Sporting a split screen design, the Venus relegates its interactive capabilities to the lower, smaller screen, and this is where controls for a variety of functions, including the music player, appear when activated (see image at right, via Gizmodo). The phone's face also slides up to reveal a standard numeric keypad. Speaking of tunes, Gizmodo is joined by Wired and Mobile Magazine in calling the Venus a better cellular audio player than LG's Chocolate. But the phone that's getting most of the props is the Voyager, with its large 2.8-inch, iPhone-like touchscreen on its face, and it improves on Apple's screen by providing haptic (vibrating) feedback when touching onscreen functions and the virtual keyboard. But wait, there's more... the Voyager opens up to reveal a real QWERTY keyboard--for longer emails and for those who aren't fans of T9 predictive text entry (which powers the virtual keyboard)--and an interior 2.8-inch screen. The Voyager supports the AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! IM platforms and POP3/IMAP email accounts. But the Voyager isn's just Verizon's version of the Sidekick--it's also enabled for V CAST Mobile TV.
Both phones are also capable of accessing Verizon's optional GPS service, and they run on the 3G EV-DO data network, which is a definite improvement over AT&T's pokey EDGE.
~Agen G.N. Schmitz, Amazon Current
