Now that the successor to LG's Chocolate line has been available to Verizon Wireless customers, we thought it would only be fitting to put the latest addition through the paces and see if the VX8550 is a worthy successor. From a quick glimpse, both the LG VX8500 and the VX8550 both share the slide up form factor both sporting a hidden keypad. LG has kept the camera on the back of the slide on the VX8550. This allows for safe storage of the camera when not being used while also decreasing the amount of fingerprints, smudges, and scratches on the lens.

It looks like Verizon and LG are gearing up to release to their latest addition in the Chocolate lineup, the VX8550. This round, the VX8550 is sportin' two new colors than before -- this time "black cherry" and "blue mint" will make your mouth water, and lets not forgot the traditional black. The device is expected to hit the street around around July 9 and cost $100 with a two year contract. There's even talk about reducing the cost of the music essentials kit that includes a microSD card, data cable, Bluetooth headset, and a gift card for music. Could this be Big Red's attempt to persuade consumers away from AT&T's music phone for their own latest addition? We hope not.

[Thanks, HTC Kid and SC]

Goodness, has it really been nearly a year since Verizon's VX8500 Chocolate from LG hit streets? Indeed it has, and by cellphone standards, we reckon that's an eternity; Verizon has managed to keep the line fresh by injecting color after color after color, but sooner or later, you've gotta drop new hardware. That appears to be what we're looking at here, at least in false-colored, rendered form: meet the LG VX8550, a phone whose model name we can only take to mean that a successor to the aforementioned VX8500 is in the works. Details are few and far between -- LG really has this FCC filing locked down -- but we can make out that it'll be a CDMA / EV-DO piece with Bluetooth, and the rendering seems to suggest that it could be a slider, or perhaps a pudgy candybar. We're clueless on a release date for this one, but if Verizon wanted to celebrate the VX8500's anniversary with the VX8550's launch, they'd be looking at late July or early August.

[Thanks, Brian]

As if that white and dark LG Chocolate wasn't enough, Verizon just released red (no, not that RED) and green versions of the venerable VX8500 slider in hopes of stoking a bit of yule in our Grinchy hearts. No surprises here since we've been expecting these to drop since last month. Same specs we've seen, and yours for the usual $129.99 after on-line discount and 2-year commitment -- which should be enough time to convince everyone of their "Cherry" and "Mint" coloring.

[Thanks, Tyler A.]

Read -- Mint Chocolate
Read -- Cherry Chocolate

Ultra rugged or delicate, glossy white -- that is the question. Verizon has gone ahead and launched a couple of its more hotly anticipated handsets this week, the over-engineered G'zOne Type-V clamshell from Casio and the white variant of the LG VX8500 Chocolate slider. While neither phone is going to go easy on the wallet, the G'zOne is the budget buster of the two with a hefty $300 price tag (and not a rebate in sight, mind you). Then again, with water resistance top center on the list of the Casio's features, the phone might just pay for itself the first time it makes it through the wash.

[Thanks, reemusk]

Ever wonder what a metallic, phlegm-green LG Chocolate might look like? Well, wonder no longer. We've managed to score press photos for Verizon's VX8500 in all three of its new colors, and although it's difficult to argue the hotness of the white and red varieties, the green just is not doing anything for us. Ah, well; vive la variété, eh? Look for the new shades to drop any day now.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

If neither white nor the original black are working for you, word on the street has Verizon and LG preparing two additional colors of their VX8500 Chocolate slider: red and green, putting a full them one third of the way to a lock on the primary color wheel. Though we don't have information on when the colorful duo will be released, we previously reported that we can expect the white variant before Thanksgiving, so if the intel is legit, it would stand to reason that these would come at about the same time.

[Thanks, Tip]

Given the fanfare surrounding the release of the LG VX8500 "Chocolate" on Verizon a couple months back, buyers and reviewers alike were pretty shocked to find that the supposed high-function slider lacked a frickin' speakerphone, of all things (us included). Fortunately, it's been rumored for some time that a firmware update would eventually add the feature, and according to PCS Intel, it's now out and about -- just head to your friendly local brick-and-mortar Verizon store and ask specifically for "V04." If everything goes well, a sales associate will knowingly wink at you, take the Chocolate from your hands and do the deed. Chocolate owners: let us know how it goes in comments, mkay?

With their uncharacteristically intensive marketing campaign over the last month focusing on this phone alone, it's readily apparent that Verizon has high hopes their VX8500 "Chocolate" slider is ready to take the torch from Motorola's original V3 RAZR as the must-have midrange handset for the masses. To get anywhere close to that lofty goal, though, the phone requires more than a slick ad blitz. Basic functionality and practicality obviously have to be there, but what's more, it needs a gizmo appeal that'll attract the casual gearheads (assuming the more serious ones have already been ceded to the smartphone market) and a fashion sense -- a mystique, if you will -- that naturally draws in users and observers alike.

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]

With release dates galore, unboxing pics and of course a whole former life as Korea-only hawterness, you can understand if we're happy to be "done" with this one. Verizon has finally released LG's Chocolate phone, the VX8500. There's a mostly a dearth of surprises: sexy slider action in a 0.69-inch thick form factor, V Cast Music store support, 1.3 megapixel camera and some speedy EV-DO. The biggest news is that along with the release, Verizon is dropping the $15 monthly fee from their V Cast Music store, making downloads "only" cost the two buck fee for dual PC and phone downloads. So, if you haven't already bought one and sent us unboxing pics, you can pick up the $150 phone (after a $50 rebate) and be the coolest kid on your block for at least five seconds.

Read - Verizon launches Chocolate
Read - Verizon drops V Cast Music monthly fee

Screw waiting until the official release this week -- we want to live vicariously through the few lucky souls who've already managed to score a piece of Verizon's Chocolate. A HowardForums member has managed to hook us all up, putting down his glossy black bundle of joy just long enough to snap a few shots of the VX8500 being extracted from its packaging materials. As might be expected, the phone looks to quickly get covered with smudges and fingerprints, but such is the price one must pay for mobile exclusivity these days.

[Thanks, Damian]

It's laid so bare at this point it's almost kind of an open secret, but contrary to what we'd heard earlier (which was a week off), we've got launch dates and prices for Verizon's LG VX8500 Chocolate phone. Starting July 31st you'll be able to snag the phone online, and come August 7th you can get it in stores. The price? Not too terrible: $359 without contract, $249 with 1 year, and $199 for two years committed to the carrier. Might be a little more than we'd originally expected, but outside the Q you're not likely to see a sexier EV-DO device on Verizon for a little while yet.

[Thanks, V]

In what's likely the first salvo of a forthcoming big-ass marketing blitz, Verizon has gone live with its site promoting the VX8500, their carrier-exclusive rendition of LG's KG800 "Chocolate" phone. The first Chocolate and its siblings are fairly ubiquitous now in Europe and Asia, but we've yet to see any of them stateside, so Verizon would probably like nothing more than to see the VX8500 spark RAZR-like pandemonium when it drops in the next few months. The site's being coy about specs for now -- in fact, the only thing you can do is look at the phone and sign up for a release notification -- but as we previously reported, the phone looks to be packing a 1.3 megapixel camera, microSD slot, and a handful of physical changes (like the circular d-pad) that should make it more music-friendly than the original.

[Via phoneArena]

Field report tidbits from Engadget's mobile insider, the Boy Genius.

The Boy Genius dropped another one on us folks, check out this excerpt from a recent Verizon product timeline. Pantech will be launching a Windows Mobile 5 clamshell device -- running Pocket PC, suprisingly -- come September 4th, the PN-820 we saw in the FCC. That should also be the same day they launch the VX9900, also spotted in the FCC, "big brother to the VX9800 [aka the V] hybrid device with a thinner, sleeker look and feel." Amen to that, because our major complaints with the V had to do with its thickness and unappealing looks. Oh, and to top it off the LG VX8500 Chocolate phone will apparently have Verizon exclusivity for the life of the handset in the US -- though we're not necessarily sure if that means Chocolate phone exclusivity, or merely CDMA Chocolate. Stay tuned.