Overall, let me first say that I love the LG Lotus (LX600) despite it's flaws.  I am the queen of butt-calling, so the clamshell design was just for me.  I do not know of any other cell phone that has a full qwerty keyboard in a clamshell-design that you don't have to flip it sideways (Verizon has one that you open and flip to type-yuck!)

EXTERIOR
  
   Your first look at this phone makes you think, "it's square?!?"  Yeah, it took a little getting use to (about 5 seconds for me), but it is actually a great design.  The square shape fits nicely in your palm when closed giving you a good grip on it.  It is actually only about half of an inch wider than your normal flip/clamshell phone.  I personally love the purple color, but it also comes in black and red.
   The exterior screen is a good size for this phone and is also very bright, even in sunlight.  It is customizable in just about every way from what picture it always displays, what is displayed when people call, or when certain people in your contacts list call, what type of clock is displayed, and where it is displayed, and for how long it stays illuminated.  Right beneath the screen are 3 buttons for the MP3 player (play/pause, forward, and back).  These are actual buttons and not touch-sensitive pretend buttons like on other LG models...which to me is a huge plus because they work like they are supposed to. 
   On the one side of the phone, you have an up and down arrow for adjusting the volume.  It is placed in a great spot for adjusting the volume while on a call, or when it is closed and listening to music.  These arrows also scroll through menu prompts if you don't want to use the keypad on the interior.  On the other side of the phone, you have a button to enable the camera, and another to enable music-mode.  The camera button is also used to unlock keyguard mode.

INTERIOR/FLIPPED OPEN
  
   The keyboard on the inside has the numerical part in a matching color as the outside making the numbers easy to locate when calling.  The keys take a bit of getting use to because they are small, but no smaller than any other PDA or Blackberry I have used.  It has buttons devoted to commonly used punctuation so sending text's with propper punctuation is a breeze.  It also has a menu section where you can include emoticons in your messages, but I have yet to send somebody a text that could see them.  There is a button that says "TEXT" that takes you immediately into the text sending mode, which I LOVE because that is what I primarily do on my phone and it cuts out steps that other phones have required prior to sending text's. 
   The keys are brightly illuminated and layed out nicely.  On top of the qwerty keyboard are your normal buttons every cell phone has (talk, end, keypad).  There is also a button there to turn the speakerphone on and off.  These buttons are all spaced out nicely and generously sized making it simple to scroll through the menu and make/end calls. 
   The most important part of the interior of the phone...the screen!!  This phone has a brilliantly bright, clear, and sharp screen.  It is not huge like on a blackberry, but not much smaller.  I can browse the internet with no problem and find it sized just right for viewing pictures taken with the phone.  I can even see it in bright sunlight.

CAMERA / VIDEO CAMERA 

   Yes, it has a camera!  I find the 2MP camera to be of great quality.  Others have complained because it doesn't have a flash, but hello!!!...it's a phone not a camera!  For being a phone camera with only 2MP resolution, they come out great and can be viewed on your computer without knowing they were taken with a phone.  You can also wirelessly transmit the pics in the phone to your computer via bluetooth (if your computer has bluetooth).   Here is something cool it does that a lot of people who have an LG phone didn't know it could do...while in camera mode, you can shut the phone and hold it out in front of you for self-portraits (the exterior screen shows you while you are looking at it for that ever-so-perfect-picture).
   Now, the video camera...that does leave something to be desired.  Again, I remind you...it is only a phone.  It will take video's...but if there is a lot of action in the video it will look choppy.  But I'm still impressed with the quality of the camera pictures and the simple fact that a few years ago the thought of a cell phone with a camera & video camera built in was unheard of.

SPEAKERPHONE & EARPIECE
  
   This phone would have to have the loudest speaker I have ever heard in a phone.  It rings loudly, it plays music loudly, and the speakerphone is loud.  LOVE IT!!  The earpierce is also loud, which is adjustable.  The clarity is no different than a landline.  I love it so much and rely on it that I don't even have a landline anymore.

CONTACTS

   I have owned a few LG phones and am highly frustrated that they haven't updated their software to include an address field in the contacts section.  You can save something like 10 phone numbers for a person, an email address, a memo field (limited to a certain number of characters), a picture for them...but no field dedicated for an address.  I HATE that about LG phones.  The memo section isn't long enough to include an address so I am still forced to carry around a paper address book (ughhh, so 80's!!).

HEADPHONES 
  
   Ok, why do they have 2.5mm and 3.5mm headphone adapters??  I mean really...why not just make it a universal 3.5mm size!!!!  This phone has a 2.5mm jack.  And just when you thought that was confusing enough, there are 2, 3, and 4 ring 2.5mm jacks!!  This phone uses the 3 ring 2.5mm adapter.  That is very important to know because if you get a headset with the wrong number of rings, you will only hear music or calls out of one headphone rather than both.  But really, again...why do they have to have so many different sizes?  The phone is plenty big enough to have a 3.5mm jack to plug in your favorite pair of headphones....but no, they went with the 2.5mm making you have to purchase a whole new pair of headphones or an adapter.  You can pick up the adapters on eBay for around $3, so it's not that big of a deal, but just another little wire to get lost.  I scooped up a wireless bluetooth pair of earbuds off eBay and have had no problems listening to music on the phone with them and still receiving calls...all done wirelessly thanks to bluetooth!!

BLUETOOTH 
  
   It was a bit tricky getting my computer and headphones paired with the phone, but once paired I have had no problems.  My car has bluetooth and connects perfectly with my phone as well whenever I am within a few feet from it. 

MEMORY / DATA TRANSFER / PHONE-AS-MODEM 

   The phone has a slot for a micro SD card to store music & pictures.  I have a 4GB card in there and it could hold something like 20,000 pictures...a bit of overkill.  But it only came with a 256KB card.  It also came with an adapter so you can slide the micro SD card in the adapter and then into a SD card reader to either upload music/photos, or download onto your computer.  I prefer to do all of this via bluetooth, but it is possible to do with the card if you don't have bluetooth on your computer.  If you don't have bluetooth or an SD card reader, you can always plug in the USB cable and do it that way as well.
   The USB cable used to transfer data is also the power cord for this phone.  It has a mini-USB plug on one end that plugs into the phone, and a USB plug on the other end that either plugs into your computer, or into the power adapter that then plugs into an outlet.  This is a great idea, but lose it and you can't charge or transfer data (if you don't have an SD reader or bluetooth).  This cord is also very short, about 3 feet.  I am use to about a 5' cord for charger cables.  Not a huge problem, but limits where you can charge your phone without an extension cord (not recommended).
   This USB cable is also used to use the phone as a modem.  I have not used this feature, but it is available.

E-MAIL CAPABILITIES 
  
   YAY!!  You can set this phone up to automatically alert you when you have a new email (hotmail, yahoo, gmail...).  You can even send emails and organize your inbox with basic commands.  It has a document reader so you can even read some attachments (PDF's, Word docs, etc).  Awesome feature for such a moderately priced phone.

SUMMARY
  
   I will say that this phone has 1 major defect in the way it is designed...the hinge holding the screen up is very fragile.  I am on my 3rd one already and I take very good care of my phone.  When you open the phone, it has a spring-loaded-like hinge that keeps it from just snapping off.  Problem is, the wire that feeds electricity and data to the screens (exterior and interior) is inside of this hinge and suffers a lot of abuse everytime you open and close the phone.  Normal use will cause it to fail and renders the phone useless because you can't see the screen.  GET THE WARRANTY if you love this phone and want it anyways despite this problem it has.  I feel the pros of this phone far outweigh the cons and if you get it with a new contract (or extend your current one), it is prices great for all of it's features.

Recommended: Yes