My mobile phone never recovered from taking a dip in the pool with me while still on my belt. I had to replace it in a short time frame and hadn't had a replacement in mind since I was very happy with it, so I didn't have much chance to research the available models for my service provider in any depth.

My service is through Verizon Wireless (VZW). For my money, in this area, it's the only way to go. So, searching in the available phones for VZW, I figured I might as well get a "cool" phone to keep on my belt so I could by envied by my kids. They were always showing off how many different things their Motorola Razors and Nokia phones could do. As long as I had to replace my phone, I wanted it to be one that would ensure that I would be the envy of my kids. (I'm very mature, aren't I?)

I would have loved to be able to replace it with a Treo or some other smart phone which would replace my necessity for carrying a PDA as well as a phone, but the prices were way out of proportion to their worth for the convenience of carrying only one gadget instead of the two. Also, they are not very desired by the younger crowd, so they wouldn't fit my needs.

Then I saw the LG Chocolate. I couldn't understand why it was called the Chocolate if it wasn't brown, and it was available in other colors that matched their descriptive names. The White Chocolate is white, the Cherry Chocolate is red, the Lime Chocolate is green... very confusing to me. Oh well , I guess this is for someone else to figure out. It was small, stylish, definitely contained a "hip" factor worth considering and had a nice Strawberry "pink" counterpart I could get for my wife at the same time. It was available online with a two year contract in a buy one, get one free package. But I had to see it and I went into the store to purchase it. It fit nicely in my hands and slid open and closed very easily with a nice sturdy feel to it. VZW offers a 30 day trial of the phone and I took advantage of it. I was sold.

I felt really cool with my new phone and my wife seemed to enjoy hers, until we used it for a couple of weeks and the not-too-attractive part of this beautiful phone began to rear its ugly head. VZW touts this phone as a replacement for your iPod or MP3 player, but it's not an easy process to get your songs in the right format. There are other reviews here on epinions.com that go into that particular aspect of this phone. My issue with the Chocolate is that the "phone" things that I need a mobile phone for, are weak. The sound quality of the earpiece is terrible. I could barely understand someone on the other end. It made every call an exasperating experience. That is, once I got the call to complete. The keys on the Chocolate are much too close for real fingers to operate. Maybe if I had long nails that I could pinpoint to where I was actually applying pressure it would have worked for me. But, as it is, my fingers are too big for this phone (and I have small hands). I am pretty sure that I never completed a call on this phone without having to dial twice. Calling voicemail and entering a PIN was another exercise in futility. I would press the "5" key and "569" would appear on the display. I can't tell you how many times I was locked out of my voicemail because I had too many attempts with a wrong PIN.

The speakerphone was pretty much non-existent. This is one thing I use frequently while driving and I couldn't hear one thing from this speaker.

Durability... well, after only a few days of use, and very light use, I must say, this phone performed very poorly. The slide mechanism didn't open the phone to the fully open position unless I tried twice.

The display is one of the nicer parts of this phone. It is clear, bright and defined. But having a nice display was not something that made this phone worth keeping. We returned both Chocolates before the 30 day trial period expired.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 149.99 for 2
Recommended for: Stylish Trendsetters - Hip and Trendy