Look what LG sent me to play with. *Teehee*

The price point of the LG Arena looks a bit steep for a phone in this caliber (the Nokia 5800 is about a hundred dollars less), but yeah it does have some claim of having that very interesting S Class 3D interface. Well, let’s see!

You can see the full unboxing but of course, this deserves a full review. I will have something up soon. In the meantime, do enjoy the weekend!

LG recently unveiled their new solar power technology for mobile phones, giving users 3 minutes worth of calls for 10 minutes of exposure to sunlight. The phone’s solar technology is harnessed from the battery cover, giving it access to unlimited charging potential. According to them, exposure to natural light allows enough standby time to last forever, never needing a charge.

It doesn’t have WiFi, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad phone. The LG Lotus will be out this 2009. The square-ishly designed Lotus sports a bright screen with 65k colors, Bluetooth, a 2MP camera, 80MB of internal memory, and SDHC expansion support. The phone comes with a QWERTY keypad and looks extremely beautiful. It will be available in CDMA networks such as Sprint.

So do you like it? Pictured here is the more eccentric purple one as compared to the plain black model. The design leaves a lot for fancy conversation. I personally like it, from an aesthetic approach but wouldn’t hold on to it simply because of the lack of WiFi and GSM compatibility.

Here’s a short peek into something that LG will unveil this coming CES 2009. The LG GD910 is a watch that doubles as a phone. The specs show that you can only do 2 hours of talk time, much less than the “proclaimed” industry standard so that means Lg should either be telling the truth, or talk time is really reduced to less than 2 hours. No judgments to be made yet as we haven’t seen the phone up close. But 2 hours on paper? Hmm.

The phone also has Bluetooth, and 3G connectivity. The GD910 relies heavily on voice commands since there are only three hardware menu buttons on the side of the neat little touch screen. Making calls via voice recognition shows off how the watch detects your voice and repeats the numbers you want to “dial” (Did you say 1,2,3,4,5 …. and you reply with “Yes”). You can use the voice commands to activate functions such as the music player. The three menu buttons are used to receive calls, reject or end calls and a center menu which you can hold down to display the main phone menu or the status menu to show off your signal strength, incoming messages, etc.

The built in audio seems to be loud enough, as seen from the video. The watch also supports video calls via 3G with a camera built on the front face of the device. The watch strap is made of leather and I’m assuming like all standard watches, can be interchanged with other straps if you’re allergic to leather.

The LG KU 380 is a follow up to LG’s “3G for All” line. It isn’t exactly new, but it’s what telcos could oftentimes bundle as really affordable mobile phones with their entry level line. The phone comes with a 1.3MP camera and 3G connectivity, 60MB of shared memory, microSD expansion, T9 text input and Bluetooth. The device syncs via USB.

If AT&T has the iPhone, LG’s got the Voyager, or the VX10000. Available exclusively for Verizon for $199.99, the LG Voyager resembles much of what we loved from Nokia’s Communicator series with an added iPhone like interface when the phone’s QWERTY keypad is kept.

Some specs incude:

EVDO Compatibility with Verizon’s V Cast
Bluetooth
2MP Camera
Music Player
Stereo Sound
Hearing Aid Compatibility
External Touch Screen

The LG Voyager comes with an external touch screen allowing you the option to choose to use the phone’s touch capabilities or a keypad when you open the phone, giving you an array of choices on how you want to input text.

LG Secret Product Film from The Technographist on Vimeo.

I can’t be in two places at the same time, so Rico Mossesgeld who handles b5media’s Contract Worker Blog gives his review of the LG Secret. He was sent by LG Mobile to CommunicAsia earlier this week. The LG Secret Unboxing begins.

Here are the product specs of the LG Secret along with some first impressions:

* Tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900 Mhz) and HSDPA (2100 Mhz)
* 102.8mm long, 50.8mm wide, and 11.8mm thick
* Casing composed of “high-grade carbon fiber and tempered glass [claimed to be scratch-resistant] materials”
* 2.4″ QVGA touch-screen that automatically adjusts brightness to lighting conditions
* 5.0 megapixel camera with flash with Macro function and 16x digital zoom
* DivX video recording and playback (VGA resolution); MP4 WMV, H.264, H.264, and RV playback capability
* MP3, AAC, and WMA audio playback capability; FM radio integrated
* TV-Out capability
* Bluetooth 2.0
* microSD slot
* Accelerometer for auto screen rotation and motion-controlled games

The LG KF750 Secret is a thin sliding phone that packs quite a lot in its thin 11.8mm body. LG is marketing this product with an emphasis on its touch-sensitive controls, 5 megapixel camera, and clean design (”Style That Lasts” goes the tagline).

The LG Secret lacks WiFi, which is odd for a flagship brand carrier. From the looks of it though, the phone isn’t being positioned as an enterprise workhorse. Rather, we’re seeing this more as a high end fashion and multimedia device. Oh and my theory about the accelerometer is right on the dot - all phones are going to have them soon. This one does.

With three input methods, the KF700 seems to be channeling the Sony Ericsson P series except that this particular model looks more like a cellphone than a smartphone. The KF700 comes with three input methods that work together to provide the overall user experience: slide down keypad, touch screen and the “jog dial” of SE folklore which LG calls the “Shortcut dial.”
Read more

The KF600 is a nifty slider equipped with a touch screen. What makes the KF600 nifty is that it comes with an InteractPad, a touch sensitive area located below the main screen that is context sensitive. This, in theory is a good idea because it allows the user to combine touch screen interactivity with the default keypad. Some phones only present one option to input data - the KF600 seems to be a marriage of two technologies. Looking good so far. Features-wise though, the KF600 doesn’t have smartphone functions so it is to be treated like a regular cellphone with MP3, video and call functions.

Features:
3MP camera
FM Tuner
Bluetooth
40MB internal memory + microSD expansion

You can check out a details spec sheet at their corporate site.

Queer as it is, the LG SH240 has that human touch.

The LG SH240, which has been coined as the “skin phone” has its keypad made out of silicon to simulate the touch of human skin.

Creepy. Creepy. Creepy.

Features-wise there’s nothing much to write home about - 2MP camera, Bluetooth and HSDPA 3.5G are pretty much the usual standard in today’s market.

The engineers must have been high on you know what when they designed this phone.

[image credit The Register]