Website in my area (82834) says Messager $30 after mail-in rebate. Local non-corporate store (franchise??) sells it for $50 after mail-in rebate.
Messager does not seem to require voice & data (smartchoice) plan. You can get it with the Prepaid account also, I believe.
I went into a store and tried the keypad. Then very briefly tried entering a similar sentence as I'd just written on the Messager using the soft keypad on the LG Chocolate Fouch (first time using that handset). I had three typos on the Messager and one on the LG chocolate touch. I truly thought it would've been the other way around!
Other weird thing, which I noticed in the pics of the Messager was the Ok button right next to the Space bar. I was certain I would hit the Ok button by mistake. On trying it, though, this didn't seem to be a problem. Maybe with more, and more hurried, usage this mistake would start to happen?
Also, btw, when I posted, above, about the retail price I'm pretty sure it was as I wrote. When I go back today the retail (before discount, etc.) is $249. Either I was mistaken earlier or there was a typo. Probably I was looking at the wrong phone or something.