Bling bling! LG announces 3G touch screen cell phone watch

David M Williams
Tuesday, 06 October 2009 18:27

Your IT - Mobility

Shades of Dick Tracy and James Bond! LG Electronics, manufacturer of such previous stylish mobile phones as the LG Shine and LG Prada, is on the verge of releasing an ultra-stylish touch screen 3G phone watch for the spy within us all.

Way back in 1946 Chester Gould adorned his famous comic book detective Dick Tracy with a two-way wrist radio. This was upgraded in 1964 to contain a television screen too.

Gould was ahead of his time and it took numerous decades for real-world tech to catch up. Now, mobile phone watches, while still not commonplace, can be found without much spy work of your own.

LG have upped the ante however with their announcement of the world’s first touch screen phone watch, in this modern iPhone-crazy age.

The phone is a full 3G device and also leads the competition in featuring 7.2Mbps HSDPA compatibility enabling high-speed data transmission and video calls using the built-in camera.

Note that the unit operates only on the 2100MHz frequency, with an LG representative confirming to iTWire that the Telstra NextG network’s 850MHz band is not supported.

As well as being controlled by the touch screen the phone responds to voice. Voice recognition features – with or without a Bluetooth headset – make it easier to place calls and look up contacts. Text-to-speech (TTS) facilities read text messages and other information.

Nathan Dunn, General Manager for Mobile Communications, LG Electronics Australia said “The new 3G Touch Watch Phone is stylish, sophisticated and undeniably fun. This exclusive and unique product gives people the chance to live out their childhood dreams of owning a watch phone similar to those made famous by many legendary secret agents and fictional spies.”

The unit will be available in December under the title GD910 Watchphone. It has a curved tempered glass face, metal cashing and is 13.9mm thick.

The recommended retail price is $2,299 although LG expect that it will be available as part of mobile phone contracts and consequently attainable without upfront fees.