Watch Phones

With the arrival of the LG GD910, it seems we have official confirmation that the age of the viable watch phone is finally upon us! Unveiled at CES 2009, the gadget will become available for UK and other European consumers to buy during 2009.

In years gone by, various watch phone prototypes have been unveiled by optimistic manufacturers, only to become the object of scathing critical reviews from technology writers. In that context, the following snippets from early write ups about the LG GD910 underline how very impressive many of those “in the know” consider this new LG watch phone to be:

“Dick Tracy, eat your heart out.” – Revoo.com
“LG has seemingly done the impossible – made a watch phone that’s more than a pathetic gimmick” – CNET.co.uk
“Gloriously geeky without being horrendously ugly, this could finally be a watch-phone worth having” – Stuff.tv
“…sent jaws to the floor…it’s a stunning design” – Electricpig.co.uk

> Buy SIM free / unlocked LG GD910 watch phones at Play.com

LG GD910 Watch Phone

The LG GD910 watch phone has the following technical specifications:

Network compatibility: 3G & quad band GSM, including 3G video calling
Touch screen: 256,000 colours, TFT, 176 x 220 pixels, 3.63cm / 1.43 inches
User interface: Flash
Design: curved tempered glass face, metal casing, water resistant
Camera: CIF, 352 x 288 pixels
Messaging: SMS, EMS, MMS with T9
Data: GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 – 48 kbps; EDGE:Class 10, 236.8 kbps; 3G HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps
Music player: MP3
TTS (text-to-speech): reads text messages and other information out loud
Speech recognition
Stereo Bluetooth
Ring tones: polyphonic, MP3
Vibrating alert
Dimensions: 61 x 39 x 13.9 mm
Weight: 85g

So it looks as though LG has pulled the rabbit out of the watch phone hat, for which congratulations would appear to be in order.

Technical wonderment and back slapping aside, it’s great to know that LG’s boffins also understand how people are likely to actually use the LG GD910 – as evidenced by this comment from Dr. Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications: “Our new 3G Touch Watch Phone is stylish, sophisticated and the height of technology, but it’s also undeniably fun. How else can you reenact those scenes from your favorite sci-fi or spy movie?”

For other places to buy watch phones, see our Where to buy page.

You can also read the official LG 3G Touch Watch Phone press release here.