LG Venus VX8800 (Verizon Wireless)

I bought the Venus after a process of elimination of the current and somewhat limited selection of available Verizon phones - as I am pleased with the flawless past performance experienced with Verizon service I couldn't rationalize switching carriers for the sake of increasing phones selection.

The Venus has surpassed all expectations for excellent perfomance on all counts. The sound clarity is excellent, the camera and interface is excellent, the MP3 player interface is acceptable and the stereosound quality excellent (even with various blue tooth stereo listening devices - which work fabuously) the touch controls are easy to use and the variable button layout advantage is well utilized. I like the sharpness of the screen although quite difficult to read in bright sunlight, the battery life is exceptional, the slide mechanism is pleasing and efficient to use, and the size of the phone is just within a comfortable fit and weight for my pocket. Dialing numbers buttons are exceptionally tactile and easy to access without missed presses. My only gripe with the design is I sometimes mistakenly try to use the phone up-side-down which would be rectified if the top end of the phone looked different from the bottom. I used the bitpim software to transfer and store contacts with good success. I find the memo feature (built-in digital recorder) useful and again, good quality sound, great storage capacity with 4 gig micro SD card which I use to store music, memo recordings and photos.

I like this phone and would buy it again without hesitation at the $260 price that I paid.