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LG Shows Off Cool New Cell Phones

Latest handsets include one with a rotating screen and another with a power-saving display.

Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

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South Korea's LG Electronics unveiled its latest cellular telephones at an event in Seoul this week, including a new handset that has to be a contender for the coolest cell phone yet.

LG's KH5000 handset is a clamshell design and is based around one of the latest cellular telephone chipsets from Qualcomm, the MSM5500. This gives it support for CDMA2000 1X EvDO cellular networks, which are in commercial operation in South Korea and offer downstream data transmission speeds of 2.4 mbps and upstream rates of 153 kbps.

At first glance, users might be reminded of the latest Clie PDAs because, like the Sony products, the KH5000 features a display screen that can flip around up to 270 degrees and also fold back down with the screen facing outwards.

Disappointing Display

Despite this cool flip screen, the display itself is one of the few disappointments with the handset. The TFT-LCD supports 4,096 colors, which is one generation behind current cutting-edge handsets that have 65,536 color displays.

Other features include a built-in digital still camera with 110,000-pixel resolution and a 40-tone polyphonic ringer. The telephone is now available in South Korea through carrier KT Freetel at a price of around $520.

Saving Power

In addition, LG also unveiled a new handset that will go on sale in South Korea from August. The cellphone features an Organic Electroluminescence Display on the outer panel. OELDs consume less power than today's LCDs because they do not require a backlight and also product vibrant colors.

They are a strong contender to replace LCDs in many applications in the mid-term although at present are being used in simple applications such as the outer display on a cellphone.

The main screen on the new LG handsets remains a TFT-LCD, this time with 65,536-color depth.

Other features of the telephone, which is designed for CDMA2000 networks, include a companion digital still camera that connects to the handset via a USB connector. LG says standby time is 140 hours and talk time is 120 minutes and the phone will cost around $433.

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