Features I need...what should I buy?

I'm not aware of a phone that cant be used and charged at the same time.

 

That is basically every smartphone one way or another. Also if you are in T-mo coverage area you might want to check them out. for $30 a month you can get 100 minutes for talking and unlimited everything else (first 5gb at upto 4g speeds after that it's 2g). And you can use any gsm phone as long as it is either unlocked or locked to T-mo.

And as far as the Optimus V. You can use it while charging as I believe most android phones you can.

 

well unlocking is a term generally used for GSM phones.

There are 2 basic types of phones CDMA and GSM

CDMA phones have all the network information stored directly onto the phone and can't be switched carriers legally unless the company does it. (like cricket is one that can do it legally, but most other company won't flash phones to their network) Also the 2 main CDMA carriers are Verizon and Sprint (sprint owns Virgin mobile and Boost mobile)

GSM phones have all the network information stored on a sim card. The 2 major GSM carriers in the US are AT&T and T-mobile. Now with GSM phones you can use them on any GSM company as long as it is either unlocked or locked to the carrier that you are going to be using it on. Now unlocking a phone basically is making it so you can use the phone on any GSM network. Though the thing with GSM phones and companies are they run on different frequncies so for T-mo to be able to get 3g/ 4g they would need both the 1700 and 2100 bands which most non T-mo don't have.

And to answer if the OV is a GSM phone. No it's a CDMA phone as are all of VMs phones.

Rooting in the simplest of terms is giving you the owner root permissions to the phone. It's the same idea on a computer having administrative privileges.

TL;DR OV isn't a GSM phone and can only be used on VM. GSM uses a sim card for network information, CDMA has all network information stored on the phone, rooting gives more rights.