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| LG Incite |
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 LG has mostly missed the target so far with touchscreen phones, never coming close to what Apple has achieved on the iPhone, and even lagging behind native rival Samsung on all-touch devices. Is it a coincidence that in the same week Samsung brought their all-touch, Windows Mobile-powered Samsung Omnia to Verizon Wireless, LG dropped the LG Incite on AT&T? Who knows. But even with all the problems we had with Samsung's device, the LG Incite suffers even more under the crushing weight of Windows Mobile, an interface that was not remotely designed for touch. LG has added a menu atop the professional interface, but hasn't extended any style or ease-of-use beyond the menu screens. This would be injury enough, but to add insult, the LG Incite is just not a responsive touchscreen device, and that's what's most important to us. Throw in the boxy styling and cheap build quality, and it's easy to see how LG missed again with this device. Release: November 2008. Price: $200.
Pros: Good connectivity, with 3G networking and Wi-Fi. Web browser does an acceptable job.
Cons: Cheap design and build. Unresponsive touchscreen. Sluggish performance. No improvements to Windows Mobile beyond the main menu screens.
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| LG Lotus |
| Full review » Scoreboard » Features » Gallery » |
 The LG Lotus is about as smart as a phone gets before we call it a smartphone, thanks mostly to Sprint's excellent new One Touch menu application. Despite its haunting resemblance to a compact makeup mirror, we even like the form factor, as it provides a nice, comfortable QWERTY keyboard and keeps a classy look. The external screen is unfortunately an afterthought, even with the dedicated music keys, and call quality could have been much better. But for dedicated messaging fans, even those with corporate e-mail to read, this phone provides an interesting alternative to the more complicated smartphone set. Plus, with access to Google Docs, a capable (though not desktop-grade) Web browser and tethered modem support, maybe this phone is even smarter than we thought. Knock $100 off the price, and we'll take two. Release: October 2008. Price: $100.
Pros: One Touch is great looking and convenient. Keyboard is tall and comfortable. Capable Web browser. Surprisingly good (and corporate) messaging options.
Cons: Call quality isn't great. Interface could react more quickly to navigation. Camera is lousy. Phone is pricey.
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| LG Chocolate 3 |
| Full review » Scoreboard » Features » Gallery » |
 The transition from the LG VX8550 Chocolate 2 to the LG Chocolate 3 is kind of like moving from middle school to high school. It's time to be a little less goofy and rambunctious, and instead get serious. In some ways, especially in terms of the music features like the 1GB of onboard memory and the FM transmitter, we like the more grown-up Chocolate. But we miss the dancing lights and fun interface of the original phone, even if it was a bit harder to use and less organized. In making the leap, the phone has settled nicely into the mid-range of 3G multimedia phones, but it has lost a lot of personality in the process. Still, this is Verizon Wireless' most capable mass market phone to date, and perhaps even the best mass market phone in general to be had right now. Release: July 2008. Price: $80.
Pros: Great new music features, including 1GB of onboard memory, FM transmitter and a real headphone jack. Navigation worked well. No more touch sensitive buttons to deal with.
Cons: Not as fun as the last version. Messaging and Web browsing unimproved in the last year. Interface better organized, but less flashy and fun.
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69%
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| LG Chocolate Touch |
| Full review » Scoreboard » Features » Gallery » |
 The LG Chocolate Touch is a fun, high quality phone for making calls and listening to music. If LG had simply stopped there and not tried to do so much with their first tablet-style Chocolate phone, we'd probably be much happier with it. Call quality was solid, and battery life was great, without resorting to a massive, heavy power cell. Music sounded great on the LG Chocolate Touch, which gets an audio boost from Dolby Labs, and there were even some gimmicky, fun features that let you play along with your favorite tunes. Sure, we wish there was better sync software for media, and the menu system seems like a halfhearted attempt at emulating a smartphone OS, but if you don't mind using Windows Media Player to sync, and if you weren't looking for a real smartphone anyway, the LG Chocolate Touch isn't a bad choice. If any other feature is important to you, though, from social networking to Web browsing to e-mail for both business and pleasure, you'll want to avoid this phone like a spastic dancer with two left feet. The onscreen keyboard is completely unusable, and the other features are so undercooked, they're raw. Video playback didn't work; messaging was confusing, difficult and buggy; and many extra features were buried under Verizon Wireless' disorganized, lingering interface. If you like the style and music is your life, the LG Chocolate Touch wouldn't be a bad choice, but if you want anything more from your phone, go for something smarter. Release: November 2009. Price: $80.
Pros: Great music playback with some fun additional features. Solid call quality with better battery life than we expected.
Cons: Lousy, unresponsive touchscreen hurts many features, especially messaging. Besides music and calling, little to recommend on this phone.
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| LG enV3 |
| Full review » Scoreboard » Features » Gallery » |
 Of all the compact QWERTY phone designs (check them out here), we like the LG enV model the best, with its small but useful external screen and its roomy internal keyboard and display. The phone was a bit thick and chunky but it was so comfortable to use, with large keys inside and out, that we hardly noticed its size. The new LG enV3 is even better than its predecessors, with its ability to download and sync corporate e-mail and contacts, its improved call quality and multimedia experience, especially in video. It isn't perfect, as the Web browser and the 3-megapixel camera left us disappointed, but there are more advanced phones for those features. The messaging apps could also use an update to bring SMS into the modern age, but overall this is a very likeable phone, and easy to recommend to folks who want a compact texting machine with a few clever extras onboard. Release: June 2009. Price: $80.
Pros: Simple, elegant design with a great internal screen and keyboard. Improved in every way over predecessor, especially in call quality and corporate e-mail features.
Cons: Messaging apps could use some polish. Web browsing and camera disappointing. Small external screen good, but could be much cooler.
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