Verizon enV Successor Is No iPhone Wannabe

The enV(2) goes on sale in April. (Courtesy of Verizon Wireless)

Verizon Wireless today introduced an awkwardly named new phone that looks promising: the "enV(2)." It's a clamshell model by LG with a full QWERTY keyboard inside and large screen inside, with a second screen on the outside. Verizon calls it the successor to the first-generation enV that was introduced last year.

But wait. Something's familiar here. I thought I wrote about the enV's successor when I did a piece on the Voyager. The Voyager was similar if a bit slimmer than the original enV, though it replaced the frontside keypad with an iPhone-like touch-screen.

Ah, there sits the difference. The officially dubbed enV successor, the enV(2) keeps and enlarges the frontside keypad instead of turning it into a touch-screen. So now Verizon offers a choice between keypad with the enV(2) and touch-screen with the Voyager (don't call me an enV!).