Sprint's LG Lotus is one of my - and Adriana's - favorite phones of the
year.  While the square, makeup-compact-lookalike shape may strike some
as odd, it allows for a nice, big display and full QWERTY board in a
compact form factor.  And it's a flip, which some people just can't
live without (ahem, RA, ahem).

Well, if you're on Verizon and you've been jealous of your
neighbor's Lotus for the past few months, you're time is almost nigh. 
No, there's not a VZW-branded Lotus on the horizon, but there is a
similarly flippable QWERTY phone on deck for you, Big Red customer: The
Samsung Strut.

I've been hearing about this device for awhile now - both in under its Canadian moniker, "Cleo,"
and the much less fun "U440" designation - but today's the first time I
heard the words "Samsung," "Strut," and "Verizon" all together in the
same sentence. While I haven't yet seen a Verizon logo on the device, Engadget Mobile sounds pretty certain that Cleo+VZW=Strut, so let's take their word for it, shall we?  The
FCC outed the U440 last month, and based on their filings it looks like
we'll see some pretty basic specs, uh, Strut-ting around VZW's lineup
pretty soon: 1.3 MP camera, expandable storage up to 8GB, and
messaging-focused features. 

Personally, I'm kind of liking Lotus's square angles a bit more
that Strut's curved lines, but I'll have to get this thing in hand
before I can say for sure.  No word yet on release date and/or pricing,
though I hear VZW is pondering dropping a few new handsets on us during
the first or second week of January.