As everyone knows different cell vendors work better in certain areas. Boonman is sticking with verizon. Boonman, all I can say is it seems you want a phone that works. Not all the shiny horse shit they have out there. Compare battery talk time... stand by time is a stupid number, fit on your ear and ringer VOLUME. I was so worried about ringer volume when I bought mine I overlooked the battery talk time.
Flip phones are fancy and a little smaller but for the most part have smaller batteries. They also have a lot of connections where the phones flip open. If you get a flip phone, buy the insurance that verizon offers for a few bucks a month. If you buy your contract at radio shack you can get their insurance instead. They will give you a new battery every six months if you say it doesn't charge right. They also let you keep the old one. The contract will pay for itself that way.
Standard non flip phones are usually a little bigger and harder to just stick in your pocket. But, the usually have better batteries, are louder and fit on your ear better.
Some phones have the voice activated directory built into the phone. If you have one with the feature built in make sure you aren't paying for the service on the bill. Companies like to add that to the bill and make you think you have to pay it. You should only be paying it if your phone doesn't support that feature and your using through your service provider.
I do want to add that LG does make a great phone.
To each there own.