LG Rumor, the popular and affordable handset that's been around in the US for about one year, is now offered by Virgin Mobile Canada too. Of course, the phone was already available for Canadian users, but only for those who are Bell Mobility's subscribers (the CDMA carrier released the Rumor back in April, under the name of "LG Rumour").

Now Virgin Mobile got its own LG Rumor, and it's offering it for Canadian consumers at the following prices:

- $79.99 with a contract agreement for three years;

- $99.99 with a contract agreement for two years;

- $149.99 with a contract agreement for only one year;

- and $199.99 on pre-pay;

The best thing about the Rumor is its full sliding QWERTY keyboard, which allows users to quickly and easily write text messages, instant messages or emails. Furthermore, the handset also packs a set of nice (but not too advanced) features, including: a 2 inch TFT display with 262K colors and 176 x 220 pixels, Music player, Bluetooth, Virgin Mobile email (providing access to up to five personal email accounts), Windows Live Messenger, a 1.3 Megapixel camera with video recorder, SMS voice messaging, speed dial, calendar, alarm clock, unit converter, EZ tip calculator and expandable memory (up to 4GB). The battery that LG Rumor comes with is a 950 mAh one, said to offer up to 3 hours of talk-time and up to 300 hours of stand-by time.

Although Virgin Mobile Canada says LG Rumor is "only 12.9 millimeters thin", the handset is actually not that slim, measuring 17.8 millimeters in thickness (its full dimensions are 109 x 51 x 17.8 mm at a weight of 115 grams).

For the moment, Virgin Mobile Canada offers the Rumor in a single color version (black case, with blue QWERTY keyboard), but the MVNO will probably release the phone in other colors too. Anyway, those who want to buy the handset can find it at this address.