It was 2006. If you weren’t rocking a Motorola Razr, you were probably staring at the glowing red touch-sensitive buttons of the Verizon Wireless Chocolate phone. This thing was a vibe before "vibe" was even part of the lexicon. It smelled like expensive plastic and felt like the future, even if that future involved squinting at a tiny screen to read a text from your crush.
The LG Chocolate, specifically the VX8500, wasn't just a phone; it was a statement. In a sea of silver flip phones that looked like medical equipment, the Chocolate was sleek. It was dark. It was basically a high-tech candy bar that slid open with a satisfying thwack. Honestly, looking back, it was the moment tech decided it wanted to be fashion.
What the LG Chocolate Actually Was (And Wasn't)
When Verizon dropped the Chocolate in the US, they were trying to kill the iPod. Seriously. The marketing was all about the "music-centric" experience. You had that circular scroll wheel on the front that looked suspiciously like a click-wheel, but here’s the kicker: it didn't actually spin. It was a four-way directional pad. Talk about a bait-and-switch that we all just collectiveley accepted because the glowing red lights looked so cool in the dark.
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The phone launched in "Black Cherry" (which was just black) but eventually we got "Mint," "White," and even "Strawberry." It was the first time a lot of us realized that a phone could be an accessory. But beneath that "Silk" finish—which was LG’s fancy name for the matte coating—lay some pretty frustrating tech. Those touch-sensitive buttons were notorious. If you put the phone in your pocket without locking it, you’d accidentally call your grandma or start playing a tinny version of a Nickelback song at full volume.
Why It Became a Pop Culture Icon
You couldn’t turn on MTV or open a Teen Vogue without seeing this thing. It was everywhere. Verizon poured millions into the "It’s the Chocolate" campaign. Unlike the sleek but somewhat professional Razr, the Chocolate felt youthful. It was the phone of the T9 texting generation.
- It changed the slider game. Before this, sliders were chunky and awkward. The VX8500 made the sliding mechanism feel premium.
- The V CAST Music store. This was Verizon's attempt to own the digital music space. You could download songs directly to the phone over the air, which felt like sorcery in 2006, even if it took five minutes per track.
- Expandable storage. It had a microSD slot. In an era where most phones had about 30MB of internal memory, being able to slap a 2GB card in there meant you could actually carry an album or two.
The Technical Reality vs. The Hype
Let's talk specs, because they’re hilarious by today’s standards. The screen was a 2-inch QVGA display. That’s 240x320 pixels. You can fit about four app icons from a modern iPhone into that resolution. The camera? A staggering 1.3 megapixels. You weren’t taking "portraits"; you were taking blurry, pixelated ghosts of your friends at the mall.
One thing people forget is how the Verizon version differed from the international GSM versions (the KG800). The US version was thicker. It had to be. Verizon’s CDMA radio and the added music hardware made it a bit of a chonk compared to the ultra-slim European models. But we didn't care. We had that proprietary charging port that we all eventually lost the cable for.
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The battery life was... okay. If you weren't using the music player, it lasted a couple of days. If you were actually using it as an MP3 player? Good luck making it to dinner.
The "Touch" Problem That Everyone Ignored
Remember how the buttons worked? They were capacitive, which was brand new for the mid-2000s. There was no haptic feedback. No "click." Just a red glow that indicated you’d touched something. In the winter, if you were wearing gloves, the phone was basically a brick. You had to use your literal skin to get a response. It was the first time many of us encountered the "ghost touch" phenomenon where humidity or a sweaty pocket would make the phone go haywire.
Why the Verizon Wireless Chocolate Phone Still Matters Today
It represents the peak of "dumbphone" experimentation. Before the iPhone came along in 2007 and forced every phone to be a black glass rectangle, companies were taking risks. LG wasn't afraid to make a phone that looked like a piece of Godiva chocolate.
The Evolution: From VX8500 to the Chocolate Touch
The original was so successful that Verizon and LG tried to milk it for years. We got the VX8550 (the "Chocolate Spin") which actually had a wheel that turned. Then came the Chocolate 3, which—strangely—was a flip phone. Finally, they tried the Chocolate Touch (VX8575), but by then, the world had moved on to the Droid and the iPhone. The magic was gone.
But that original VX8500? It was a bridge. It bridged the gap between a device you used for calls and a device you used for your entire life. It taught us that we wanted our music, our photos, and our social status all in one pocket-sized slider.
Common Misconceptions About the Chocolate
- "It was the first music phone." Nope. Sony Ericsson’s Walkman series (like the W800i) was already crushing it. LG just had better marketing in the US.
- "The wheel was a touch-pad." People often misremember this as being like a modern trackpad. It wasn't. It was just four buttons hidden under a plastic ring.
- "It was a smartphone." Not even close. It ran a basic Brew-based OS. You couldn't "install apps" in the way we think of now; you bought "tools" and "games" through the Verizon deck for $4.99 a pop.
What We Can Learn from the Chocolate Era
Looking at a Verizon Wireless Chocolate phone in 2026 feels like looking at a vintage car. It’s not "good" by modern standards, but it has personality. It had a specific sound—that "Hello Moto" or the LG jingle—that defined a decade.
Today’s tech is sterile. The Chocolate was tactile. It was temperamental. It was beautiful.
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If you're looking to recapture that nostalgia, don't try to actually use one. The 1X/EV-DO networks it relied on are long dead. It's a paperweight now. But as a piece of industrial design? It’s a hall-of-famer. It proved that people would put up with slightly annoying interfaces if the hardware looked cool enough.
Actionable Next Steps for Tech Nostalgia Hunters
- Check the drawers. If you find an old VX8500, do not just toss it in the trash. The lithium-ion batteries in these old sliders are prone to swelling (the "spicy pillow" effect). If the back cover is bulging, take it to a specialized recycler immediately.
- Data Recovery. If you want the grainy photos of your 2006 New Year's party, you’ll likely need a proprietary LG USB cable (the wide, flat one) and an old Windows XP or Windows 7 machine. Modern Windows 11 drivers rarely recognize these ancient CDMA handsets.
- Displaying. These phones are becoming "retro-tech" collectibles. Clean the "silk" finish with a very lightly damp microfiber cloth—avoid alcohol, as it can strip that specific matte coating and leave it sticky.
- Research the "New" Chocolate. If you love the aesthetic, look up the LG BL40. It was the "New Chocolate" released in 2009 with a 21:9 aspect ratio. It’s arguably one of the most beautiful phones ever made, even if it was a total failure commercially.
The era of the specialized "music phone" is over, replaced by the god-device in your pocket. But the LG Chocolate was the first time many of us felt like our phone was more than just a tool. It was a toy, a fashion statement, and a sign that the world was getting a lot faster, one red-glowing button at least.