Verizon's LG VX8600 Chocolate flip in the wild

The finer visual details of the VX8500's hinged sibling might remain unclear with these blur-tastic shots, but we think we can see enough here to question whether Verizon and LG are taking the "Chocolate" theme a smidge far. Its glossy exterior is presumably graced with the trademark touch-sensitive, disappearing music controls, but is this not a rather plain looking phone when you pop 'er open? Gone is the spiffy checkerboard that graced its international cousin, the KG810, leaving a perfectly typical midrange-looking handset in its place. Our hats remain off to Verizon for bringing the Chocolate series stateside, but somehow, something appears to have been lost in the translation.

[Via phoneArena]

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 18th 2006 11:00AM]

That's weird that they turned the rounded rectangle into a circle for the slider Chocolate in the US, but they're turning a circle into a rounded rectangle for the flip phone in the US? It's hard to tell from the picture, but as long as the phone is as thin as the KG810 then I don't think it's just an ordinary flip phone. It still looks slick and I love the touch interface on the Chocolate (it's so much faster than my RAZR V3c).

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 18th 2006 11:05AM]

How is it that the people that are getting their hands on the tech before everyone else can't figure out how to hold their hands still when taking a photo? It's like....hey, so we're gonna take this picture of this cool phone....oh okay, I'll make sure to move my hand as fast as possible then so the pics come out like crap.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 18th 2006 5:22PM]

I guess they are the same people that take UFO pictures. Not a steady hand in the bunch.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 18th 2006 9:54PM]

hey omg this phone is pretty...


pretty fucking ugly. anyone with me?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 22nd 2006 6:31PM]

It's a shame Verizon screws up the design factor every time. They would have us wear nice clothes that fit badly. Like this US version of the Chocoflip, which takes away the easily readable checkered keypad, the extra dedicated buttons below the D-pad, but includes gawdy send/end keys from the smartphone button drawer. But it shouldn't be surprising that the corporate behemoth Verizon leans toward dull and lifeless.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 23rd 2006 2:23PM]

Anyone know when this is coming out?

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 2nd 2006 11:23AM]

i wanna get this phone, but are the keys sensitive? because i heard they were, and i heard it was really hard to text message, but im not sure...

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 9th 2006 10:56PM]

i have this phone. this photo of it sure is ugly, but i am very satisfied for paying that much money on this phone cuz it's so good and elegant.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 13th 2006 8:21PM]

I bought this phone as an upgrade from my V3c and love it. the keys are easy to use, it is a heck of a lot faster then the V3c and the ability to take clear pictures has been heightened tremdously. As well as the ability to change the from and main screens independtly. The speaker for music is amazingly clear for such a size. I have to agree looking at the phone then opening it up was more of a let down... Its gorgeous outside then to open it up and be as plain as can be was a little depressing. Ahh well it is a great phone and i dont regret getting it in the least