LG Chocolate Touch VX8575 (Verizon Wireless)

Pros: 3.5mm headphone jack, usb/wall charger included, touch screen very responsive, comes with two backings to swap out, nice music player, great themes.

Cons: Homerow menu buttons have ugly colors that you can't change, phone's a little slow sometimes.

Summary: Most of the complaints I've seen about this phone is that it won't live up to the Droid, Blackberry, etc. That's because it's not meant to. This phone does not require a data plan, and is really more along the lines of the original marketing of the chocolate line, which honed in on the music player and kind of a cute, candybar design.

I must say this phone is much more attractive in person, esp. without that goofy purple background. The downside is, the phone will always have those ugly primary colored menu buttons, I'm hoping Verizon will provide more options in future software updates.

The texting on this phone is a little hard to get used to if you're used to buttons, but it's by far the best non-iphone touch phone I've ever used. I have quite a few friends who have touch screen phones, and I feel like I have to jab at the screen just to get it to recognize what I'm doing - not with this phone.

Some nice things Verizon included are a 3.5mm headphone jack, so I don't have to go out and buy a converter just to listen to some music. It also comes with a usb connector that hooks into a wall adapter so you're good to go.

The interface of this phone is quite pretty, and with the theme and type face options, you can really make this phone look nice. The music player is especially good, this thing may just replace my iPod, and I usually hate using phones as mp3 players.

On downfall of this phone, is that since it's not as powerful as most "smart phones" it's a little slow sometimes. I notice it when I go into look at my pictures. Any images that are on my micro SD card take about a second a piece to pop up when scrolling through thumbnails, which can take quite a while since they're going one by one. :/

I can't say much for the internet features on this phone, because I don't pay for the additional data plan.

Overall, I am very impressed with this phone. For ages I have sworn I would never get a touch screen phone unless it was an iPhone, but this one really surprised me. I am very happy I decided to go with this phone.

Updated on Sep 9, 2010

I'm adding an update to this review since it's been about a year since I wrote the original review.

All in all I'd say it took my about 2 months to really get good at texting on this phone. If you're a guy or a girl with very short fingernails I wouldn't recommend this or really any other touch-screen phone other than the iPhone, because it's not a heat-sensitive touch screen. When I text I use my thumbnails to hit the letters, not my thumbs. Texting is a breeze now though.

I also wanted to add that this phone is surprisingly sturdy. I've dropped it onto concrete and hard surfaces countless times and only have a few minor nicks to show for it. The back of the phone pops off 90% of the time I drop it, but it still works just fine. I didn't expect it to survive some of those falls since the back of the phone is sort of flimsy.

One year later and I've had no problems with this phone, still love it.