Verified answer

I like the improvements that they've made. The send, end, and camera buttons have all been moved from the top half of the phone to the keypad. The keypad is also split up into separate keys instead of one giant keypad with indentations. That should help eliminate some typing errors. The phone is the same size, but it LOOKS smaller which will be appealing to a lot of people. I also like the blue color a lot. I wish they had released the LG VX8500 in blue.

I think it will sell really well. Hopefully they've worked the kinks out of the LG VX8500. The Chocolate was a nightmare. I'll be pissed if I have to deal with as many angry customers with non-working LG VX8550s as I had angry customers with non-working LG VX8500s.

I actually purchased the 8550 Blue Chocolate today from Circuit City after having a variety of LG phones. This phone is by far the most innovative and user-friendly handset. The navigation scroll is awesome because now you can actually scroll. When the phone rings the navi key also lights up and you can change its light speed to Rock N Roll or Jazz or Classic. The phone also has a regular headset jack and the port jack that the charger also connects to as well. The camera key is now inside the phone and the Spkr phone button is on the touch sensitive part of the bottom of the phone. They have also added a sliding "lock" key on the side so that you don't have to key press and instead just slide the button down to either lock OR unlock the keys. You can also press or scroll the navigation in the center of the phone and the "OK/Menu" key is also pressable instead of having to annoying tap all the time. LG made very interesting and fun enhancements to this phone.