Nice to see so many new pictures of this phone, as well as find out about a few more features that I didn't already know. I was going to get an iPhone this month, but it looks like I'll be waiting for this phone's release so I can stay on VZW's network.

Any word on if it has Rev A or not for the HTML browsing?

It's just has big as the old one. Why can't they make it slimmer?

I'm still an iphone owning iphone loving sob. Yet good show Verizon, I think I would switch over to Verizon if there was no iphone

Nice looking phone, and the clamshell keyboard is a must for me. But I don't think I'll ever go back to an OEM operating system. I'm no fan of Windows Mobile, but at least it's a consistently mediocre experience. Without a standardized OS I have no idea what to expect, and more than likely the email and browsing are going to be clunky and incompatible with my needs. Thats fine on a Chocolate or RAZr, but on what is clearly intended as an email-centric device, I think its unforgivable.

Incidently, the new Linux-based Palm OS is coming...

I was hoping for a slimdown, but I might be able to get around that.

This could very likely be my next phone, but I still want a hands-on with it first if I can get one.

Id buy if it has Wi-Fi.

OK, truth be told, I realize that the "reliable network" thing is Verizon Wireless' marketing slogan...but it really counts for me. If they had the iPhone, I'd be using that puppy on their network. I just know too many folks on other networks who get sloppy coverage, dropped calls, etc.

This phone looks terrific, and seems worthy of my $100-to-upgrade-to-a-new-phone-every-two-years credit.

My only question, if someone has an answer: How easy is it to sync Contacts from Outlook into this? Any early thoughts?

Thanks!

Scribe

That cutesy cursive font makes it the perfect phone for Bess Marvin, girl detective.

S**t! I just blew my "New Every Two" on a LG VX8550, this is so much cooler. I like my Chocolate, especialy with BitPim, but I like the huge touch screen better. I will wait for a video to see how the interface looks before deciding to scrap the chocolate.

I dunno about this thing... it sorta looks like what the iPhone could have looked like 8-10 years ago. Not very modernish at all.

It's good for Apple to have some viable competition in this market. I think this phone will appeal more to people who actually have typing to do on their phone and will sacrifice a bit of eye candy for it.

But what's with that font on the Voyager????

I'll add one thing...unless it's our Giz Guys at work, doing a little Photoshopping, it's semi-cool (for us New Yorkers, anyway!) if the phone really has some Keith Haring artwork, which is visible on a couple of the screens (the little characters with vibration marks)...ultra cool...
Scribe

Let me guess... Verizon crippled it's ability to transfer files over bluetooth, killed the ability to add and play your own video files, and basically forced you to use bitpim to do anything fun on it at all. I guess you could use vcast, but there isn't anything of interest on there.

I love verizon's service, but they have the worst crippled phones ever.

Why in the world did Verizon issue all these press releases at the same time that MS was coming out with the Zune2 Electric Boogaloo.

I realize they aren't exactly competing products, but they could have kept the front page to themselves by doing this a week later or earlier.

The interface doesn't look too pretty, but it's pretty innovative, even though it's borrowing some of the iPhone stuff. The thumbnail browser thing's pretty cool...

Please tell me that's not the only font it has.

WTF!...Where the hell is the hot Korean chick in these pictures...all I can see is this damn phone.

I don't really see anything innovative on this thing. Scrolling by flicking/sliding has been seen before. Icons, menus, etc., has been seen in various forms before. When we say innovative, we mean solutions like pinching/squeezing to zoom (never seen before), browsing through album cover art ("cover flow" feature) and similar.

I'm sure this will be popular. There are always at least a few people who cannot access AT&T's network in their area. For those who can, not even $200 price difference between this and the iPhone would be an incentive enough; how likely is that LG (or perhaps Verizon?) would ever update this phone to bring significant new features? And make that update FREE for all current owners??

Ah this is a tough call for me. I own the env and I love it for its practicality. Once in a while I do have flashbacks to a time when I had a small phone that was easy to actually talk on. I love my free navigation though, and that navigation on the voyager looks really professional. only 16 monthes till i can get a new phone!

this phone is fricking sick. if i didnt kill my verizon and buy an iphone. i would have pick this one up. im just too much of an apple fb.

As Weatherman said, this seems like the perfect form factor for a Windows Mobile 6 device. I want to be able to load real applications, get real email, do office like stuff, etc. Shame.

To answer a few questions I saw in the post.

NIGHTSKY - Here is a video review.
[youtube.com]

STRIDER_MT2K A - I think I saw somewhere that it is 2mm thinner than the current enV

ALBOKAY - No Wi-Fi :(

hardware's great, the icon-based menu is beautiful, but all the list-based menus are shitty, just like any other verizon phone. and if you send it to sprint, LG would be able to use their owm menu styles, so this phone would kick ass on sprint. also, the whole "touch to unlock" thing, we know you're borrowing a page from iPhone's playbook, don't be afraid to have the full "slide to unlock" feature, it looks much snazzier.

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say: OMGWTF nedz moar mehgapixulz!

Seriously speaking though, when did people decide that 2.0 megapixels was the Holy Grail of camera phone technology? I mean, if this was 2.0 with an awesome lens, that would be one thing. But we all know that it's more of the same, and I'm getting kind of pissed off about this. Samsung gave us a 3.2 the better part of two years ago (if memory serves). Why are we still sitting on our ass with this?

If you're going to make a phone a flagship, then don't half-ass. Don't skimp. If you throw the kitchen sink at people, there is a subset that is willing (hell, glad) to throw hundreds of dollars at it.

I'm in love with what I've seen, but I'm going to need to wait to find out precisely what was crippled before I pick it up. I've got an 8600 that I'm looking to switch for new hotness, and the Voyager might be it.

Don't let me down Big Red. Not again.

It seems that LG beat Microsoft on developing the Zune Phone.

Let's hope they DO copy Apple, but not for the iPhone designs. I sware to God, I'm DONE with walking into a damn phone store and not being able to properly try out a damn phone. It's LAME. They let you SEE it, but... oops... the display is a cardboard insert. Or, here it is... oops, it has not power, but here's a brochure. They need to cut that crap out and let people properly evaluate these things in the store. Meanwhile, Apple's putting out demo videos, and saying, "come down and use one". Hint, hint.

@qwopzxnm: Thanks! Looks good from the video. I think I will follow my pattern and be a second gen adopter. I waited for the vx8550 instead of the vx8500 so I will probably wait for the vx10050 or whatever. Looks like an iphone denter to my eyes.

Now that new blackberry fakeup...

Ok, so I'm not an iPhone fanboi (no 3G, no replaceable battery, lousy cam res with no flash), but come on. Is this the best LG could do to go after the iPhone?

Let's see..

1. it's huge - but that's more likely to blame on the battery hunger caused by use of CDMA2000 - GSM is much more battery friendly

2. The comic sans-ish font is not what I'd call the makings of a good phone UI. At all. Ever.

3. I'm sure it'll be crippled to the 9s. Such vzw favs come to mind like, "Want to move that cut picture you just shot of the kids over to your PC? Pay me. What? You want to use Bluetooth? Oh no sir, you must pay me. Bluetooth is for headsets."

4. No wifi. I just won't buy a phone that doesn't include wifi any more. My Nokia E65 serves me well and has wifi to boot.

5. The rest of the UI looks like my 2 year old designed it. Want a good phone UI? Take a look at anything running a recent S60 (like 3.0 or 3.1), or even an iPhone.

Get it Now? How about Get it Away?

This should have been a Windows Mobile 6 device ...Verizon always messes up good devices with there crappy UI. No wifi? No deal. It's just that simple.

Lets call this what it really is; IPHONE KILLER. No seriously if IPHONE KILLER were Swahili for "yet another piece of bloated cripple-ware from Verizon". At that point I would call anything released by Verizon an "iPhone killer". The interface is the same old rehash that you see on most of Verizons phones. My jaw really dropped when I saw it featured "Enhanced Web Browsing". Sweet now I can browse the web in some sort of "Enhanced" way. But were speaking Verizon language here so remember "Enhanced" = really hard to navigate with very limited functionality that you put off using your built in phone browser till you are back in front of your computer. Maybe they should really call their "Enhanced Browsing" a "bandwidth reduction unit" because your never going to want to use it.

What really though is a seller for me is the UI that looks like it was designed for engineers by engineers. Hey Verizon quit partying like it is 1999 and hire a UI designer.

Verizon should be embarrassed for putting out yet anther sub-par product and touting it as the phone that people will smack their mothers for. The phone is nothing more than a amalgamation of keywords thrown into a poorly designed product: mp3, camera, web browsing, touch screen and of course "iPhone Killer".

So Verizon is going to push an IPHONE like phone with an HTML browser but of course they wouldnt dare to put in a wi-fi card would they? No they are going to charge people to pay for their overpriced add on services, sure they would love to give you an html browser and then charge you by the kb. For business use seems like palm or blackberry still the way to go.

This is what my every two is being saved for!! Or the venus.. if i dont like the voyager.. and if all else fails... vx8350 lol i have a plan... does it have any internal memory for music? It doesnt have all the perks of an iphone if it doesnt.. and it doesnt connect to WIFI net... hmm.. orrrrr.. have video calling.. when the hell is america going to release video calling???

to VASICP who said "how likely is that LG (or perhaps Verizon?) would ever update this phone to bring significant new features? And make that update FREE for all current owners??" 4 words for you, not chance in hell. Never going to happen, i dont think verizon would cave like apple did. If someone goes out and buys this, then complains and wants something for free when something better comes out, is just plain stupid. Everyone knows that something always better comes out and something is always changed and made better. It's how business works. Apple made a poor choice giving that rebate, now people are going to expect when the price drops, same thing here. Not going to happen.

That looks like the iPhone's ugly sister. I'm sure the phone will do well in absence of an actual iPhone in the Verizon network unless they modify the interface to act more like the iPhone. That and they need to give up on VCast. I love the Verizon carrier service but VCast is awful.

I just wish for a world where Apple went with Verizon instead of AT&T. To shame, to shame...

Seems to be a lot of hate for this new phone, but I think Verizon made a perfect "iphone" that fits within there Network

2MP- The 2 megapixel camera is perfect for my needs.
Interface- I love the style of the envy and the format of LG phones. Sure the iphone may be more user friendly to an extent but LG hasn't let me down
$200 - The 200 dollar price difference is plenty enough for me to choice it over the iphone, (not to mention Verizon service is so much better than AT&T in my area)
Full keyboard - awesome, typing on a touch screen isn't the best.
Size - no where near a concern, I really don't see how people complain about the size comparing it to similar phones like the sidekick.
Wifi- cool but not available in many areas where I live yet, so not yet a necessity
Durability LG makes very durable phones in my experience, I haven't seen an apple product (in the handheld realm) that I would consider durable since the first mini and now recently the newest mini
Removable Battery- a must, especially with the way people treat batteries these days.
Removable Memory- makes for easy transfer to your computer, and if your "in" all messaging is free anyways

I loved my Chocolate, loved the Envy, and have a particular interest in the iphone

looks to me that Verizon found a perfect mix

For all the hating looser writting crappy reviews for this phone... OMG! just shaaaat aaap!!! (guy above me... so true)...

This phone is awesome.., ok no WiFi., kinda sucks but still ur all forgeting that LG came out with the first iPhone thingy.., wow, everyone compares everything to iPhone when the iPhone should be compared to the LG prada.., iphone is nice but..., its not the best phone out there by far!

Who's needs wifi when you have broadband access anywhere? Perfect for streaming media to my car where wifi is useless. I'll be upgrading my envy when this hits the market by the end of the month.

I was looking forward to this phone from the original marketing images, but am quite disappointed to see it's just another Verizon OS locked down device.

I've been using the XV6700 from Verizon for over a year, and it's everything this phone claims to be, but actually works. That phone was the real iPhone killer, a year before the iPhone was released. I'm really surprised Verizon isn't pushing the HTC devices more. They really are great, and the new ones are even better. It truly has replaced my PDA, phone, iPod, and laptop for most trips.

Ultimately I think it comes down to Verizon not being able to lock people into additional services, which is a sad disservice to their loyal subscribers.

I work at verizon and the phone is gonna be $469.99 w/o a contract or $299.99 with a 2 year contract. It also has an added feature not listed above, you can use the usb cable and link to your computer and use it as a mass storage device.

Well I just got the Phone.....

It is lighter then the EnV. Or at least feals like it. As for the Sync yes it syncs with outlook and emails. There is no WiFi however since the phone is not considered a PDA you only pay for the web2.0 not the 45$ that you pay for pda use. And the browser does the same thing as my moto Q I have for work. I can play youtube videos and display full web pages. As for the phone it is everything the EnV is and What you expected from the EnV when it came out. They fixed most of the problems you get with the EnV but one that I have found so far. When you are listening to music it still stops the music when you go to text someone or go to another app in the phone. I also was pleased to find that out of the box I have 160MB of free mem. one last thing the bluetooth can be used for everything including syncing the phone. I will follow up with any problems I find

Don't even waste your time with this phone. I went to Verizon and found out just how limited this phone is.

1. Verizon can't guarantee that this phone will sync with all mail accounts - only gmail, hotmail, yahoo and aol. All others are hit or miss.

2. The web browser is Verizon's own - not Safari, not IE, not Firefox. The sales clerk told me that certain websites won't open on this phone and that WMV files will not play.

3. The VCast software is required to use the MP3 player and watch videos. If you have a MAC, the software won't work.

I love Verizon service and was hesitant to switch over to AT+T in order to use the iPhone (I have a MAC), but I did it. LOVE the iPhone. Truly an amazing piece of equipment. Service with AT+T has been great.

You can please a few people a little of the time and a lot of people a little of the time but you can never please all the people all the time

iPhone comes with noe insurance. you wiil be out about $200 just to keep it.

What the hell is going on here? Why can't LG get the same phones ditributed no matter what the release country is? The range of LG mobile phones we have is pretty low end (OK apart from the Prada and Viewty) and we are crying out for some alternatives to BlackBerry. Pull your finger out LG!