The GSMA World Congress '2008 taking place in Barcelona became a stage to LG's campaign airing the latest announcements under the common slogan “LG: Smartly Touchable, More Usable”, proclaiming the future orientation of the company towards further developments of the touchscreen technology, pushing the touchscreen interface even more on the intuitive side. Models belonging to this emerging subclass are LG Viewty, LG KF519, KF600, KF700 and KM710.

LG KF510

Regardless of the lowest-ranking position in its associated product line, the specifications of this phone are far above the average level. The body is entirely made of metal and is 10,9 mm thick. The control actions are performed with the help of a touch navigation block switching active areas depending on the currently selected menu. The auto-focusing camera module sports a maximum supported resolution of 3 Mp and allows recording QVGA videos. The miscellaneous camera options include an image stabilizer and a redeye effect suppressor, the camera launch time is less than a second. First of all LG phones, this model features an auto screen brightness adjuster and reinforced protective glass especially resistant to scratching. Traditionally, the model comes with a music player, a Bluetooth 2. module and the rest of features commonly found with the newer LG models.

LG KF600

Quite peculiar is LG's opinion on how a secondary display in a slider phone should look (e.g. a Samsung E950). The LG KF600 model comes with two screens, a primary and a secondary. The secondary screen echoes some data associated with the application running on the primary screen. The primary screen is powered by a QVGA matrix with a palette of 262K colors and sports a diagonal of 2''. The secondary display is powered by the InteractPad Touch technology. Thanks to this approach, pressing the virtual buttons leads to a physical feedback, i.e. a short vibration, in addition to the usual visual effect. The secondary screen has a diagonal of 1.5'' and sports a resolution of 240x176 pixels. Thus, the two displays give a total of 3.5'' for a sum.

The desktop themes were developed by Keith Haring, an artist obviously popular in Korea.

In addition to the peculiar design, the phone is supplied with a 3.2 Mp camera, Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0 interface modules, an FM radio, a microSD expansion slot, a music player and supports 900/1800/1900 Mhz cell networks as well as GPRS and EDGE protocols.

Just like LG Viewty, the model scored the iF Product Design Award 2008 for the designer solutions involved.

LG KF700

The most remarkable feature of this one is the first ever witnessed combination of three totally different input methods in one phone, which maximizes the ergonomics of the fully functional web browser, audio and video players as well as other multimedia applications. The first supported input method is the 3'' touchscreen, the second is a conventional keypad and the third is the navigation wheel built into the back panel. On the whole, we had an impression of a Viewty with a downgraded camera, a slightly better screen and a navi wheel built into the backside. The screen resolution is now 240x480. Similar to Viewty, the phone comes with Bluetooth 1.2, USB, FM radio, a 3.2 Mp camera with auto-focusing capability, an image stabilizer and a memory expansion slot. With the help of the navigation button, the user can quickly switched between frequently used applications.

Just like with the rest of the novelties, the sales are expected to begin in early summer.

LG KT610

This one is, in fact, the first LG Smartphone built on the Symbian S60 platform, scoring an earlier release date than the first LG WM handset. The product looks quite surprising, and not only because of the operating system used. The form factor looks much in keeping with Nokia 9300/9500/E90. The inner display has a diagonal of 2.4'', the exterior - 1.45''. The multimedia capabilities of the phone are a bit simple as compared to peer models represented at the expo, for example the camera module is but a 2 Mp one without the auto-focusing function. On the other hand, the phone is supported with a full-fledged QWERTY keyboard. The PDA phone is rather slim for a device of its class, that is 17.2 mm, which is quite perceptible when it comes to a comparison with E90, but as we have already said, the functionality is significantly lower as well. A sort of a functionality/size compromise.

And the others....

There have been a good deal of rumor circulating around the possible release of a totally new family of music phone products, which found a material incarnation at the exhibition. Quite a few solutions from this class were announced. Judging by their specifications, those can easily challenge the best music phones by competitive companies. For example, the continuous playback cycle of LG KM710 is as long as 30 hours! There was no possibility to check this in real-life testing, however, so the product is due to be examined in our labs once we are provided with a test sample. Another remarkable peculiarity is the availability of a secondary screen with a resolution of 128x128. The secondary screen comfortably resides right in the middle of a rounded navigation button. Thanks to Bluetooth 2.0, the phone can broadcast the audio signal to a number of wireless headsets simultaneously - which isn't a revolutionary feature yet is a must for a modern music phone. Another handset announced is very much like KM710, but is bundled with a microSD 1Gb card and has its card capacity limit increased to 32 Gb. The dedicated player controls are embedded around the navigation wheel.

LG's exhibition stand also featured the recent releases like LG Viewty in a silver color, a folder with DVB-H support, the inexpensive KF310 slider marketed towards Web surfers and a few more.