LG Chocolate

The LG Chocolate is a feature phone in sliding style. Features include a 1.3 megapixel camera, MP3 player, and FM radio.[10] The Korean models came with 512 MB memory while the KG800 had only 128 MB. There is no memory card slot in the original Chocolate but the 3G variant and the American CDMA variant does have it.[11] It was considered both stylish and sleek, with touch-sensitive keys that would glow up in red, and was designed to resemble chocolate. A chief LG designer claimed the phone was designed to not look like a mobile phone.[12] At about 83 grams and 14.4 mm thickness it was also lighter and slimmer than most phones; to achieve this, LG converted from a multi-layer structure to a single-layer and all of its parts had to be freshly developed.[13]

The Chocolate was released in November 2005 in South Korea during a time when simplicity became trendy.[12] It was available in three colours: black, white, and red. The phone was so in demand in South Korea, recording 4,000 units sold on day one.[14] The phone was backed by an advertising campaign featuring Kim Tae-hee, Hyun Bin and Daniel Henney.[15]

It was released in China in April 2006 (GSM model KG90, CDMA model KG90c),[16][17] and internationally as GSM model KG800 in May 2006, which had its marketing strategy planned and executed[18] by John Bernard, a marketer based in the UK.[19]

Colours included the original black (reminiscent of dark chocolate) and later white, pink and red.[13]

LG VX8500 (Verizon Wireless, U.S.)

LG VX8500 Chocolate

The LG VX8500 was the LG Chocolate released in the United States on Verizon Wireless. It differed from the original Chocolate design by having physical directional keys combined with music keys, putting emphasis on music playback.[12] The touch panel has a circular button arrangement bordered with glossy metal, versus the original Chocolate's square arrangement featuring simple arrow designs. Additionally it has an improved QVGA (320x240) display over the original Chocolate's 176x220.

It was released in July 2006 for online sale. On August 7, 2006, it was released for sale in Verizon stores. In addition to the original black “Dark Chocolate” model, the LG Chocolate VX8500 was also available in light green, white, pink, and red models called "Mint Chocolate," "White Chocolate," "Strawberry Chocolate," and "Cherry Chocolate," respectively.

The LG Chocolate had successor called the VX8550 LG Chocolate "Spin" which featured touch buttons with improved accuracy, a scroll wheel, support for 4 GB microSD cards, and tactile send and end keys.

In over half a year, 600,000 Chocolates were sold in South Korea.[12] A total of 1.4 million units were sold in its first three months in the European, Asian, and Latin American markets.[22] In April 2007, LG reported that Chocolate sales had topped 10 million.[23] In December 2007, it reported 15 million sales.[24] It eventually reached sales of over 20 million units.[25]

Before its European debut, the phone had already won an iF Design Award and Red Dot Design Award.[26]

At the Mobile Choice Consumer Awards 2006, the Chocolate won the award for Best Fashion Phone, and was runner up in Phone of the Year beaten by Sony Ericsson K800i.[27]

The Chocolate single-handedly helped turn LG Electronics's business from a loss to profit by the end of 2006.[28]

KG800

VX8500

• LG Hot Chocolate KG800 Review – CNET.com.au