The LG Watch Phone

LG Electronics, a worldwide leader in mobile communications, recently showed off its new innovative ‘Watch Phone’! at Mobile World Congress 2009. It is the world’s first market-ready Touch Watch Phone (LG-GD910) with 3G Video Telephony, 3G VT Service and GSM Quadband Network with sophisticated philosophy of ‘Simple & Easy connectivity’ by applying the world’s best wireless technology merged with miniaturisation and large scale integration technologies.


During the exhibition, LG held live demonstrations to show how the phone can be used to make video calls. This is a unique feature among watch phones and shows how advanced LG’s wearable mobile really is.


This chic, wearable phone is a follow-up to the prototype that LG introduced in 2008 and includes a number of upgrades, such as a full touchscreen interface, 3G capabilities and video calling thanks to a tiny little camera in the top right hand corner; now LG have said this will be able to take photos as well but as you can imagine the camera quality wont exactly be top notch, however its still pretty amazing. Most importantly, this watch phone will actually be available for purchase.


“Our new 3G Touch Watch Phone is stylish, sophisticated and the height of technology, but it’s also undeniably fun. How else can you re-enact those scenes from your favourite sci-fi or spy movie?” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “LG is the first company to introduce a mobile phone with the wearable device technology. We will continue to develop category-creating products to form a new market, based on our technological leadership and design capability.”


At first glance, LG’s new Watch Phone appears to simply be a high-end timepiece. The company used materials and stylistic elements found in watches from top manufacturers to ensure that people will be comfortable wearing it for any occasion. My first thought as im sure others will agree is that the phone must be an amazing eye sore with so many high end features however as you can see it is actually beautifully crafted. I had it at around 3 or 4 times the size after first reading about it but LG have once again outdone themselves and the competition. The Watch Phone elegance comes from it’s curved tempered glass face, high quality metal casing and slight frame which is a mere 13.9mm thick.


The Watch Phone is as technologically advanced as it is stylish. It is the first touch watch phone in the world to feature 7.2 Mbps 3G HSDPA compatibility, enabling high-speed data transmission and video phone calls using the built-in camera. LG did not sacrifice functionality in favour of size and the Watch Phone is fully capable of sending text messages (via a virtual T9 keyboard), making phone calls, and, of course, keeping accurate time. This is all achieved using the phone’s touchscreen interface on its 3.63cm (1.43-inch) screen and LG’s intuitive Flash Interface.


Voice recognition features, which can be used with or without a Bluetooth headset, make it easier to place calls and look up contacts. Text to Speech (TTS) reads text messages and other information out loud for even greater convenience. The phone also includes stereo Bluetooth and a built-in speaker for playing back MP3 music files. The sound coming from the speakers on the watch is surprisingly loud, though i still would suggest using a headset for taking calls or listening to music etc as holding your wrist to the side of your head does look a little too secret agent. We’ve been told there is 70MB of storage inside, but that could change by the time the device launches as could a number of things.


The charging pins are on the underside of the watch, which can then be connected to a mains charger if I had to hazard a guess like any other phone. The strap can also be adjusted quite easily, which I think is a simple yet strong selling point as its all well and good creating a tiny little wrist phone masterpiece but it becomes completely redundant if nobody can wear it. On the right side of the watch are three buttons: the Talk, Clear and End buttons, respectively which is obviously similar to most LG handsets on today’s market.


The phone will be available in Europe at the end of this year. It’ll be available in a range of colours, from black and silver to blue, red and even pink. Orange will be the first to bring the Watch Phone across its European footprint later this year however pricing is still yet to be announced, I imagine this is due to the lack of knowledge concerning the final features that will be available on the device. The Watch/Phone has without questions exceeding all expectations and has set new heights for both its respectful markets.