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LG Ally works its Iron Man cred, leaves a few loose ends to tie up

We'll admit it, we really can't find anything straight-out "wrong" with the LG Ally. Maybe we could muster up a few matters of taste to gripe about, but it really does seem to be a pretty solid QWERTY Android slider. But unfortunately for LG, Verizon, and the good people at Stark Industries, we're having a lot of trouble stomaching this handset for the mere fact that we're up to our eyeballs in Android these days; nobody here has bothered to do anything different. When your only claims to fame are a few pixel tweaks on the home screen, categories in the app drawer, and an augmented reality Iron Man app, you're running the risk of... well, that's just it, you aren't running any risk at all. Sure, including a "limited edition" Iron Man comic with every phone sold is a nice touch, but it won't help you much in two years (or two months) when everybody you know has a better phone than you.

At least LG managed to best the Droid's landscape QWERTY, with some well-defined keys and decent, clicky action, though the unfortunate layout and an oddly inconsistent key shape keeps that from saving this phone. Specs-wise it's just what we had been hearing: Android 2.1, a 3.2 megapixel camera (with a flash), a nicely side-accessible microSD slot for the included 4GB SD card, and that mid-range Qualcomm MSM7627 processor. Hopefully Verizon can announce a bargain basement price (we're figuring $99 or less is a shoe-in), otherwise we want that GW990 back pronto. No word on release date, either, but we should be learning more tomorrow. %Gallery-92818%