The LG Lotus does look a little weird, but once you get used to the square look once closed, it doesn't seem all that bad considering it does have the QWERTY keyboard.
There's a dedicated Text key in the lower right that'll take you straight to the new message screen, but if you're trying to text someone who isn't in your contacts list, you will have to add the contact first instead of just typing the number.

via: LG Lotus hands-on - Engadget Mobile