The LG Versa VX9600 is the touch-screen phone for people who hate touch screens.With a unique detachable QWERTY keyboard, it easily swings between key-tapping and touch-screen-only modes. The Versa is a terrific texting phone, but the software's rough edges prevent it from being an all-around winner.

Verizon Wireless and LG Electronics announced today that the LG VX9600 Versa will launch next week on the Verizon network. The touchscreen phone features an attachable QWERTY keyboard to help users write e-mails and messages, or they can choose to leave the keypad at home to reduce the overall size of the device.

Specifications for the LG Versa
Band:	CDMA 800/1900MHz
Data:	1xRTT/EV-DO (Rev. A)
Size:	106mm x 53mm x 14mm (4.2in x 2.0in x 0.5in)
Weight:	108g (3.8oz)
Battery:	1,100mAh
Battery Life:	Estimated 18 days standby time
	Estimated 5 hours talk time
Main Display:	3.0-inch 256k color LCD (480 x 240 pixels) TFT touchscreen
External Display:	0.9-inch OLED (56x120 pixels) (Only available on QWERTY attachment)
Camera:	2 megapixel with autofocus, flash
Messaging:	SMS/MMS/IM
Email:	IMAP, SMTP, POP3, and Web-based
Bluetooth:	v2.1 +EDR, A2DP stereo
Memory:	microSD card slot
Availability:	March 1, 2009
Other:	VZ Navigator, 2.5mm headset jack,speakerphone, speaker-independent voice commands, MP3/WMA/AAC/AAC+ music player, 1,000 contact phonebook, RSS feed support

The Versa's 2MP camera promises a lot, with face detection and a feature called SmartPic, which claims to reduce noise and improve low-light performance. Picture quality was sharp if sometimes overexposed in the bright areas. Low-light photos didn't look too bad, and didn't show too much blur, while daylight photos showed a bit of visible compression artifacting. As far as we could tell, SmartPic didn't help much. The camera's autofocus is terribly slow, causing a 2.1-second shutter delay, which drops to a more reasonable 0.6-second delay if you turn autofocus off. The 640-by-480 movie-recording mode produces footage that, at 14 frames per second (fps), looked a bit jerky and compressed in testing; the 320-by-240 movie mode, at 20 fps, looked better.
The Versa's 3-inch touchscreen with tactile feedback features an animated OS with a 3D interface and customizable home screens. The phone's accelerometer rotates the screen between portrait and landscape modes, and can be used to control games. The Versa's Web browser supports Flash, RSS, and tabbed browsing. Users can snap pictures and video with the Versa's 2 megapixel camera, which can save the multimedia to the phone's microSD card slot.


The Verizon LG Versa will be available March 1 for $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a two-year service agreement.