Verizon's Would-Be iPhone Killer: LG Voyager

	LG VOYAGER
	Photo: LG

	FLIP-OPEN KEYBOARD
	Photo: LG

Here come the fake iPhones.

Verizon (VZ Quote) is launching its hotly anticipated LG Voyager today[Wednesday]. The touch-screen phone with the flip-open keyboard is sells for $299 with a two-year contract, and is intended to answer Apple's (AAPL Quote) much-heralded iPhone from AT&T (T Quote) that fetches $399.

Verizon loyalists are going to have mixed emotions about the Voyager. While they sneer at the iPhone's slow 2.5G Net access speed, the captive flock drools over Apple's sleek big-screen goodness. The Voyager promised to soothe the ache.

With a full Qwerty keyboard and a snazzy new touchscreen, the Voyager is seemingly well equipped to run on Verizon's 3G EV-DO network. And for speed fans, that's roughly twice the Net surfing performance of AT&T's EDGE system that current iPhone's are tethered to.

But Voyager's favorable comparisons to the iPhone end about there.

Here's the bleak truth about the Voyager: It's not the thrilling gadget adventure people were waiting for.

While some of Voyager's borrowed looks make you think iPhone, it's an entirely different device. For starters, it isn't a true smartphone. There are no PDA functions such as document creation, email program or desktop syncing. In fact, the menu system is exactly the same as you'll find on many of Verizon's music phones.