Having lived with this phone for the last year, let me tell you a few things about it...
Firstly, the chrome trim which makes it look a bit like the iPhone flakes off after a bit leaving it looking a little tatty.
The camera that everyone seems to think is so good, isn't. In my experience getting a good still shot is very hit and miss with exposure and focusing issues galore. On paper it sounds great but it just isn't consistent enough. When it gets a picture right it does okay but not particularly better than my older Nokia N73 which gets the picture right 90% of the time. Looking at good light pictures in the 'Picture of the Day' thread, there isn't a huge amount of difference between them. More detail on the LG but you would expect that. Still, remember this is a mobile and is a snapshot camera at best, not a patch on the most basic decent dedicated camera. One area where it does well however is video. Lots of options including a super slow motion setting which is good fun. Quality is surprisingly good and since the iPhone can't do video out of the box, there is no comparison.
The user interface is, in my opinion, woeful. It takes far too many key presses to get anything done. The screen doesn't always register your touch and when it does the UI can't keep up particularly smoothly. Try browsing though a Gigabyte of photos, not for the impatient. The user experience on the iPhone is WORLDS apart from the LG - there is simply no getting away from it.
Built in applications cover all the main things but the phone just can't keep up and many apps aren't responsive enough in comparison to iPhone and of course there aren't any other apps available unlike the Apple solution. Browsing the web is really a tiresome exercise although it can be done if you aren't in a rush!
Forget about proper syncing - even photos! I had to compose an Automator script so it would import my photos to iPhoto (although it does video fine) and although the bluetooth file transfer works it is strangely limited to 36kps on my iMac while the Nokia goes twice as fast.
The Viewty has two good things going for it - It is available free on contract (it is getting on a bit in phone terms) and you can get it on any network. My phone was on the 3 network so coverage was fine. In the end, it can't match the iPhone as a serious alternative, mine has just sold for £75 and I am off to do what I should have done some time ago... get an iPhone.
