The Burg5 watch phone combines voice-based mobile phone features with a choice of stylish, colourful watch designs (or more muted grey or black versions). Currently priced at under £100, it’s a cool way to keep in touch when carrying your mobile phone would be impractical – or if you just want to show it off.

» Buy the Burg5 watch phone now

When using the watch for a phone conversation, you can either speak directly into the device or use the supplied wired handsfree earphones and mic.

When mobile network reception is good, the watch phone’s dial glows blue, changing to yellow in poorer signal areas. Upon receiving an incoming call, the dial flashes in multiple colours and the watch announces the caller’s number.

Burg5 with open SIM drawer

Burg5 watch phone specs

- Operating Frequency: EGSM 850/900 or 1800 /1900
- Chipset: Infineon 7880
- Weight: 65grams
- Dimensions: length 274mm (including strap), width 50mm, depth 19mm
- Splash water resistant
- Input via buttons around the dial
- Integrated speaker: ø 10mm, 300Mw output
- Talk time: 2 hours (max), standby 48 hours (max)
- Battery: 450mAh Li-ion polymer, charges in 2-3 hours via mini USB charger
- Manufactured by: Burg China Connection

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.

Think back only a few years and it seems incredible that so many features can be packed into a watch phone of any reasonable size.

Of course, technical advances like miniaturisation can sometimes come at the expense of appealing design or usability. However, the Epsom ES1000T seems to have steered clear of such pitfalls, delivering a stylish watch phone at an affordable SIM free price.

Epsom ES1000T watch phone technical specifications:

Network compatibility: GSM 900/DCS1800/1900, GSM 850/PCS 1800/1900
Touch screen: 1.3″ 260,000 colours, TFT, with handwriting support (with supplied stylus)
Camera: 1.3 mega pixels
Memory: 64MB built in plus support for T-Flash memory cards up to 2GB (1GB card supplied)
Messaging: SMS, MMS
Data: GPRS, WAP
Music player: MP3/MP4
Ring tones: 64 polyphonic, MP3, Midi, Wav plus photos & movies
Other: STK, Bluetooth, Hands Free, Group Messaging, Wallpaper, Games, Animated screen savers
Languages: English, French, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, German, Italian, Turkish, Vietnamese, Thai
Talk time: 150 hours max
Standby time: 100 hours max
Contents: mobile phone watch, dual-stereo Bluetooth headset, headphones, stylus pen, USB cables, 2 batteries, 1 direct charger, travel charger, manual, presentation box.

> Buy the Epsom ES1000T watch phone at Play.com

Epsom ES1000T watch phone

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