The LG Watch Phone has a ton of features in its tiny body: a music player, Bluetooth, and even a camera.
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)
Quite possibly one of the biggest buzzes at CES so far has been about the LG Watch Phone, which we reported on yesterday morning. It's no wonder; it fulfills every geek's fantasy while still satisfying the cool quotient with its sleek styling and touch-screen interface.
We had a sit-down with LG earlier today at its booth in the Central Hall, and got up close and personal with the phone. LG wouldn't let us touch it, but we did get a good look at how the transitions work between each tap of the finger. It looks quite intuitive, and the tempered glass on the surface apparently works as a capacitive touch screen, making it as easy to use as the one on the iPhone. We were surprised at how easy it seemed to dial numbers on the tiny dial pad, even though the screen only measures 1.43 inches diagonally. According to LG, texting will be done in a similar manner with a virtual T9 keypad.
We also had a brief look at the music player, and it seems pretty easy to use, too. The sound coming from the speakers on the watch is surprisingly loud, though we still would suggest using a Bluetooth headset of some kind (Taking calls on the speakerphone seems just short of dweeby). The watch phone supports stereo Bluetooth, so you can use that to listen to tunes. When asked how much storage was in the phone, we heard it was somewhere around 70MB, but that could change by the time the device launches. The charging pins are on the underside of the watch, which can then be connected to a charging connector. The strap can also be adjusted quite easily. On the right side of the watch are three buttons: the Talk, Clear, and End buttons, respectively.
And if that wasn't cool enough for you, the LG Watch Phone even has a camera. Yes, on the upper right corner of the phone is a tiny little camera that apparently will be used for video conferencing. No word on whether it's a megapixel camera or not, but even if it's VGA, we think that's incredibly James Bond.
The LG Watch Phone will be available in Europe later this year, but pricing is not yet known, and the company has no plans to bring it to the U.S. just yet. It'll be available in a range of colors, from black and silver to blue, red, and even pink. It'll have quad-band GSM and 3G/HSDPA. Check out the LG Watch Phone slide show for a closer look at it.
LG Watch Phone
(Credit: LG)We first saw the LG Watch Phone last year at CES 2008, but it was behind glass and no one was allowed to really see how it all worked. This year, however, LG plans to break it out of the display case. At the LG press conference a few minutes ago, they demonstrated a real working prototype of the watch phone and it looks to be a real must-have for the spy wannabe in your life. It has a touch-screen user interface (!), three side-mounted buttons, Bluetooth, a speakerphone, and even a full-blown music player. It's water resistant, and it'll feature 3G HSDPA, which leads us to think it may come to AT&T some time this year.
UPDATE: We've just got more details about the watch phone. It has tempered glass, a high-quality metal casing, and is around 13.9mm thick. The touch screen itself is 1.43 inches diagonally, and features LG's Flash interface. Features include voice recognition, Text to Speech so it can read out text messages, and stereo Bluetooth. However, the huge disappointment is that the watch phone will be Europe-only (insert sad face here). We think it may still be compatible with local GSM networks, but only time will tell (apologies for the bad pun).
UPDATE 2: More updates on the Watch Phone. LG has just told us that the Watch Phone will have quad-band GSM, and that the 3G/HSDPA will be compatible with AT&T's frequency. So even if it is Europe-only, you could potentially get one unlocked and use it here. We'll see if we can get more news about pricing and availability.
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