LG Wine at CTIA 2009
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)Even though the LG Wine was released back in January, we weren't able to have a hands-on with the device until CTIA 2009. The Wine comes in this nice burgundy color to go along with the wine theme, and is a simple mid-tier flip phone from U.S. Cellular. There's also a white version.
The most unique thing about the Wine is that it has four dedicated hot keys underneath the display. They correspond to the messaging interface, the alarm clock, the images folder, and the U.S. Cellular's easyedge Web portal. It also has a very roomy and tactile keypad with huge numbers on the keys for easier legibility.
The LG Wine has four dedicated hot keys
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)It has fairly simple features like a 1.3-megapixel camera, a speakerphone, Bluetooth, and voice command. It's available from U.S. Cellular for $29.95 with a two-year agreement, though you can get it without a contract for $179.95.
The U.S. Cellular LG Banter is on the far left, followed by the Alltel LG Banter in the middle, and the LG Rumor 2 is on the far right.
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)As you might recall, the LG Banter is Alltel's version of the LG Rumor 2. Well, U.S. Cellular will also offer the phone, and we managed to take a slightly closer look at the LG Banter at CTIA 2009.
The LG Banter's keyboard is slightly different from the LG Rumor 2's.
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)Indeed, it looks a lot like the LG Rumor 2, but it has a slightly more rectangular design, plus it has interchangeable faceplates. The faceplates are pretty easy to take on and off--just slip your finger nail in around the edge to pry it off. So far, the Banter has silver and green face plates. The Banter's keyboard is noticeably different; the two soft keys for landscape mode are now incorporated into the keyboard itself (The Rumor 2's soft keys for landscape mode are on the right side of the display) and the emoticon key on the Rumor 2 is not present on the Banter.
Features, which include a 1.3-megapixel camera, a music player, Bluetooth, a microSD card slot, and lots of messaging options like support for work email, are the same as the Rumor 2's. It's only $20 with an Alltel two-year service agreement. It's available from U.S. Cellular, as well, but for $50.
LG Prada 2 with slide-out QWERTY keyboard
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)
The LG Prada 2 isn't new, of course, and our European and Asian cousins have had the chance to get their hands on it months ago. In fact, our friends over at CNET UK have given their own hands-on impressions of the device. However, I finally had a chance to get my hands on it at CTIA 2009, and I was excited to try it out.
The LG Prada 2 is definitely designed for the fashion-conscious, with its smooth glossy black surface and slim profile. The touch-screen display is a 3-inch capacitive multitouch interface with active Flash user interface and is very easy to use. The menu interface is clearly an upgrade over the original LG Prada; much smoother and sleeker than before. The multitouch interface meant we could zoom in and out of Web pages by just pinching our fingers, like on the iPhone. If texting was a chore on the original Prada, it shouldn't be on the Prada 2, thanks to the great slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The four-line QWERTY keyboard is roomy and the keys feel good to type on.
The Prada 2 comes with a host of features that puts the original Prada to shame. They include dual-band HSDPA and quad-band GSM (which means you can get an unlocked version and use it on a U.S. GSM carrier), Wi-Fi, a full HTML browser, stereo Bluetooth, TV-out, FM radio, a document viewer, 60MB of internal memory, a microSD card slot, and a 5-megapixel camera. The camera has similar editing features to the Viewty, like the ability to record slow-motion video.
Of course, if you want to really bling it up, you can get the Prada Link Bluetooth watch to go along with your new Prada 2. You can't really make calls with it like a watch phone, but you can see incoming caller ID and read text messages with it.
The LG Prada 2 by itself will cost around $549 unlocked since it isn't available from any U.S. carrier. We'll attempt to get a review unit of our own to test out, but you should also check out the reviews on CNET UK and CNET Asia.
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LG HBM-900
(Credit: LG)Along with the Xenon and the Neon, LG also introduced the LG HBM-900 Bluetooth headset at CTIA.
This rather large headset has not one or two microphones, but three, in what it's calling a tri-mic ultra-clear audio solution. The multifunction button is touch-sensitive, and the power button is a slider switch. Features of the headset include automatic volume control, volume circulation, echo cancellation, noise suppression, multipoint, and voice activated dialing.
Not sure what the price and availability of it is just yet, but we're sure it'll be out this year.
LG Lotus with ATSC Mobile TV
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)
LG Voyager showing local TV
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)Aside from showing off its latest handsets, LG also took the opportunity at CTIA 2009 to demonstrate Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) mobile digital television on some of its phones. ATSC is the new digital television standard that is replacing NTSC, and LG has been helping to develop a mobile version of the standard in the form of embedded chips.
An LG Netbook that is connected to a USB dongle with ATSC reception.
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)At the show, LG incorporated these chips in the LG Lotus and the LG Voyager, and showed off live local TV on both handsets. There is no real service fee involved, since it's basically receiving the television signal over the airwaves like you would with a rabbit-ear antenna. Reception would depend on broadcasters, and whether they would allow a portion of the channel capacity to be dedicated to mobile viewers. Broadcasters have already announced that they intend to launch mobile DTV across 63 stations in 22 markets some time in the near future.
This isn't restricted to just cell phones, of course. There's hope that this will extend to a new generation of handheld TVs (most of the existing analog models were rendered useless due to the digital TV transition), personal media players, in-car television without the need for satellite, USB dongles for use with laptops or Netbooks, and more. It'll be interesting to see what this new standard will bring to the table.
LG Versa with Transformers design
(Credit: LG)Bringing new meaning to the phrase "more than meets the eye," LG has partnered with Dreamworks to bring you a limited edition of the LG Versa with a Transformers theme to help promote the sequel to the 2007 summer blockbuster. In fact, Michael Bay himself will be on the scene at the LG booth in CTIA at 2 p.m. PDT Thursday to promote the phone and the movie, titled "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."
It's fitting that they chose to make the LG Versa their promotional phone, as the touch-screen handset is quite transformative as well, what with the option of adding modules to increase its functionality. For example, it comes with a QWERTY keyboard for texting, and there are currently plans to release additional modules like a gamepad for playing games, external speakers, and more.
The Transformers version of the phone is the same as the Versa, but it just has a new Transformers image on the back, and will have custom movie-related graphics as well. No word on pricing, but we expect it'll be the same as the Versa, which is around $200 with a two-year contract from Verizon Wireless. We'll update this post with pictures of the phone once we have it.
LG Neon
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)
The LG Xenon is clearly LG's premier announcement at CTIA this year, but the LG Neon deserves a closer look too. I had a brief hands-on with the device early yesterday, and it left a pretty good impression though I question some of the design choices.
Like the Xenon, the Neon has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and is meant to be a messaging device. It has a nice display and is slim and lightweight. The keyboard only has 3 rows instead of the 4 rows on the Xenon, so it's slightly more cramped. Still, the keys are well-spaced and have a bumpy texture for easier texting. On the front of the Neon is a navigation array complete with the two soft keys and four-way directional pad.
Here's where it gets a little interesting; the LG Neon's display is a touch screen, but only for the phone dialer. You hit a dedicated phone keypad button in the navigation array, and the virtual number keypad will show up. I was able to press the numbers like on an ordinary touch screen display, and there was vibration feedback as well. For the rest of the phone's interface, though, you're stuck with the regular navigation keys. Why LG decided not to make all of the functions of the Neon accessible via touch screen is a mystery to me.
Features of the LG Neon aren't as advanced as the Xenon's. It still has the 2.0-megapixel camera, music player, and stereo Bluetooth, but you won't get 3G and it only supports tri-band GSM. Pricing and availability of the LG Neon are still unknown, though we're sure we'll find out shortly.
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LG's big CTIA news was the introduction of the LG Xenon and Neon for AT&T, and Nicole Lee's all over the messaging phones with hands-on impressions and photos.
LG-GM730
(Credit: LG)However, I wandered over to the LG booth myself (actually, I crashed Nicole's one-on-one meeting), because I wanted to find out what the company's plans are for bringing more smartphones to the United States.
As you might remember, LG announced at GSMA 2009 that it has committed to the Windows Mobile operating system for its smartphones, intends to increase the number of Windows phones available in 2009 tenfold, and bring up to 26 new devices in 2012.
It even announced the LG-GM730 to kick-start the mission. That said, it was a little unclear whether this would extend to U.S. shores. Well, there's good news and bad news.
The bad news is that there are no current plans to bring the GM730 Stateside, nor are there any new releases scheduled for the near future.
However, LG said it recognizes that more and more customers are wanting smartphones, so there's a big push internally to move in that direction, and we should see new models toward the end of 2009/early 2010. Obviously not ideal, considering that's still a ways away, but at least we know they're coming. Currently, the LG Incite is the only LG smartphone available with a U.S. carrier.
LG Xenon
(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)
My first stop this morning at CTIA was to the LG booth, particularly to take a closer look at the LG Xenon, which was announced earlier this week. The Xenon is quite svelte at 4.16 inches long by 2.11 inches wide by 0.62 inch thick, and it has a nice 262,000-color 2.8-inch QVGA touch-screen display. Underneath the display are three physical keys; the Send, task manager, and End/Power keys. The task manager key brings up a list of open applications that you can toggle through. The touch screen has vibrating feedback, and there's an internal accelerometer that will rotate the screen from portrait to landscape mode in certain applications.
On the bottom row of the home screen are four shortcuts to the phone dialer, the contacts list, the messaging inbox, and the main menu. You can also toggle between three different home screens--one that lists your favorite contacts, one with just the standard home display, and one with your favorite shortcuts. The menu interface is similar to that of the LG Vu, with separate tabs for entertainment, settings, and so forth.
One of the highlights of the Xenon is its slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard has four rows of keys and is quite roomy. The keys are also sufficiently raised above the surface and are easy to type, at least in the brief few minutes I had to try it out. There are dedicated messaging keys on the keyboard, a dedicated emoticon key, an @ symbol key, and a dedicated .com key for entering URLs in the Xenon's full HTML browser.
Features of the Xenon include a 2.0-megapixel camera, a camcorder, stereo Bluetooth, threaded text messaging, instant messaging, mobile e-mail, quad-band GSM, 3G/HSDPA speeds, and, of course, access to AT&T broadband services like Cellular Video and AT&T Mobile Music. It will be available for $99.99 with a two-year service agreement on April 8 2009.
(Credit:
Sprint)
Sprint has made it official that it plans to release a red version of its LG Lotus messaging phone. It will have the same textured design as the purple version, and will have the same features as well.
Features include a 2-megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, GPS, EV-DO, a music player, and more. Of course, you also get the same QWERTY keyboard and nice 2.4-inch display. We don't yet know when it'll be released, but it'll likely be about the same price of the current LG Lotus, which is about $100 after a two-year service agreement.
