LG VX8500 Chocolate Phone (Verizon Wireless)

Bottom line is that I do not recommend this phone to anyone. Here are my thoughts, experiences with it.

1. Way too slow to boot up.
2. Battery life is absolutely, positively terrible. I can't keep it turned on more than 4-5 hours at a time.
3. Accessories are very poor quality. More below about this.
4. Operation is very non-intuitive. Read other reviews for details. I thought I'd get used to the peculiar menus and buttons. To some degree I have, but really this phone is very poorly designed operations-wise.
5. Form factor: the jack for power, usb, and headset is non-standard. My headset went bad within 4 months. My car charger went bad after 5 months. Replacing these with standard equipment is not an option since the jack is specific to this phone and no others.
6. Not really useful to me other than the rare times when I want to send a photo and don't care about its quality - such as "Hey, I'm here at the beach and look at the view I have". Verizon's price for sending photos makes this less fun.
7. Looks - very cool.
8. MP3 player - very good sound quality, although its operation is clumsy. Download tools is very, very buggy and often requires erasing all songs and starting over in order to fix the index.
9. Storage to micro-SD is very handy.
10. Configurability - I'm pretty displeased at what I'm able to do with configuring tones, downloading videos (or mine, not Verizon-purchased), etc. Do I have a powerful computer in this thing that's been disabled by Verizon?


I got this phone when it was really new in November. I personally have not had many problems with it. (And I'm not *SUPER* careful with my phones... I'm fairly young).

I've found that its a very durable phone (as I've dropped it a few times, oops). It's never frozen up on me.

At first I did find the touch pad a little too sensitive and hard to use, but the sensitivity can be toned down and it wasn't too hard to get used too. It is nice that other people cant really use my phone because they aren't used to the touch pad... it keeps others away from it! The only things about it that annoy me are sometimes the "Vocal commands" section comes up on its own. Also, once in a while if I have it open and I'm not paying attention, I can accidentally call someone, usually the last person I called because of the sensitivity of the touch pads.

OVERALL PROS:
-Nice, fairly big screen
-Camera is pretty nice
-Good MP3 sound
-Easy texting/Button pad (For me!)
-Nice and loud (I can always hear it ring!)
-It's very pretty

OVERALL CONS:
-The touchpad is a little hard to get used to
-Random calling of people
-Speed Dial 1 is automatically voice mail (I guess that is the norm, but it bugs me)
-"Please say a command" randomly coming up

*Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend this phone to anyone. It is beautiful phone with fun features. If you can get past the minor annoyances (they're really not that bad) then this is definitely a phone for you!

I'm going to make this quick and to the point. I got this phone after owning a Motorola E815. I liked the fact that the chocolate looked different, and wasn't your cookie cutter clamshell. Well, after the sexiness of the chocolate wore off, I realized that I had a functionally flawed phone. The touch sensitive didn't work half the time I tried to use it, The phone's buttons periodically locked on me when I was trying to play music or something, and I had to keep flipping open the keypad to unlock it. The number keys are so small and close together, that my thumb would cramp up when I played games or cycled through my music. The number keys were also so small that my thumb would usually hit several keys when texting or dialing a number. To top it off, it seemed I had to charge the battery every other day (and I don't even talk on the phone a lot). Needless to say, thanks to Verizon's test drive program, I was able to return the phone within 30 days of my purchase, and I got the super sleek LG 8700. I am glad I was able to do this, as I couldn't stand being stuck with the chocolate for 2 years.

I guess the only real good thing about the phone was the camera. It did take some pretty decent pictures. The reception was alright too, although it was awkward holding the box shaped phone up to your ear.

i hate this phone. camera sucks. i have had this phone since december and the key pad and screen is already cracked. I dont mistreat my phone either. very "un-durable" the phone is already jammed to and i have a hard time getting it open. beware...looks are decieving by the way im not a kid

Beware: No matter how many times you change the sensitivity of the buttons, if you live in a warm humid area, your touch pad is NOT going to work. If that's not enough for you not to buy it then I don't know what is.

This was my first phone. When I was on the market for phones, I was looking for something cool. Something shiny, something unique. The LG Chocolate was about the only thing that looked appealing. Plus, they were new!

I read a bunch of reviews on amazon, and since the phone was only a week old, there was only about 20 of them. They were all pretty good. It said it had a good battery life, very easy to use, and the only con was that its a fingerprint magnet, and that the touch pad was sensitive. Right?

WRONG. This is the absolute worst phone I have ever touched. There is only one thing about it, is that it looks cool. Don't let that fool you please.
I paid 160 dollars for it, and if I got the chance to buy it for someone, I wouldn't even take it for FREE! The phone is so terrible.

So, Enough of my ranting about how much I hate it, I'll explain WHY! So you don't make the same mistake I did.

Pros:
- It looks cool

Cons
- The buttons stop working after some time.
- The battery life stops working after about 1 hour!
- The keypad is small, terrible for texting.
- Fingerprint magnet!
- If you touch it, it is libable to call the first person on your contact list.
- It freezes.
- The speakerphone sucks
- It just completly stops working after awhile.


Really, theres tons more. Don't buy this phone. I am dead serious. I hate it, i'd do anything to return it, but I am stuck with it.

Absolute junk. Had to exchange 3 of them in 2 weeks. Lots of known problems with these phones, I guess I should have done some research first. Verizon was kind enough to let me trade it in for a LG 8300.

I purchased my LG Chocolate shortly after it became available online. My friends were all envious and I was approached by people I didn't even know when they saw me with it. So I was popular for awhile.

I decided to wait to write my review until after I had the phone for at least 6 months (had it for almost a year now). I knew it was a lot different than my old phone and would take time to get used to.

First off, I don't like the "touch pad". You can adjust the sensitivity level, but I have rather large fingers (for a woman). It takes special effort for me to avoid hitting the wrong arrows/numbers, which makes it very hard to navigate through the menu. Also, I enjoyed playing games on my old phone. For me, the Chocolate is almost impossible to play games on because of this issue. Even though I own an IPod, I have tried to use the MP3 capabilities of the phone, but have never quite gotten the swing of taking a call while listening to songs; basically hung on friends trying. Although the slide feature is nice, I still prefer my old flip-to-open phone.

On the plus side, it fits really nice in my purse or pocket. I never cared for having to clip my old phone to my pants and it was too bulky to slip into a pocket. Although it does seem to get "smudgy" a lot, it's very easy to clean with a tissue and a little rubbing alcohol.

I've had a couple minor issues with losing the sound (they could hear me, but I couldn't hear them) and then suddenly it would return after power-cycling it. This happens from time to time and although I was able to resolve the issue myself, it's been annoying for me on several occasions.

All in all, if I could go back to last summer, knowing what I know now, I probably would not have purchased the Chocolate. I'm not one of those "cell phone power users" and typically never come close to using all of my 450 minutes per month. I'm not sure that if I were I'd be any happier with this phone. I can see that others that have posted a review have been happy with it, so maybe it's just me.

This phone is truly great. I have had the phone for over 3 months and have not had one problem with it. I have not had any of the problems that other people on here have been having. The battery life is great as it will last about a week with average use on it. The only time the battery drains quickly is when I listen to music and videos a lot. You cant expect to listen to music and watch videos on it for a few hours and then expect it to last long enough to make calls. For me even when I listen to music a little at a time the battery is still decent. I have never had the phone randomly call people as it locks when it is closed. Personally I love the touch pad on the phone and took no time to learn how to use it. Overall I love the phone. I got the black one and it looks really cool like an iod nano or something. Im just happy now I dont have to carry my ipod around with me anymore. With this phone I just put the songs I want to listen to on it and I can change them as often as I like. I would highly recommend this phone. Everyone else I know who has this phone also likes it a lot and dont have problems with it. Im beginning to think its the people using the phone and not the phone that is having the problems. Despite what people tell you, you should go out and try it. With the 15 day trial from verizon what do you have to lose?

I am having the same problems as all the rest of the folks who have commented. The reason I'm taking the time to even comment is to help get the word out about the serious issues with this phone. Phones that get so useless so quickly should be litigious. If your Chocolate is still "awesome" after 6 months, consider yourself lucky. I hope those of you who think you should "totaly bye" this phone will write letting everyone know how you like the new phone you bought to replace your melted chocolate.

Usually when I get a phone, I get whichever one is free, or at least very cheap. This phone was $129.99 when I got it, however, we got the $99.99 towards the purchase of a new phone with a new 2 year contract. Therefore, I got it for $30.00. So, this is by far the nicest phone I've ever had. I wanted a phone with an mp3 player, and this was absolutely a great choice. Let me also point out that you DO NOT NEED THAT STUPID MUSIC ESSENTIALS KIT! It is a rip off, and the software is hard to use for some. All you need is a USB SD card reader. ($9.99 at Wal-Mart) After inserting the micro SD card into your phone, press the music button twice, and that will create folders for music, etc. on the card. Then put the card into the SD adapter, and put that into the card reader. Put that into your usb drive and then drag and drop MP3's or WMA's to that drive. It's that easy. The phone will automatically organize the songs on the card into lists by album, artist, genre, etc. I was impressed at the simplicity. Especially after hearing some of the reviews on here about how hard it was to get songs on this phone. I'll say it again: DO NOT USE THE MUSIC ESSENTIALS SOFTWARE, USE AN SD CARD READER. You'll thank me for it later. You can find a stereo hands free device here on amazon for $10-15. The stereo sound quality is awesome. The touch pad is great for me, too. I have thin fingers, and I have no problems texting or playing games on this phone. I haven't had any problems with the phone calling anyone while in my pocket, either. All the features on this phone are top notch in my opinion. I whole heartedly recommend this phone. Maybe if you're not good with electronic devices, stick with something more simple. My only complaint with this phone is the bulky headphone adapter. I would have preffered a simple headphone jack. However, everything else is perfect on this phone and definitely deserving of a 5 star rating.

I've had this phone for 6 months and have had 2 issues with the phone - both of which are repeatedly mentioned in other reviews.

1) recently, the 'end call' button ceased working after a few drops/scratches
2) from the start, people always complained that they could not hear me well

I finally had enough and took a trip to my local Verizon store. I don't have insurance, yet without any questions, they replaced my phone and transferred my address book entirely FREE OF CHARGE. This was unbelieveable customer service and I didn't have to banter with them at all.

My new phone works perfectly - even the issue with my voice being inaudible has been resolved - the original phone must have been a lemon.

This phone requires a lot of TLC and might be too sensitive for some, but it's not nearly as bad some of the negative reviews make it out to be.


I am a senior software engineer. If I can't use it, there is a problem. I am willing to bet they did very little in the way of usability testing. If my software functioned this way I would be fired. There are a lot of toys on this phone, the mp3 functionality is one of my favorites, and it works beautifully with my blue tooth, but the basics were seriously neglected.

My phone randomly calls the internet and a few of my friends from my contact list. The battery life is miserable. I am lucky to be able to use the phone for 4 hours. During a major family crisis, I was struggling to keep the battery charged long enough to make arrangements. Which left me running back and forth to my car to charge the phone again for a few more minutes so I could call the people that needed to be contacted. The speakers for the speaker phone are fuzzy and difficult to hear with, and the camera takes some getting used to.

It is a pretty phone, and I am constantly asked about it. But the beauty is truly only skin deep on this one. The only answer I can give people that ask me about it is 'Don't waste your money'.

this phone is awsome people say it's to sensative well u can turn it down. it's a veryy nice phone sleek and awsome you should bye it totaly!!!

Reading some of the previous reviews for this phone, I think it's important to qualify my rating by describing how I use it.
1. If I'm using it for more than a minute or two, I'm using a bluetooth wireless headset, and not speaking into the phone itself. This is not because of any problem with the phone, it's just easier NOT to have to hold the phone to my ear.
2. If I'm using it in the car, it's paired with my parrot CK3100 lcd handsfree kit.
3. I often use it as an MP3 player, and it works well for my (basic) needs - I just load a couple hundred songs onto it and set it to "random".

Pros -
1. It was free with a two year contract.
2. It has paired (via Bluetooth) flawlessly with my car, my headset, and my computer.
3. The menus are fairly intuitive, (but the owners manual IS a necessity)
4. If you get a text message with a phone number in it, the VX8500 can extract and dial the number if you press the "call" button while the text message is on the screen (how cool is that!). This is a huge benefit in my line of work.
5. The voice recognition system, while sometimes producing interesting results, is defiantly improved over LG's previous generation phones, and is very usable.
6. It's the only thing I own my kids think is "cool".

Cons -
1. Not as ergonomic as a flip (clamshell)phone if you are holding it up to your face to talk.
2. Much easier to damage it's "always exposed" screen than with a flip phone.
3. The touch pad is "touchy".
4. Despite it's name, it doesn't taste very good, even if you're REALLY HUNGRY.

I really like my VX-8500, but I extensively researched all my options with Verizon before I ordered the phone. The experience I've had with the phone is better than I expected, and for that reason I am very happy with the VX500. One caveat - the phone comes with virtually NO acessories, and purchasing them from Verizon will cost you a small fortune. Go shopping for belt clips, headphones, and the cute little 2gb microSD card on ebay.
You'll save a nice chunk of change.


I was one of the "Pioneers" who purchased the Chocolate phone at the end of July 2006. Keep in mind Pioneers are the people on the side of the trail with arrows in their backs. I purchased this phone over the Razr because of its (supposedly) superior support for MP3s and ease of adding storage cards. I also figured this would short-circuit the need for me to get an iPod, or some such. I also liked the Bluetooth support,the nice looks and the excellent display. Now I know it has the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good
* Stylish, with a solid feeling.
* The menu and arrow keys are kinda cool
* Accepts industry standard MicroSD cards (up to 2 GB capacity as of this writing)

The Bad
* No opportunity for MP3 customizations. You either download from Verizon VCast $ervice$, or you copy manually to an SD card. However, it does not (AFAIK) accept ordered playlists.
* Bluetooth reception is horrible. I used at least three headsets I knew to work well with phones. Can you hear me now? Now? Without the headset? Good.
* Placement of buttons takes getting used to. Wouldn't you have the End Call button on the face, in the corresponding position to the Start Call button? Not here - it's on the side.
* Single adapter for everything. You can't plug in a corded headset AND the charger at the same time. Bluetooth does get around this but see above.
* Don't put it next to your ear and talk for a while. This sucker gets hot.
* Battery life is mediocre, and the battery meter misleads. "OK, three bars - I'm good for at least another hour". Fifteen minutes later the phone is powering down.
* No voice tags to train - BUT you have to train yourself to talk like a Korean woman with a psuedo English accent.

The Ugly
* Don't drop it, or even set it down hard. Don't squeeze it (such as getting in your car with a hip holster). I purchased Verizon's hip holster for $20 (?!?) and the thing has slipped out innumerable times, especially when I get up after sitting down. Practice carrying an egg around. The only difference is the Chocolate phone is more fragile.
* The touch buttons worked fine for about a month. After that, they did their own thing, and sometimes actually did what I wanted. Push the call button to retrieve recent calls - nothing. Press it again. Nothing. Hover your finger over it - now it's calling someone radomly from the list.
* With my own eyes, I saw this phone turn on and dial someone, apparently from the pressure of my walking by. I had a $450 bill one month because of random calls made. Verizon said since they originated from my phone and since I hadn't reported it stolen, the charges were mine. Like I would call for the correct time in Perth, Australia at 3 AM?
* Call quality is now horrible. Remember how the phone slipped out of VERIZON's holster? I've dropped my share of cell phones, but never with these kinds of adverse reactions.
* THE WORST? Sometimes the phone will ring when people are calling. If I have it set to vibrate, it _may_ actually vibrate. Sometimes it will let me pick up when I identify people are calling. OK, so 4 out of 5 times it will work and tell me someone is calling. I just have to guess what happened that one time out of five. And no, I have never put it in Silent Mode.

If you are thinking of getting a Chocolate phone, just turn around and walk away. Walk fast and far. However, if you like poor call quality, or if you like the excitement of not being sure what will happen when you push a button, or if you like handling fragile object that may spontaneously disintegrate, buy this phone.

THE BOTTOM LINE? If you're buying a moblile phone, get one that does that really well, and disregard all the fancy feature. The Chocolate is an example of a phone that tries to be a Jack of All Trades, but is actually a master of none. I would much rather have less functionality, if it does what I need. Consequently, I switched back to my trusty LG VX6000 and am leaving the media playing to my Pocket PC. Since Verizon won't let me exchange this pretty piece of junk, I can't get my "Two every two" until July 2008.

Caveat Emptor - Let the Buyer Beware.


I normally don't submit reviews but this phone drives me crazy. I just called Verizon yesterday and they're sending me a new phone because they think I might have a defect but I'm skeptical. My touch sensor is set as low as possible and I don't have issues until I have to answer call waiting, that's when the touch buttons stay on for a few seconds after you switch calls. I have muted multiple calls by accident by putting the phone back to my ear after switching to another call. I also have the original version of the Chocolate so I do not have the speaker phone function. The OK touch button is hard to select without hitting an arrow key by accident and apparently the touch buttons are never supposed to be exposed to any kind of moisture including humidity. The End key is annoyingly on the side of the phone and if you're using a headset (I don't use bluetooth) the phone will not hang up by closing the slider, you have to hit the End key conveniently next to the camera and music buttons. It's very easy to hit the wrong numbers on the keypad when you're dialing or texting, the phone comes with a unique charger so if you ever forget it don't rely on a friends charger to work with your phone, and the charger port is also where you plug in a headset (that you need an adapter for) so you can't charge your phone and use your headset at the same time. The battery does not last although it does charge fast. My vibrate function barely works, but the biggest complaint I have is that no one can hear anything I say. I've never had a problem with Verizon before, both previous phones worked great, but no one can understand me on this phone. I can deal with the annoying features but not the constant "what? I can't understand you".

I've had this phone since December i had to send it twice for warrenty without it for a week each time(not bad Kinda) first time the screen went white i could dial out and receive but didnt really know if i dialed the right number. Second time every time i used the camera it locked up and shut down. they said possibly the Micro card was Corrupt so they gave me a new 1Gb card when i got my phone back.

My Biggest pet peave is the sound library WHAT GOOD IS THIS when you cant use the sounds for anything. You cannot make your own ringtones and they cost so much to purchase.

Other then that except for the odd mis-dialling cuz of the sensitve keys i used the voice calling with the bluetooth headset 90% of the time. and accidently sending a txt before you are done typing. I really do like the phone. I love the feel of it in my hand its not as fragile as people say ive dropped it over 5 feet a few times onto a concrete floor and still works.

I have had no problems with the battery could last a bit longer but i get close to 3 days with average use. Getting music and videos onto the phone was very simple using the micro card. just use a card reader and move the music and videos and photos the to the respective folders.

The Camera and Video function is decent when you are in a bind. I personally dont have a camcorder so this works pretty good. As for the camera Id rather use my Nikon but one cant carry that everywhere.

I wouldnt recommend the phone but it was cheap and my old phone was pooched. Nearly everyone i knew that had the Razor hated it thats why i went with LG the samsung approximate just felt cheap and flimsy and Telus doesnt have the Nokia N95 yet

Tomorrow i'm getting the USB cable and hoping i can move my newly created ringtones onto the phone like most of the forms say.

BTW I am with Telus.

If you plan on using this phone every day for calls, pictures and music....don't bother. You won't be pleased with it after the first month. This phone calls numbers saved in your call history on its own...even if the lock option is on. This phone drags and does what it wants. It is not built to maintain everyday use. The LCD display is extremely fragile. I have gone through 2 of these phones before switching to the LG8300. Which is way more durable and has the exact same features PLUS a camera flash.

No offense to anyone, but how old are all of the people dissing the Chocolate phone? I am in my 20s and don't have any problems navigating the phone or using the music features. Just read the instructions!!!! I really think all of the people fussing about it being hard to use are just like my grandmother who we gave an ipod to a few years ago... This Christmas we were at her house and it is still unused... she just didn't take the time to figure it out.
It's not hard. It is a great phone, I have the Strawberry Chocolate and love it!

This phone performs well as a phone, but relies too much on form and not enough on function. It is sleek, aesthetically pleasing, and performs well as a phone, with clear call quality. The menus are fairly straightforward to navigate, and has lots of options to personalize the phone, but that's where the positives end. There are simply too many overlooked details to give this phone a positive review. First of all, this phone features mp3 support as a key feature, but lacks a headphone jack! Instead you must use a bulky adaptor in the phone's charger port to listen w/ headphones... a huge oversight in my opinion. Second, the phone makes it too difficult to add music to the phone, there isn't any working software for syncing music with the phone. There is supposed to be software that works with windows media player, but it has never worked for me and Verizon couldn't make it work for me either. After talking to their customer support people for hours, they finally just told me that it couldn't work and claimed there were known issues with it. Instead, you have to add files to a SD card (not included) manually. It's a hassle and unnecessary for a phone that boasts it's great mp3 support. Verizon however will happily have you download music from their own Vcast service... that feature apparently works fine. Gee, I wonder why? Second, the menu navigation desperately needs shortcut keys, it takes too many screen taps to access the simple things, like your address book. It's cumbersome with no reason for it. Third, with almost any service you want to use, Verizon makes you use their own pay for use service. Adding something like an mp3 ringtone must be done with their service, you can't just add your own mp3 format music clip and assign it as a ringtone. Lastly, this phone has had many issues where the battery inexplicably drains in a matter of hours, even without use! The issue is apparently due to the phone searching between 3 different types of networks in some areas. Unfortunately, I use the phone in one of these areas, and had to search the web to find a solution. Verizon told me it was the battery... it wasn't. Instead, some intrepid and friendly fellow chocolate users figured it out and shared their solution. You have to access a special hidden customization screen on the phone and turn off access to the alternative networks, so the phone would stop searching among them and draining the battery. Now it works fine, the battery lasts for days, but the downside is you can't use Vcast without turning the other networks back on. This is fine for me, as I don't use Vcast. But apparently this is not an uncommon problem (do a google search for verizon chocolate battery drain problem). Overall, I use the phone as simply a phone, and it works fine, but only because I was able to figure out the problem solutions on my own. I also don't use the mp3 function as it is too cumbersome (a real shame).

I've jumped on the chocolate band wagon...

I finally purchased the LG Cherry Chocolate phone from Verizon after reading the 100+ reviews on here and many other sites. The huge discount helped too. I got it for $49.99 with a 2 year contract. I've played with it for a few days to gauge its worth. Anyways here are the pros and cons of the phone. I don't plan on using the music function of it so I can't comment on it.

PROS:
1. Super sleek, slider design
2. Definitely aesthically pleasing
3. It is easy to navigate once you play around with the phone a bit and skim the manual. I personally didn't read the manual I just skimmed it for the parts of the phone I didn't know how to work.
4. I love the touch sensitive keypad.. just set it to medium and it won't be super sensitive.
5. Crystal clear reception - feels like you are talking on a land line.
6. Large, clear screen.
7. Takes pretty decent photos. I've discovered you can hit the camera button on the right side of the phone to take pictures instead of hitting the OK button.
8. Keypad itself is easy to use. You do not have to mush the keys to send text msgs or whatnot. However I have noticed sending text msgs to certain service providers takes a while or gets lost in cyber space but that could just be Verizon.
9. Speakerphone :)

CONS:

1. THE BATTERY LIFE... stinks. I don't use the MP3 function of it and don't talk a lot on the phone. The battery goes pretty quick. I left it sitting for a day and it already went down one battery bar. I've noticed that using VCAST/mobile web makes the battery drain quick. I have since purchased an extra battery.
2.It is expensive to download ringtones and it is pointless for me to get the music essentials pack for $30 because I have iTunes and an iPod and the files are not compatible. BTW.. the music pack only works on PC's not MAC's.
3. The OK button: if you don't touch it EXACTLY on point it hits one of the up/down/left/right keys instead and you end up on a different area of the phone. Not a huge deal for me.
4. There isn't a ton of memory on this phone so you will need to purchase an extra memory card if you plan to dl games or music onto it. Also you need to buy their special headphones and USB cable for music. This doesn't affect me as I don't plan to use it as a MP3 player.

So far I have not muted anyone or misdialed anyone as the phone locks when closed or not in use. I did however call someone by accident as I was entering their name into my contacts list. I love this phone. I'm just afraid of scratching it but so far so good. The fingerprint issue is easily solved: just clean it off with a tissue or your shirt.

I would recommend this phone if you can handle the touch sensitive keypad and love the look. It is definitely one of the better phones I've had in a long time and I absolutely love it. If you plan to use the music part of it to be ready to fork over extra cash for a memory card, the music kit, and an extra battery.

I hope this review helped. :)

I am not satisfied with this phone. Like the person below, I had to create a fake number (called AAVoicemail) as just about every time I pressed the contacts button, the phone called the first person on my contact list.
If you buy this phone, do not drop it even once as it does not take a beating. I dropped it once and now the call button rarely works.
I never hooked up the music. When I tried, I found that the earphone/AC plug was bent. I took the phone to a service center and they said I would have to pay a $50 restocking fee to exchange it. I fixed it myself. Now it works, but I have to be careful when plugging in the earphone/AC extension.
I don't use an earphone or bluetooth. I rarely use the camera. The phone is good if you want to be trendy, but it was not built to last.

I've enjoyed this stylish phone for about 8 months now. I was one of the first to jump onto the new chocolate craze. Although the buttons can be difficult to use, and the touch sensor keys can be very nerve wrecking, it gives great sound quality and many options to keep yourself occupied with.

I've been very satisfied with this phone until recently when it was dropped, and now all the touch sensor keys seem to be out to get me. My phone will dial people without being asked, or sometimes it will do nothing at all. It will automatically go into the menu or other areas on the phone without being asked. Hopefully it is an easy fix, because I have a while left in my contract and don't want to have to fork out the extra money for a phone that won't be as trouble-some.

All in all I'd reccommend this phone if the touch sensor keys weren't so fragile, and the number keys not so small. I love the interfaces and everything else this phone has to offer.

I thought I would love this phone. However, it has only been a source of frustration for me.
-Its perception of when I'm speaking is horrible- I frequently have to repeat what I've said for my conversational partners (I thought my mom had a hearing loss initially...).
-It is very sensitive to touch! It is scary how easily it can call the last person I talked to or the first person in my contacts (which I recently created "A Voicemail" as the first slot in my contacts vs. my friend Alexandra).
-The organization of the mp3 player is nothing like the iPod.

Overall, I would never buy this phone again and would not recommend it to anyone in the market.

I upgraded to the LG Chocolate w/ speaker phone in Oct. 2006. The black color, handsome styling, outstanding LCD, & iPod look appealed to my lifestyle. It worked well and looked sexy!

OK, now it's March 2007 & I am FED UP with this thing! As mentioned by others, the phone touch sensitivity is very annoying. I have changed the levels to all 4 options available and still not happy.

You can be on the phone, press one of the 6 buttons (on the side)& can active the mute button (another situation without your knowledge unless you take the phone away from your face and look at it). ANNOYING!

The LG Chocolate has given a new face & name to "drunk-dialing" - I call it, "Chocolate-dialed". People from my phone book have been dialed randomly while holding the phone in my hand, in my pocket, or when sliding the phone up to call (this has become a daily reoccurrence & a nightmare to Chocolate-dialed recipients).

When searching the phone book & touching the down arrow, the selector will start running madly through the phone book & won't stop until I close the slider or turn the phone off and turn it back on. I guess this resets it?

Charging the phone over night may result in your ringer or alarm to not work. I use my phone as a backup alarm clock & set it to go off each morning. Sometimes it sounds the alarm, sometimes it doesn't. It depends on the way it feels. Maybe I should tuck it in at night? Who knows? IT SUCKS THOUGH!

Finally, cases or carriers for the Chocolate are not useful to protect it. The only cases available require users to physically remove the phone from the case to answer or see who is calling (if audio notification is turned off). That increases the likelihood of you dropping & breaking it.

This is why I have given up on the sweet looking, physically dysfunctional Chocolate. Friday (3/16/07), I bought a Palm Treo on eBay to replace this once highly praised, but honestly lame device.

The LG Chocolate has given me cavities & I AM DONE!

i jumped on the chocolate bandwagon early, before adequate review were available. big mistake. the phone is aesthetically pleasing and the feel is solid. however, its practically deserves a grade of "F". i can't dial any of my numbers! the touch sensor pad either 1) goes haywire and starts pressing itself a million times per second, or 2) doesn't want to be pressed at all. i've set the sensor level at different levels but makes no difference. also, the buttons are so tiny that i can't access my voicemail w/o dialing the wrong #s... and my fingers are tiny.

i am so frustrated and stressed out b/c i can't use any basic functions. the makers were thinking of cool features and ignoring the basics.

The LG Chocolate is a great cell phone! Its true about "ghost" calling, as it happened to me once. Since then, it's been the best cell phone I've had. The battery lasts a long time if you customize the settings to conserve power. Verizon has installed speaker phone on this cell but earlier versions does not have this feature. I don't use the music features although I may eventually. I was due a new phone and am glad I picked the LG Chocolate. The price was right and the camera is awesome!
I think you'll like this phone; just try and get it for free and save some money!

I don't have the original chocolate, I have the Strawberry Chocolate (online exclusive through Verizon). It is a BEAUTIFUL shade of pink that is out of this world. I don't have any complaints except that because of the external screen I got a "teeny" scratch on it, its not big but now has a screen protector. I have to admit, the touch sensitive navigation keys were a little bit hard to get used to but I have had the phone for less than a week and am now used to it. The wallpaper choices are extensive and am now using the "flower" one. As far as ringtones go, They are all just kinda boring, but with "V-Cast" I'll probably end up downloading one from there. The phone also doesn't have any demo games and "V-Cast" games are kind of pricey but soon enough I'll probably get one. I have also noticed that for a slider phone it is very sleek, the best sleek phone I know of. I had a RAZR that was crap so I am very pleased. I definitly recommend the LG Chocolate to anybody thinking about it.
(P.S. I haven't used the Mp3 player yet but I'll let ya know how it goes)

I had a bad experience with my first LG phone(see my review of the LG VX6100)so I was a little hesitant to go with another LG but my timing was bad when my "New every Two" came up, no other phone was interesting, so I took a chance. I'm so glad I did. This phone doesn't have an external antenna but the reception is out of this world. Best phone I've owned to date. I live in the mountains and certain areas just don't have service, until this phone!! The only reason I gave this phone a 4 star rating is because my son also uses this phone and his had to be exchanged under warranty because his phone separated. Now I know what your thinking he's a teenager, 17, and he's just hard on phones. Not the case. This is the first time he's had a phone break on him. Mines holding together fine I just wish it had a speaker phone. The new ones have a speaker phone, remember my timing wasn't good. If your main concern is a really good phone, this one works. I can't really comment on the music side of the phone because both my son and I have iPods so we didn't care about that feature. One thing about all LG phones I've owned or considered is they have very impressive LCD screens.

I've had this phone for about 4 months. It is absolutley awful. The touch sensitive buttons are a nightmare. They either don't work at all or register when you don't want them to. The buttons work based on heat from your fingers, so they won't work with gloves on, or even if your hands are just cold. The number buttons are ridiculously tiny and it comes with no rings, games, etc. I should have spent $50 bucks more and gotten the 'V' phone. The touch sensitive buttons are located on the front so when you are talking on the phone they register that as a touch and start going off. Now everytime I open it, it calls the last number on my calls list. I usually like LG and have been happy with their phones in the past. DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE. Spend a little more now on the V and save time, money and annoyance later.

I bought 2 of these phones, one for myself and one for my husband. The phone is loaded with features I wasn't even aware of. It's got everything I could ever imagine needing on a phone and so much more. It's very user friendly and easy to operate - hardly touched the instruction manual. It's extremely fashionable - small, glossy, and brilliant colors. The web features show you full color and pictures, for example you can view your local weather radar, or streaming video. Some phones out there only show ugly text. The camera works great, and the navigation system is fantastic. You can get block by block directions spoken to you through the phone's speaker, and if you miss a turn, it will adjust to reflect your missed turn (costs extra subscription or per use but very inexpensive). You can also download fun games to play on the phone (again, additional cost but only a few dollars for permanent use).

About the MP3 - my husband's mp3 player works perfectly. The sound quality is good, menus for playing your music are great. I, however, am having technical issues with mine to where it isn't working properly. I'm confident, however, that with enough effort I will correct the problem, so I'm not holding it against the phone in this review.

I highly recommend the Chocolate. I wouldn't want any other phone.

I was talked into this phone by the verizon sales person. It is impossible to dial without hitting the wrong numbers, the sound on your calls is terrible and people are constantly telling me they can't hear me. In order to use the v-cast function you have to pay 15.95 per month to have the download service plus the 1.99 per song - verizon didn't tell me that so now I have a crappy phone that I can't even download new songs without paying a ton of money. The worst phone I have ever owned.

As already mentioned, touchpads are nightmarishly bad. Phone has often needed hard-reboot or even battery removal to recover "glitches". Menu is arduous, tedious and non-intuitive. Function for hanging up or switching over calls was designed by monkeys. Phone makes ghost calls (called my friend with a new baby at 12:30a.m.!). Heat sensitive touchpads become non-functional and erratic in cold climates. Headphones with the music essentials kit won't stay in my ears, sound like doodoo, and eat the battery in a few hours. To set an alarm is one of the deepest functions in the menu tree. Limited to using the horrible robot ringtones or BUYING one from Verizon.

other than that, the phone looks great!

This will be my last LG product.

most of the people who purchase the CHOCOLATE is because they are attracted to the sleek look. but what i didn't realize was how annoying the touch-sensitive keys can get. i will delve into that later.

PROS
*good call quality
*good battery life
*sturdy (i've dropped it on concrete, got a small scratch but worked fine)
*good service from Verizon Wireless (RARELY do i get dropped calls)
*decent picture quality
*ability use MP3 file function with microSD card
*its design is nice and pretty

CONS
*touch-sensitive keys are annoying
*texting is annoying because of the touch-sensitive keys
*MUSIC ALARM: sometimes gets muted
*to end the call, you don't use the same button as CLEAR, you have to use the END button on the side
*fingerprints make it look dirty

touch-sensitive keys are very annoying because while you are browsing through things, you can do many things accidentally. i've MUTED a person with my cheek while talking to them, sent BLANK text msgs to friends, sent text msgs incomplete, started calling people by accident while browsing, etc. it's a mess! and i'm a girl who doesn't have fat fingers so imagine if you are a guy with big fingers. so when i'm accidentally calling someone, i naturally press the button that is on the opposite side of calling, but that isn't the button to END the call, so i am frantic. when other people are browsing my phone, the touch-sensitivity freaks them out. it's definitely not all that's cracked up to be. i would've liked the phone a lot more had it been regular buttons.

i like to have my own music to wake me up in the morning. however, several times i had missed my alarm because it was going off in "MUTE" mode. for volume, you have an option "alarm only" but that doesn't apply to this music alarm mode, apparently. but it is strange because this option is under the ALARM mode, so shouldn't it not be affected and play my song to wake me up?

other than the touch-sensitive part sucking, i am happy with the phone. don't expect the jogdial to work like that of an iPod because it is NOT a jog dial, it only looks like it.

Pros:
- Looks Great.
- Reception is fantastic (prior to what a previous reviewer said).
- Volume, call clarity, and all the phone features work great. Including bluetooth.
- MP3 player quality is quite good. And playing music is fairly easy.
- Camera is pretty good and easy to use.

Cons:
- Getting your MP3s on the phone is a pain. Making playlists sucks, and its generally a serious pain.
- Battery life is pretty poor. I charge about every other day (my previous phone I charged every 4-5 days generally).
- The touch screen is really silly, and is an absolute fraud in comparison to the Ipod's touch screen.
- Phone interface is very very bad (It is standard on all Verizon phones). It is non-intuitive, a pain to get the features you want to. ie it requires 5+ clicks to sync music to my computer.

Overall, I got it to avoid buying an Ipod. It has fairly achieved my goal. I cant say I'm dissapoined, but its far from what I expected.

DO NOT buy this phone unless you're willing to endure continuous calls from Verizon Wireless if you try to close your account.

Last week, shortly after telling Verizon's sales person I was switching to T-Mobile because their Customer Service is a disaster, I began getting three to five calls each day that hang up as soon as I answer. Doing a *69 revealed they were coming from 1-800-470-0768, Verizon Wireless' number. Calling a supervisor (Jasen) resulted in an apology and him putting me on their Do Not Call list, which he says won't take effect for 30 days. He also said this is a "known problem with Verizon's auto-dialer" for which Verizon has no solution. It's only noon and so far today I've gotten three calls from them, two hangups and another sales pitch to upgrade my phones and stay with Verizon Wireless.

I'd rather stick needles in my eyes.

This phone is truely awful. I thought twice about buying a phone that had just been introduced but my last phone was 4 years old and starting to fail. A couple big problems with this phone:
1- If you are calling anything (including voicemail) and have to enter an access code, when you put the phone back up to your ear, it prompts a menu to mute the phone and then beeps in your ear. It happens all the time.
2- The phone locks itself constantly. So, if you're talking and your call waiting goes off, you have to unlock the phone on the side before you can pick up the other call. Then, you have to unlock it again to go back to the original caller. Half the time I end up hanging up on both.
3. The reception is mediocre at best. I can't get a signal in my apt. in Manhattan to save my life. I don't even try anymore. My roommate has AT&T and has no problem. I think that's more an issue with Verizon though.
4. Numerous times I've tried to send a text msg. and when you try to type in the message it accidentally sends a blank msg. On my old phone I could either close it to cxl the msg. or hit end, but this one will keep sending it no matter what.
One last thing that bugs me is that when you end a call (or in my case, your service cuts out), the phone flashes the time of the call for what seems like 15 seconds....much longer than the Motorola Razor.
I've known three people who've already gotten rid of this phone. I'll be the 4th.
Trust me- it's a nice looking phone but that doesn't really help when it doesn't work the way it should.

Ok, the phone itself isn't that bad. the only possible issue i would have, is that the touch-buttons are a little too sensitive, and the keypad is small so i accidentally mash 2 buttons at once when texting.


the BAD part is - Verizon really really really wants you to just buy their stuff. They basically make it impossible for you to upload your own music on to the phone. They want you to buy all of your music from Vcast.

I actually paid extra to get the Vcast music essentials kit (which is supposed to allow you to upload music from your computer to your cell)

but sadly, it wasn't as easy as that. Your computer MUST be running windows XP and have a special version of windows media player in order to get the music... I have tried THREE computers now and none of them have worked. It's getting pretty frustrating, and i'm sure that's the point.

"BUY YOUR MUSIC FROM US!" - verizon


aside from that, the phone is 10 times better than my old phone. it's got bluetooth, cool voice dialing (which i don't really use but it's fun to play with), and looks HOT.

love music? want people to comment on your phone? into vcast? then this is the phone for you. the phone comes with 60 megs (more than most phones, according to the verizon sales staff) for music and whatever else you download, but you have to buy a microsd (amazons are pretty cheap) for up to 2 gigs storage. the music player is nice. very easy to use with customizable playlists, shuffle, and, my favorite, the ability to play mp3 (no need to convert to wma like most other music phones). the phone is flat out sexy. i got the white chocolate and its like wearing jewelry. the display is high resolution, making it easier to read web content. plus, videos look great. i have also downloaded sim city and it is easy to use the phone to play this particular game. cant comment on higher action games. voice commands are cool and work well. the phone also has speakerphone functionality now.

there is a bit of a learning curve on this phone, particularly the touch pad. i had heard that the touch pad was annoying and was predisposed to dislike it. at first, it seemed like it was buggy. but then i found out that you get used to the touch pad without even realizing it. i still accidentally touch the wrong buttons now and then, but i've only had the phone for 2 weeks. every day it gets easier to use.

i didn't give it 5 stars because there is only one port for charging, syncing, or headphones. music, videos, and games drain the battery like crazy, but you can get an extended life battery. also, the port covers are a little tricky. i get the feeling they might break off at some point, but so far so good.

recommended accessories: music essentials kit, bluetooth headset (though i wish i got the bluetooth ear buds instead of the headset, since you cant listen to music on the headset), microsd card, and the only cases ive found that don't hinder looks or functionality are the snap on hard plastic ones, theyre less than 20 bucks and come in lots of nice colors and designs.

in the box: phone, ac charger, headphone adapter, manuals.

The LG chocolate phone excels as a media player. With a 2 gig memory card you can store pictures and songs. With the camera you can take fair quality pictures. The MP3 playback is excellent quality (for a cell phone) and if you get the accessory kit the ear buds are sweet. Not so sweet are the problems others have stated - like the phone dialing people if I touch a button. The reception also isn't the best. The glitches make me wonder if there's a software update for the phone everybody needs to get >> this phone can be software updated. I've tried #28 (which I think is for reprogramming) but still working with Verizon to get it fixed right.

I bought this phone in August and really wanted to like it. I used the MP3 player, the camera, the phone and most everything else including VCast. Shortly after getting the phone, I noticed that it would call people on its own and would do many things even if I only touched one button. When it started getting cold, I found that buttons and the phone would freeze and I could not use them. The touch pad would seem overly sensitive at times and at other times I had to hit the pad very hard to get any result even though I had the sensitivity set at medium.

Needless to say, I have purchased a new phone, hopefully with better results. I do have to disagree with one of the reviewers in that the people at Verizon were very helpful and understanding when I explained my problem and while they did not let me just trade phones, they did help me a little in getting my new one.

I have been using this phone for a little over a month now and in this review, I will try to address the questions I myself had when considering purchasing the chocolate.

Screen - the screen is amazing. The screen's resolution is 320 x 240 (same resolution as the iPod) and the pixel density is fairly high.

Touch buttons - I don't find the touch buttons hard to use but occasionally you will mess up but it is not a big deal. The only way to know if you will like the touch buttons is to go to the verizon store and try it out for yourself.

Keypad - Being a slider phone, the chocolate keypad has small buttons but are still relatively easy to use. They have a nice solid feel when they are pressed. I don't text message a lot, but if you are someone who does, I do not recommend this phone. Its pretty easy for your fingers to slip when typing fast. This phone is not meant for speed text messaging. Go with a simpler phone with larger buttons.

Battery life - Battery life on the vx8500 is bad compared to other cell phones. It drops from 4 bars of battery down to 3 after just one day. Looking at it now, I it only has 2 bars of battery left and I charged it just 3 days ago. I don't use the music/video features, but I can imagine they are battery hogs as well.

Camera - I don't use the camera a lot, but it is decent. 1.3 megapixels. The phone is extremely slow when browsing through pictures. It takes about 3 seconds for each picture to load. It does have a dedicated camera button on the side which is helpful.

Verizon has made it impossible to use bluetooth OBEX between your phone and your computer. They purposely crippled the phone's OBEX support so that you are forced to purchase overpriced ringtones from their own service. (note: this is for ALL verizon phones with bluetooth, not just the chocolate) greedy [...] Another reason they have OBEX crippled is so they can make [...] each time you need to send a picture from your phone to your computer. Why build a camera into the phone if you need to pay just to get the pictures off? Maybe I sound cheap, but why should I have to pay for a basic feature that should already be included? (If you are confused because you don't know what OBEX is, it stands for object exchange and is a way to move files around using bluetooth)

If you don't want to use verizon, but want the chocolate, there is a GSM version (kg800) of this phone but I think verizon's version is better.

Last note: If you can afford it, definitely buy this phone at the retail price without a contract.

This phone is everything they say it is and more! (with only a couple of annoyances) I use the MP3 player every day, I have 500 songs on a 1GB microSD card. (64kbps wma) It sounds great considering that it's a phone that also plays music. The VZ Navigator GPS system; I love it! A colleauge of mine carrys a cell phone, a PDA and a GPS reciever to connect to his PDA. He could not believe how great the VZ Navigator is with its maps, business finders, verbal driving directions, aetc... although, at $10.00 a month... or $3.00 a day, it can eventually get to be alot more expensive than a dedicated gps nav system. But my favorite feature is the ability to use this phone as a high speed modem. I live in the country and have no access to cable or DSL access. I recently discovered a plan from verizon for $60.00 (additional) a month that allows me to connect my phone to my computer and get broad band access. I get 400-500 Mbps connection consistantly which surely beats the 46Kbps I was getting from dialup. It makes the internet fun again. Althought the plan claims unlimited data, you are limited to 5GB per moth of transfer, so beware of the small print. The only thind I don't like is that my face hits the touch sensitive buttons when I talk on the phone, but this is something I learned to avoid. My bluetooth headset elimnates that problem 100%. The camera is over 1 megapixel and works very well, takes nice video, too. Also has a voice recorder, web browser, calculator, games, ... I could go on and on, but I won't. This is a great phone!

This phone has it all- the cool design, mp3, and it's a slider. Unfortunately, the touch key pads are extremely sensitive and can go off while you are using the phone. Also, to access the mp3 you need to install a special card of some sort. I'd say if you have the time to deal with such a complicated phone just because it looks good, then do it. But, if you're like me and you want a good quality phone with reasonable features, then check out the pantech c300. I love it!

I've owned the phone for about 3 weeks now, and I'm pretty happy with it. Granted, I had a 5-year old brick of a phone before. I got the Cherry (red), my friends all love it and I still love to play around with the buttons when I'm bored. Overall, I would recommend this phone if:

- You want something small, sleek, stylish (and are willing to sacrifice some minor flaws in order to make your friends envious over your phone)

- You are pretty comfortable with fancier phones and you have a medium level of technology knowledge

- You aren't a huge fan of flip phones

- You are willing to take the time to get used to how to hold the phone, use the touch-sensitive pad, the arrangement of buttons (for example, the "end call" button is located on the side... although you may also hang up a call simply by closing the phone)

- You use your phone as more than just a "phone" (camera, mp3s, alarms, etc.)

PROS:
- Sleek design, nice and fun to use

- Screen is crystal clear and has updated menus

- Camera nice with sharp quality

- Has a speakerphone that works well

- Clear reception

- Having the slider is nice; it both locks the keypad and acts as a "hang-up" button. It is very satisfying to end a call by sliding the phone shut

CONS:
- Since I have a Mac computer and the Music Kit & memory card are kind of pricey (you need this to play music unless you plan on spending $1.99 per song downloading through VCast), I can't play music on my phone.

- Sometimes when I'm using the touch-sensitive buttons I accidentally call the first friend on my list, once I accidentally sent a text message before I was finished writing it.

- Shiny outside can show fingerprints, oil appears on screen after talking (but can easily be wiped off on my pant leg...)

- Small keypad number buttons take a while to get used to, are more difficult if you have large fingers (mine are normal sized, I guess)


Definitely read many reviews and check out all the features before you buy this phone... do your research! I did, and I'm happy with my purchase :)

Hey Guys, I have made the mistake of getting on Vz 3 years ago, and I am still stuck with them. After long use, misuse, and a lot of thinking I now totally believe that Vz is an Evil Empire (Google it if you don't believe me)>
Here is why you absolutely should not use Verizon:
1. They Lock the heck of your phone. My friend has a Rzr from Cingluar, and using a Cheap software you can hook it up to your PC and then Download all pics and contacts, and so on. Even you can do that through BT. With my Wife's Rzs, no luck. They Locked it. No way to connect BT and no way to connect with the USB port. To get the Pics, Verizon wants to charge .25 cents per Picture sent. So you are doomed...
2. This actually goes to ALL VZ phone. They lock everything. And disable a lot of the BT (Bluetooth) functionality. For example I have a PDA/Smart phone. I can NOT use it as a modem if I am with VZ. If you have cingular or T Mobile you can.
3. Internet Unlimited Data Plan is 45 from Vz,and 40 from Cing. and again they lock you and limit you to the PDA device only.
4. Vz, phones, are NOT usable anywhere else in the world, where most countries have GSM networks, therefor if you have Cingular, you could take your phone with you on your trip, and reprogram it and use, in most countries. (Which is important to me. )
5. SIM cards are a great invention. Every time I had a new phone from Vz, I had to reprogram my contacts, and Calender (Unless your using a Smart phone and you sync with your PC). With SIM cards, you can just move your card with any phone and your data is there.
6. Cingular has Role Overs.....Great concept. Ah.... what can I say.
I am just kicking myself, for getting stuck with them all this time. Can't wait till my contract is done, to say good bye to those .....******
I am sure If I thought more there would more to comment on, but


My last phone was the Kyocera Phantom; a phone that had very little function besides making and receiving calls. About two weeks ago I upgraded to the LG 8500. At first I was extremely happy with it, but a few days ago I ran into some problems. I'll get to that later.

1.) Camera: For a cellphone camera, I'm impressed. You can change the capture resolution for photos, 160x120 up to 1280x960. The photos come out a little fuzzy, as can be expected with a cellphone camera. My only issue with the camera is that there's no flash. As for video, one excellent aspect is that you can change the option to record as much video as you have the space for. Considering you can expand your memory to 2gb with an SD micro memory card, this means you can record rather lengthy videos. Unfortunately, the resolution is very low.

2.) Sound Recording; Ringtones: The Chocolate can record sounds, but only up to one minute. I was a bit disappointed with this; they should have used the same feature the video camera offers, allowing you to record as much sound as you have memory for. As for ringtones.. I'm a bit frustrated. If you save a sound, you can only play it in My Sounds or txt message it to someone; you can't set it as a ringtone. HOWEVER: I have learned to make my own ringtones and get around that. What you have to do is make a sound clip, about 40 seconds long, in low bitrate mp3 (I've been using 64 bitrate MONO mp3's. Use a program like GoldWave to edit your mp3's down to this size.) I then e-mail the sound to my phone. When I open the email as a text message, I have the option to save the sound as a ringtone. Note that if you make the sound too long, or the file too large, you will not be able to save it as a ringtone.

3.) Mp3 Player Function: I was a bit disappointed with the mp3 player function. The sound is decent enough through the built in speaker, but obviously sounds much better through extrenal speakers or a headset. A few days after I got the phone I purchased the Music Essentials kit and a 1gb SD memory card. After installing the Music Essentials software, I realized that it's pretty much useless if you have a memory card. The interface isn't user friendly, and it converts all of your music to low quality WMA files. The best way to use music on this phone is to transfer your mp3's directly to the SD memory card. Some computers have a memory card port built in (I know mine does,) but you can also get an external USB card reader. This should work on a Mac as well, but make sure your music is in mp3 and not the Apple format, m4a. The mp3 playing program on the phone is just aweful. It isn't user friendly in any way. You have to put all of your mp3's onto a playlist if you want to listen to them on shuffle; scrolling through your songs is laggy and at times difficult; and to be honest, the themes for the mp3 player are just ugly. Hopefully software upgrades will come out within a few months to fix some of these problems.

4.) The touchpad, the keypad: I've heard alot of complaints about the touchpad. I have it on the highest sensitivity and I find that it works great. It did take some getting used to, but now I love it. As for the keypad.. the buttons are just too close together, and too small. Txt messaging has been an experience... I'm constantly hitting the wrong button by accident, sometimes two or three at a time.. and I don't even have large hands.

5.) Display: I love the screen on this phone. It's a great size for viewing photos, videos, and games. The screen is beautiful, though it does have a tendancy to show fingerprints a bit too much, considering the glossy finish.

6.) THE BATTERY: Alright. Here's that problem I mentioned earlier. A few days ago, my phone's battery started dying incredibly fast---in as little as 15 minutes after a full charge. I got incredibly frustrated, and last night I went to a Verizon Wireless store. Tech Support told me that the phone's battery can be drained that quickly because the phone is constantly looking for better signal. In a dead zone, like a basement, a concrete building, whatever---the phone will die within 20 minutes. They told me there was nothing I could do but turn my phone off when I'm in a deadzone. I left, obviously frustrated, because that is a TERRIBLE feature. I went home, and I was researching my phone on internet forums. I was reading a topic about the Version 4 software upgrade (which puts SPEAKERPHONE on the Chocolate!) and someone seemed to be having the same problem I was with the battery. It seems that the problem is Verizon's EVDO network. Here are the instructions on how to disable EVDO and use the standard network. With this option enabled, the battery won't drain anywhere near as quickly. (Since I switched, my phone's been on for over 24 hours and is only missing one bar of batter)
To disable EVDO:

Go into menu
hit 0 the pass is 000000
push 3 for network select
push 1 for mode preference
then go down to 1x only

This will greatly increase your battery life if you dont have evdo in your area.


Now that I've fixed the battery issue, I'm back to loving this phone. If the mp3 function was as user friendly as, say, an iPod, this would be the only device I need for music, pictures, and.. of course.. phone calls.

First of all the people who through verizon to dowload all music and programs will get ripped off this is why the phone can be affordable. If you just search for programs on the internet like bitpim u can move all your files back and forth, whether they are ringtones or wallpapers, dont pay for it! You will need the music essentials kit for the usb cable maybe 20 bucks or less. The battery talktime isnt the best ever but its acceptable. I love the phone though, easy to use once u get used to and a very unique design. With this advice you won't be dissapointed.

I bought this phone for my daughter for Christmas. She is so thrilled with the looks and MP3 function that I have never heard her complain about reception or the keypad. After talking to 4 or 5 Verizon reps, I understood that I would have to pay the extra $30 for the music software, however it wasn't until we opened the package that we found out it would NOT run on a Mac operating system. It was quite a lengthy process to burn music to CDs and then go to someone else's house to use their Windows System. Without the software, you cannot load music. Verizon really should offer 2 versions of the software, and if not, explain it clearly to people before they spend their money.

I bought this phone for three reasons:
1. aesthetic value
2. convenient size
3. to use as an mp3 player

the phone is at first hard to operate but you get used to it so i am not here to complain about that all i want to do in this review is tell you that this phones mp3 player is horrible. every time you plug the phone into your computer it randomly erases about half of the songs. so everytime you want to put new music on it you either have to go through the phone and see what got deleted and add those songs back on or erase everything and load it all again from the beginning. I cant handle it anymore. i am so pissed off about it that i have been down to my local Verizon store about twenty times. They have given me new chocolate's several times, they saw that it did not work however they refused to admit it and instead keep giving me new ones that have the exact same problems. also the shuffle does not work when you skip forward only at the end of the song. when you pull up an album the songs are not in the order they come on the album, instead they are in alphabetical. this is ok for some cd's but on many i like to listen to them in order (Dark Side of the Moon, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart's Club Band, etc.) I am so sick of dealing with this phone that i plan on going to verizon and demanding they give me a different model. THIS PHONE IS A PIECE OF SH!T

Unlike most people, I purchased the LG Chocolate simply because I needed a new phone, rather than giving into all the hype it was given. Although I've only had it for a few days, I've already come to many conclusions about the phone.

1. Many people seem to have a gripe with the touch pad and I have had no problems with it what so ever. I set my sensitivity to high and it's been working just great.
2. The reception is fantastic and I almost always have full bars pretty much where ever I am.
3. The phone looks as good as advertised.
4. Battery life is just terrible. For instance, I'd be surfing their "get it now" menu for tones to buy, and after a mere 10-20 minutes, I would've lost two bars. Using the LG Chocolate to play music and simply having a mini-sd card inside the slot, will give you no more than 2 hours battery time. But if you seldom touch your phone, only making an occasional call or two, your battery life will be adequete.

This phone is great if you simply want a nice looking phone with good reception, however people these days want more than an operational phone, which leads me to my biggest disappointment with the LG Chocolate. Although it is capable of so much, in order to use it to its fullest potential, you're going to have to break the bank. Verizon (although they have good customer service and have very good reception) attempts to empty your pockets at every turn.
1. In order to put music onto your phone, you must buy either their Music Essentials Kit (40$) and/or a mini-sd card (runs from 10$ to 100$). Of course, if you want more than one or two songs on your phone, you will have no choice but to buy a mini-sd card. Though you can easily bypass the need for a MEK buy purchasing a mini-sd card along with a media reader hub. Simply drag and add songs into the card.
2. In order to buy songs and ring tones (which run from $.99 to $2.99 EACH), you have to use their "Get it Now" feature, which costs you airtime just to surf their data bases for songs and ring tones you may like. Though there is a way to bypass this extravagant cost for ring tones. Simply purchase a USB cable which connects your phone to your computer, download the BitPm program @ www.bitpim.org (which converts the songs you want into ring tone format), and make an unlimited (or at least as many ring tones as you can fit into your phone's memory) for no cost, besides the usb cable.
3. Merely having their "V-Cast" feature will cost you $15 per month, which I don't think is worth it one bit. To watch clips (which you could easily watch on TV or on the computer) on your cell phone doesn't seem too appealing, especially at a cost.

In all, this is a very nice looking phone with good service. However, if you want to tap it's fullest potential, be prepared to spend more money than you spent on the phone, to do so.

I've owned this phone for a few months now, since early September if I recall correctly. I ordered it and only then checked out all the (bad) reviews on Amazon. I started to worry, thinking before I'd even recieved the phone that I'd ultimately be forced to return it. Fortunately, this never happened. I only use the phone for calls and occasionally photos, and for those things, it's great -- I can't speak for any other functions because I don't use them.

The touchpad can be a little laggy, but I used to own a Creative Zen Micro, so that was nothing new; then again, I might be too inclined to forgive technology -- we don't have hovercars, maybe the touchpad is slightly flawed. It happens.

So far as the actual alphanumeric keypad goes, I have no problems whatsoever. I'm a rather tiny gal, and the keypad feels great to me; there was a small period of adjusting to it from my old phone, but after that, everything was shiny. I almost never have a problem with the keypad, and what problems I do have are no fault of the phone.

The reception is loud and clear, I get signal just fine, and the phone has never managed to call someone without my permission, tucked into my pocket or otherwise. What's more, the phone is sleek and beautiful, definitely playing to my love of aesthetics. I've wanted a slider since before the old Kyocera one was cancelled, and this one is lovely.

Overall, I'd say the phone is great.

I like many others, bought this phone because of its looks (and because I prefer non-flip phones).

To sum it up, these are the reasons I had issues with the phone:

1) The battery life is poor. I could only get two and a half hours of talk time on this phone (WITHOUT using MP3, mobile web, etc..)
The company that carries the phone over-instates the talk time at three and a half hours).

2)The charing port for the phone is seriously flawed. I have never owned a phone that is so difficult to charge. I could see how the port could break after six months of charging it.

3)If you want to play serious MP3s, you might as well get your wallet out and write another big check to Verizon, lol. You'll need much more equipment and memory, not to mention extra batteries to keep your phone from going dead.

4)The sound quality is not that good for playing music.


I could complain about the sensitivity of the keypad but it wasnt enough to bother me as the poor battery life was. I actually got used to the keypad and found its quirkiness kind of cute, but not enough to want to keep the phone. I switched to another phone and will just buy an Ipod for playing music.

Hey, it's a phone with the ability to play mp3s and take decent pics and vids - still, it's a phone, and a quite stylish one at that. Small keypad, yes, but capable of texting along with all of the other non-QWERTY models. Primarily, it's an LG phone with good connectivity; isn't that the main function of a cell phone?

As a camera or MP3 player, the Chocolate is certainly not the equal; then again, can your digicam or mp3 make phone calls? We'll see with what Apple has to offer; meanwhile, it's about the service (Verizon works for me), and phone connectivity (I like LG); any other suggestions?

Having said that, I'd suggest that LG improve its mp3 functionality; specifically, the ability to proper bookmark a listening point upon pausing the current selection. I should be able to close the phone and then later on, open it and start playback from where I was before (instead, I have to select through the playlist to the track and then scroll through to where I was). And give me an USB cable and software with that - right now, I gotta pay another $30 to get that. Also, offer a headphone jack that will work with my mp3 headphones - (Verizon, don't try to sell me even more stuff).

Another message to LG and Verizon - you are leaving on the table a big opportunity: offer a way cool case or skin (or your design and testimony to scratch-proofness) and you have a category killer of sorts. I cannot believe the lame options I get from Verizon stores - I'd rather risk scratching this cool phone. (Verizon - are you OK with that?!)

Update:
If I could, I'd add another 1/2 star to make the rating 4.5 stars. After having used the Navigator GPS application on a free 2wk trial basis (plus airtime charges: I'm doing my eval off-peak, of course), I can easily say that this phone will delight those wanting more bang for the buck. I enabled phone location mode, entered my destination, and was guided by the professional female voice along my route. There was one turn-off that the real-time tracking showed, but the voice wasn't present for. Maybe a glitch? When "real" GPSs become the size of the Chocolate, I'll get one; right now, this method works for me.

Another Update:
For charging while in a car, go for a smart charger from an Amazon merchant.[..]

I don't know if they've recently reworked this phone, but I've read all the negative reviews here and I don't understand how they could have the problems they say they're having.

I was a little nervous to buy this phone because I read the reviews about the sensitive touch pad, the phone accidentally calling people from a purse, etc, but I'm so in love with the look of it that I decided to buy one anyway! I have to say, after using it for a while I'm very pleasantly surprised at how few problems I've had.

As far as the phone accidentally cutting off calls or causing other problems when you put your cheek againt the touch pad during a call, it's not possible. The touchpad is locked when the phone is in use. I specifically tried to push the touchpad buttons to see what would happen during a call and I got nothing. The touchpad also locks when the phone is idle. So if you put it in your purse, it would be very unlikely that it would start making random calls. You can activate the touchpad with the buttons on the side of the phone, but you'd really have to press one in to make that happen. So I don't really see that as being a problem. It's hasn't been one for me so far. So either they've fixed that problem from an earlier version of this phone, or the reviewers that reported this problem have a bad phone.

The only thing I can see possibly being a problem is that the end button is on the side of the phone, inconviently right where your fingers might be during a call. That makes no sense to me and I can see how someone might accidentally push that button and hang up the phone, but so far it's never happened to me. I don't see it as a major problem, but it really is a dumb place for that button.

I also don't find it as difficult to work the touchpad as I thought I would based on other reviews. It does take a little practice, and frankly I wouldn't be sad if it had regular buttons instead of the touchpad, but it's not really that bad. It's not taking me all over the place when I use it. It's not WONDERFUL, which is why I can't give this phone a 5 star review, but it's really not that bad. After playing with it for a little while, I got the hang of it and now it's working fine. Overall I've found the phone very easy to operate. I've never even opened the manual.

As far as quality, I've found it to be very sturdy, it opens easily, the sound quality is great and it's comfortable to use. It seems like a phone that I will be able to use and enjoy for a long time.

I would say the only thing that turned me off a little with this phone is the MP3 capability. Be aware that if you want to use a Chocolate as an MP3 player, you will have to buy extra software and special headphones, as it does not have a standard headphone jack. It bugs me a little that they heavily advertise this phone as an MP3 player, but it actually won't work as one unless you buy extra equipment. I did buy the extra equipment and it was very easy to install, however. Once I got over my irritation of having to buy the extra equipment, I do have to admit that it works nicely.

So overall I have very few complaints about this phone. It looks nice, sounds good, it's easy to use, and I've had none of the problems reported by earlier reviewers. The only drawbacks I see are that the touchpad needs a little practice at first and the extra software for the MP3 capability is irritating. But if you can deal with that, I think this is a pretty great phone!

This is the best phone ever!!! The people that say this phone is bad are insane. The V cast music is easy and cheap. V cast has all the latest and oldest songs from rock to gospel to rap and hip hop. The verizon chocolate can hold up to 1000 songs with the memory card. The memory card is only 30$. Without the memory card the phone can hold up to 12 songs.

I wanted a simple and reliable phone and oddly enough, this was the phone I picked. My main reasons for picking this phone were the unique slider design and the fact that it was free. I have been using it for a month and I don't regret getting this phone at all.

Yes, the keypad is small. Yes, the touch-sensitive control takes some time to get used to. Yes, you need to buy accessories to play music. But for me, the positives outweigh the negatives.

If you don't use this phone to listen to music, the battery will last a long time. This phone could easily last a week without charging and 2-3 hours of talk time. I've never had a phone that had this much battery life. When I want to listen to music, I'll use my iPod.

The sliding action of the phone feels solid. I like the fact that when closed, the camera lens is protected.

The screen size is decent. It's smaller than the RAZR but I had no problem surfing the web with it.

This is an excellent all-around phone. It has all the features you would want in a cellphone (camera, web, and music) and excels at the basic cellphone functions.

I want to love this phone. It's beautiful and has awesome features, but it's one of the most awkward phones I have ever used. I have very small fingers and I still hit all the wrong "buttons" on the touchpad and end up fumbling and going to the wrong places all the time. Additionally, the number/letter buttons are far too small. I'm normally a super-speedy texter, but it takes me SO much longer to type out a message.

I hate to have to return this phone, because it's really a lovely phone, but it's very difficult to use.

LG could vastly improve it by making the touchpad into actual buttons (attempting to copy iPod's touch wheel was a disaster), and making the buttons slightly larger.

The phone is gorgeous with good voice quality and slightly above average reception of the 7 phones I am familiar with. Due to LG's lack of ergonomic prowess you can't add .mp3's directly to the memory card (sold seperately) and you have to buy their proprietary cable (ugh!) and have to use the windows media player (shoot me now!).

For some odd reason, the guys at LG thought adding a big bulky headphone adapter (included) would be AOK - as an Engineer I feel it is inexcusablly short sighted and bound to wear out your primary connection in a hurry.

I have fairly small hands for a guy and I am constantly fighting with the keypad for wrong numbers, multiple numbers pressed, and a horribly slow display that lags way behind the touchpad - especially as it gets cooler out. In short, I hate this phone, but like the look and the voice quality. As an MP3 player it is woefully kluged together Rube Goldberg style.

For a multi function device this has quite a bang. The Phone quality is nice and has several functions I use alot including the three different alarms which I can set to go off only on weekdays. Taken a couple of notes with the note pad when no pen was available. The Speaker phone is OK but could be better or louder (the Razor speakerphone is very nice).

I have had a couple of the accidental calls, but nothing too terrible. The interface is a bit touchy but I can handle it well enough. I'm stoked about the functionality. A friend has called his non user friendly, but I feel it can be learned well enough. I am coming from a very basic phone as well.

I tested the time the battery lasted with no SD card and no Bluetooth headset and got about 3-4 days out of the battery.

Got a 1 GB micro SD card for music. Stored about 175 songs. Had to put them all in one directory. The music play on the speaker is lame. I did not want to try to listen with an adapter (provided) with a wired headset. So, I bought the Bluetooth Motorola HG 820 (?) now this made the music player much more enjoyable and more fun than an Ipod nano. With this set up i can pair with my laptop and phone at the same time wirelessly .. very cool.

The battery does drain quickly with this set up though . listening to alot of music lasted about 1 day.

*** I did find a trick though. If you are not listening to music , take the SD card out (just halfway - these things are delicate) and push it pack in. This seems to keep the battery from pulling from the SD card. You will notice when queing a song that the player will initialize the card. This,I beleive, is what causes a drain by continually reading the card. You will need to do this each time you stop listening to music to maximize battery life. Its a bit of a pain but seems to work.

The camera takes a decent picture for a camera phone. Nothing stellar, but its nice to have.

Video is OK has well ..... if you have nothing else available this will help you save some memories or take notes..

Again for a mutlifunction device it works well. It is no Ipod as far as the interface or battery life goes. But this things has a decent feel like the Ipod and feels fairly cool. If I could only have 1 device with me at a time I would choose this one. (with the battery charger )

When my phone died in August, the timing was just right for me to get the Chocolate phone as a replacement. I've always been a fan of LG's CDMA phones as I've found them to have good reception, decent UI, and were very sturdy.

After having this phone for four months, I can't figure out why anyone would want the phone.

Good -

1. Bluetooth support is good - The same headset I used for my old phone sounds much better on this phone. That was a pleasant surprise.

2. Pretty - it's undeniable that the phone looks really nice.

3. Good reception / call quality.

4. You can email yourself MP3s to use as ringtones - It's nice Verizon is finally stepping away from their total-lockdown philosophy for phones. I hope the trend continues.

Bad -

1. Verizon's customized interface is frequently laggy - When Verizon brought the phone into the market, they put their standard interface on it. However, they also added some 'whiz bang' animations and what-not to the interface - which made it laggy. The worst thing you can possibly do to a touchscreen interface is make it laggy. *tap* *tap* "Hmmm, nothing happening", *tap* *tap*. Suddenly the phone wakes up and registers all your touches and whiz off into some submenu you didn't want to be in.

2. No headset jack - I'd far rather have a headset jack than the (mostly useless) camera. Granted, the adapter is less cheesy than I initially thought, but it's still a lousy kludge. And heaven forbid you're on a long call and need to charge your phone *and* use the headset. Plus the adapter is yet another piece to lose.

3. Phantom touches - sometimes the touchscreen would register a touch when *nothing* was touching the screen. This nearly drove me insane.

4. Touchscreen does not work correctly in the cold - Guess what? Don't get this phone cold or the touchscreen will not work correctly.

5. Numberpad too small - I could deal with the small size of the numberpad if there was any kind of separation between the rows of keys. As it is, I found it more difficult to use the numberpad than it should have been.

6. Mute is a pain to use - On a long call and need to mute and unmute frequently? You'll grow to loathe this phone. You have to touch the side button to unlock the screen and then pull the phone away from your face to find the left softkey. Then hope the touchscreen didn't misregister. Joy.

7. SMS is painful - With my old phones I used to use SMS all the time. The Chocolate phone is painful to text with. It's a combination of the chiclet numberpad, the laggy touchscreen, and the tendency the phone has to 'send' by accident. This phone is so painful to use, I wrote my own custom app to SMS from my computer.

8. Music player mediocre at best - The music player doesn't read ID3v2 tags. It doesn't descend into directories on the SD card, so you can't separate your music into folders. Fast forwarding long sequences is painful - don't listen to podcasts or audio books.

9. Get used to calling people by accident - I've never ever called people from my pocket or anytime I didn't mean to, until I owned this phone. Get used to locking it all the time, or resign yourself to letting people talk to your pocket.

Ugly

1. I know a few other people who have or have had the phone. It uniformly is disliked by all of them. They're all trying to figure out when they can get a different phone.

I picked up a new phone recently (LG vx-8300) which I like *so* much better than the Chocolate. The contrast is amazing. It does everything the Chocolate does, it's cheaper, and it doesn't have the Chocolates's numerous UI issues. Granted it's not as sexy, but it doesn't cause me to have recurring fantasies about chucking the phone under a buses tires.

Although the key pad is very sensitive, my 16 year old loves this phone! All his friends are jealous, too!

I am frustrated with the Chocolate. It sometimes automaticly connects and begins calling someone when I open the phone. The touch pad is extremely sensitive and is constantly sending me places I don't want to go. In the end I have given up out of frustation and bought another phone that is less annoying.

I think this phone rocks solid!
It is so cool, I can finally listen to my own music when I want, Where I want.The games rock too. I love it!!!!!! Who ever made this phone knows what people want.I love this phone. Thank you so much. ( HECK YES)!!

First of all, I almost did not buy this phone because of the reviews. It seemed like either people absolutely LOVED this phone or HATED it. It took me a month, 3 trips to different verizon wireless stores, multiple questions to employees of VW and a little research to finally purchase the phone. After two weeks of ownership, I am EXTREMELY pleased with this phone.

The Look:
A true eye catcher, everyone who see's it is wowed! It has a great compact size and is a classy look with the slide feature.

Features:
A huge A+ here, this phone does it all from fully functional MP3, to web browse, voice GPS, High resolution camera and video, and all the phone goodies.

Sensitivity:
This is where I had really been scared by the negative reviews, One word about this "HYPE". It has 4 levels of sensitivity, it takes about 1 hour of playing with the phone to get used to this. After that, you wont remember how you ever used those ancient push button menus! I had read reviews about people muting calls and dropping them because of the touch pad, ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE, those buttons are NOT even active during a call and you can't activate them without pushing a side button which is almost impossible to do accidentaly.

SpeakerPhone:
It DOES have one!

Battery Life:
Ok Ok Ok, this is one that I could MAYBE see complaints on. If you use this phone as an MP3 player for a signifigant amount of time (over an hour), you will have a dead battery by the END of the night. I charge my phone every night anyway. However, regular phone use with multiple lengthy calls and txting and even playing a few songs will still leave you with maybe ONE less bar of battery strength at the end of the night.

Signal Strength:
I have never not had a signal with this phone, but I think that is more a credit to the network than to the phone. I have had week signal strength in a place where my previous razor had great signal.

Overall:
I have had MANY MANY phones and always the top of the line. I have to say that this is my favorite so far by leaps and bounds and recommend it to any future consumers


I recently bought this phone for my sons 17th birthday. I had read the other reviews on this phone and put alot of thought and consideration into buying it. I understand that yes the battery life isnt like one of those other phones but it really isnt as bad as what everyone else will have you believe either. Theres alot to this phone so yes in light of that it will use up the battery life but not as fast as these negitive people will have you believeing. My son will put it on the charger on night when he goes to bed then unplug it in the morning and has it with him when he leaves for school.It'll last him like a day and a half maybe longer and thats with txting and going onto v-cast(which is so awesome)and regular talking on the phone. In all honesty I felt that some people were being way to picky and exaggerated a lot. With the key pad and its sensitivity -- well my son has yet to have a problem with that and he has his set on high sensitivity and has not had a problem. So either these people dont know how to really talk on their cell phones or they are overly critical and have nothing else to complain about so they have to complain about this phone. Obviously you have to charge your cell phone no matter what kind it is.Its not gonna run for weeks at a time with one charge like some of these clueless people feel it should be. Its an awesome phone my son loves it hes had it for a month now and if a teenager doesnt have a complaint about something well then I guess that says it all.

Before buying this phone, i read a LOT of reviews to make sure i didn't end up with a P.o.S. like my old LG. I knew I wanted a Slider and a Camera/Video phone. I already have an MP3 player so i don't plan to use the Chocolate as one. So far, I am very happy with it. The problems most people describe with the touch soft-keys and scroll-wheel style buttons aren't as big of a deal as people make them out to me. Yea, sometimes i try to hit "ok" and end up hitting "left" or having to tap it twice, but its not a big deal. 95% of the time, it works. The camera and video are great quality and has a neat-o zoom feature (which my old phone did not). And the battery life hasn't let me down (I dont have an SD card, this may be why). I also have had a lot of fun making my own ringtones on Audacity and sending them to my phone. Also, contrary to what people have said, it DOES have a speakerphone.

Definetly a great buy.

My phone, then battery, were both replaced under warranty by Verizon because I found that the battery wasn't lasting more than 8 hours, even with only a few minutes of talk time and use of no other features!

I found the problem on my own - I had set the wallpaper of the phone to an image stored on the microSD (transflash) card. Because of [what I see as] a fundamental flaw in their firmware, this kept a constant flow of power to the card, running down the battery prematurely.

Only use wallpaper if it's permanently stored in the phone's memory - NOT on your SD card. This increases battery life at least 5x - possibly 10x or more! Verizon doesn't seem to have realized this yet, which is an incredibly expensive oversight for them, since they are unnecessarily replacing handsets and batteries for this problem.

Other than that, it's a good phone with lots of features and quality construction overall.

This phone looks amazing - I bought the red one - but I would have to describe it as a "Chick Phone". My boyfriend has tried to place calls with it and it's frustrating for him because his fingers will accidentally hit other keys. I haven't had a problem with dialing, or any of the other buttons. Although I take my time and I don't rest my face on the phone when talking - therefore I haven't run into the other problems people are describing. Also I keep it in the case which is attached to my hip - so there's no chance of the web turning on in my purse accidentally. I bought the music essentials kit and had to return it because I couldn't get it to work on my computer that is only three months old?! Pathetic! I returned that fast. But I already own three ipods so I'm not interested in using the phone as an MP3 player. MP3 by the way, is not the format used by the phone. It's not compatable with itunes so don't even think about that! You have to use WAV files. Or you could subscribe to VCAST for $15 a month and download over the phone for the low price of $1.99 per song! Are they crazy? Why would anyone pay that much for a song? It's only good as a phone. Period.

I have had this phone for about 3 months. Overall I am moderately pleased with this phone.

Pros:
- It looks cool with the red and black colors
- 1.3 megapixel phone, with the lens protected when not in use to reduce scratching
- An easily navigatible mp3 player
- The sound quality is moderate...I would give it a 6/10, granted a 10/10 would require more base which I feel is not available on cell phones now
- Is good at picking up a signal
- Can get around buying Verizon's mp3 package ($30) and instead buy a micro sd card and sd card reader. The mp3 slot is expandable up to 2GB (about 500 songs.)
- You can upload your own ringtones. You first have to compose them online (try bitpim) and the you use Bluetooth to send the ringtones to the phone's memory - not your expandable (micro sd) memory.
- Bluetooth compatible. But you cannot send songs to other bluetooth phones.

Cons:
- Horrible battery life. I even have the screen backlight set to the lowest setting without the screen light being off(5 seconds) and the numerical button backlight off. With moderate daily use (maybe 5 calls around 2 minutes apiece) and about an hour on the extended network, my phone lasts about a day and 1/2. So...about 40 hours, if I'm lucky. What happened to the 300+ hours of standby time? I charge my phone every night in fear of it dying the next day if I make lengthier or more calls.
- When connected to voicemail and pressing buttons (to delete, save messages, entering passwords...etc) the touchpad becomes active. When I return to the call, the phone often thinks my face is pressing buttons, when I do not mean to. This also occurs when in a phonecall and I have to search for a contact in my phone. I have to be very careful after navigating, until the phone becomes locked again.
- Only works on digital signals - so the battery drains quickly when in rural areas, or when you are talking on the extended network.

The main thing is the battery life. If that was better (i.e. my old phone lasted 2 days on a charge, and that was after 2 years of use) I'd give this phone a 5. I think it is pretty ridiculous that on a new battery, I am forced to charge it every night. I have not used Bluetooth a lot yet, I hope this feature in addition to a Bluetooth headset will not drain my battery too horribly.

I love this phone. The sound is great, the battery lasts me quite a while, and the mp3 is awesome. The sleek smooth design of this phone is cool also. Sometimes you do push the wrong button with the sensitive touchpad, but i have small, slender fingers so it is easier.

I recommend to get the Music Essentials kit for downloading songs to the mp3 phone. It makes it a lot easier. Also, getting a Micro SD card allows you to save more than enough songs on your phone.

All in all, this is a great phone, and was worth every cent!!!

My wife and I both have ipods (5G Video and 4GB nano), but we are not buying the new ipods because of the LG Chocolate. Coupled with a bluetooth headset, this phone is an outstandnig mp3 player. The sound quality is very good even from the speaker.

Minus
- No FM feature
- Relatively short battery life

Some reviewers have found aspects of the LG Chocolate to pick at, and that's probably important in a thorough review. I am coming to this phone from this perspective: never paid more than one cent for a phone (always got the best new-every-two phone free), never owned an .mp3 player (I burn CDs of .mp3s I OWN and use a high-end CD player) and don't have a digital camera or a camera phone. So, the phone has shown itself to be easy to navigate--I really like the sensitive touch pad. No pushing. Does it do the wrong thing sometimes? No more often than my previous Kyocera with a regular navigation button. I like the slider much better than a flip phone. I am content with the sound quality of the phone, and with a Bluetooth headset, it is MUCH easier for me to be hands-free. Everyone hated the wired earpieces I used with my previous phone. I can make my own ringtones, I can take pretty decent pictures and 15-second videos, I can get real-time GPS information and . . . I (an audiophile) was AMAZED at the sound quality of the music aspect of this gadget. Someone commented on the earphones that come with the music kit--I find them to be the best earbuds I've ever used, and I am hearing previously unnoticed details in songs I have owned for 30 years. I set the music to 3D surround, and everyone who gets a chance to listen to my Chocolate says it is the best sound ever. I got the 2GB card so I can carry a lot of songs, and I can listen for a long time and still have phone time--the battery is not too bad. I did find that the Windows Media Player transfer concept is a hassle, but I learned that I can highlight songs in the directory on my hard drive, right-click Send To and find the card in the phone, so sending the songs I want to my Chocolate is now a cinch. All in all, I would never steer anyone away from this phone, except for my enemies, and I don't really have any of those. I would also tell people they will be better off with Verizon than any other service, so you don't have to settle for a lesser provider in order to own this beautiful little machine. No, I do NOT work for Verizon or LG--I am simply delighted with this product, which is the best gift I've ever gotten. I would have bought it myself, now that I know how cool it is, but I am not used to such luxury, so I have to thank Stephanie for opening my eyes.

When my family switched to verizon wireless, I did extensive research to find the right phone. because we bought through shockcity, my choices were pretty limited. in the end, i settled on this phone.
lets just say that i was extremely surprised to find what a great phone it was. call quality wasn't perfect-probably equivalent to my house phone, but i had no troubles understanding people, and the phone was very loud. once you get used to the touch wheel, it is beyond better than a regular phone's controls. the menu is set up nicely and is very attractive-way better than the menu style of other verizon wireless phones. the camera was ok, like your average phone probably. at the store i tried out the mp3 player on one of the employees phones and found it to be acceptable-easily as good as an ipod. the only downside is that for the biggest memory card (about equal to an ipod mini-2gb) you have to spend $100 more and buy the music essentials kit ($30) so only invest in this phone as an mp3 player if you want to go the extra cost. i would call it worth it though.
sadly, my family is switching to cingular now so i have to return the phone. i have grown so attached to it in the 15 day trial period and am really depressed to see it go! i have gotten so many compliments on this phone and it never lets me down!!!
though all my research, i have concluded that this is the all around best verizon wireless phone you can buy-way cooler than the razr and a great size!

I've had my Chocolate for 3 days and I love it!! Within 15 minutes of receiving it I had set up my contacts and had my kids' picture set as my wallpaper. I purchased the music essentials kit and have been using the mp3 player for two days. The sound quality is great, and I had no problem getting the music from Windows Media onto the phone. I don't think the touch sensitivity is hard to get used to. I don't see how it could place a call when it's in your pocket since you would either have to slide it open or hit the side button twice for it to come out of sleep mode. I am NOT a cell phone "junkie". I had a basic Samsung phone before I purchased the Chocolate and swore I had no use for a camera phone or any of the other "extras" that come with phones today. The Chocolate has spoiled me, and has opened my eyes to what I have been missing!!! I'm like a kid with a new toy!!!

This phone is very touch sensitive even when I put it at the lowest setting. I apparently called my wife and left her a long 10 minute voicemail because the phone was in my pocket while driving to school. Also, its not too durable. My SD slot cover broke within the first 3 days I purchased it. If you want music, get an Ipod that will hold 30Gb instead of paying for the music kit for an extra $100.

LG forgot that when they add an mp3 feature the phone is always going to be in use. I killed my battery after a month. I will charge it overnight and once it has idled for 12 hours with no calls or anything its dead. You cant give an ipod a cell phone battery. The chocolate is like an ipod it needs an ipod size battery (who would of thought? obviously the designers at LG didnt.) Only buy phone if all you are going to do is use the phone.

Speakerphone feature was not available on earlier versions. Newer version (version 04) is supposed to have this feature. Can get the earlier phone firmware version updated at Verizon stores. Call first, some stores are just now (10/11/06) getting the update.

I love this phone. What learning curve? I opened the manual a total of two times for about 5 seconds. This phone is SO nice to use---for those people who say it's too touch-sensitive, there is a four- or five-level sensitivity adjuster you can use! Everything is easy to find and the phone is sturdy and slick. The sound is better than any other phone I've heard. I downloaded a big set of songs onto it right from my PC in about 5 minutes. The camera takes pretty great pictures for a phone too--I was surprised. It comes with some great new ringtones and I added a couple more from the "get it now" ringtones. I love the style and function of this phone and using it is a treat!

I've had this phone for a little over a month now and it is the worst phone I've had yet. It dies after about 7 hours, not including talking or using the mp3 function. I went to the store I bought it from to tell them how worthless it was and an employee who also had the chocolate said "Yeah, its power lasts about half a day- I hate it." An employee on the clock said they even hated it!! I have to charge it in the middle of the day if I want to use it at night. They offer a battery with 1.5x longer power but it sticks out the back and ruins the sleekness of its design. I pleaded to be given store credit but the manager told me "Just pretend it doesn't have an mp3 function and its power will last alot longer". So if you're considering buying the chocolate because it seems cool and plays mp3s, just remember that playing the mp3s kills it absurdly fast and manager at the verizon store recommends you don't use the mp3 function unless it is plugged in.

Is being stuck with a cell phone that dies a little while after lunch cool? Hope this helps someone thinking of buying the chocolate phone...I wish I had read a review of it before I bought it.

This is the review of the phone from the new york times:

Chocolate, under the proper circumstances, can be a deeply satisfying treat for the senses.

It can also be a sticky mess.

Unfortunately, the heavily hyped Chocolate music player/cellphone (made by LG, offered by Verizon Wireless) resembles the latter more than the former.

What's nice about the phone: its looks. It's tiny, almost like an elongated box of Tic Tacs. It's shiny, clad in dark plastic. And it's a slider phone, meaning that the dialing pad is hidden except when you slide the halves apart.

The rest of the time, the front panel is supposed to look like an iPod, with a bright color screen above and a circular control pad below. The phone-call sound quality is good, and the price isn't bad: $[...] (after rebate, and with two-year commitment), although you should also factor in the price of a Micro SD card to hold your music files ($[...] or so for a 1-gigabyte card).

Music lovers should also note that the Chocolate is one of very few U.S. phones that can actually send high-quality music wirelessly to Bluetooth *stereo* headphones. And now, the sticky mess part.

Turns out the iPod dial isn't a dial at all; it's just four buttons arranged in a circle. That's OK in itself, but these buttons don't budge or even click when you press them; the only response you get, if any, is a reaction on the screen.

It's a bad sign that two pages of the manual are dedicated to listing warnings about these touch buttons. "Remove moisture from the surface of your hands," goes one. "Don't use the touch buttons in a humid environment." (OK, so what are we supposed to do when we're in Miami? Use a pay phone?)

"If you touch [a button] off-center, it may activate the nearby function instead."

And so on.

Listen up, LG dudes: I'm sorry, but if your primary control system requires seven warnings in your manual, maybe you should reconsider your system.

Sure enough, these buttons are a nightmare. They're balky, nonresponsive, slow to react and all-around infuriating (and yes, I tried all four sensitivity settings). The three people who tried my review unit had amazingly similar reactions, even after I told them to stop running their thumbs around the dial as though it were an iPod. One said he felt like throwing the phone "through the window," another "into the trash," and another "across the room."

More problems: The Send key is on the left of the front--but the End key isn't across from it, as on every other cellphone on earth; instead, it's a microscopic, vertically mounted button on the right edge of the phone. When the phone is sleeping, the screen goes completely black, so you can't even tell if it's on (you don't even get a clock). The phone works with MP3 and Windows Media files, but not with songs bought on iTunes and not with the Macintosh.

The camera is decent, but it's only 1.3 megapixels and you have to open the slider to use it. Worse, your picture gallery (and the Take Video command) are hidden, nonsensically, in the Get It Now menu, which is traditionally the cheesy commercial area of Verizon phones, where they try to sell you games, streaming video and so on.

And what kind of phone has a speaker this good, but no speakerphone?

Don't even get me started on the phone lock function, which disables all of the buttons after only *three seconds*. You can't use any of the buttons again unless you press a tiny side button twice. I couldn't find any way to disable this deeply annoying feature.

Whenever I review a product this badly designed, I just stare at the ceiling and try to imagine how it could possibly have gotten out the door. Haven't successes like the iPod and the Treo taught the marketers anything about making things work simply and well? It's stunning that nobody in a position of power at LG or Verizon actually tried this thing, tried pressing those infernal passive-aggressive buttons, and realized that the Chocolate is a usability disaster.

As it stands, people might buy this phone because it looks cool. But it's safe to say that not many of them will become Chocoholics.

The phone alone is decent, but here is my big gripe- after trying three headsets, a motorola 500, a jabra jx10 and a plantronics, I found they all redialed on every single call after I hung up each call. Also, the first Chocolate I got was defective and had to be switched out. The keypad is fairly easy to get used to, but locks and unlocks on a whim. If you're buying this for your teenager and they don't have an Ipod (although I don't know many who don't) it will cost a fortune to download the music at 1.99 to 2.99 a song depending how you buy it. It's cheper to get the better technology of the Ipod and the lg8300 phone.

I've only had my phone for about a month and already the touch screen no longer works. At first it would continue to call people accidently and then now it doesnt work at all! The only way I can call out people is the voice command button. I am extrememly upset with Verizon and the purchase of this phone. It is not worth the money because it is a phone that will not last long at all.
SO UPSET!

The MP3 player, while limited, has more functionality than I have seen on any phone. It gets a lot of stuff right. You can't use folders to organize your MP3s, but the phone reads ID3 V1 tags and organizes them that way. Not the best (and it ONLY knows ID3 V1), but it's acceptable. You can minimize the player while it plays music and use other functions and make phone calls. You can shut off the radio and use only the MP3 player (for airplanes). You can (with an adapter) charge the phone while playing music (for use as a music player in a car). So it gets a lot of stuff right.

Remember, a standard 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter will not work here. You need a special adapter with 3 black rings (one for each stereo channel and the mic). You will know you have the wrong one if you only get mono out or sound from one speaker. Get the right adadpter and you can get quality stereo output to any headphones you own or to an external stereo.

The earpiece is very loud and works great in noisy environments. Very nice.

The UI isn't blazingly fast and the touch sensitive keys take getting used to.

The bluetooth seems to work great, it loves my old mono headset.

The camera, while having the same broad specs as other phones I have owned (1.3 megapixel) takes VASTLY superior pictures. No idea why but it's pretty danm cool.

I get much better call quality with chocolate + verizon than all my old phones on T-mobile or Cingular. Could just be my particular area but I am quite happy.

The phone is solid and I've had no problems at all since I bought it (two months ago). Battery life has not been a huge issue, and I use the MP3 player fairly often.

FYI. The newly released firmware version 4 actually enabled the speaker phone function.

In a nutshell, it needs a little more work. I feel like I am on a beta trial.

Yes, it's pretty, but it isn't easy to use. I really dislike the touch pad -- sometimes it