a good way) - a worthy upgrade to Fusic.
